Sweet William with a smiling Face,
Said to the King, If't please your Grace,
To fhew fuch Favour unto me,
Your Chamberlain I fain would be.

'The King then did the Nobles call,
To ask the Counsel of them all;
Who gave Consent sweet William he,
The King's own Chamberlain should be.

Now mark what strange thing came to pass,
As the King one Day a Hunting was,
With all his Lords and Noble Train,
Sweet William did at Home remain.

Sweet William had no Company then With him at Home but an old Man; And when he saw the House was clear, He took a Lute which he had there:

Upon the Lute fweet William play'd,
And to the fame he fung, and said,
With a sweet and noble Voice,
Which made the old Man to rejoyce:

My Father was as brave a Lord,
As ever Europe did afford;
My Mother was a Lady bright,
My Husband was a valiant Knight.

And I my felf a Lady gay,
Bedeck'd with gorgeous rich Array,
The braveft Lady in the Land
Had not more Pleafure at Command:

I had my Mufick every Day,
Harmonious Leffons for to play;
I had my Virgins fair and free,
Continually to wait on me.

L 2

But

But now,

alas! my Husband's dead,

And all my Friends are from me fled;
My former Foys are paft and gone,
For I am now a Serving-Man.

At last the King from Hunting came,
And presently upon the fame,
He called for this good old Man,

And thus to speak the King began.

What News, what News, old Man, quoth he,
What News haft thou to tell to me?

Brave News, the old Man he did say,
Sweet William is a Lady gay.

If this be true thou tell'ft to me,
I'll make thee a Lord of high Degree;
But if thy Words do prove a Lye,
Thou shalt be hang'd up presently.

But when the King the Truth had found,
His Joys did more and more abound:
According as the old Man did say,
Sweet William was a Lady gay.

Therefore the King without delay,
Put on her glorious rich Array;
And upon her Head a Crown of Gold,
Which was most famous to behold.

And then for fear of further Strife,
He took sweet William for his Wife:
The like before was never seen,
A Serving Man to be a Queen.

XXX. The

XXX.

The

Children in the Wood;

Or, The Norfolk Gentleman's laft
Will and Teftament.

To the Tune of, Rogero, &c.

Ican by no means join in Opinion with thofe who believe this Song written on the Murder of King Edward the 5th and his young Brother in the Tower. Richard III. was fucceeded by his inveterate Foe King Henry VII, whofe Defcendants have ever fince fway'd the Scepter; and a Poet need not have had recourfe to Fiction to have recorded this Story, he might fafely have nam'd the cruel Tyrant; and had it been early after this Reign, it would have been a Complement to the Sovereign. The blacker Richard appear'd, the more the Nation thought themselves obliged to their great Deliverer Henry. They have but one Plea then left, and that is, this old Ballad may perhaps have been written during the Reign of Richard; but I can af fure'em from the little Acquaintance I have with old Songs, that it was not written of above a hundred Years after his Death, and I am apt to think the Poet had fome private Story in view, but no publick one I dare fwear.

Now