This like many of the Child Ballads & many other trad ballads many contain the "moral of the story"

Whilst traditional ballads entertain on a similar level of amoral reportage that one finds in tabloids, they do so without the implied morality - or worse, the moral of the story, which just isn't there. You can't reduce the immediacy of narrative actuality (no matter how contrived) to the level of it being somehow didactic. They're not telling you not to do these things, rather they're thrilling you with stories of those who did, and with the entirely believable consequences thereof. Like Lucy Wan - what is the moral here? Don't fuck your sister, much less chop her in three in you get her pregnant?

Whilst it's absurd to think that any ballad operates on this level, we must at least recognise that life and art very often intermingle - as do the makers of soaps, hence the statement if anyone has been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme, here is the number to phone... if East Enders have touched upon a particularly sensitive subject. Often, after singing a sensitive ballad, I've thought of saying something similar, but the catharsis is in the experience of the story, hence there is, one would hope, no need for any more. In other words, it contains the essense of its own effectiveness, which can't be anything so simple as a mere moral. Often they're pure grand guignol, Long Lankin for instance, unless the moral here is be sure to pay the builders! The effectiveness of any narrative lies not in its morality, implied or otherwise, but in its complete lack of it, by which, one might experience a life less ordinary than ones own. No matter how complex, it's the thrill that makes it work, and that thrill can only exist by getting outside of the mundane moral mindset of the listener, offering them a glimpse of a world beyond.   

My favourite at the moment is the free-wheeling epic of Child #7 : Earl Brand. I sang this recently and a chap said to me "Well, he deserved to die - for having a relationship with a 15-year-old." Interesting how such things filter through into the modern consciousness, who would hear it in those terms!