FOOTNOTES:
[113] I have been enabled to restore the original readings by the ever ready kindness of Professor Skeat.
[114] London, printed for W. T[hackeray], T. P[assenger], and W. W. [Whitwood?]. This impression is therefore contemporary with the other.
[115] In D, E she borrows the fine things of her sister. Minute particulars are given in D. We all wonder how Fair Annet, whose face should be her fortune, comes by so much. Her horse's shoes and bells would have made her a nice little dowry; and then she has, F 20, as much gold above her brow as would buy an earldom, like the oriental Susie Py. This comes of a reckless use of commonplaces, without regard to keeping.
[116] Some of the versions have traits of 'Fair Annie.' In F the woman is a king's sister, and is not living with Sir Peter.
Herre Per vaknað inki för dá
at login leikað i Áselitis hár.
Herre Per springe han up af si seng,
dá ság han liti Kersti pá gata geng.
'Aa kære liti Kersti, no hjölper du meg!
en annen sinn skal eg hjölpe deg.'
Og deð var liti Kersti, sá högt hon lóg:
'eg veit du helde sá vel dit órð!'
Landstad, 33-36.
Upon which the good pastor, who loved the things nevertheless, remarks, What a culpable style of life, what moral depravation, many of these ballads depict!
[74]
FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM
[A]. a. 'Fair Margaret's Misfortune,' etc., Douce Ballads, I, fol. 72. b. 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William,' Ritson, A Select Collection of English Songs, 1783, II, 190. c. 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William,' Percy's Reliques, 1765, III, 121. d. Percy's Reliques, 1767, III, 119.
[B]. Percy Papers; communicated by the Dean of Derry, February, 1776.
[C]. Percy Papers; communicated by Rev. P. Parsons, April 7, 1770.
A, a, b, c are broadside or stall copies, a of the end of the seventeenth century, b "modern" in Percy's time, and they differ inconsiderably, except that a has corrupted an important line.[118] Of d, Percy says, Since the first edition some improvements have been inserted, which were communicated by a lady of the first distinction, as she had heard this song repeated in her infancy. Herd, in The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769, p. 295, follows Percy. As Percy has remarked, the ballad is twice quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle,' 1611. Stanza 5 runs thus in Act 2, Scene 8, Dyce, II, 170:
When it was grown to dark midnight,
And all were fast asleep,
In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet.
The first half of stanza 2 is given, in Act 3, Scene 5, Dyce, p. 196, with more propriety than in the broadsides, thus:
You are no love for me, Margaret,
I am no love for you.
The fifth stanza of the ballad, as cited in 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle,' says the editor of the Reliques, has "acquired an importance by giving birth to one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language" [that is, 'Margaret's Ghost'], "the elegant production of David Mallet, Esq., who, in the last edition of his poems, 3 vols, 1759, informs us that the plan was suggested by the four verses quoted above, which he supposed to be the beginning of some ballad now lost."[119] The ballad supposed to be lost has been lately recovered, in a copy of the date 1711, with the title 'William and Margaret, an Old Ballad,' and turns out to be substantially the piece which Mallet published as his own in 1724, Mallet's changes being comparatively slight. 'William and Margaret' is simply 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William' rewritten in what used to be called an elegant style. Nine of the seventeen stanzas are taken up with a rhetorical address of Margaret to false William, who then leaves his bed, raving, stretches himself on Margaret's grave, thrice calls her name, thrice weeps full sore, and dies. See The Roxburghe Ballads, in the Ballad Society's reprint, III, 671, with Mr Chappell's remarks there, and in the Antiquary, January, 1880. The ballad of 1711 seems to have been founded upon some copy of the popular form earlier than any we now possess, or than any known to me, for the last half of stanza 5 runs nearly as it occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher (see also B 7), thus:
In glided Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet.
'Fair Margaret and Sweet William' begins like '[Lord Thomas and Fair Annet],' and from the fifth stanza on is blended with a form of that ballad represented by versions E-H. The brown girl, characteristic of '[Lord Thomas and Fair Annet],' has slipped into A 14, 15, B 8, of 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William.' The catastrophe of 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William' is repeated in '[Lord Lovel],' and it will be convenient to notice under the head of the latter, which immediately follows, some ballads out of English which resemble both, especially in the conclusion.
