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VII Religion |
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149
AN ACCOUNT OF A LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS BURNT FOR HER RELIGION
This song is mentioned in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1610), V, iii. For American texts see Eddy, No. 191; Hudson, pp. 40-41; Pound, No. 25; and Scarborough, pp 175-178. The Michigan version differs from these texts and from that described by Shearm and Combs, p. 12, in that it makes no specific mention of the Roman clergy, priests, or the pope. For a text very similar to the Michigan variant see The Roxburghe Ballads, I, 35-37.
The present version is from the Gernsey manuscript. At the end of this song is the notation "Oct. 1841-"
1 'Tis o£ a lady's daughter who lived perfectly,
Her mother she commanded to mercy she should die. "O pardon me, dear mother," this damsel she did say, " 'Tis for your filthy idols I never can obey."
2 With weeping and with wailing her mother she did go
To assemble with her kinsfolks that they the truth might know; And as they did assemble this lady they did call, And cast her into prison to fright her therewithal.
3 And when she was in prison these torments to endure, Her hopes in Christ her Saviour, in Him is firm and sure; She feared not their allurings, nor yet the fiery flames;
She hoped in Christ her Saviour to have immortal fame.
4 In came her mother weeping her daughter to behold,
And in her hand she brought a book all covered o'er with gold. "Take hence from me that idol, convey it from my sight, And bring to me my Bible in which I take delight."
5 It was on the morning after, it was her dying day, They stripped the noble lady out of her richest ray; Instead of gold and bracelets, with cords they bound her fast; "My God, give me with patience," said she, "to die at last.
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