William and Margaret (I)

DESCRIPTION: Margaret's ghost visits William at midnight. "How could you promise love to me And not that promise keep?" She leaves at daybreak: "Come see, false man, how low she lies, Who died for love of you" He falls on her grave "and word spoke never more"
AUTHOR: unknown (see notes for discussion of David Mallet's claim)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1715 (probably 1711, according to Chappell; but see Simpson's comment below); 1724 (Hill's modification); 1724 (Ramsay's publication of Mallet's early text)
KEYWORDS: love seduction virginity accusation questions beauty death ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 337, "William and Margaret" (1 text, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #65, B=#66}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 78-79, "William and Margaret" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Charles Neely, "Four British Ballads in Southern Illinois," Vol. LII, No. 203 (Jan-Mar 1939), #4 pp. 80-81, "William and Margaret" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1880 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III Part 3 [Part 9], pp. 667-676, "William and Margaret. An old Ballad" (1 text: "1711 broadside" text, pp. 671-673, 1 tune)
David Mallet, Frederick Dinsdale, editor, Ballads and Songs (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 79-83, "William and Margaret" (1 text: Mallet's final text, pp. 79-83).
Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (London, 1765 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, Ancient Songs and Ballads, Series 3 Book 3 # 15, pp. 310-313, "Margaret's Ghost" (1 text)
Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I pp. 218-220, "William and Margaret, an Old Ballad" (1 text: Mallet's early text; apparently the same as in 1725 first edition)
The Hive: A Collection of the Most Celebrated Songs (London, 1725 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III pp. 148-150, "William and Margaret" (1 text)
Roud #253
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(58), "A lamentable ballad, or the tragical end of William and Margaret" ("When all was wrap'd in dark midnight"), D. Wrighton (Birmingham), 1812-1830; also Harding B 5(57), "William and Margaret"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74]" (one verse and theme: jilted lover's ghost visits ex-lover)
cf. "Once They Said My Lips Were Red" (one verse)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lady Marrit
NOTES [1717 words]: Percy calls "William and Margaret" or "Margaret's Ghost", "one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language" and "the elegant production of David Mallet" (Percy, pp. 121, 310). Wheatley quotes Ritson: "It may be questioned whether any English writer has produced so fine a ballad as 'William and Margaret.'" (Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry, p. 309). So, at least in the 18th Century, "William and Margaret" was taken seriously.
There are at least six issues to be discussed in connection with "William and Margaret":
1) How well can we establish authorship for the 18th Century versions?
Dinsdale makes the case for authorship by David Mallet; Chappell makes the case that Mallet made minor changes to an existing ballad.
Mallet's editor: "David Mallet was born about the beginning of the present century, but neither the place of his nativity, nor the situation of his parents can be precisely ascertained" (Mallet, p. vi). If Chappell's dating of a broadside version to 1711 is correct -- though that is in question -- then Mallet's priority as author would immediately be in question. Simpson notes that a British Museum copy of Mallet's version "states that Mallet wrote his ballad 'while he was Janitor of the High School of Edinb.'" (Simpson, p. 786, fn 4). In a letter to his first publisher, Aaron Hill, at the time ignorant of the author's identity, Mallet claimed that "['William and Margaret'] was founded on the real History of an unhappy Woman...," and he tells the tale which ends, "And, in a few Days after, I saw her and her Child laid in one Grave together"; then, inspired some time after this, by Merry-Thought's 'When it was grown to dark midnight ...' in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", he wrote the poem (KBP II.1, p. 191; Mallet/Dinsdale, pp. 85-86 [II.viii,1 in Wine, p. 333 - RBW]).
