Lady Margret- Hensley (NC) 1916 Sharp D
[My title. From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; 1917 Sharp/Campbell and 1932 edition, edited by Karpeles. All of Sharp's versions use the generic title, Fair Margaret and Sweet William. Fair Margaret is not the name that is sung, usually it's Lady (Liddy/Lydia) Margaret (Marget/Margret).
Notes from the 1932 edition follow. The text is attributed to Granny Banks in Sharp's MS, no tune is provided. The Carmen Hensley and Shelton (Sharp E verse 3 of this version) families intermarried. It's likely that both D and E are the same regional version. Two versions were collected from Hensley's from Kentucky. For more info read: A Nest of Singing Birds by Yates: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/m_sands.htm
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
No. 20. Fair Margaret and Sweet William.
Texts without tunes: — Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 74. Ashton's Century of Ballads, p. 345. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 7. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 281; xxiii. 381; xxviii. 154; xxx. 303.
Texts with tunes : — Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. 117. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 289; iii. 64. Folk-Songs of England, i, No. 14. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques, pp. 117 and 118. Kidson's Garland of English Folk Songs, p. 30. ChappelPs Popular Music of the Olden Times, i. 382. C. Sharp's English Folk Songs (Selected Edition), ii. 13. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, pp. 65 and 522 (see also further references). Wyman and Brockway's Lonesome Tunes, p. 94. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxxi. 74; xxxv. 340. Musical Quarterly, January 1916. British Ballads from Maine, p. 134. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 221 and 570. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 71.
Yates: They (Ramseys) reminded me of something that Cecil Sharp had once said about the Hensley family of Carmen. "My experience has been very wonderful so far as the people and their music is concerned...I spent three days, from 10a.m. to 5p.m., with a family in the mountains consisting of parents and daughter, by name Hensley. All three sang and the father played the fiddle. Maud and I dined with them each day, and the rest of the time sat on the verandah while the three sang and played and talked, mainly about the songs." One ballad, collected from Rosie Hensley, was Fair Ellender and Sweet William, a version of which I recorded from Evelyn. [Are KY Hensley families related? Sharp D and E were taken from the Carmen, NC Hensley family.]
[Lady Margret] - Hensley (NC) 1916 Sharp D; English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians
1. Sweet William he rose one morning in May,
He dresses himself in blue.
And pray will you tell me that long, long love,
Between Lady Margret and you.
2 I know nothing of Lady Margret, he says,
Lady Margret knows nothing of me.
To-morrow morning about eight o'clock
Lady Margret my bride shall see.
3 Lady Margret was in her dowel room,[1]
Combing back her yellow hair.
She saw Sweet William and his new wedded wife
As they drew near to her.
4 O down she threw her ivory comb,
And back she threw her hair,
And running to her bed-chamber
To never no more appear.
5 The very same night they were all in the bed,
They were all in the bed asleep,
Lady Margret she rose and stood all alone
And sung at Sweet William's bed feet.
6 Saying : How do you like your bed, Sweet William?
Or how do you like your sheet?
Or how do you like your new wedded wife
That lies in your arms and sleeps?
7 Very well, very well I like my bed,
Very well I like my sheet,
But ten thousand times better do I like the lady gay
That stands at my bed-feet
8 Sweet William he rose and stood all alone,
He tingled at the ring.
There was none so ready as her dear old mother
To rise and let him come in.
9 O where's Lady Margret? he says,
O where's Lady Margret? he cries.
Lady Margret is a girl I always adored,
She hath stole my heart away.
10 Or is she in her dowel room?
Or is she in her hall?
Or is she in her bed-chamber
Among her merry maids all?
11 She's neither in her dowel room,
Nor neither in her hall;
Lady Margret she's in her cold coffin
With her pale face all to the wall.
12 O down he pulled the milk-white sheets
That was made of satin so fine.
Ten thousand times she has kissed my lips,
So lovely I'll kiss thine.
13 Three times he kissed her cherry, cherry cheeks,
Three times he kissed her chin,
And when he kissed her clay cold lips
His heart it broke within.
14 Saying: What will you have at Lady Margret's burying?
Will you have some bread and wine ?
To-morrow morning about eight o'clock,
The same may be had at mine.
15 They buried Lady Margret in the old church-yard,
They buried Sweet William by her;
Out of Lady Margret's grave sprung a deep-red rose,
And out of William's a briar.
16 They grew to the top of the old church house,
They could not grow any higher,
And met and tied in a true love's knot,
And the rose hung on the briar.
1. dower room