US & Canada Versions: 77. Sweet William's Ghost
[The ballad is rare in North America. The Vermont version from the Green Mountain Songster dated 1823 by a revolutionary soldier probably dates the ballad back to the 1700s. "Sweet William's Ghost" is not a local title but is the Child title. Since local titles of this ballad are similar or identical to Child 7 (Earl Brand)-- "Sweet William," "Sweet Willie" and Child 75-- "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," "Lady Margaret and Sweet William" and "Lady Margaret" versions of "Sweet William's Ghost" have been misplaced by title.
The ballad is well-known in only one place, Newfoundland, with Karpeles collecting A-I (five full texts); Peacock A-F (one compilation text, 5 melodies - 3 from same informant) Leach (3 texts, two informants) and Greenleaf and Mansfield (one text).
All of Karpeles versions have the generic title, which I've changed to the local title. Additional texts are found in Karpeles MS and published by Bronson. The John McCabe text, though similar to his mother's (Emma Boone) is given here for the first time.
Aside from Newfoundland, there are only three extant versions and one of these (Davis; Virginia 1936) is a fragment. The Davis fragment has just two stanzas of the ballad (plus 3 stanzas which could be Pretty Polly/another ballad. The Davis title was assigned "Sweet Willie Ghost" by a collector (Peel?). The excellent text from the Brown collection (with music) collected by Maude Minish Sutton resembles Child A. The Vermont text, which quotes Child 95, is closer to Child C. See Davis' extensive notes below. North Carolina ballad singer Bobby McMillon sings a version of it on youtube (three parts)- it's likely taken from extant versions. Until I learn the provenance of the McMillon version, I will not include it.
R. Matteson 2015]
CONTENTS: (Individual versions may be accessed by clicking on highlighted title or on title attached to this page on left-hand column)
1) Lady Margaret and Sweet William- (VT) 1823 -- From page 34 of The Green Mountain Songster, 1823. Printed in Vermont Folk-Songs & Ballads, 240. Flanders; 1930. Also in Ancient Ballads; Flanders, 1966; version A. Her notes follow. Stanza 2 and 3 have lines from "Maid Freed from the Gallows" which is Child 95.
2) Sweet Willy- Sutton (NC) c.1920 Brown Collection -- No informant named or details provided. From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore; Vol. 2; 1953. From MS contributed by Maud Minish Sutton about 1920; with music.
3) Lady Margaret- Boone (NL) 1929 Karpeles B -- My title, replacing the generic Child title. Two versions (of B) from Folk Songs from Newfoundland (piano score and standard unedited text); Karpeles; 1934. Sung by Mrs. Emma Boone at North River, Conception Bay, October 15, 1929.
4) Lady Margaret- McCabe (NL) 1929 Karpeles C
Lady Marg'ret- Long (NL) 1929 Karpeles E
Lady Margaret- Brennan (NL) 1929 Karpeles H
Sweet William's Ghost- Aylward (NL) 1929 Karp I
Lady Margaret- Caroll (NL) 1930 Karpeles A
Sweet William's Ghost- Cheeseman(NL) 1930 Karp G
Lady Margaret- Simmons (NL) 1930 Greenleaf
Sweet Willie's Ghost- Dudley (VA) 1936 Davis
Lady Margaret- Kent (NL) c.1950 Leach
Lady Margaret- Williams (NL) 1951 Leach REC
Lady Margaret- Kent compilation (NL) 1951 Peacock
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[From: Song Collecting in Newfoundland: Maud Karpeles, 1930
David Gregory, Athabasca University]
The first region Maud visited was therefore the western coast of the Avalon Peninsula, with Placentia as her base. On July 4th she recorded her first impressions in her diary: “Placentia a beautiful place…[but] does not look promising for songs. Strolled out after tea and mode some enquiries. Seems rather hopeless.” The next day she called on Gerald Doyle and others to get as much information as she could about the best places to visit on the Southern Shore and the difficulties of transportation in the region. As a result of the advice she obtained, she decided that her best bet was to go first to Placentia, next to the Burin Peninsula, and thereafter to take the coastal steamer further west.[2]
However, the next day was a little more promising. This is Maud’s record of how she fared that Saturday:
Took car to Pt. Verde. There made several calls. Everybody most friendly, but they have no songs. Got several addresses… After dinner made some calls in Placentia finishing up with the Griffins. They got Mr. Carrol to come in & he sang “William’s Ghost.” He is a fine singer & no doubt has other songs. Arranged to call tomorrow. Feeling very tired, but am cheered at the thought of having got even one song.[3]
