Sweet William with a smiling Face, 'The King then did the Nobles call, Now mark what strange thing came to pass, Sweet William had no Company then With him at Home but an old Man; And when he saw the House was clear, He took a Lute which he had there: Upon the Lute fweet William play'd, My Father was as brave a Lord, And I my felf a Lady gay, I had my Mufick every Day, L 2 But But now, alas! my Husband's dead, And all my Friends are from me fled; At last the King from Hunting came, And thus to speak the King began. What News, what News, old Man, quoth he, Brave News, the old Man he did say, If this be true thou tell'ft to me, But when the King the Truth had found, Therefore the King without delay, And then for fear of further Strife, XXX. The XXX. The Children in the Wood; Or, The Norfolk Gentleman's laft To the Tune of, Rogero, &c. Ican by no means join in Opinion with thofe who believe this Song written on the Murder of King Edward the 5th and his young Brother in the Tower. Richard III. was fucceeded by his inveterate Foe King Henry VII, whofe Defcendants have ever fince fway'd the Scepter; and a Poet need not have had recourfe to Fiction to have recorded this Story, he might fafely have nam'd the cruel Tyrant; and had it been early after this Reign, it would have been a Complement to the Sovereign. The blacker Richard appear'd, the more the Nation thought themselves obliged to their great Deliverer Henry. They have but one Plea then left, and that is, this old Ballad may perhaps have been written during the Reign of Richard; but I can af fure'em from the little Acquaintance I have with old Songs, that it was not written of above a hundred Years after his Death, and I am apt to think the Poet had fome private Story in view, but no publick one I dare fwear. Now |