By 1723 Allan Ramsay had seen and commented on Mallet's poem, and he published it as Mallet wrote it in the 1724 edition of The Tea-Table Miscellany (Brewster, p. 173; Chappell, p. 668; from evidence in Chappell, the version printed by Ramsay in 1724 seems the same as Ramsay, pp. 218-220). Before it was printed by Ramsay a copy had been found by Aaron Hill who did not know the author, assumed the work to be an old ballad, and, as Brewster says, "he took the liberty of altering 'an obsolete low phrase here and there,'" and printed it in his The Plain Dealer of July 24, 1724 (Brewster, pp. 174-176; Mallet/Dinsdale, pp 72-73). You can see Hill's modified version in Hive, pp. 148-150. None of Hill's major changes appear in subsequent texts; Hill, for example, ends the poem as William "dy'd and lov'd, too late." Mallet continued to make minor changes and either the Percy version or Mallet/Dinsdale version -- which have minor differences -- is probably the final version (Percy, pp. 310-313; Mallet/Dinsdale, pp. 79-83; the differences I see are in lines 27 [Percy "Now yawning graves" vs Mallet/Dinsdale "When yawning graves"], 35 ["mine eyes" vs "my eyes"], 46 ["these lips" vs "those lips"], 54 ["last adieu" vs "late adieu"] and 59 ["William shook" vs "William quak'd"]).
Chappell's Appendix to Vol. III of The Roxburghe Ballads is a brief announcement that the remaining volumes will be undertaken by Ebsworth and a long analysis of "William and Margaret": "not only is it one of the best of our old ballads, but also there is literary interest attached to it, the authorship having been claimed by David Mallet in 1723, and this edition refuting that claim" (Chappell, p. 667). Chappell begins with a broadside that he dates to about 1711 and certainly no later than 1714: the broadside has a stamp required by an Act of Parliament passed in 1711 requiring stamps; however, "the Act was not intended to apply to ballads, and they were speedily exempted from its operation." He has a 1714 example of a stamp-free ballad (Chappell, p. 668). Considering Mallet's story and age, it would be unlikely that a 1711-1714 broadside could have been copied from Mallet's text. Simpson throws a problem at Chappell's analysis: "It is true that stamps are seldom found on ballads, but in the very portfolio containing the 'William and Margaret' under discussion ... is a broadside dated 1735 on which is an identical tax stamp" (Simpson, p. 786, fn 3). Nevertheless, Simpson says, "Scholars are now generally agreed in giving precedence to the black-letter text and crediting Mallet only with the merest touching up" (Simpson, p. 786).
2) Should "William and Margaret" be lumped with Child 74?
Roud assigns #253 to both. Child, in his head notes to Child 74, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," says "'William and Margaret' is simply 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William' rewritten in what used to be called an elegant style." Nevertheless, of the 68 lines in each of the 18th and 19th Century texts of "William and Margaret," the only lines shared with any of the Child 74 texts are four of the six "Knight of the Burning Pestle" lines. In Child 74 Margaret's ghost either wishes "William and his bride joy," or asks William whether he prefers herself to his bride. After the "William and Margaret" ghost is described in 16 lines, she spends 36 lines blaming William for her death. In Child 74 William sees the dead Margaret in her bower and dies; in "William and Margaret" he visits and falls on her grave, "and words spoke never more." I would not consider these the same ballad.
3) Is the "Knight of the Burning Pestle" fragment a reference to "William and Margaret" or Child 74?
Child, Percy (p. 121) and Chappell (p. 675) point out that there are six lines of "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" close to lines in Child 74. Specifically, "When it was grown to dark midnight, And all were fast asleep, In came Margaret's grimly Ghost, And stood at William's feet" (KBP Act II Sc. 1 p. 191; cf., Child 74A ll. 17-21, Child 74B ll. 25-29, Child 74C ll. 9-12 [II.vii.3-4 in Wine, p. 333 - RBW]) and "You are no love for me Marget, I am no love for you" (KBP Act III Sc. 1 p. 208; cf. Child 74A ll. 5-6, Child 74B ll. 11-14 [III.v.96-97 in Wine, p. 354 - RBW]). Chappell would have Child 74A/Percy p. 122 follow KBP, and considers its "I see no harm by you, Margaret, Nor you see none by me" lines a "foolish alteration [of the KBP lines that] deprives the ballad of the very subject of its story" (Chappell, p. 675)[compare, for example, Child 74B ll. 11-16]. In any case, there is nothing like the Act III Sc. 1 lines in any "William and Margaret" text.
