Fair Margaret and Sweet William

Last updated

Fair Margaret & Sweet William from The Book of British ballads (1842) The book of British ballads (1842) (14596105779).jpg
Fair Margaret & Sweet William from The Book of British ballads (1842)

"Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (Child 74, Roud 253) is a traditional English ballad which tells of two lovers, of whom either one or both die from heartbreak. [1] Thomas Percy included it in his folio and said that it was quoted as early as 1611 in the Knight of the Burning Pestle . [2] In the United States, variations of Fair Margaret have been regarded as folk song as early as 1823. [3]

Contents

Synopsis

Fair Margaret espies the marriage procession of her lover Sweet William and another woman from her high chamber window. Depending on the variation, Margaret either commits suicide or dies of a broken heart. Her ghost then appears before Sweet William to ask him if he loves his new bride more than herself, and William replies he loves Margaret better. In the morning, William commences to search for Margaret. Upon arriving at her estate, Margaret's family shows William the corpse. In some versions, Sweet William dies of heartbreak as well, and they are buried beside each other.

Regional and printed variations of the ballad are known by many titles, including "Lady Margaret and Sweet William", "Pretty Polly and Sweet William", "Sweet William's Bride", "Lady Margaret's Ghost", [4] "Fair Margaret's Misfortune", and "William and Margaret", among others. [1] Numerous variations on this basic structure can be found in folk songs throughout the British Isles and United States. Renowned folklorist Francis James Child identified three distinct versions of the lyrics, [1] whilst Cecil Sharp collected numerous other variants, considering the ballad "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child 77) to be a slight variation on the basic plot.[ citation needed ]

Traditional versions of Fair Margaret sometimes end with a "rose-briar motif" of several stanzas describing floral growth on the lovers' neighboring graves. This motif is featured in other ballads, including "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet", "Lord Lovel", and "Barbara Allen". [4] [5] Fair Margaret also shares some mid-song stanzas with the murder ballad "Matty Groves" (Child ballad 81, Roud 52). [6] [7] [8]

Traditional recordings

In the United States, traditional Appalachian musicians such as Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1953) [9] and Jean Ritchie (1956) [10] recorded their family versions of the ballad, as did many Ozark performers such as Almeda Riddle of Arkansas (1972). [11] Helen Hartness Flanders collected several versions of the song throughout New England in the 1930s and 40s, which she heard performed to five different melodies. [5]

In England, several versions were collected across the country, but the ballad appears to have largely died out before recordings could be made. [12] Cecil Sharp collected some versions in Somerset around 1910, [13] [14] [15] and Frank Kidson collected a single version in Knaresborough, Yorkshire in 1906. [16] In Scotland, the only recording was a fragment sung by a Mabel Skelton of Arbroath to Hamish Henderson in 1985, [17] which is available on the Tobar an Dualchais website. [18] [ failed verification ] Likewise, only a single version has been recorded in Ireland, that of Martin Howley of County Clare, [19] which can be heard online courtesy of the County Clare Library. [20]

Lyrics

The following lyrics are those recorded by Thomas Percy in 1765, but they bear a striking resemblance to the Ritchie family version sung by Jean Ritchie in 1956, which presumably survived in the oral tradition for several centuries largely uncorrupted.

Sweet William arose one May morning,
And dressed himself in blue,
Come and tell to me all about that love
Betwixt Lady Marg'ret and me.

No harm, no harm of Lady Marg'ret,
Nor she knows none by me,
But before tomorrow morning at eight o'clock,
Lady Marg'ret and you.

O I know nothing of Lady Marg'ret's love
And she knows nothing of me
But in the morning at half-past eight
Lady Marg'ret my bride shall see.

Lady Marg'ret was sitting in her bower room
A-combing back her hair,
When who should she spy but Sweet William and his bride,
As to church they did draw nigh.

Then she threw down her ivory comb
In silk bound up her hair.
And out of the room that fair lady ran,
and was never any more seen there.

The day passed away and the night coming on
And most of the men asleep,
Sweet William espied Lady Marg'ret's ghost
A-standing at his bed feet.

O how do you like your bed? said she,
And how do you like your sheets
And how do you like that fair young bride
A-laying in your arms at sleep?

Full well do I like my bed,
Full well do I like my sheet;
But better do I like the fair young maid
A-standing at my bed feet.

The night passed away and the day coming on
And most of the men awake.
Sweet William said: I am troubled in my head
By the dreams that I dreamed last night.

