vault backup: 2025-12-07 22:11:41

cruel-mother.md

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+# The Cruel Mother (Traditional)
+
+## Lyrics
+
+```verse
+There lived a lady, lived in york
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+She fell in love with her own father's clark
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's leaned her back against a tree
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+Said "Honorable Mary, pity me"
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's leaned herself against an oak
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+She thought three times that her back would be broke
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's leaned her back against a thorn
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+And there she's had two bonnie babes born
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's taken her ribbon, long and neat
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+And tied those babes their hands and feet
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's taken up her small pen knife
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+With which to take their two wee lives
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's taken the pen knife, long and sharp
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+And pressed it into their tender hearts
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's wiped her pen knife on the grass
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+(The more)? she wiped the blood ran fast
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She's dug a grave both wide and deep
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+In which to put those babes to sleep
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+She went to walk in the woods one night
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+She saw two babes dressed all in white
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+Oh bonnie babes if you were mine
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+I'd dress you up in silk so fine
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+Oh mother mother we were thine
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+You did not dress us in silk so fine
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+Oh bonnie babes what will become of me
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+You'll be seven years a bird in a tree
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+Seven years a bird in a tree
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+Then seven years more a fish in the sea
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+
+Then seven years more a tongue in a bell
+All alone and a-lonely, oh!
+Then seven years more a-burning in hell
+Down by the greenwood sidey, oh!
+Down by the greenwood sidey
+```