_Source._--Percy, _Reliques_. The ballad form of the story has become
such a nursery classic that I had not the heart to "prose" it. As Mr.
Allingham remarks, it is the best of the ballads of the pedestrian
order.
_Parallels._--The second of R. Yarrington's _Two Lamentable Tragedies_,
1601, has the same plot as the ballad. Several chap-books have been made
out of it, some of them enumerated by Halliwell's _Popular Histories_
(Percy Soc.) No. 18. From one of these I am in the fortunate position of
giving the names of the _dramatis personæ_ of this domestic tragedy.
Androgus was the wicked uncle, Pisaurus his brother who married Eugenia,
and their children in the wood were Cassander and little Kate. The
ruffians were appropriately named Rawbones and Woudkill. According to a
writer in _3 Notes and Queries_, ix., 144, the traditional burial-place
of the children is pointed out in Norfolk. The ballad was known before
Percy, as it is mentioned in the _Spectator_, Nos. 80 and 179.
_Remarks_.--The only "fairy" touch--but what a touch!--the pall of
leaves collected by the robins.