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FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM. From Percy's fieliques, ill- 164.
" 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 tfye play are this distich:
" You are no love for me, Margaret, I am no love for you." Act iii. 6.
And the following stanza:
" When it was grown to dark midnight,
And all were fast asleep, In came Margarets grimly ghost,
And stood at Williams feet. Act ii. 8.
" These lines have acquired an importance by giving birth to one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any other language: [Mallet's Margaret's Ghost.}
" Since the first edition, some improvements have been inserted, which were communicated by a lady of |
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