Cinderella
Here Cinderella you may see
A beauty bright and fair,
Her real name was Helena,
Few with her could compare
Besides she was so very good,
So affable and mild,
She learned to pray and read her book,
Like a very good child.
Her mother-in-law you see,
One of the worst of hags,
Who made her do all drudgery work.
And clothed her in rags;
And after she had done her work,
Her mother-in-law would tell her
The cinders she might sit among,
Then call’d her Cinderella.
These are her two sisters-in-law,
Both deformed & ordinary,
Altho’ they dress as fine as queens,
Which you may think extraordinary;
But neither of them scarce can read,
Nor pray to God to bless’em
They only know to patch and paint,
And gaudily to dress’em,
This is the king’s fine gallant son,
Young, handsome, straight and tall
He invited all the ladies round
For to dance at his ball;
Which when the ugly sisters heard
They dress’d themselves so fine,
And off they set, being resolv’d
At this grand ball to shine.
Her god-mother came to lend her aid,
And her power is not small
To help her god-daughter to go
To this fine prince’s ball.
This coach was once a pumpkin,
By the fairy changed from that,
The footmen once were lizards green,
The coachman once a rat.
Now having danced with the prince,
He led her to her place,
While all the ladies at the ball
Envied her handsome face;
Behold the clock now striking twelve,
Out Cinderella run,
And happily got out of door
Just as the clock had done.
But in her haste to get away,
One of her slippers fell,
Which the young prince himself pick’d up,
And it pleased him so well,
That straight he offer’d a reward,
It was ten thousand pound,
To any person that could tell
Where the owner could be found.
And now the sisters tried in vain
The slipper to get on;
Said Cinderella, let me try,
Dear sisters, when you’ve done;
She tried, and on it went with ease
To the foot of Cinderella,
Said She, I think the slipper’s mine,
See here I’ve got the fellow.