Lady Margaret & Sweet William- Henson (KY) 1937
[This version is taken from Daw Henson on Kentucky Mountain Music: Click To Listen: Daw Henson- "Lady Margaret and Sweet William." Daw Henson came from the crossroads of Billy's Branch in Clay County, KY in the middle of what is now the Daniel Boone National Forest. It does include the dream, an event sometimes present in US versions.
"I had a dream the other night -
I feared there was no good -
I dreamed that my hall was full of wild swine
And my true love was floating in blood."
Henson's melody similar to Willie Moore (Burnett). Lady Margaret is pronounced "Liddy Marget". The name appears as "Lyddy Marget" in a similar version collected in Kentucky by McGill and published in 1917.
R. Matteson 2011]
Lady Margaret & Sweet William- Sung by Dawson Henson (Little Botto; Billy's Branch, KY) 1938 recorded by Alan Lomax October 11, 1937 Click To Listen: Daw Henson- "Lady Margaret and Sweet William."
[guitar]
One morning, one morning, one morning in May,
There rose a grievous alarm [1]
Sweet William, he said, he was pestered in his head
By the dream he had dreamt last night.
He dreamed---,
That his bed was swilted [2] by drops
And his bride was all swimming in blood.
He called to his horses all,
And he counted one, two, three,
At the last of them all he called for his bride,
Liddy Marget may I go and see.
He rode till he came to Liddy Marget's gate,
And he tingled on the ring,
No one was so ready as Liddy Marget's brother,
To rise and bid him come in.
"Is she in the kitchen," said he,
"Or is she in the hall?
Or is she in that far back room,
Among the ladies all?"
"She's neither in the kitchen," said he,
"Nor she's neither in the hall.
But there she lies in her cold, cold coffin
A- sitting up agin the wall."
"Unfold, unfold that linen white sheet
That's made of linen (lint?) so fine
And let me kiss them clay cold lips
For often they kissed mine."
He first kissed her rosy red cheeks,
And then he kissed her chin;
And then he kissed them clay-cold lips
Which 'ffected his heart within.
They buried Liddy Marget in a church graveyard
Sweet William by her side.
And from her breast sprung a merry red rose,
And from his knees a green briar.
They growed, they growed to a top of a tower,
And they could not grow any higher.
They linked and they locked in a true-loves knot,
A red rose and a green briar
Foonotes:
1. unclear, sings "gravous"
2. Swilled? Pelted? Kittredge points out in 1910 that Child's A has "red swine;" B, "white swine;" C, "wild men's wine." A better version:
"I had a dream the other night -
I feared there was no good -
I dreamed that my hall was full of wild swine
And my true love was floating in blood."