IV.-FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM. THIS seems to be the old song quoted in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, Acts ii. and iii., although the six lines there preserved are somewhat different from those in the ballad as it stands at present. The reader will not wonder at this, when he is informed that this is only given from a modern printed copy picked up on a stall. Its full title is, Fair Margaret's Misfortunes; or Sweet William's frightful dreams on his wedding night, with the sudden death and burial of those noble lovers. The lines preserved in the play are this distich: and the following stanza: "You are no love for me, Margaret, I am no love for you;" "When it was grown to dark midnight, In came Margaret's grimly ghost These lines have acquired an importance by giving birth to one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language. See the song entitled Margaret's Ghost at the end of this volume. As it fell out on a long summer's day, Two lovers they sat on a hill; He called up his merry men all, By one, by two, and by three ; They sat together that long summer's day, Saying, I'll away to fair Marg'ret's bower, They grew till they grew unto the church top, Then came the clerk of the parish, V.-BARBARA ALLEN'S CRUELTY. GIVEN, with some corrections, from an old black-letter copy, entitled Barbara Allen's Cruelty, or the Young Man's Tragedy. FROM Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, but claimed by, and often ascribed to, Mallet. Mr. W. Chappell, in the Antiquary, vol. i., shows reasons for disputing this claim. THERE came a ghost to Margaret's door, | Thy faith and troth thou'se nevir get, No more the ghost to Margret said, But, with a grievous grone, Evanish'd in a cloud of mist, And left her all alone. O stay, my only true love, stay, The constant Margret cried : Wan grew her cheeks, she clos'd her een, Stretch'd her saft limbs, and died. VII. SIR JOHN GREHME AND BARBARA ALLAN. A SCOTTISH BALLAD. PRINTED, with a few conjectural emendations, from a written copy. |