Lady Margret- Majors (Kansas) c.1963 Max Hunter
[Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, online. This version is rare because it is in a minor key.]
Lady Margret- As sung by Fran Majors, Wichita, Kansas on Summer, 1963;
Listen: http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=1399
VERSE 1
Lady Margret was in her chamber room
A-combing out her long yellow hair
But who should she spy but sweet William and his bride
A going to the church together.
VERSE 2
She laid aside her ivory comb
And put back her long yellow hair
And then she left her chamber room
To never return anymore.
VERSE 3
It was about the evenin' of the night
When the people, they were all asleep
When she appeared in Sir William's room
And said something at his feet.
VERSE 4
God bless you William and your pretty brown bride
How sweetly you do sleep.
While I am going to my grassy green grave
All wrapped in a winding sheet.
VERSE 5
Next morning Sir William arose
A-telling of his dream
He dreamed that his room was full of white swans
And his wife in a gore of blood
VERSE 6
He went to Margret's chamber room
And he knocked and he knocked at the door
And who was so willing to let him in
But Lady Margret's brother.
VERSE 7
Is Margret in her chamber room
Or is she in her hall?
Or is she in her long, long room
Amongst the gay ladies all?
VERSE 8
She is not in her chamber room
Neither is she in her hall
But she is in her long, long room
With her pale face against the wall.
VERSE 9
Take down, take down those milk white sheets
That her pale face I may see.
And I'll make a vow and I'll vow to the Lord
I'll never kiss another, after she.
VERSE 10
He kissed her own her lily white hand
He kissed her own her chin.
He kissed her own her cold clay lips
Till the breath went out of him.
VERSE 11
So, Margret was buried in the old churchyard
And Sir William by her side
And out of her breast grew a red, red rose
And out of his a brier.
VERSE 12
They grew and they grew to the castle tall
Till they could get no higher
And they linked and they twined in a true love knot
And the rose grew 'round the brier