Ancient Scottish ballads, recovered from tradition, and never before ...

SWEET WILLIAM AND MAY
MARGARET.
Though this is evidently a separate and dis-
tinct ballad from the preceding one of " Clerk
Saunders" yet the Editor of the Border Min-
strelsy has incorporated it with that ballad; not-
withstanding, it appears that he was informed
by the reciter, that it was usual to separate from
the rest, that part of the ballad which follows
the death of the lovers, as belonging to another
story. " For this, however," says he, " there
seems no necessity, as other authorities give the
whole as a complete tale."—vol. 2, p. 405.
The Editor has obtained two copies of this bal-
lad, as quite unconnected with "Clerk Saunders,"
and founded upon a different story. Another
version of it, in the present form, under the ti-
tle of " Sweet William's Ghost," will be found
in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, and a si-
milar one in the " Minstrelsy Ancient and Mo-
dern," titled William and Marjorie.