Cruel Mother

There was a lady lived in York
All alone and alone-y
She was courted by her father's clerk
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He courted her for seven years long
All alone and alone-y
Till at last she proved in child by him
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She bent her back against a tree
All alone and alone-y
And there she found great misery
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She bent her back against a thorn
All alone and alone-y
And there she had two pretty babes born
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She had a pen-knife long and sharp
All alone and alone-y
And she pressed it through their tender hearts
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She digged a grave both wide and long
All alone and alone-y
And she buried them under a marble stone
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And she was sat in her father's home
All alone and alone-y
When she saw two pretty babes playing at ball
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Oh babes, oh babes if you were mine
All alone and alone-y
I would dress you up in scarlet fine
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Oh mother, oh mother once we were thine
All alone and alone-y
And you did not dress us in scarlet fine
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Oh babes, oh babes come tell to me
All alone and alone-y
If you know what your future means to me
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Oh mother, mother you know right well
All alone and alone-y
'Tis we for heaven, and you for Hell
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