Pierre Bensusan again brought this to my attention. The song is originally Italian (“Dame Lombarde” means “Lady from Lombardy,” the Northwestern region of Italy), with many, many variations on the words. The French version I sing here is rather enigmatic, but looking at all of the variations allows you to reconstruct the story. The French goes (followed by a rather literal translation):

“Allons au bois, Dame Lombarde, allons au bois;
Nous trouverons le serpent verde, nous le tuerons.

Dans une pinte de vin rouge nous le mettrons;
Quand ton mari viendra de chasse, grande soif aura.

Tire du vin, Dame Lombarde, tire du vin !”
“Oh, par ma foi, mon ami Pierre n’y a de tiré.”

L’enfant du brés jamais ne parle, a bien parlé:
“Ne buvez pas de ça, mon père, vous en mourrez.”

“Buvez-en vous, Dame Lombarde, buvez-en vous.”
“Eh, par ma foi, mon ami Pierre n’y a pas de soif.”
Elle n’a pas bu demi-verre, s’est renversée.
Elle n’a pas bu le plein verre, a trépassé!

“Let us go to the woods, Dame Lombarde, let us go to the woods;

We will find the green serpent, and we shall slay it.

In a pint of red wine we shall place it;

When your husband returns from hunting, such thirst he will have.

Pour some wine, Dame Lombarde, pour some wine!”

“Oh, by my faith, my friend Pierre took none.”

The cradle baby never speaks, but he spoke well:

“Do not drink of it, my father—you’ll die of it.”

“You all shall drink, Dame Lombarde, drink of it.

By my faith, my friend Pierre is not thirsty.”

She drank less than half a glass, and fell over.

She did not finish a full glass, and crossed over.

The story is this: a married lady and her lover plan to do away with the lady’s husband. They go into the forest and find a poisonous serpent, and infuse the serpent’s poison into the wine that the husband will drink when he comes back from hunting (“…you don’t come here for the hunting, do you?”). All goes according to plan until a miraculous intervention: the son of the married couple, a mere infant in the cradle, speaks to tell his father not to drink the wine that his wife has handed him. The husband grows suspicious, realizing the only he was served, and not his friend Pierre (the wife’s lover); the husband demands they both drink. Pierre refuses, but the lady drinks and dies.