LADY GAY



There was a lady and a lady gay,

Of children she had three,

She sent them away to the North Countree

To learn their grammaree



They'd not been gone but a very short time,

Scarcely three weeks and a day,

When death, cruel death, came hasting along

And stole those babes away.



"There is a King in Heaven," she cried

"A King of third degree

Send back, send back my three little pages,

This night send them back to me."



She made a bed in the uppermost room,

On it she put a white sheet,

And over the top a golden spread

That they much better might sleep.



"Take it off, take it off," cried the older one,

"Take it off, take it off," cried he,

"For what's to become of this wide wicked world

Since sin has first begun."



She set a table of linen fine,

On it she placed bread and wine,

"Come eat, come drink of mine."



"We want none of your bread, mother,

Neither do we want your wine,

For yonder stands our Savior deer,

To Him we must resign."



"Green grass is over our heads, mother,

Cold clay is over our feet,

And every tear you shed for us,

It wets our winding-sheet."



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This is one of the best of the American versions of "The Wife of

Usher's Well," a remarkable ballad on the theme of persistent

grief and tears disturbing the sleep of the dead. The children

have been sent away to learn magic (grammaree), a point rarely

recognized by the folk who sing the ballad. The children's death

and their mother's prayer for their return culminates in their

ghostly visit to warn her of the effect of her mourning. In most

American versions of the Child ballads, supernatural motifs

disappear, except where, as in the case of "Lady Gay," there are

religious overtones to the ballad tale. From "British Ballads

and Folk Songs from the Joan Baez Songbook."

Child #79

@ballad @magic @death @religion

recorded by John And Tony Dark Ships

Deller consort, and Hedy West

filename[ LADYGAY

DC

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