Such dreams, such dreams as these,
I know they mean no good,
Last night I dreamed that my room was full of swine
And my bride was floating in blood.

He called his servants unto him,
By one, by two, by three,
And the last he called was his new made bride
That he Lady Marg'ret I might see.

O what will you do with Lady Marg'ret's love,
And what will you do with me?
He said: I'll go Lady Marg'ret see,
And then I'll return to thee.

He rode up to Lady Marg'ret's door,
And jingled at the ring;
And none was so ready as her seventh born brother
To arise and let him in.

O is she in her kitchen room?
Or is she in her hall?
Or is she in her bower room
Among her merry maids all?

She is neither in her kitchen room,
She is neither in her hall;
But she is in her cold coffin,
With her pale face toward the wall.

Pulld own, pull down those winding-sheets
A-made of satin so fine.
Ten thousand times thou hast kissed my lips
And now, love, I'll kiss thine.

Three times he kissed her snowy white breast,
Three times he kissed her chin;
but when he kissed her cold clay lipse
His heart it broke within.

Lady Marg'ret was buried in the old church yard
Sweet William was buried close beside her;
And out of her grew a red, red, rose,
And ou of him a brier.

They grew so tall and they grew so high,
They scarce could grow no higher;
And there they twined in a true lover's knot,
The red rose and the brier.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Allen (song)</span> Traditional ballad

"Barbara Allen" is a traditional folk song that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It tells of how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love, then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Randall</span> Traditional song

"Lord Randall", or "Lord Randal", is an Anglo-Scottish border ballad consisting of dialogue between a young Lord and his mother. Similar ballads can be found across Europe in many languages, including Danish, German, Magyar, Irish, Swedish, and Wendish. Italian variants are usually titled "L'avvelenato" or "Il testamento dell'avvelenato", the earliest known version being a 1629 setting by Camillo il Bianchino, in Verona. Under the title "Croodlin Doo" Robert Chambers published a version in his "Scottish Ballads" (1829) page 324

"The Daemon Lover" – also known as "James Harris", "A Warning for Married Women", "The Distressed Ship Carpenter", "James Herries", "The Carpenter’s Wife", "The Banks of Italy", or "The House-Carpenter" – is a popular ballad dating from the mid-seventeenth century, when the earliest known broadside version of the ballad was entered in the Stationers' Register on 21 February 1657.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matty Groves</span> Traditional English ballad

"Matty Groves", also known as "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" or "Little Musgrave", is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It is listed as Child ballad number 81 and number 52 in the Roud Folk Song Index. This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least 1613, and under the title Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard is one of the Child ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child.

"Mary Hamilton", or "The Fower Maries", is a common name for a well-known sixteenth-century ballad from Scotland based on an apparently fictional incident about a lady-in-waiting to a Queen of Scotland. It is Child Ballad 173 and Roud 79.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Raggle Taggle Gypsy</span> Traditional folk song

"The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" (Roud 1, Child 200), is a traditional folk song that originated as a Scottish border ballad, and has been popular throughout Britain, Ireland and North America. It concerns a rich lady who runs off to join the gypsies (or one gypsy). Common alternative names are "Gypsy Davy", "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies O", "The Gypsy Laddie(s)", "Black Jack David" (or "Davy") and "Seven Yellow Gypsies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Twa Sisters</span> Traditional song

"The Twa Sisters" is a traditional murder ballad, dating at least as far back as the mid 17th century. The song recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her jealous sister. At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel Sister", "The Wind and Rain", "Dreadful Wind and Rain", "Two Sisters", "The Bonny Swans" and the "Bonnie Bows of London". The ballad was collected by renowned folklorist Francis J. Child as Child Ballad 10 and is also listed in the Roud Folk Song Index ., Whilst the song is thought to originate somewhere around England or Scotland, extremely similar songs have been found throughout Europe, particularly in Scandinavia.

The Famous Flower of Serving-Men or The Lady turned Serving-Man is a traditional English language folk song and murder ballad. Child considered it as closely related to the ballad "The Lament of the Border Widow" or "The Border Widow's Lament".

