AIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM. This fine and pathetic old ballad we borrow from Dr. Percy, who gives it "from a modern printed copy, picked up on a stall;" and although its age is unquestionable, it does not appear that an earlier edition of it has yet been recovered. Its date is, perhaps, very remote; for although the language has been modernised, it retains many tokens of antiquity; and passages of it were quoted by Fletcher, in his play of "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." The full title of the ballad "picked up" by Dr. Percy, 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." In extracting it, we have omitted the two concluding stanzas; they are, evidently, additions of some "other hand," and by their meanness, essentially weaken the touching picture by which the story is terminated. It may be well, however, to introduce them here, where they will less prejudice the beautiful and pathetic composition. The lines are designed to "draw out" the fine and natural idea of the rose and brier growing out of the graves of the hapless lovers:

They grew as high as the church top,

Till they could grow no higher;

And there they grew in a true lover's knot,
Made all the folke admire.

Then came the clerk of the parish,

As you this truth shall hear,

And by misfortune cut them down,
Or they had now been there.

Many of the old ballad-makers have introduced a similar incident; - the rose and brier springing from the earth that covered the graves of youths and maidens, whose loves were "pleasant," and who "in death were not divided." Thus, in "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet:".

And ay they grew, and ay they threw,

As they wad faine be neare.

And in the Douglas Tragedy, after the "twa" had "met," and the "twa" had "plat; ".

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By and rade the black Douglas.

And wow but he was rough!
For he pulled up the bonny brier,
And flanged it in St. Maries lough.

To the passage quoted by Fletcher, we are indebted for the ballad of "William and Margaret," written by David Mallet; which Dr. Percy distinguishes as "one of the most beautiful ballads to be found in our own or any language." Mallet had never seen the poem which Dr. Percy recovered; he expresses his belief that it was "not any where to be met with;" and adds, that "the few lines, naked of

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ornament and simple as they are, struck his fancy;" and "bringing fresh into his mind an unhappy adventure, much talked of formerly, gave birth to the composition." The air to this ballad of Mallet's we introduce:

The ballad of "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," it is probable, originated also another poem of touching interest and high merit. It is entitled "Sweet William's Ghost," and was, we believe, first published by Allan Ramsay in the "Tea Table Miscellany." In this, the spirit of the dead lover appears to the maiden, demanding back his "faith and troth," and replying to the question of her whose heart was true:

'There's no room at my head, Margret,

There's no room at my feet;

There's no room at my side, Margret,
My coffin's made so meet.'*

In Jamieson's version of "Sweet William and Fair Annie," the concluding incidents of the ballad are also preserved.

We question, however, if either the poem written by Mallet, or that which Ramsay prints, is equal in pathos, character, and dramatic interest, to the ballad we copy from the "Reliques" of Dr. Percy. Every line is a picture; few compositions, even of old times, are more earnestly condensed; so thoroughly record a long history within a very limited space; or with so much eloquence bring before the mind the sad doom of the two lovers-the broken hearts of both.

It is this stanza that Fletcher quoted in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," where "Merrythought "enters repeating it; altered somewhat, however, from the version of Dr. Percy, thus:

When it was grown to dark midnight,

And all were fast asleep,

In came Margaret's grimly ghost,

And stood at William's feet!

Part of a verse is also quoted, which does not appear in the ballad, but which it is more than probable belonged to it :

'You are no love for me, Marg'ret,

I am no love for you.'

As the "stall copy," printed by Dr. Percy, was certainly subjected to some " ingenious alterations," the original was, perhaps, as a whole, infinitely superior even to the fine composition of which, only, we are at present possessed. It will be seen that the main incidents and the leading features are common to several ballads; and perhaps they were all derived from one great source.