Lady Margaret / Fair Margaret and Sweet William (Child No. 74) - Sung by Mrs. Attie Dillingham of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Recorded by Mary Celestia Parler on June 6, 1959.
Note by Kevin W.:
I just had to add this version on merit of its unusual minor key tune.
It was covered by Fran Majors who sang it for Max Hunter: [ Ссылка ]
Another thing that stands out is that Sir William's other bride is referred to as a "pretty brown bride". An influence of "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (Child No. 73), apparently. The stories of the two ballads share many similarities and may have sprung from the same hypothetical ur-ballad.
Song transcription:
Lady Margaret was in her chamber room,
A-combing out her long yellow hair,
When who should she spy but Sir William and his bride
A-going to the church together.
She laid aside her ivory comb,
And put back her long yellow hair,
And then she left her chamber room
To never return any more.
It was about the middle of the night,
When the people they were all asleep,
When she appeared in Sir William's room
And said, standing at his feet:
God bless you, William, and your pretty brown bride,
How sweetly you do sleep;
While I am going to my grassy green grave,
All wrapped in a winding sheet.
Next morning Sir William arose,
A-telling of his dreams;
He dreamed that his room was full of white swans[*]
And his wife in a gore of blood.
He went to Marg'ret's chamber room,
And he knocked and he knocked at the door,
And who was so willing to let him in
But Lady Marg'ret's brother.
Is Margret in her chamber room,
Or is she in her hall,
Or is she in her long, long room,
Amongst the gay ladies all?
She is not in her chamber room,
Neither is she in her hall,
But she is in her long, long room,
With her pale face against the wall.
Take down, take down those milk-white sheets,
That her pale face I may see,
And I'll make a vow, and I'll vow to the Lord
That I'll never kiss another after she.
He kissed her on her lily-white hands,
He kissed her on her chin,
He kissed her on her clay-cold lips
Till the breath went out of him.
So Margret was buried in the old churchyard,
And Sir William by her side,
And out of her breast grew a deep-red rose,
And out of his a briar.
They grew and they grew to the castle top
Till they could get no higher,
And they linked and they twined in a true-lover's knot,
And the rose grew around the briar.
"This song, Lady Margaret, was sung by my aunt, Elizabeth Hatfield, in the hills of Grayson County, Kentucky." Mrs. Dillingham thinks of the song as her aunt sang it while spinning.
* wild swines, compare Child 74 Version A: [ Ссылка ]