"Unusually, it is possible to give a precise date and authorship to this ballad. It was written by the prolific balladeer, Laurence Price, and published in July 1656, under the title of The famous Flower of Serving-Men. Or, The Lady turn'd Serving-Man. It lasted in the mouths of ordinary people for three hundred years: what a tribute to the work of any writer, leave alone the obscure Laurence Price. Oral tradition, however, has made changes. The original has twenty-eight verses and a fairy-tale ending: “And then for fear of further strife, / he took Sweet William to be his Wife: / The like before was never seen, / A Serving-man to be a Queen”. - Roy Palmer, A Book of British Ballads

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young Beichan</span> Traditional song

"Young Beichan", also known as "Lord Bateman", "Lord Bakeman", "Lord Baker", "Young Bicham" and "Young Bekie", is a traditional folk ballad categorised as Child ballad 53 and Roud 40. The earliest versions date from the late 18th century, but it is probably older, with clear parallels in ballads and folktales across Europe. The song was popular as a broadside ballad in the nineteenth century, and survived well into the twentieth century in the oral tradition in rural areas of most English speaking parts of the world, particularly in England, Scotland and Appalachia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Thomas and Fair Annet</span> Traditional song

"Lord Thomas and Fair Annet", also known as "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor", is an English folk ballad.

The Farmer's Curst Wife is a traditional English language folk song listed as Child ballad number 278 and number 160 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

"The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter" is an English ballad, collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad 110 and listed as number 67 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

"The Cruel Brother" is a folk song.

"Edward" is a traditional murder ballad existing in several variants, categorised by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 13 and listed as number 200 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad, which is at least 250 years old, has been documented and recorded numerous times across the English speaking world into the twentieth century.

"Babylon" or "The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" is Child ballad 14, Roud 27.

Mr. Motherwell gives a version under the title of Babylon; or, the Bonny Banks o' Fordie; and Mr. Kinloch gives another under the title of The Duke of Perth's Three Daughters. Previous editors have attempted to find a local habitation for this tradition, and have associated it with the family of Drummond, of Perth. As a legend exactly similar is current in Denmark. this appears a bootless quest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Twa Brothers</span> Traditional song

"The Twa Brothers" is a traditional ballad existing in many variants.

"The Trees They Grow So High" is a British folk song. The song is known by many titles, including "The Trees They Do Grow High", "Daily Growing", "Long A-Growing" and "Lady Mary Ann".

The song "All Around my Hat" is of nineteenth-century English origin. In an early version, dating from the 1820s, a Cockney costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancée, who had been sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft and to mourn his loss of her by wearing green willow sprigs in his hatband for "a twelve-month and a day", the willow being a traditional symbol of mourning. The song was made famous by Steeleye Span in 1975, whose rendition may have been based on a more traditional version sung by John Langstaff.

"The Bramble Briar", "The Merchant's Daughter" or "In Bruton Town" is a traditional English folk murder ballad that tells the story of how two brothers murder a servant who is courting their sister. There are many versions of the song going by a number of different titles.

"The Farmer's Boy" is a traditional English folk song or ballad, listed as number 408 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It has been arranged as a military march.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Child, Francis James (1965). English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. 2. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 199–203.
  2. Lesley Nelson-Burns, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William: Version 2"
  3. Flanders, Helen Hartness; Brown, George (1968). Vermont Folk-Songs & Ballads. Hatboro, PA: Folklore Associates, Inc. pp. 240–1.
  4. 1 2 Tristram P. Coffin (1950). The British Traditional Ballad in North America. Philadelphia: The American Folklore Society. pp. 76–9, 87–90.
  5. 1 2 Flanders, Helen Hartness (1961). Ancient Ballads: Traditionally Sung in New England. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 122–147.
  6. "Matty Groves". vwml.org. English Folk Dance and Song Society / Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  7. Keefer, Jane (2011). "Fair Margaret and Sweet William". Ibiblio. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  8. Niles, John Jacob (1961). The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles. Bramhall House, New York. pp. 159–161, 194–197.
  9. "Little Marget (Roud Folksong Index S276436)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  10. "Lady Margaret (Roud Folksong Index S414990)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  11. "Lady Margaret (Roud Folksong Index S151445)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  12. "Search: rn253 england sound". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
  13. "Fair Margaret and Sweet William (Roud Folksong Index S144070)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  14. "Fair Margaret And Sweet William (Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) CJS2/10/3087)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  15. "Fair Margaret and Sweet William (Roud Folksong Index S144067)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  16. "Fair Margaret and Sweet William (Roud Folksong Index S144073)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  17. "The Nobleman's Lady (Roud Folksong Index S419120)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  18. "Tobar an Dualchais Kist O Riches". www.tobarandualchais.co.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  19. "Search: rn253 ireland sound". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
  20. "Clare County Library: Songs of Clare – The Old Armchair (Fair Margaret and Sweet William) sung by Martin Howley". www.clarelibrary.ie. Retrieved 24 November 2020.