Richie

I've looked at some of Child's sources for 10A. Facetiae and the Wit Restor'd versions have -O, Jamieson's Popular Ballads has -A, so he may have taken the copy from there. (I assume you're asking why Child has -A instead of -O, though you don't make that clear above).

He does say in a footnote that "Jamieson, in his Popular Ballads, II, 315, prints the ballad with five inconsiderable variations from the broadside as from Musarum Deliciae, 2nd ed 1658...Still it is hardly credible that Jamieson has blundered, and we may suppose that copies, ostensibly of the same edition, varied as to contents, a thing common enough with old books" (my bold).

Perhaps he accepted this as one of Jamieson's (possibly legitimate) variations. (I haven't made a full comparison for the differences).


Mick