Hi,

I'm particularly interested in the three days she visits his dead body after finding him "dead alone." Here's the stanza in The Bridgewater Merchant from the early 1800s:

17. Three days and nights there she sat weeping
'Till seemed her heart would burst with woe
Feeling sharp hunger on her creeping
Homeward she was forced to go.

Sharp E:

12 She said: My love, I will stay with you
Until my heart doth burst with woe.
She felt sharp hunger creeping;
Homewards she was obliged to go.

Eddy (Ohio):

11. Three days and nights she tarried by him,
Kissing on her bended knees;
When in that time she was constrained
To utter forth such words as these:

12 "I had a mind for to stay by him
Until my heart it did break with woe,
But I felt that hunger came creeping o'er me,
Which forced me back home to go."

Shearin (1911):

"Three days and nights she tarried with him,
Till she thought her heart would break with woe,
Until sharp hunger came cropping on her,
Which forced her back home to go.

This is not found in Isabella's Tragedy. Comments?

Richie