And when he came to fair Margaret's bower, So ready were her seven brethren, Then he turn'd up the covering-sheet, I'll do more for thee, Margarèt, 'Than any of thy kin; For I will kiss thy pale wan lips, With that bespoke the seven brethren, Making most piteous moan, 'You may go kiss your jolly brown dame, And let our sister alone.' If I do kiss my jolly brown dame, 'I do but what is right; For I made no vow to your sister dear, 'Pray tell me, then, how much you'll deal 'Of white bread and your wine : 'So much as is dealt at her funeral to-day, 'To-morrow shall be dealt at mine.' Fair Margaret died to-day, to-day, Margaret was buried in the lower chancèl, Out of her breast there sprang a rose, And out of his a brier. They grew as high as the church-top, And there they grew in a true lover's knot, Then came the clerk of the parish, BALLAD III. BATEMAN'S TRAGEDY.* You dainty dames so finely fram'd A lesson in my mind, For such as will prove false in love, And bear a faithless mind. The full title of the old copy is, 'A Godly Warning to all เ Maidens, by the Example of God's Judgment shewed 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, en. 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; Yet, as you may perceive, The fairest face, the falsest heart, And soonest will deceive. This gallant dame she was belov'd And many sought, in marriage-bed, At last a proper handsome youth, Such love and liking there was found, Had stol'n away the maiden's heart, He brake a piece of gold in twain, titled 'The Vow-breaker,' written by one William Sampson, and printed in 1639, is founded on this ballad; and quotes two or three verses from it, as a lamentable new ditty.' The other, as a pledge, (quoth he,) 'Dear heart, myself will have.' 'If I do break my vow, (quoth she,) 'While I remain alive, This passed on for two months space, To settle love and liking too One Jerman, who a widower was, Her vows and promise, lately made She utterly defied. 'Well then, (quoth he,) if it be so, 'That you will me forsake, And, like a false and forsworn wretch, 'Another husband take : 'Thou shalt not live one quiet hour, For surely I will have 'Thee, either now alive, or dead, When I am laid in grave: 'Thy faithless mind thou shalt repent; 'Therefore be well assur'd, 'When, for thy sake, thou hear'st report 'What torments I endur'd.' But mark how Bateman died for love, And finish'd up his life, That very day she married was, Whereat such sorrow pierc'd her heart, Young Bateman's pale and ghastly ghost When she in bed at night did lie, In hope thereby to sleep and rest Great cries, and grievous groans she heard, A voice that sometimes said, "O thou art she that I must have, 'And will not be denied.' But she, being big with child, No vengeance could it take : The babe unborn did safely keep, As God appointed so, |