I fee no harm by you, Margarèt, And you fee none by me; Fair Margaret fate in her bower-window, There the efpied fweet William and his bride, Down the laid her ivory comb, And up fhe bound her hair; When day was gone, and night was come, And all men faft afleep, Then came the fpirit of fair Margaret, And flood at Williams bed feet. God give you joy, you true lovèrs, Lo! I am going to my grafs-green grave, When day was come, and night was gone, And all men wak'd from fleep, Sweet William to his lady faid, I dream'd I dream'd a dream, my dear lady, Such dreams are never good; I dream'd my bower was full of red swine, Such dreams, fuch dreams, my honour'd fir, To dream thy bower was full of swine, He called his merry men all, By one, by two, and by three, Saying, I'll away to fair Margarets bower, By the leave of my lady. And when he came to fair Margarets bower, He knocked at the ring; So ready were her seven brethren, To let fweet William in. Then he turn'd up the covering-sheet, She has loft her cherry red. I'll do more for thee, Margarèt, Than any of thy kin; For I will kifs thy pale wan lips, With that bespoke the feven brethren, You may go kifs your jolly brown dame, If I do kiss my jolly brown dame, For I made no vow to your fifter dear, Pray tell me, then, how much you'll deal, So much as is dealt at her funeral to-day, Fair Margaret died to-day, to-day, Margaret was buried in the lower chancèl, Out of her breaft there sprang a rose, And out of his a briar. They grew as high as the church-top, Till they could grow no higher; And there they grew in a true lovers knot, VOL. II. Then Then came the clerk of the parìfh, As you this truth shall hear, Or they had now been there. BALLAD III. BATEMANS TRAGEDY.* OU dainty dames fo finely fram'd You Of beautys chiefeft mold, And you that trip it up and down, Like lambs in Cupids fold, For fuch as will prove falfe in love, Not far from Nottingham, of late, In Clifton, as I hear, There dwelt a fair and comely dame, For beauty without peer; Her cheeks were like the crimson-rose; The faireft face, the falfeft heart, And fooneft will deceive. *The full title of the old copy is, "A Godly Warning to all Maidens, by the Example of God's Judgment fhewed on Jerman's Wife of Clifton, in the County of Nottingham, who, lying in child-bed was born away, and never heard of after." A tragedy, intitled The Vow breaker, written by one William Sampfon, and printed in 1636, is founded on this ballad, and quotes two or three verfes from it, as a lamentable new ditty." This gallant dame she was belov'd Of many in that place; And many fought, in marriage-bed, At laft a proper handsome youth, Such love and liking there was found, He brake a piece of gold in twain, May never thing I take in hand This paffed on for two months space, And then this maid began To fettle love and liking too Upon another man: |