Mr. Carrol was actually Michael Caroll, Snr. Maud had noted the ballad that he sang her, “Sweet William’s Ghost,” on four different occasions during her 1929 collecting trip and she would encounter it when she reached Hermitage on the southern coast, but Michael Caroll’s tune was the one she would eventually choose to publish as her A version in Folk Songs from Newfoundland. The singer decorated and varied the melody slightly from verse to verse, so the following is only an approximation of his tune: [music and text- Karpeles A]
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[Notes from Davis, More Traditional Ballads]
SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST
(Child, No. 77)
This, and the two ballads that follow, are all ghost ballads and the lore of the supernatural is important in them all. As usual in
ballads, the ghost is not a wraith or disembodied spirit but simply a person who is dead and who reappears to the living. The living do not usually recognize the ghostly character of the visitant until the ghost declares himself. Wimberly (p. 45) lists the following motives for the walking of ghosts: to admonish the living; to announce the death of the visitant; to carry off the living; to foretell the death of the living; to foretell the punishments in store for the living in the next world, or to punish or reprove the living; to quiet the excessive grief of the living, since the visitant's rest is disturbed thereby; to secure the return of the troth-plight; to succor the children whom a cruel stepmother has mistreated. In some ballads the motives are mixed.
In "Sweet William's Ghost" the primary motive of the dead lover is to ask back his unfulfilled troth-plight, without which he apparently cannot rest quietly in his grave. In "The Unquiet Grave" the primary motive of the revenant is to forbid the living loved one's excessive grief, which disturbs the dead lover's repose. In "The Wife of Usher's Well" the dead children return in answer to the mother's prayers and grief, and in part to warn her against excessive grieving.
When in "Sweet William's Ghost" the lover comes back from the grave to secure the return of his troth, the girl refuses to return it unless he kiss her or wed her, or both. He then informs her that he is no living man. She follows him to the grave and asks if there is any room for her. Usually there is not. In Child A alone does the maiden die. In other texts she is more often curious than compassionate, demanding the answers to such questions about the dead as what becomes of women who die in childbirth; what of unbaptized children, etc. The troth itself is returned in a number of ways: by means of a wand, by striking her lover with a silver key, or by a touch of her hand. A few later versions give a highly allegorical interpretation to the dead man's graveside companions.
"Sweet William's Ghost" is an extremely rare ballad. Though Child prints seven versions, mostly Scottish, the earliest and best (except for the two last stanzas) from Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany of 1740, the ballad does not appear in recent collections from either England or Scotland. Quite recently, however, the ballad has been reported from Northern Ireland. Marie Slocombe in "Some 'English' Ballads and Folk Songs Recorded in Ireland 1952-1954," JEFDSS, VII (December, 1955), 239-44, reports that among sixty-five separate songs recorded by the British Broadcasting Corporation in Ireland "there is a high proportion of ballads, including sixteen Child ballads, nearly all represented by at least one very good and complete version." Included in the list that follows is "Sweet William's Ghost." In a continuation of Miss Slocombe's article under the same title in JEFDSS, VIII (December, 1956) , 16-28, Peter Kennedy and others have more recently published the text of this and other ballads. The interesting version cited there (pp. 16-17) contains seven and a half double stanzas, as sung by Charles O'Boyle, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, on July 7, 1952. The version does not closely resemble any of Child's. At cock-crow Margaret follows her lover to his grave, and when it opens to receive him she strikes her Willy on the breast with her hand, thus returning his faith and troth. In a note on the ballad (ibid., p. 17), A. L. Lloyd remarks upon the rarity of this ballad" cites no other British texts, and remarks that "even Gavin Greig does not seem to have found it."