4) What is the likely source for each of the two 19th Century Bodleian broadside versions recovered so far?
All of the Mallet texts, as well as the Chappell text, are seventeen verses of four lines each. Excluding Hill's changes, the differences, line by line, are minor. However, verses nine and ten of Chappell are verses ten and nine of all the Mallet texts. Both Bodleian broadsides are seventeen verses of four lines each, but the sequence of verses follows Chappell. The broadsides are not identical but their differences are like the differences listed between Percy and Mallet/Dinsdale.
5) What is the likely source for each the two 20th Century versions recovered so far from oral sources (Greig/Duncan2 and Neely)?
Greig/Duncan2 has no comment about the relationship of the text to versions of "William and Margaret." The Greig/Duncan2 text has twelve verses and one of the missing verses is one of the sequence test verses. In other words, based on sequence alone, Greig/Duncan2 could follow either Chappell or Mallet. Most lines are very close to both Chappell and Mallet and a few do not match either. However, Greig/Duncan2's
-- l. 1, "When a' was wrapt in dark midnight," follows Chappell and the broadsides, rather than Mallet "Twas at the fearful midnight hour" or "'Twas at the silent solemn hour"
-- l. 2, "And a' was fast asleep," follows Chappell and the broadsides (Chappell versions) and Ramsay (a Mallet version) but not Percy and Mallet/Dinsdale, "When night and morning meet."
-- l. 43, "And stretchexd him on the green grass turf" is close to line 63 of Chappell and the broadsides and Ramsay but not Percy and Mallet/Dinsdale "And strech'd him on the grass-green turf."
-- l. 47, "Then laid his cheek to the cold earth," agrees with l. 67 of Chappell and the broadsides, but not with Ramsay, Percy or Mallet/Dinsdale, "Then laid his cheek to her cold grave."
Greig/Duncan2 seems not to be a Mallet version.
Neely says his text, "must have been learned originally from Percy's Reliques or from some volume which reprinted Mallet's ballad. Although less than half of 'Margaret's Ghost' [an alternate title for 'William and Margaret'] remains, one is forced to the conclusion that the ballad was transmitted by people with remarkable memories, or that it has not long been a part of oral tradition" (Neely, pp. 80-81). Of Neely's eight verses, four and five are the sequence test verses and follow the Mallet structure. Of Neely's 32 lines, few are clearly Ramsay, Percy, or Mallet/Dinsdale lines. Specifically,
-- l. 2, "When all were fast asleep" is Ramsay's line, not Percy's and Mallet/Dinsdale's "When night and morning meet."
-- l. 23, "Pale William quaked in every limb," agrees with l. 59 of Ramsay and Mallet/Dinsdale, but not Percy "Pale William shook in ev'ry limb."
This seems to me to be too close to call, but the Ramsay text is closest to Neely's text.
6) What is the connection with the Morris "Once They Said My Lips Were Red"?
--A Morris dance begins, "Once they said my lips were red, Now they're scarlet pale, When I, like a silly girl, Believed his flattering tale." Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames p. 302 notes the similarity to Mallet's "William and Margaret"; of the texts listed above the closest is Bodleian Harding B 5(58) ll. 41-44, "How could you say my lips were red And make their scarlet dale [sic]? And why did I, young witless maid, Believe thy flattering tale?" If that were all we had of "Once They Said My Lips Were Red" I would have thought it was a "William and Margaret" fragment. However, "Once They Said My Lips Were Red" continues, "But he vow'd he'd never deceive me, And so fondly I believ'd he, While the stars and the moon So sweetly shown Over the willow tree." Williams speculates that the Morris lines may predate Mallet. - BS
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