The Cruel Mother- Paul Clayton (Va.) 1956
This transcrition is from the recording British and American Murder Ballads, Washington 727 by Paul Clayton which was posted on the Digital Tradition forum. Clayton worked with Arthur Kyle Davis in Virginia. I'm not sure of the source Clayton used. I know it's also on the 1956 Riverside Records Catalog: 600 series; RLP 12-615; titled Bloody Ballads.
THE CRUEL MOTHER- from Paul Clayton 1956
1. There was a lady lived in York
All alone and alonee
Who fell in love with her father's clerk
Down by the greenwood sidey
2. She leaned her back against a tree
All alone and alonee
And there began her misery
Down by the greenwood sidey
3. She placed her foot against a thorn
All alone and alonee
And there she got her three babes born
Down by the greenwood sidey
4. She took a rope so long and neat
All alone and alonee
And tied them down both hands and feet
Down by the greenwood sidey
5. She took her penknife keen and sharp
All alone and alonee
And pierced those little babes to the heart
Down by the greenwood sidey
6. She took the satins was on her head
All alone and alonee
And rolled them in it when they were dead
Down by the greenwood sidey
7. She's howked a hole both deep and wide
All alone and alonee
And there she laid them side by side
Down by the greenwood sidey
8. She buried them under a branch of rue
All alone and alonee
And prayed to the Lord they'd never come to
Down by the greenwood sidey
9. She covered them over with a marble stone
All alone and alonee
And then returned as a maiden home
Down by the greenwood sidey
10. One day as she looked o'er the castle wall
All alone and alonee
She spied three babes a-playing with ball
Down by the greenwood sidey
11. O little babes if you were mine
All alone and alonee
I'd dress you up in satins fine
Down by the greenwood sidey
12. O mother dear when we were thine
All alone and alonee
You did not use us half so kind
Down by the greenwood sidey
13. You neither dress us in satin so good
All alone and alonee
You dressed us *up in our own heart's blood
Down by the greenwood sidey
14. O little babes if you can tell
All alone and alonee
How long on earth am I to dwell?
Down by the greenwood sidey
15. Seven long years on earth to dwell
All alone and alonee
The balance of you time you will spend it in Hell
Down by the greenwood sidey.
*unclear