Susannes Folksong-Notizen
[1959:] The story is a legendary re-working of historical fact. Jane Seymour, wife of Henry
VIII, died on 24 October 1537, twelve days after the natural birth of her son, who later
became Edward VI. Some said her death was due to clumsy surgery. We do not know how
old this ballad is, nor if it derives from a piece called The Lamentation of Queen Jane,
licensed for publication in 1560. The ballad has been collected in Devon and Somerset [...].
(EFS113)
[1966:] It is strange that the story of the Caesarean birth was accepted so soon after the
Queen's death, as the royal births at that time were usually viewed by the Court to make
sure that the newcomer was really royalty, and to ensure that (should he be stillborn) no
substitutions could take place. (Peggy Seeger, Reprint Sing Out 9, 138)
[1967:] [...] the makers of the celebrated Charles Laughton picture, 'The Private Life of
Henry VIII', followed the same fiction [the Caesarean]. Picturesque and sentimental detail
has kept the ballad green [...] in Dorset (and elsewhere). (Lloyd, England 138)
[1979:] It seems likely that the common experience among women of suffering and even
death in childbirth is not only what caused the making of these ballads but also kept them
alive in the sung tradition for so long. (Henderson/Armstrong 96)
[1982:] Royalty rarely features in folksong. [...] However, one royal death, that of Jane
Seymour, evidently caught the imagination of the public, for The death of Queen Jane
survived long enough to be collected by Hammond in 1907, and by others. Popular memory
preferred a romantic deathbed scene to the historical truth, and the song has Jane pleading
for her right side to be opened so that the baby, at least, will live. A reluctant Henry VIII
finally agrees, and Jane dies. In truth, the birth of the future Edward VI was normal, and his
mother died about a fortnight later. (Pollard, Folksong 35)
[1986:] There seems little doubt that many of the ballads found in Scotland now, and
probably current in the sixteenth century - for example, The Death of Queen Jane (Child
170) [...] came to us from England. (Henderson, Alias MacAlias 93)
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