Fair Margaret- Drake (ME) 1928 Barry B
[My title, from British Ballads from Maine; 1929; by Barry; Eckstorm; Smyth. An excerpt of their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
This is easily identified as Child B, because it is William's wife and not William, as in child A, who has the dream. stanzas 7-9 recall Child B 14-15, C 6-7, but are nearer to the form of C:
6 "Oh is Fair Margaret in the kitchen ?
Or is she in the hall ?"
. . .
. . .
7 'No, she is not in the kitchen,' they cryed,
'Nor is she in the hall;
But she is in the long chamber,
Laid up against the wall.'
See also Wyman and Brockway, Lonesome Tumes, p. 99. Stanza 9 which corresponds to Child A L6, is a commonplace, found in "Lord Lovel" (Child G g-12, I 15). The stanza in Child I 15 is as follows:
"Gar deal, gar deal the bread," he says,
"The bread bat an the wine,
And at the morn at twelve o'clock,
Ye's gain as much at mine."
This ballad was known to Mrs. Rose Robbins of Northeast Harbor. When shown Coxts texts, out of his seven versions she chose G as the form nearest that sung by her father. Of this she recognized the substance of every stanza except the fourth. Mrs. Fred W. Morse of Islesford selected Cox G as nearest the form she knew, but she recognized only four stanzas of it. "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" was one of the best known of the older ballads.
Twice it is quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle-act II, sc. 8; act III, sc. 5-and we are of the opinion that in addition to the two well-known snatches so often cited there is still another reference to it in the same play, in act IV, sc. 1. where the Citizen's Wife arranges a scene in the play for her favorite Ralph to act in:
an let him be very weary, and come to the King of Cracovia's house, covered with black velvet; and there let the king's daughter stand in her window, all in beaten gold, combing her golden locks with a comb of ivory; and let her spy Ralph and fall in love with him.
The ivory comb, the golden locks, the maid in the window, all belong to the ballad of "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," already twice quoted in the same play. Our Maine copies of this ballad, if we may judge by our samples, are most like the text written down from memory in 1776, by Mrs. Bernard, mother of the Dean of Derry, and preserved in the Percy Papers. It must have been long afloat in this country to get in such a broken-down condition.
B. [Fair Margaret.] Sent in March, 1928, by Miss Henrietta Drake, Searsport.
1 Fair Margaret was sitting in the high bower
A-combing her yellow hair,
She saw Sweet William and his bride
Going to church to prayer.
2 Then she flung down her ivory comb,
Flung back her yellow hair;
And tumbled down the high bower
And said she would die there.
3 'Twas in the middle of the night
Sweet William's bride awoke,
'I had a dreadful dream," she said,
"And I hope it won't prove true."
4 "I dreamed your cellar was full of white wine,
Fair Margaret died for you."
"That was a dreadful dream," he said,
"And I hope it won't prove true."
5. . . . .
. . . .
"I'll go to Fair Margaret's high tower,
Dear Margaret, by the leaf of you."
6. And when he reached Fair Margaret's bower,
He tingled on the ring;
There was none so ready as Fair Margaret's brother
To rise and let Sweet William in.
7. "Oh, is she in the kitchen?" he says,
"Or is she in the hall?
Or is she in the long chamber
The utmost room of all?
8 "No, she is not in the kitchen," they cried,
"Nor is she in the hall;
But she is in the long chamber
Laid up against the wall."
9 "No, she's not in the kitchen," he says,
"Nor she's not in the hall,
But she lies dead in the long chamber,
With her face turned towards the wall."
10 "Give me a bottle of your ale," he cries,
"And a bottle of your wine,
Tomorrow morning, when the clock strikes ten,
You can have as much of mine."
10 Then he turned down the milk-white sheet,
And humbly o'er her spread;
Five times he kissed her cheek,
Five times he kissed her chin,
Five times he kissed her death-cold lips,
There was no life within.
11 Fair Margaret died in the middle of the night,
Sweet William on the morrow;
Fair Margaret was buried in the old churchyard,
Sweet William beside her.
12 Out of Fair Margaret's bosom there grew a red rose,
Out of Sweet William's a brier;
They grew and they grew to the church steeple top
Until they could grow no higher,
There they got contangled in a true lover's knot
And died away together.