Jack with a fether was lapt all in lether,45
His boastings were all in vain;
He had such a chance with [a] new morrice-dance,
He never went home again.
[41-44]. This stanza is the sixth in Deloney's copy, and is there clearly misplaced.
[44]. sweeping.
QUEEN JEANIE.
Jane Seymour, queen of Henry VIII., died shortly after giving birth to Prince Edward (Oct. 1537). There was a report that the Cæsarian operation had been necessary to effect the delivery, and on this story the present ballad is founded.
There is a woful ditty on this subject in The Crown Garland of Golden Roses, Percy Society, vol. vi. p. 29 (or Collection of Old Ballads, ii. 115). The following piece is popular throughout Scotland. It is taken from Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 116. A fragment had been previously published in Jamieson's Popular Ballads, i. 182. We have added [another], but imperfect, version from a recent publication.
Queen Jeanie, Queen Jeanie, travel'd six weeks and more,
Till women and midwives had quite gi'en her o'er;
"O if ye were women as women should be,
Ye would send for a doctor, a doctor to me!"
The doctor was called for and set by her bedside,5
"What aileth thee, my ladie, thine eyes seem so red?"
"O doctor, O doctor, will ye do this for me,
To rip up my two sides, and save my babie?"