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Updated 05/14/2013

 


The Cruel Mother

Fragments of this ballad appear in the last quarter of the 18th century including Fine Flowers in the Valley, The Rose o Malinde and the Minister's Daughter of New York. It is also known as Down By the Greenwood Side.

A broadside of The Duke's Daughter's Cruelty: Or the Wonderful Apparition of two Infants whom she Murther'd and Buried in a Forrest, for to hide her Shame was published in the 1690s.

The Cruel Mother is a murder ballad.  In essence, a woman gives birth to one or two illegitimate children  in the woods, kills them, and buries them. She, going home, sees a child, or children, playing, and says that if they were hers, she would dress them in various fine garments and otherwise take care of them. The children tell her that when they were hers, she did not dress them so but murdered them.

Although this has not been linked with any historical incident, there are a number of cases in history which are at least vaguely similar. One was the case of Will Darrell, from 1575.  Darnell, having gotten one of his sundry mistresses pregnant, brought in a midwife (blindfolding her to conceal the place) to help the mother, then killed the child. The midwife left a deathbed testament, but Darnell was acquitted at trial. Later, when riding a horse, he saw the ghost of the dead baby; his horse bolted and he was killed.

 


Lyrics

There was a maid, who had two babes
All alone and lone
She killed those babes and buried 'em under a stone
An' prayed to th Lord, it would never be known
All down by th greenwood side

This maid was passing by one day
All alone and lone
She saw those babes, both out for play
All down by th greenwood side

O babes, O babes, if you were mine
All alone and lone
I'd dress you up in silk, so fine
All down by th greenwood side

O Mother, dear Mother, we once't were yours
All alone and lone
You neither gave us course nor fine
You killed and buried us under a stone
An' prayed to th Lord, it would never be known
All down by th greenwood side

For seven long years, you shall hear a bell
All alone and lone
And at the end of seven years, you shall land in hell
All down by th greenwood side