“Mary Arnold the Female Monster”

Description

Mary Arnold, for reasons unknown, decides to blind her baby by covering its eyes with beetles held in walnut shells. Her deed is discovered, and she is sentenced to transportation

Supplemental text

Mary Arnold the Female Monster
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Geoffrey Grigson, The Penguin Book of Ballads, #101, pp. 313-314.
From John Ashton, Modern Street Ballads (1888).

Of all the tales was ever told,
I now will you impart,
That cannot fail to terror strike
To every human heart.
The deeds of Mary Arnold,
Who does in a jail deplore,
Oh! such a dreadful tale as this,
Was never told before.
  This wretched women's dreadful deed,
  Does everyone affright.
  With black beetles in walnut shells
  She deprived her child of sight.

(5 additional stanzas)

References

1. PBB 101, "Mary Arnold the Female Monster" (1 text)
2. ST PBB101 (Partial)
3. BI, PBB101