Lizzie Borden Society Forum

THE MURDERER'S COMPANION, by William Roughead, The Press Of The Readers Club, New York, 1941, Chapter "Malice Domestic or THE BALHAM MYSTERY", pages 28-29:


A parody of the Bravo case- The Balham Mystery, 1876:

When lovely woman stoops to folly
And finds her husband in the way,
What charm can soothe her melancholy,
What art can turn him into clay?

The only means her aims to cover
And save herself from prison locks,
And repossess her ancient lover,
Are Burgundy and Mrs. Cox.

_________

The Gill's Hill crime of 1823:

They cut his throat from ear to ear,
His brains they battered in;
His name was Mr. William Weare,
He dwelt in Lyon's Inn.

__________

The West Port murders of 1828:

Up the close and donn the stair,
But and ben wi' Burke and Hare,
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the boy that buys the beef.

________

Lizzie Borden in 1893:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her Mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her Father forty-one!

________

Are there any to add? Any on Sweeny Todd or Sawney Beane?

Here's one I've always liked:

The Ballad of William Bloat

Raymond Calvert

In a mean abode on the Skankill Road
Lived a man named William Bloat;
He had a wife, the curse of his life,
Who continually got his goat.
So one day at dawn, with her nightdress on
He cut her bloody throat.

With a razor gash he settled her hash
Oh never was crime so quick
But the drip drip drip on the pillowslip '
Of her lifeblood made him sick.
And the pool of gore on the bedroom floor
Grew clotted and cold and thick.

And yet he was glad he had done what he had
When she lay there stiff and still
But a sudden awe of the angry law
Struck his heart with an icy chill.
So to finish the fun so well begun
He resolved himself to kill.

He took the sheet from the wife's coul' feet
And twisted it into a rope
And he hanged himself from the pantry shelf,
'Twas an easy end, let's hope.
In the face of death with his latest breath
He solemnly cursed the Pope.

But the strangest turn to the whole concern
Is only just beginning.
He went to Hell but his wife got well
And she's still alive and sinning.
For the razor blade was German made
But the sheet was Belfast linen.

http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/ ... _bloat.asp

Well I'm not sure that's a versicle- being kind of long and explicit but it's pretty interesting! Thanks!

Very interesting post Kat! So much I wanted to try and find more.I was doing searches online to see what would pop up. I typed in bloody versicles, along with a couple of the other subjects I was interested in seeing more of.This is one of the results I got.

http://upress.kent.edu/books/Goodman1.htm

I would love to get a look at what is inside this book.

Thanks!
Leave it to Jonathan Goodman!

I think I will Inter-Library loan it.

This is the first time I have heard of a "bloody versicle." Does the following fill the bill? It is quoted by Edmund Pearson in a chapter called 'Sob Sisters Emerge' in his book Masterpieces of Murder.

'Tis not for me to speak aloud
On lofty themes. I tell
As one among the lowly crowd
How young Maria fell.

Swift as a flash a glittering blade
Across his throat she drew,
"By you," she shreiked, "I've been betrayed:
This vengeance is my due!"

Behold her now, a wounded dove:
A native of a clime
Where hearts are melted soon with love
And maddened soon to crime.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
  Definition:  
\Ver"si*cle\, n. [L. versiculus, dim. of versus. See
{Verse}.]
A little verse; especially, a short verse or text said or
sung in public worship by the priest or minister, and
followed by a response from the people.

The psalms were in number fifteen, . . . being digested
into versicles. --Strype.

From:
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/

--I don't know who coined the phrase- they would have to define it. It seems the shorter the better. But I like them all. It's history!

Kat, I imagine there would be a great response from the people if the above were sung in public worship by a priest or minister!