Sweet William & Lady Marg'ret- Dunn (KY) 1955 Wilgus
[From Wilgus, KFR, III, No. 3 (1957), p. 108; text, p. 89. Bronson No. 38.
R. Matteson 2014]
"Sweet William and Lady Marg'ret" - Sung by Mrs. Lucas Dunn, Portsmouth, Ky. Recorded by Dorothy Kneff at Jackson, November 1955. Tune noted by Howard Carpenter.
1 Sweet William arose one merry morn
And dressed hisself in blue.
"Come tell on, come tell on, to the long, long love
Lies between Lady Marg'ret and you."
2 "I know no harm of Lady Marg'ret,
And I hope she knows none of me.
But tomorrow morning at eight o'clock
Lady Marg'ret my bride shall see."
3 She was sitting in her bay-window
A-combing back her hair.
There she saw sweet William and his bride.
To church they were drawing near.
4 She tossed down her ivory comb,
In silk wrapped up her hair,
And she pitched out of her own bowing-door
And never was no more sn there.
5 Sweet William called the merry maids
By one, by two, by three;
The last of all he asked of them,
Lady Marg'ret he might go see.
6 "Now is she in the barber room,
Or is she in the hall,
Or is she in the kitchen room
Amongst the merry maids all?"
7 "She's neither in the barber room,
Nor is she in the hall;
But she is in her own bedroom
Laid out against the wall."
8. The day a-being gone and the night come on,
All people might have been asleep.
Lady Marg'ret appeared to sweet William
To stand at his bed-feet.
9 Saying, "How do you like your new-made bed,
And how do you like your sheet,
And how do you like that fair lady
That lies in your arms asleep?"
10 "Mighty well, mighty well I like my bed,
Much better I like my sheet,
But the best of all that fair lady
That stands at my bed feet."
11 The night a-being gone and the day come on,
All people might have been awake.
Sweet William said, "I'm troubled in my mind
From the dreams I dreamed last night.
12 "Such dreams, such dreams, such dreams as these,
I'm afraid they are not good.
I dreamed my room was full of wild swans
And my bride's bed covered in blood."
13 Lady Marg'ret died, it might have been today,
Sweet William died tomorrow.
Lady Marg'ret died for his pure love,
Sweet William died for sorrow.
14 She was laid in the old church yard,
He was laid in the tower,
And out of her grave sprang a red rosebud,
And out of his a brier.
15 They grew and grew till they grew so high
They could not grow any higher.
They wrapped and tied in a truelove's knot,
And the red rose ran around the brier.