The ballad has been recently found, but sparingly, both in the United States and in Canada. It does not appear in TBVa or in Barry or in Sharp-Karpeles. It is, however, apparently well known in Newfoundland. Both Greenleaf and Mansfield and Miss Karpeles give a text from there. Miss Karpeles writes, "I noted nine variants" (p. 24). She also presents a tune. The earliest text published in the United States appears in The Green Mountain Songster, compiled by an old Revolutionary soldier in 1823, The text is printed literatirn in Flanders' Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballad's (p. 240) and more recently in Friedman's The Viking Book of Ballads (pp. 50-51). It contains an intrusion from "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child, No. 95) and, like the Newfoundland texts, is most closely related to Child C, where several apparitions present at the grave are explained by the ghost. The Brown collection (11, 93-94) has a fine text resembling child A, plus a tune (IV, 48). The death of the maiden as in Child A makes this text unique in tradition outside Child. The editors of the Brown Collection are uncertain of the contributor but believe it to be Mrs. Sutton. A comparison of the text with that given in the Maude Minish Manuscripts in the Harvard Library (Miss Minish was later Mrs. Sutton) leaves no doubt that this is the case, though one stanza which the Harvard manuscript contains does not appear in the Brown Collection text. Coffin gives a reference to an article by Josephine McGill in The North American Review (CCXXVIII, 222), but this turns out to be a fragmentary quotation used for illustration only ancl taken from Sir Walter Scott's version of "Clerk Saunders" (Child, No. 69), hence need not be considered here.
The only other known American text is the present Virginia one. It is of five stanzas, two of them imperfect, and is somewhat corrupted. There is no doubt that it is a version of "Sweet William's Ghost," but there are too many intrusions to associate it with confidence with any particular Child version. Stanza one mentions that it was a moonshiny night when "I heard some one at my window sigh'" This agrees with all versions of the ballad (except the North Carolina one) in setting the scene at night and corresponding lines can be found in other versions. Child F has the maiden in a tower "By the lee licht o the moon," and in Child B the ghost appears "With mony a sad sigh and groan," to cite two examples. The second stanza of the Virginia text appears in all versions of this ballad collectecl, except Child B, F, and G. The third stanza introcluces a corruption reminiscent of "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," especially in Virginia where the lady in that ballad is often Pretty Polly. More probably, however, it is an interpolation from "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter." In that song the girl is often called Pretty Polly, and the theme of the girl being led to a new-dug grave by her lover who then kills her, might have resulted in the appearance of this stanza in "Sweet William's Ghost." Ordinarily it is the girl who follows the ghost, not by his request as is indicated here. An exception besides the Virginia text is the Greenleaf and Mansfield text (p. 21), where the ghost takes the girl by the apron strings and says, "Follow, follow me." The fourth stanza of the present version has no parallel in other texts of "Sweet William's Ghost" or in "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter." It is perfectly in keeping with the ballad, however, in having the ghost reach the grave yard and open the gates of the burial ground for his love. The last stanza, unusual in that the ghost wishes to ,be kissed, when usually in the ballad he discourages the kiss, finds a parallel of sorts in the Greenleaf and Mansfield text. Like the Virginia text, that one lacks any mention of a troth. Thus the return seems to be only for a final parting to ensure rest for either of the lovers. In Greenleaf and Mansfield the ghost is apparently concerned for the living sweetheart, for he takes her by the lily-white hand and presses her to his breast, wishing her rest. In the Virginia text, it would seem that this final parting kiss would ensure rest for the ghost. It is possible that this stanza has been taken over from "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," where there is a similar ghostly appearance, and a later kissing of the corpse. The stanza is, however, something of a commonplace in ballads of ghostly apparition and farewell. The conventional crowing of the cock as a sign for the dead to return is lacking here.
The rarity of this fragmentary text mitigates its corruption, though the corruption itself is of some interest. The even rarer tune, collected but not located in the Virginia archives, would add value to a ballad not previously found in Virginia, hence not represented in TBVa.
AA. "Sweet Willie's Ghost." Collected by Miss Alfreda M. Peel, of Salem, Va. Sung by Mrs. Hattie Dudley, of Franklin, Va. Nansemond county. December 17, 1936. [The tune noted by Mrs. Kathleen Kelly Coxe, or Roanoke, Va., has been lost.] Miss Peel sent in two texts at the same time, one a "revised version." Since the revised version is slightly superior both metrically and in sense, it is here given, with all the variations indicated in footnotes. Where there are deviations, the whole line is given.
1. One night, one night, 'twas a moonshiny night,[1]
The moon did shine
And the stars gave light,[2]
I heard some one at my window sigh.[3]
2. "Is that brother James," said she,
"Or is it brother John,
Or is it my sweet true love[4]
Who has been gone from me so long?"
3 "Oh come, come on now, Pretty Polly,[5]
And go with me,
I'll carry you over yonder,
. . . .
4. He opened the gates with his own pale hand
And let Pretty Polly through,
. . . .
. . . .
5. He unscrewed the coffin lid,
And threw by the sheets so fine;
Come, come Pretty Polly, kiss my clay cold lips
As you kissed when I left you behind."