A c is translated by Bodmer, II, 31, Döring, p. 199; A d by Herder, 1778, I, 124, von Marées, p. 40, Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 61.
A
a. Douce Ballads, I, fol. 72. b. Ritson, A Select Collection of English Songs, 1783, II, 190. c. Percy's Reliques, 1765, III, 121. d. Percy's Reliques, 1767, III, 119.
1 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.
2 'I see no harm by you, Margaret,
Nor you see none by me;
Before tomorrow eight a clock
A rich wedding shall you see.'
3 Fair Margaret sat in her bower-window,
A combing of her hair,
And there she spy'd Sweet William and his bride,
As they were riding near.
4 Down she layd her ivory comb,
And up she bound her hair;
She went her way forth of her bower,
But never more did come there.
5 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.
6 'God give you joy, you two true lovers,
In bride-bed fast asleep;
Loe I am going to my green grass grave,
And am in my winding-sheet.'
7 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.
8 'I dreamd a dream, my dear lady;
Such dreams are never good;
I dreamd my bower was full of red swine,
And my bride-bed full of blood.'
9 '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.'
10 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.
11 And when he came to Fair Margaret's bower,
He knocked at the ring;
So ready was her seven brethren
To let Sweet William in.
12 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.
13 'I'll do more for thee, Margaret,
Than any of thy kin;
For I will kiss thy pale wan lips,
Tho a smile I cannot win.'
14 With that bespeak her seven brethren,
Making most pitious moan:
'You may go kiss your jolly brown bride,
And let our sister alone.'
15 'If I do kiss my jolly brown bride,
I do but what is right;
For I made no vow to your sister dear,
By day or yet by night.
16 'Pray tell me then how much you'll deal
Of your white bread and your wine;
So much as is dealt at her funeral today
Tomorrow shall be dealt at mine.'
17 Fair Margaret dy'd today, today,
Sweet William he dy'd the morrow;
Fair Margaret dy'd for pure true love,
Sweet William he dy'd for sorrow.
18 Margaret was buried in the lower chancel,
Sweet William in the higher;
Out of her breast there sprung a rose,
And out of his a brier.
19 They grew as high as the church-top,
Till they could grow no higher,
And then they grew in a true lover's knot,
Which made all people admire.
20 There came the clerk of the parish,
As you this truth shall hear,
And by misfortune cut them down,
Or they had now been there.
B
Communicated to Percy by the Dean of Derry, as written down from memory by his mother, Mrs Bernard; February, 1776.
1 Sweet William would a wooing ride,
His steed was lovely brown;
A fairer creature than Lady Margaret
Sweet William could find none.
2 Sweet William came to Lady Margaret's bower,
And knocked at the ring,
And who so ready as Lady Margaret
To rise and to let him in.
3 Down then came her father dear,
Clothed all in blue:
'I pray, Sweet William, tell to me
What love's between my daughter and you?'
4 'I know none by her,' he said,
'And she knows none by me;
Before tomorrow at this time
Another bride you shall see.'
5 Lady Margaret at her bower-window,
Combing of her hair,
She saw Sweet William and his brown bride
Unto the church repair.
6 Down she cast her iv'ry comb,
And up she tossd her hair,
She went out from her bowr alive,
But never so more came there.
7 When day was gone, and night was come,
All people were asleep,
In glided Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet.
8 'How d'ye like your bed, Sweet William?
How d'ye like your sheet?
And how d'ye like that brown lady,
That lies in your arms asleep?'
9 'Well I like my bed, Lady Margaret,
And well I like my sheet;
But better I like that fair lady
That stands at my bed's feet.'
10 When night was gone, and day was come,
All people were awake,
The lady waket out of her sleep,
And thus to her lord she spake.
11 'I dreamd a dream, my wedded lord,
That seldom comes to good;
I dreamd that our bowr was lin'd with white swine,
And our brid-chamber full of blood.'
12 He called up his merry men all,
By one, by two, by three,
'We will go to Lady Margaret's bower,
With the leave of my wedded lady.'
13 When he came to Lady Margaret's bower,
He knocked at the ring,
And who were so ready as her brethren
To rise and let him in.
