Lady Margaret & Sweet William- Johnson (IN) 1935 Brewster C
[From Brewster: Ballads and Songs of Indiana; 1940. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012; 2014]
11. FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM (Child, No. 74)
Five variants of "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" have been contributed to the Indiana collection. They resemble Child B in the conversation between William and the ghost of Margaret and in the rose-and-briar ending, but are like A in that the dream is William's instead of his bride's. The story, briefly, is this: Sweet William arises early one morning and dresses in blue. He says that there is no strong bond between Lady Margaret and himself, and adds that on the morrow she will see his bride. As he and his bride pass by, Lady Margaret is standing in her bower window (or door) combing her hair. In her emotion she drops the ivory comb, dashes out, and is never seen again. That night her ghost appears at Sweet William's bedside and asks how he likes his bride. His reply is that he likes best the lady who stands at the foot of the bed. He wakes, tells his bride of a fearful dream, and asks her permission to visit Lady Margaret. He is admitted by the latter's brothers, who inform him that she is dead and in her coffin. He kisses her farewell, and dies of sorrow. They are buried side by side, and plants entwine above their graves.
For American texts, see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, p. 134 (two variants and one air); Belden, No. 5; Brown, p. 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 17; Cox, p. 65 (seven variants); Davis, p. 221 and p. 570 (melodies); Hudson, Folksongs, p. 87; McGill, p. 69; Mackenzie, Ballads, p. 25; Mackenzie, p. 124; Scarborough, Song Catcher, p. 103; Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Wyman and Brockway, p. 94; Journal, XIX, 281; XXIII, 381; XXVII, 154; XXVIII, 200; XXX, 303; XXXI, 74; XXXV, 340; JFSS, II, 289; III, 64; Randolph, The Ozarks: An American Survival of Primitive Society, 182-83 (text and air); Neely, Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois, pp. 141-42.
C. "Lady Margaret and Sweet William." Contributed by Mrs. R. M. Johnson, of Franklin, Indiana. Johnson County. A rather poor text, having two stanzas of "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" in it, but given here because it is the only variant to mention the "wild swine" of Sweet William's dream. October 31, 1935.
1. Sweet William he rose one morning in May
And he dressed himself in blue, And he said,
"By eight o'clock tomorrow
Lady Margaret my bride shall see."
To Lady Margaret's avowed intention of attending the wedding, her father replies:
2. "We may have friends and we may have foes,
But all I ask at my blessings, O
Is for my daughter to stay at home."
Lady Margaret prepares to attend the wedding:
3. Lady Margaret dressed in her lily-white robes,
So spotless and so clean;
And every city that she passed through,
They took her to be some queen.
Following the wedding, Sweet William has a dream by which he is very much disturbed.
4...................
....................
"I dreamed that my hall was full of wild swine
And my bride dead beside me."
5. He called the maids down the stairs;
He called them by two and by three ;
And he asked of his bride the liberty
Lady Margaret he might go see.
6. He rode and he rode till he came to the gate,
And he dingled at the ring;
And who was so ready as her seventh brother
To arise and let him in?
7. "O where is Lady Margaret today,
In her kitchen or in her hall?
Or is she in her high chamber,
Among her merry maids all?"
8. "She's neither in her kitchen here
Nor is she in her hall,
But she lies asleep in her clay-cold coffin
With her pale face turned to the wall."
9. "Pull down, pull down those winding sheets
That are of linen so fine,
That I may kiss those clay-cold lips
That so often have kissed mine."
10. He kissed her on the (rosy?) cheek,
He kissed her on the chin;
And then he kissed those clay-cold lips
Which pierced his heart within.
11. Lady Margaret died for pure love;
Sweet William he died for sorrow.
Lady Margaret was buried on the east of the church,
And Sweet William on the west.[1]
12. Out of Lady Margaret's grave grew a rose,
Out of Sweet William's a briar.
They grew and they grew to the church-steeple top
Till they could not grow any higher;
There they linked and they clinked in a truelove knot,
The rose tree and the briar.
Footnote:
1. The last two lines of this stanza have evidently heen supplied by the singer. The rhyme would seem to require morrow in fourth line, a change which would necessitate the word today in the third.