Sir Hugh, or the Jew’s Daughter
No: 155; variant: 155J
- IT rains, it rains in merry Scotland,
Both little, great and small,
And all the schoolfellows in merry Scotland
Must needs go play at ball.
- They tossd the ball so high, so high,
With that it came down so low;
They tossd it over the old Jew's gates,
And broke the old Jew's window.
- The old Jew's daughter she came out,
Was clothed all in green:
'Come hither, come hither, you young Sir Hugh,
And fetch your ball again.'
- 'I dare not come, nor I will not come,
Without my schoolfellows come all;
For I shall be beaten when I go home
For losing of my ball.'
- She 'ticed him with an apple so red,
And likewise with a fig;
She threw him over the dresser-board,
And sticked him like a pig.
- The first came out the thickest of blood,
The second came out so thin,
The third came out the child's heart-blood,
Where all his life lay in.
- 'O spare my life! O spare my life!
O spare my life!' said he;
'If ever I live to be a young man,
I'll do as good chare for thee.'
- 'I'll do as good chare for thy true love
As ever I did for the king;
I will scour a basin as bright as silver
To let your heart-blood run in.'
- When eleven o'clock was past and gone,
And all the school-fellows came home,
Every mother had her own child
But young Sir Hugh's mother had none.
- She went up Lincoln and down Lincoln,
And all about Lincoln street,
With her small wand in her right hand,
Thinking of her child to meet.
- She went till she came to the old Jew's gate,
She knocked with the ring;
Who should be so ready as the old Jew herself
To rise and let her in!
- 'What news, fair maid? what news, fair maid?
What news have you brought to me?
. . . . .
. . . .
- 'Have you seen any of my child today,
Or any of the rest of my kin?'
'No, I've seen none of your child today,
Nor none of the rest of your kin.'