Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Lyrics

Child 155
Sir Hugh, or the Jew's Daughter
Version L

  1. Communicated in a letter from the Rev. E. Venables, Precentor of Lincoln, as sung to him by a nurse-maid nearly sixty years ago, January 24, 1 885. A Buckinghamshire version.
  2. A Walk through Lincoln Minster, by the Rev. E. Venables, p. 41, 1884.

Narrative

1   It rains, it hails in merry Lincoln,
It rains both great and small,
And all the boys and girls today
Do play at pat the ball.
2   They patted the ball so high, so high,
They patted the ball so low,
They patted it into the Jew's garden,
Where all the Jews do go.
3   Then out it spake the Jew's daughter,
As she leant over the wall;
'Come hither, come hither, my pretty playfellow,
And I'll give you your ball.'
4   She tempted him [in] with apple so red,
But that wouldnt tempt him in;
She tempted him in with sugar so sweet,
And so she got him in.
5   Then she put forth her lilly-white hand,
And led him through the hall:
'This way, this way, my pretty play-fellow,
And you shall have your ball.'
6   She led him on through one chamber,
And so she did through nine,
Until she came to her own chamber,
Where she was wont to dine,
And she laid him on a dressing-board,
And sticket him like a swine.
7   Then out it came the thick, thick blood,
And out it came the thin,
And out it came the bonnie heart's blood,
There was no more within.

This page most recently updated on 31-Mar-2011, 17:26:48.
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