Lady Margaret- Dowell/Pederson (AR) 1893 Parler B
[From Ozark Folksong Collection Reel 418, Item 4. Collected by Carolyn Cearley and Louise Guisinger. Transcribed by M. C. Parler
R. Matteson 2014]
Lady Margaret- Sung by Mrs. Joy Dowell And Mrs. Pederson; Fayetteville, Ark December 25, 1961. "Learned when I was a little girl from my mother. . . 68 years ago."
Lady Margaret was sitting in her father's hall
Combing back her yellow hair,
And who does she spy but sweet William and his bride,
To the churchyard drawing nigh.
Lady Margaret threw hack her yellow, hair
Likewise her ivory comb,
And she went up in her own chamber,
And she never came down any more.
Sweet William shrugged all to his might,
Of a dream he dreamed last night,
And he dreamed that his hall was full of wild swine,
And his bride there was swimming in blood.
"Open the door," Sweet William he cried,
"And let me see her once more,
And let me eat of her snowy white breast,
And no more drink of her wine."
Twenty times he kissed her cheeks
Twenty times he kissed her chin,
And twenty times her cold pale lips
There where were no breath in.
Tomorrow morning, my dear,
You may do the same by me.