Eggs and Marrowbone

"Eggs and Marrowbone" (Laws Q2, Roud 183),[1] also known as "There Was An Old Woman", is a traditional folk song of a wife's attempted murder of her husband.

"A similar song, "Johnny Sands" (Roud 184), was written by John Sinclair about 1840 and also became popular with local singers."

[2][5] In this version the husband pretends to be tired of life, and asks his wife to tie his hands behind his back.

[6] The song concerns an old woman who, in one popular version, loves "her husband dearly, but another man twice as well."

She decides to kill him, and is advised by a local doctor that feeding him eggs and marrowbone will make him blind.