Sweet William & Lady Margaret- Williams (Mo.) 1903; Belden A
[From: Old-Country Ballads in Missouri II; by H. M. Belden from The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 19, No. 75 (Oct. - Dec., 1906), pp. 281-299. Also dated 1903 in Ballads and Songs; Belden A, 1940.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
CHILD 74. - Fair Margaret and Sweet William
SWEET WILLIAM AND LADY MARGARET
Taken down by Miss Williams, from a woman who "says she learned it years ago, but saw it in print about five years ago." Some words and parts of lines Miss W. failed to get or could make no sense of.
Sweet William he rose one morning in June,
And dressed himself in blue;
"Come tell me of that long love lay
Between Lady Margaret and you."
"I know nothing of that long love lay
Between Lady Margaret and me,
But to-morrow morning before eight o'clock
Lady Margaret my new bride shall see."
Sweet William he rode to Lady Margaret's hall
With his new bride all so gay,
And he saw Lady Margaret in the midst of her hall
A-combing of her hair.
She laid down her . . . comb,
And she wrapped her hair in silk;
And out of her door went this lady gay,
Never to return again.
When day was past and night came on
And all mankind was asleep,
Lady Margaret went to sweet William's hall
And stood at his bed's feet.
"Oh, how do you like your bed? " said she,
"And how do you like your sheet?
And how do you like that lady gay
That lies by your side asleep!"
"Very well I like my bed," said he,
"And well I like my sheet,
But better of all I like that lady gay
That stands at my bed's feet."
When night was passed and day came on
And all mankind was awake,
Sweet William said he was troubled in his head
Of the dreams he dreamt last night.
"Such dreams, such dreams I do not like,
Such dreams they are not good.
I dreamt my hall was full of white swine,
My bed was swimming in blood."
Oh, then he called his merry maids all,
By one, by two, by three;
And the last of them all he called his new bride:
"Lady Margaret may I go and see?"
"Oh, if Lady Margaret you go and see,
Pray what will become of me?"
"It's first Lady Margaret I'll go and see,
And then I 'll return to thee."
Sweet William he rode to Lady Margaret,
Tingling full out to tell (?)[1]
There was none so ready as her seven brothers
To rise and let him in.
"Oh, is Lady Margaret in her kitchen,
Or is she in her hall?
Or is she in her upper chamber
Among her merry maids all?"
"Lady Margaret is not in her kitchen,
Nor is she in her hall,
But yonder she lies in her cold coffin
Behind yonder wall."
"Fold back, fold back those flowing white sheets,
. . . . me now decline;
For to-day they hang round Lady Margaret's corpse
And to-morrow they shall hang around mine."
Lady Margaret was buried in the new churchyard,
Sweet William was buried by her;
And out of her heart there sprang a red rose,
And out of his a briar.
They grew and they grew by the old church wall
Till they could not grow any higher;
They lapped and they tied in a true-lovers' knot,
The red rose and the briar.
1. tingling full at the bell, (Tingling at the ring)