Classic Poem

Queen Jane lay in labour full nine days or more,
Till the women were so tired, they could stay no longer there.

‘Good women, good women, good women as ye be,
Do open my right side, and find my baby.’

‘Oh no,’ said the women, ‘that never may be,
We will send for King Henry and hear what he say.’

King Henry was sent for, King Henry did come:
‘What do ail you, my lady, your eyes look so dim?’

‘King Henry, King Henry, will you do one thing for me?
That's to open my right side, and find my baby.’

‘Oh no,’ said King Henry, ‘that's a thing I'll never do.
If I lose the flower of England, I shall lose the branch too.’

King Henry went mourning, and so did his men,
And so did the dear baby, for Queen Jane did die then.

And how deep was the mourning, how black were the bands,
How yellow, yellow were the flamboys they carried in their hands.

There was fiddling, aye, and dancing on the day the babe was born,
But poor Queen Jane belovèd lay cold as a stone.