Communicated to Percy by the Dean of Derry, as written
down from memory by his mother, Mrs. Bernard; February, 1776.
| 1 |
Sweet William would a wooing ride,
His steed was lovely brown;
A fairer creature than Lady Margaret
Sweet William could find none. |
| 2 |
Sweet William came to Lady Margaret's bower,
And knocked at the ring,
And who so ready as Lady Margaret
To rise and to let him in. |
| 3 |
Down then came her father dear,
Clothed all in blue:
'I pray, Sweet William, tell to me
What love's between my daughter and you?' |
| 4 |
'I know none by her,' he said,
'And she knows none by me;
Before tomorrow at this time
Another bride you shall see.' |
| 5 |
Lady Margaret at her bower-window,
Combing of her hair,
She saw Sweet William and his brown bride
Unto the church repair. |
| 6 |
Down she cast her iv'ry comb,
And up she tossd her hair,
She went out from her bowr alive,
But never so more came there. |
| 7 |
When day was gone, and night was come,
All people were asleep,
In glided Margaret's grimly ghost,
And stood at William's feet. |
| 8 |
'How d'ye like your bed, Sweet William?
How d'ye like your sheet?
And how d'ye like that brown lady,
That lies in your arms asleep?' |
| 9 |
'Well I like my bed, Lady Margaret,
And well I like my sheet;
But better I like that fair lady
That stands at my bed's feet.' |
| 10 |
When night was gone, and day was come,
All people were awake,
The lady waket out of her sleep,
And thus to her lord she spake. |
| 11 |
'I dreamd a dream, my wedded lord,
That seldom comes to good;
I dreamd that our bowr was lin'd with white swine,
And our brid-chamber of blood.' |
| 12 |
He called up his merry men all,
By one, by two, by three,
'We will go to Lady Margaret's bower,
With the leave of my wedded lady.' |
| 13 |
When he came to Lady Margaret's bower,
He knocked at the ring,
And who were so ready as her brethren
To rise and let him in. |
| 14 |
'Oh is she in the parlor,' he said,
'Or is she in the hall?
Or is she in the long chamber,
Amongst her merry maids all?' |
| 15 |
'She's not in the parlor,' they said,
'Nor is she in the hall;
But she is in the long chamber,
Laid out against the wall.' |
| 16 |
'Open the winding sheet,' he cry'd,
'That I may kiss the dead;
That I may kiss her pale and wan
Whose lips used to look so red.' |
| 17 |
Lady Margaret [died] on the over night,
Sweet William died on the morrow;
Lady Margaret die for pure, pure love,
Sweet William died for sorrow. |
| 18 |
On Margaret's grave there grew a rose,
On Sweet William's grew a briar;
They grew till they joind in a true lover's knot,
And then they died both together. |
