Sorry for this long post but I knew I'd seen this version and it was a version of Edward. Here's the info:

Two Songs and a Dance
Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Dec., 1938), pp. 203-210

THE SOULING PLAY
The Cheshire Soul-caking play is the mumming play of St. George-more usually performed in other localities at Easter or Christmas. But the Tarvin version is remarkable for its introduction of two songs which have no connection with the play, one being "Jim the carter lad" and the other a traditional version of "Edward"! The latter is of extraordinary interest as the sole traditional version ever-as far as I am aware-recovered in England, Percy's and Motherwell's copies being in Scots dialect. No name is given to the tragic " my son," who is also nameless in the American versions, Appalachian and Virginian, which I have seen; and I suspect that Percy himself was responsible for an alteration of the homely "Son Davy, Son Davy" of Motherwell's version to " Edward, Edward." If so, it was an ill-considered improvement, as the name "Edward" was abhorrent to Scottish ears, the "proud usurper" even in Burns's day being associated with " chains and slaverie," and his name about the last to be bestowed upon an infant son. As the "Edward" ballad has hitherto been supposed to have perished in England (Motherwell's copy of 1827 being the latest extant) and as this traditional copy (given without any title) has turned up in a place where nobody would look for it, it is here given as written down -for Mr. J. K. Hudson c. 1891 by one of the actors, a lad of sixteen. Unfortunately the tune cannot now be recovered. I have divided the long lines in which the singer wrote it into the proper verse form. The subject of the brothers' quarrel is here varied from Motherwell and most American versions, where the dispute arises over a sapling which one of the brothers cuts down to the vexation of the other, and which "might have been a tree."


[EDWARD]

1. "And it's where hast thou been all this night long, my son?
Come tell it unto me."
"I have been lying on yonder bull-rushes
Which lies beneath yond tree."

2. "And it's what are the spots on this thy coat, my son?
Come tell it unto me."
"They are the spots of my poor brother's blood
Which lies beneath yonder tree."

3. "And it's what didst thou kill thy poor brother for, my son?
Come tell it unto me."
"Because he killed two pretty little birds
Which flew from tree to tree."

4. And it's what will thy father say, when he comes, my son?
Come tell it unto me."
"I will dress me up in sailor's clothes,
And my face he will never see."

5. "And it's what will thou do with thy pretty little wife, my son?
Come tell it unto me."
"I will dress her up in ladies' clothes,
And she will sail along with me."

6. "And it's what will thou do with thy children three, my son?
Come tell it unto me."
"I will leave them to my poor grandfather to rear,
And comfort (to) him (to be)."

7. "And it's when shall we see thy face again, my son?
Come tell it unto me."
"When the sun and moon shines both at once.-
And that shall never be."

NOTE ON "EDWARD"
This ballad, in the same mother-and-son dialogue form is known in Denmark and Sweden, and Professor Otto Andersson of Aba, Finland, has recently (I934) published in Finlands Svenska Folk Diktning a collection of Swedish folk-ballads found in Finland, including six (out of fourteen) variants of this ballad, with their tunes, under the title of Sven i Rosengard. These extend the bitter bequests-which are no gifts-made by the tragic Sven, and also elaborate ad lib the " When wilt thou return?" motif. Sven answers that he will return "When the swan turns black." "When will that be?" "When the crow turns white" and so on. Finally, "When the stars fall from the sky"-and that "will be?" "On the great Doomsday!! "-an effective finis.- A. G. G.