1. "One night, one night, was a moon shining bright."
2. Lines two and three of this stanza do not appear in the "unrevised text."
3. "I heard some one at my window sight."
4. "Or is it my own true love."
5."Oh come on now, Pretty Polly."
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Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
77. SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST
Texts: Brown Coll / Davis, FS Va / Flanders, Ft F-S Bids, 240; Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 21 / Green Mountain Songster, 34 / North American Review, CCXXVTII, 222 / Minish Mss.
Local Titles: Lady Margaret, Lady Margaret and Sweet William.
Story Types: A: Lady Margaret in her bower hears a sound and learns it is her true love William. She asks what token he has brought her, and he replies only his winding-sheet. He then leads her to his grave and shows her where he lies. She wishes to lie with him, but his parents are at his head and feet and three hell-hounds at his side. The hounds stand for drunkenness, pride, and the deluding of a maid. He embraces her, bids her goodnight, and wishes her good rest. The return of the troth is not mentioned.
Examples: Greenleaf and Mansfield.
B: The story is the same as that of Type A, except the girl does not seem to wish to lie with her ghost-lover and the parents and hounds are replaced by three deceived sweethearts, three bastards, and three maids to guide his soul. He is seeking the return of his unfulfilled troth, and she refuses to give it back until he takes her to Scotland and kisses or weds her. When he
reveals he is a ghost, she accepts the separation and gives him her troth.
Examples: Flanders.
C: The usual story is told as far as the request for the kiss, but the lover frankly states that he is a ghost and is given his troth back so he can "go above". When the girl asks if she can lie with him, he says there is no room at his head or feet, but she can lie in his arms. The rooster then crows, and she knows that her hour to die has come.
Examples: Minish Mss. (Sweet Willie).
Discussion: The Type A and B American versions follow Child C in general story outline, though Type A seems to have lost the reason for the ghost's return. Type C is a new interpretation of the story, though similarities to Child D (in the place for Margaret to lie) can be noted. The quick return of the troth and the use of the rooster at the end of the tale (Child G) are not-
able. For a discussion of variations that occur in other Child texts and of the folk-lore behind the story, see Child, II, 2269.
The North American Review, CCXXVIII, 222 fragments are cited as lines from Clerk Saunders (69). This may be explainable in that some British texts of the latter have Sweet William's Ghost as an ending. See Child, II, 156.
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[Missing versions]
LADY MARGARET
Source Lore & Language 7:2 (1988) pp.70-73
Performer White, William
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Cull's Harbour
Collector Ashton, John / Bishop, Julia
LADY MARGARET
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 2 (1965) pp.390-395 (version b)
Performer Decker, Mrs. Charlotte
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Parson's Pond
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
LADY MARGARET
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 2 (1965) pp.390-395 (version c)
Performer Kinslow, Mrs. Wallace
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Isle aux Morts
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
LADY MARGARET
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 2 (1965) pp.390-395 (version d)
Performer Nicolle, Mrs. William
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Rocky Harbour
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
LADY MARGARET
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 2 (1965) pp.390-395 (version e)
Performer Galpin, Mrs. Mary Ann
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Codroy
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
LADY MARGARET
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 2 (1965) pp.390-395 (version f)
Performer Doyle, Mrs. Gerald S.
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : St. John's
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST
Source Leach, Folk Ballads & Songs of the Lower Labrador Coast (1965) pp.30-31
Performer Odell, Ned
Place collected Canada : Labrador : Pinware
Collector Leach, MacEdward
SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST
Source Friedmann, Penguin Book of Folk Ballads pp.47-51 (version a)
Performer
Place collected Scotland
Collector
SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST
Source Friedmann, Penguin Book of Folk Ballads pp.47-51 (version b)
Performer
Place collected USA : Vermont
Title Lady Margaret she sat in her own lonely cot
First Line Lady Margaret she sat in her own lonely cot
Plot Summary Lullaby.
Number of Lines per Stanza 1
Accession Number 73-51
Place of Recording Angel's Cove
Region Placentia Bay
Date of Recording 720923
Informant Foley, Ellen (Mrs.)
Collector Doyle, M. (Mrs.)
First Stanza Lady Margaret she sat in her own lonely cot
Comments Only line only.
Source 4 volume paper index of song recordings held in the MUNFLA Archives. The index was compiled by the Memorial University Folklore Archives; and the digital database created by the Research Centre for Music, Media and Place.
Collection Memorial University Folklore Archive Song Title Index