E. London Ballad on the Rising, by William Elderton (1569-70).
Source.—Original in British Museum, Huth Bequest, 50, No. 4. Reprinted in Ancient Ballads, 1867.
A Ballad intituled, A newe well a daye,
As playne, maister Papist, as Donstable waye.
Amonge manye newes reported of late
As touchinge the rebelles their wicked estate,
Yet Syr Thomas Plomtrie[34] their preacher, they saie,
Hath made the North Countrie to crie well a daye.
Well a daye, well a daye, well a daye, woe is me,
Syr Thomas Plomtrie is hanged on a tree.
And now manie fathers and mothers be theare,
Are put to their trialles with terrible feare,
Not all the gaye crosses nor goddes they adore
Will make them as merrie as they have ben before;
Well a daye, etc.
The widowes be woful whose husbandes be taken,
The childerne lament them that are so forsaken,
The church men thei chaunted the morowe masse bell,
Their pardons be graunted, they hang verie wel.
Well a daye, etc.
It is knowne they bee fled that were the beginers,
It is time they were ded, poore sorofull sinners:
For all their great haste they are hedged at a staye,
With weeping and waylinge to sing well a daye.