14 'Oh is she in the parlor,' he said,
'Or is she in the hall?
Or is she in the long chamber,
Amongst her merry maids all?'
15 'She's not in the parlor,' they said,
'Nor is she in the hall;
But she is in the long chamber,
Laid out against the wall.'
16 'Open the winding sheet,' he cry'd,
'That I may kiss the dead;
That I may kiss her pale and wan
Whose lips used to look so red.'
17 Lady Margaret [died] on the over night,
Sweet William died on the morrow;
Lady Margaret died for pure, pure love,
Sweet William died for sorrow.
18 On Margaret's grave there grew a rose,
On Sweet William's grew a briar;
They grew till they joind in a true lover's knot,
And then they died both together.
C
Communicated to Percy by Rev. P. Parsons, of Wye, April 7, 1770.
1 As Margaret stood at her window so clear,
A combing back her hair,
She saw Sweet William and his gay bride
Unto the church draw near.
2 Then down she threw her ivory comb,
She turned back her hair;
There was a fair maid at that window,
She's gone, she'll come no more there.
3 In the night, in the middle of the night,
When all men were asleep,
There walkd a ghost, Fair Margaret's ghost,
And stood at his bed's feet.
4 Sweet William he dremed a dream, and he said,
'I wish it prove for good;
My chamber was full of wild men's wine,
And my bride-bed stood in blood.'
5 Then he calld up his stable-groom,
To saddle his nag with speed:
'This night will I ride to Fair Margaret's bowr,
With the leave of my lady.
6 'Oh is Fair Margaret in the kitchen?
Or is she in the hall?
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
7 'No, she is not in the kitchen,' they cryed,
'Nor is she in the hall;
But she is in the long chamber,
Laid up against the wall.'
8 Go with your right side to Newcastle,
And come with your left side home,
There you will see those two lovers
Lie printed on one stone.
A. a.
Fair Margaret's Misfortune, or, Sweet William's Frightful Dreams on his Wedding Night. With the Sudden Death and Burial of those Noble Lovers.... Printed for S. Bates, at the Sun and Bible, in Gilt-Spur Street. Sarah Bates published about 1685. Chappell.
31. set.
41. lay.
54. Which causd him for to weep: caught probably from 74. See the quotation in Beaumont and Fletcher, and the other broadside copies.
132. my kin.
181. channel.
b. 11. out upon a day.
13. a long.
24. you shall.
34. a riding.
43. went away first from the.
44. more came.
54. And stood at William's bed-feet.
61. you true.
63. grass green.
64. I am.
94. thy bride-bed.
101. called his.
121. Then he.
123. she looks both.
141. the seven.
143, 151. brown dame.
162. Of white.
182. And William.
193. there they.
194. all the.
201. Then.
c. 23. at eight.
24. you shall.
33. She spyed.
34. a riding.
44. more came.
53. There came.
54. And stood at William's feet.
61. you lovers true.
64. I'm.
94. And they.
121. Then he.
141. the seven.
17. William dyed.
182. And William.
193. there they.
194. Made all the folke.
201. Then.
d.
Variations not found in c: "Communicated by a lady of the first distinction, as she had heard this song repeated in her infancy."
32. Combing her yellow hair.
33. There she spyed.
4. Then down she layd her ivory combe,
And braided her hair in twain;
She went alive out of her bower,
But neer came alive in't again.
6. 'Are you awake, Sweet William?' shee said,
'Or, Sweet William, are you asleep?
God give you joy of your gay bride-bed,
And me of my winding-sheet.'
113. And who so ready as her.
153. I neer made a vow to yonder poor corpse.
16. 'Deal on, deal on, my merry men all,
Deal on your cake and your wine;
For whatever is dealt at her funeral today
Shall be dealt tomorrow at mine.'
191. They grew till they grew unto the.
192. And then they.
193. they tyed.
194. the people.
C.
"The ballad of Sweet William," writes Parsons to Percy, "was the same as yours in the stanzas I have omitted.... The person from whom I took the thirty-fifth line [thirty-first, here 43] sang it thus:
My chamber was full of wild men's wine,
which is absolute nonsense, yet, if altered to 'wild men and swine,' is perfect sense."