| Play/Download Music File Barry Taylor |
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| This is the Scottish variant to The Cruel Mother.
According to Child, two fragments of this ballad appear in the last quarter of the 18th century. Child notes several other versions of the tune including The Rose o Malinde and the Minister's Daughter of New York. 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. This is Child Ballad #20 (The Cruel Mother). For a complete list of Child Ballads at this site go to Francis J. Child Ballads. |
She sat down below a thorn Fine flowers in the valley And there she has her sweet babe borne And the green leaves they grow rarely. Smile nae sae sweet, my bonnie babe Fine flowers in the valley An' ye smile sae sweet, ye'll smile me dead And the green leaves they grow rarely. She's ta'en out her little penknife Fine flowers in the valley And twinned the sweet babe o' its life And the green leaves they grow rarely. She howket a grave by the light o' the moon Fine flowers in the valley And there she's buried her sweet babe in And the green leaves they grow rarely. As she was going to the Church Fine flowers in the valley She saw a sweet babe in the porch And the green leaves they grow rarely . O sweet babe, an' thou wert mine Fine flowers in the valley I wad cleed thee in silk so fine And the green leaves they grow rarely. O mother dear, when I was thine Fine flowers in the valley You did na prove to me sae kind And the green leaves they grow rarely. |
Additional Versions
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| Information From
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads See Bibliography for full information. And Bruce Olsen's Roots of Folk: Old English, Scots, and Irish Songs and Tunes |
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