Henry Green
RECORDED BY MR. BROWN in Jamaica, Vermont, from the singing of Mr. Fred Ballard, who learned it from his father at an early age. Neither the singer's healthy, rugged appearance or his fine rich voice bespoke his seventy-two years. The effect of the strange melody (in the old Dorian mode) was most dramatic.


Come listen to my tragedy,
Good people, young and old;
I'll tell you of a story,
'T will make your blood run cold,
Concerning a fair damsel,
Miss Wyatt 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
As you shall plainly see.
He says, "My dearest Mary,
If you will be my wife,
I'll guard you from all peril
Throughout this gloomy life."

She says, "My dearest Henry,
I fear it will never do,
For you have high relations.
I'm not as rich as you,
And when your parents come to hear
They'll spurn me from their door;
They rather you'd wed some richer girl
With wealth laid up in store."

He says, "My dearest Mary,
Why do you torment me so?
I vow by all that's sacred
I ever will prove true,
And if you longer me reject
I'll take away my life,
For I no longer wish to live
Unless you are my wife."

Believing all he said was true
She then became his wife;
Little did she think, poor girl,
He'd take away her life;
Little did she think, poor girl,
Nor e'er did she expect,
That he would take the life of one
He'd just sworn to protect.

They had been married scarce a week
When she was taken ill,
And e'er it was expected,
His wife he meant to kill.
Great doctors, they were sent for
But none of them could save,
And soon by them it was proclaimed
She must go to her grave.

Soon as her brother heard of this
Straightway to her did go,
Saying, "Mary dear, you're dying,
The doctors tell me so.
O tell me, dearest sister,
Your life is at an end,
O have you not been murdered
By one that was your friend?"

"It's as I on my deathbed lie
And know that I must die,
And as I'm going to my God
The truth I'll not deny.
Young Henry Green has poisoned me.
Do, brother, for him send,
For I do love him now as well
As when he was my friend."

When Henry Green those tidings got,
His wife he went to see.
She says, "My dearest Henry,
Were you ever deceived by me?"
Three times she says, "Dear Henry,"
Then sank into a swoon.
He gazed on her with indifference
And in silence left the room.

An inquest on her body held
According to our laws,
And soon by them it was proclaimed
That arsenic was the cause.
Young Henry Green was sent for
Locked up in Troy jail,
There to await his trial
The court would not take bail.

Young Henry Green was sent for
And called upon the stand,
To answer for the blackest deed
Committed in our land.
He said that he was innocent.
Her friends he did defy.
He said that he was innocent;
Although it had been tried.

Judge Baker read the sentence.
He appeared to be unmoved.
Judge Baker read the sentence.
He said he must be hung.
He said, "When autumn leaves turn pale
And summer days have fled,
He, too, must close his youthful life
And slumber with the dead."


Source: Vermont Folk-Songs & Ballads, edited by Helen Hartness Flanders & George Brown (1931)