Greg, I was referring to traditional ballads, and British Ballads just to be more specific.
And yes, we discussed Willie Of Winesbury and Our Captain cried All Hands, and the Handsome Cabin Boy. There's nothing that I've come across that is really powerful like, for example, Sheath and Knife.

Dick Greenhaus suggests in another thread that
"I suspect that homosexuality disturbed our forebears more than things like rape, murder and incest did. "   Maybe that is the reason for the omission of this topic from ballds....

Any other ideas...
Saro