ABSTRACT
Peacock refers to this rather melodramatic piece as ‘a tearjerker, a sort of half-baked hymn’ and finds it merciful that the song is rare. This type o f piece, however, which is designed to wring tears and pity from the audience and thankfulness that they are not in the shoes o f the poor unfortunate is common in the folk repertory. Unlike the traditional ballads, these pieces are highly subjective and, at every turn, they moralise and (hopefully) instruct the young. The song, attributed to one Jo h n Embleton, was circulated widely as a broadside but never achieved the popularity o f ‘Mary o f the Wild M oor’ (Laws P 21), which has an even more melancholy theme.
