FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM.

[Original]

As it fell out on a long summer's day,

Two lovers they sat on a hill;

They sat together that long summer's day,

And could not talk their fill.

"I see no harm by you, Margaret,

Nor you see none by me;

Before to-morrow at eight o'clock

A rich wedding you shall see."

Fair Margaret sat in her bower-window,

Combing her yellow hair;

There she spied sweet William and his bride,

As they were a tiding near.

Then down she laid her ivory comb,

And braided her hair in twain:

She went alive out of her bower,

But ne'er came alive in't again.

When day was gone, and night was come,

And all men fast asleep,

Then came the spirit of fair Margaret,

And stood at William's feet.

"Are you awake, sweet William?" she said,

"Or, sweet William, are you asleep?

God give you joy of your gay bride-bed,

And me of my winding-sheet."

When day was come, and night was gone,

And all men wak'd from sleep,

Sweet William to his lady said,

"My dear, I have cause to weep.

"I dreamt a dream, my dear lady,

Such dreams are never good:

I dreamt my bower was full of red swine,

And my bride-bed full of blood."

"Such dreams, such dreams, my honoured lord,

They never do prove good -,

To dream thy bower was full of swine,

And thy bride-bed full of blood."

He called up his merry men all,

By one, by two, and by three;

Saying, "I'll away to fair Margaret's bower,

By the leave of my lady."

And when he came to fair Margaret's bower,

He knocked at the ring;

And who so ready as her seven brethren,

To let sweet William in.

Then he turned up the covering-sheet;

"Pray let me see the dead;

Methinks she does look pale and wan,

She has lost her cherry red.

"I'll do more for thee, Margaret,

Than any of thy kin:

For I will kiss thy pale wan lips,

Though a smile I cannot win."

With that bespake the seven brethren,

Making most piteous mone,

"You may go kiss your jolly brown bride,

And let our sister alone."

"If I do kiss my jolly brown bride,

I do but what is right;

I ne'er made a vow to yonder poor corpse,

By day, or yet by night.

"Deal on, deal on, my merry men all,

Deal on your cake and your wine:

For whatever is dealt at her funeral to-day,

Shall be dealt to-morrow at mine."

Fair Margaret died to-day, to-day,

Sweet William died the morrow:

Fair Margaret died for pure true love,

Sweet William he died for sorrow.

Margaret was buried in the lower chancel,

And William in the higher:

Out of her breast there sprang a rose,

And out of his a briar.

They grew till they grew unto the church top,

And then they could grow no higher;

And then they tied in a true lover's knot,

Which made all the people admire.

Then came the clerk of the parish,

As you this truth shall hear,

And by misfortune cut them down,

Or they had now been there.

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