Sweet William- Boelyn (KY) 1962 Foss/McNeil
[My title. From McNeil; Southern Folk Ballads; Vol. 2; 1988 w/music.
R. Matteson 2014]
Sweet William - Collected September 1, 1962, by George Foss from Maud Boelyn, Ary, KY.
Sweet William arose one May morning
And dressed hisself in blue.
"Pray tell unto me that love long lie
That's betwixt Lady Margaret and you."
"I know nothing about Lady Margaret's love,
I'm sure she don't love me.
But tomorrow morning at eight o'clock
Lady Margaret my bride shall see."
Lady Margaret was standing in her own hall door,
Combing back her hair,
And who did she spy but sweet William and his bride
And the lawyers go riding by.
She threw away her ivory comb,
Bound up her head in silk,
And she stepped out of her own hall door,
Ne'er return any more.
Sweet William he said he was troubled in his head
From the dream he had dreamed last night.
He dreamed that his hall was filled with white swine
And his true love was swimming in blood.
"How do you like your bed?,' said she,
"How do you like your sheet?
How do you like the pretty fair maid
That lies in your arms asleep?"
"Very well do I like my bed," said he,
"Much better I like my sheet.
But the best of them all is the pretty fair maid
That stands at my bed sheet."
He called them all around his bed,
He counted one, two, three,
He asked of them all and he asked of his bride
Lady Margaret he might go and see.
He rode and he rode till he came to the hall,
He jangled on the ring.
And none was so ready as Lady Margaret's brother
To rise and bid him come in'
"ls she in her kitchen?" said he,
"Or is she in her hall?
Or is she in her upper chamber
Among those ladies all?"
"She's neither in her kitchen," said he,
"She's neither in her hall,
But in yonder she lies in her clay cold coffin
A-setting against the wall."
"Unfold, unfold those winding sheets,
They're made of linen so fine.
And let me kiss them soft pale lips
That have so often kissed mine'"
He kissed her on her lily-white cheek,
And then he kissed her chin,
And then he kissed her pretty white lips
That pierced his heart within'
"Fold back, fold back those winding sheets,
Let her lay in the linen so fine.
Today you stood over Lady Margaret's corpse
And tomorrow you'll stand over mine."
Lady Margaret was buried in the old churchyard,
Sweet William by her side.
And out of her breast sprang a red, red rose
And out of his sprang a brier.
They grew and they grew to the top of the church
They could not grow any higher,
They leaned till they tied in a true lover's knot,
The red rose around the green brier.