Sweet William- Bennett (NC) 1918 Sharp P
[My title. First stanza from: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; 1932 edition, edited by Karpeles. Additional stanzas from Sharp's MS (Bronson TTCB 1962). All of Sharp's versions use the generic title, Fair Margaret and Sweet William. Fair Margaret is not the name that is sung, usually it's Lady (Liddy/Lydia) Margaret (Marget/Margret).
Notes from the 1932 edition follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
No. 20. Fair Margaret and Sweet William.
Texts without tunes: — Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 74. Ashton's Century of Ballads, p. 345. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 7. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 281; xxiii. 381; xxviii. 154; xxx. 303.
Texts with tunes : — Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. 117. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 289; iii. 64. Folk-Songs of England, i, No. 14. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques, pp. 117 and 118. Kidson's Garland of English Folk Songs, p. 30. ChappelPs Popular Music of the Olden Times, i. 382. C. Sharp's English Folk Songs (Selected Edition), ii. 13. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, pp. 65 and 522 (see also further references). Wyman and Brockway's Lonesome Tunes, p. 94. journal of American Folk-Lore, xxxi. 74; xxxv. 340. Musical Quarterly, January 1916. British Ballads from Maine, p. 134. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 221 and 570. McGilPs Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 71.
[Sweet William] - Sung by Mrs. Virginia Bennett, Burnsville, N. C., 1918; Sharp P. With music, from Bronson, "The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular ballads, 74, Fair Margaret and Sweet William, group cb, 47. Sharp MSS, 4596/3215. Also Sharp and Karpeles, 1932, I.
Sweet William rose one morning in May
And dressed himself in blue.
Pray tell us this long, long love, said they,
Between Lady Margaret* and you.
I know no harm of Lady Margaret,
And she knows none of me;
This day before twelve o'clock shall come
Lady Margaret my bride shall see.
Lady Margaret was standing in her own hall door,
Combing her long yellow hair;
Sweet William came along with his bride;
She was ne'er seen again there.
I dreamed a dream last night, mother,
I know it was no good.
I dreamed my hall was filled with white swine
And washed away in blood.
Is Lady Margaret at home,
Or is she at her bower,
Or is she in her own dining-room
Among her merry maids all?
Yes, Lady Margaret's at home,
But she's not in her bower;
Lady Margaret is dead and in her coffin
That stands against yonders cold wall.
Throw down, throw down those white winding sheets,
My soul doth her entwine.
O may I kiss Lady Margaret's sweet lips,
For I know she will never kiss mine.
*Margret