And ay they grew, and ay they drew, Untill they twa did meet; And every ane that past them by, Said, "Thae's been lovers sweet!" 19. That is, my slumbers are short, broken, and interrupted. J. 60. _Duplin town._ Duplin is the seat of the earl of Kinnoul, from which he derives his title of viscount. It is in the neighborhood of Perth. It is observable, that ballads are very frequently adapted to the meridian of the place where they are found. J. FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM. From Percy's _Reliques_, iii. 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 the play are this distich: "You are no love for me, Margaret, I am no love for you." Act iii. 5. 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 the first distinction, as she had heard this song repeated in her infancy." The variations in Herd's copy, (i. 145,) and in Ritson's (_Ancient Songs_, ii. 92,) are unimportant. In the main the same is the widely known ballad, _Der Ritter und das Mägdlein_, Erk, p. 81, Hoffmann's _Schlesische Volkslieder_, p. 9; _Herr Malmstens Dröm, Svenska Folkvisor_, iii. 104; Arwidsson, ii. 21; _Volkslieder der Wenden_, by Haupt and Schmaler, i. 159-162 (Hoffmann); in Dutch, with a different close, Hoffmann's _Niederländische Volkslieder_, p. 61: also _Lord Lovel_, _post_, p. 162. As it fell out on a long summer's day, Two lovers they sat on a hill; They sat together that long summer's day, And could not talk their fill. "I see no harm by you, Margaret, 5 And you see none by mee; Before to-morrow at eight o' the clock A rich wedding you shall see." Fair Margaret sat in her bower-window, Combing her yellow hair; 10 There she spyed sweet William and his bride, As they were a riding near. Then down she layd her ivory combe, And braided her hair in twain: She went alive out of her bower, 15 But ne'er came alive in't again.