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A friend of mine is researching this song for a radio program, and needs whatever information we can dig up on this song. I have some, but I have to go teach a class this evening, so I'll have to work on it later. Please post what you find on this song.
Here's the DT version, which needs some work on typographical errors.
-Joe Offer-
THE ARSENIC TRAGEDY
Come listen to my tragedy, good people young and old,
It's of a drcadful story to you I will unfold
Concerning a fair damsel, Miss Wires was her name,
She was murdered by her husband, and he hung for the same.
Young Mary, she was beautiful, not of a high degree;
Young Henry Green was wealthy, I'd have you plainly see
And he says, "My dearest Mary, if you will be my wife,
I'll guard, guide and protect you all through this gloomy life."
"Oh Henry, dearest Henry, I fear that never could be
For you have rich relations, I've none so rich as you,
And when your parents come to know, they'd scorn me from their door;
I'd rather you marry some other girl with wealth laid up in store.
"Oh Mary, dearest Mary, why doth torment me so?
"Oh Mary, dearest Mary, why doth torment me so?
For just as long as you deny, so quick I'll end my life,
For I no longer wish to live, unless you be my wife."
So there, believing all he said was true, she then became his wife
But little did she think or know he meant to take her life:
Little did she think or know, or little did she expect
He meant to give her arsenic, the just one to protect.
They hadn't been married scarce three weeks when she was taken ill
Great doctors, they were sent for, all for to try their skill
The doctors came from far and near, but her they could not save,
So then it was pronounced by all she must go to the grave.
Her brother, hearing of the news, straightway to her did go,
Saying, "Sister dear, you're dying, the doctors tell me so;
Now sister, since you're dying and on your bed of death,
Pray, haven't you been poisoned by him you thought your love?"
"Oh brother, I know l'm dying and on my bed of death;
"Oh brother, I know l'm dying and on my bed of death;
Young Henry Green has poisoned me, dear brother, for him send,
For I do love him just as well as when he was my friend."
When Henry got these tidings, he went his wife to see;
She says, "Dearest Henry, was you ever deceived by me?"
Three times she cried, "Dear Henry!" and sank into a tomb;
He gazed on her indifferent ways and silent left the room.
Now he is took to the bloody hills and led upon the stand
To answer for the blackest crime committed in our land,
But he says, "I am not guilty, her friends I do deny;
I am not guilty of the crime for that which I die."
From Folk Songs of the Catskills, Cazden et al
Collected from Elston Van Wagner
note: The events resulted in the hanging of Henry Green in 1845
for the poisoning of Mary Wyatt. This song was apparantly adapted from a
music hall song called Billy Vite and Mary Green, published in 1823; a not-
unusual practice for producing topical songs. RG
DT #666
Laws F14
@murder @poison
filename[ ARSENICT
TUNE FILE: ARSENICT
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
apr96
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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entries on this song:Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14]
DESCRIPTION: Henry Green threatens suicide if Mary Wyatt will not marry him (she is unsure about the idea because he is rich and she is poor). Soon after the marriage, he poisons her. She forgives him before she dies, but he is sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: murder marriage poverty execution poison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845 - Murder of Mary Ann Wyatt Green (February) and execution of Henry Green (September)
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws F14, "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)"
Belden, p. 321, "Henry Green" (1 text)
Randolph 157, "Henry Green" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 65-68, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 792-793, "Henry Green" (1 text)
FSCatskills 66, "The Arsenic Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)\
Gardner/Chickering 142, "Young Henry Green" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 624-627, "The Murder of Miss Wyatt" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-Labrador 100, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt, pp. 11-13, (no title) (1 partial text, 1 tune, plus an excerpt from this or a related ballad)
DT 666, ARSENICT*
Roud #693
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Vite and Molly Green" (plot)
cf. "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green" (subject, plot)
Notes: The Digital Tradition editors speculate that this was adapted from the music hall song "Billy Vite and Molly Green." This is conceivable, but a significant stretch -- this song is serious, "Billy" comic; "Billy" involves a supernatural element, and in "Billy" it is the boy who is poor and the girl rich. - RBW
Leach-Labrador notes that "the murder took place in Rensselaer County, New York" - BS
File: LF14
Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green, The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come young and old attention give and lend a listening ear" as the singer tells of "a gay and sprightly youth who lived in Berlin Town." Henry Green becomes enamored of beautiful singer Mary Ann Wyatt, marries her, then murders her, and confesses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Bulletin of theFolk Song Society of the Northeast)
KEYWORDS: murder marriage execution poison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845 - Murder of Mary Ann Wyatt Green (February) and execution of Henry Green (September)
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt, pp. 8-11, "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" [Laws F14] (subject, plot)
Notes: This rather rare broadside on the Mary Wyatt/Henry Green story can be distinguished from the more common ballad "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" by the lines quoted in the description and by its length.
According to Burt, Mary Ann Wyatt was a performer in a troupe which staged temperance dramas. Her appearance so excited Henry Green that he joined the troupe to court her. They were married in February 1845.
The marriage was so sudden that Green felt compelled to publicize it with a sleighing party for his friends, at which a former love told him that she had once wished to marry him. Wyatt felt sick the next day, and Green went to get some medicine. He shoved more and more down her throat, and she died by poison.
Burt claims that there are seven different songs written about this story, but cites only this, parts of the Laws ballad, and a single stanza of a third (which might, however, be part of the Laws piece). - RBW
File: Burt008Go to the Ballad Search form
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