Fair Margaret & King William- Drake (NY) 1944
[From: Lore Of An Adirondack County- Cutting 1944. Her notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
Tragic love is the theme for many of the ancient ballads. Although neither Margaret's ghost nor William's horrible dreams are mentioned in this song as Mrs. Angeline Drake recited it, Fair Margaret and King William (Child, 74) does have a typical conclusion.
FAIR MARGARET AND KING WILLIAM
Fair Margaret sat in her bower-window
Combing her yellow hair;
She saw King William and his little love -
To church they did appear.
She drew down her comb of ivory,
And flirted back her hair;
Threw herself out of the bower-window,
And life it left her there.
King William arose and slipped on his clothes,
Unto his new bride he did say,
"I will go and see how my love Margaret does;
I ask the lief of thee."
When he arrived at fair Margaret's bower,
He knocked so loud that it rang.
Who was so ready as fair Margaret's two brothers
To rise and let him in?
"Flow does my love Margaret do,
Or is she not within?"-
"She is dead," her two brothers replied,
"And she died for love of you."
He unfolded the sheet
From fair Margaret's pale brow.
"Fair Margaret used to have rosy, red cheeks,
But now they are faded and gone.
I can kiss fair Margaret's pale lips,
But I'm sure she can't kiss mine."
King William is laid in the churchyard;
Fair Margaret in the bower.
Out of her bosom there grew a red rose,
And out of King William's a briar.
They grew and they grew till they reached church-top;
They could nor grow no higher,
So they entangled in a true lovers' knot,
The same all true lovers admire.