King William & Lady Margaret- Burleigh (MA) c.1820
[My title. From English and Scottish Popular Ballads; Child, Vol. 10, 1889.
R. Matteson Jr.]
King William & Lady Margaret- Communicated by Miss Mary E. Burleigh, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and derived, through a relative, from her great-grandmother, who had heard the ballad sung at gatherings of young people in Webster, Massachusetts, not long after 1820.
1 There was such a man as King William, there was,
And he courted a lady fair,
He courted such a lady as Lady Margaret,
For a whole long twelve-month year.
2 Said he, 'I'm not the man for you,
Nor you the maid for me,
But before many, many long months
My wedding you shall see.'
3 Said she, 'If I'm not the maid for you,
Nor you the man for me,
Before many, many long days
My funeral you shall see.'
4 Lady Margaret sat in a green shady bower,
A combing her yellow, yellow hair,
When who should she see but King William and his bride,
And to church they did repair.
5 She threw all down her ivory comb,
Threw back her yellow hair,
And to the long chamber she did go,
And for dying she did prepare.
6 King William had a dream that night,
Such dreams as scarce prove true:
He dreamed that Lady Margaret was dead,
And her ghost appeared to view.
7 'How do you like your bed?' said she,
'And how do you like your sheets?
And how do you like the fair lady
That's in your arms and sleeps?'
8 'Well do I like my bed,' said he,
'And well do I like my sheets,
But better do I like the fair lady
That's in my arms and sleeps.'
9 King William rose early the next morn,
Before the break of day,
Saying, ' Lady Margaret I will go see,
Without any more delay.'
10 He rode till he came to Lady Margaret's hall,
And rapped long and loud on the ring,
But there was no one there but Lady Margaret's brother
To let King William in.
11 'Where, O where is Lady Margaret?
Pray tell me how does she do.'
'Lady Margaret is dead in the long chamber,
She died for the love of you.'
12 'Fold back, fold back that winding sheet,
That I may look on the dead,
That I may kiss those clay-cold lips
That once were the cherry-red.'
13 Lady Margaret died in the middle of the night,
King William died on the morrow,
Lady Margaret died of pure true love,
King William died of sorrow.
14 Lady Margaret was buried in King William's church-yard,
All by his own desire,
And out of her grave grew a double red rose
And out of hisn a briar.
15 They grew so high, they grew so tall,
That they could grow no higher;
They tied themselves in a true-lover's knot,
And both fell down together.
16 Now all ye young that pass this way,
And see these two lovers asleep,
'T is enough to break the hardest heart,
And bring them here to weep.