Lady Alice is
Child ballad 85. It may be a fragment of a longer
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
that has not been preserved.
Synopsis
Lady Alice sees a corpse being carried by and is told it is her lover. She asks the bearers to leave the corpse, saying that she herself will be dead by sundown the next day. The two are buried apart, but roses from his grave grow to reach her breast, only to be severed by a passing priest.
Variants
''
Lord Lovel
Lord Lovel is number 75 of the ballads anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century, (Roud 49) and exists in several variants. This ballad is originally from England, originating in the Late Middle Ages, with the ...
'', Child ballad 75, uses equivalent themes.
[Francis James Child, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 2, p 279, Dover Publications, New York 1965]
Commentary
The entwined flowers appear also in ''
Barbara Allen'', ''
Lord Thomas and Fair Annet'', and ''
Fair Margaret and Sweet William
"Fair Margaret and Sweet William" ( Child 74, Roudbr>253 is a traditional English ballad which tells of two lovers, of whom either one or both die from heartbreak. Thomas Percy included it in his folio and said that it was quoted as early as 16 ...
''.
References
External links
''George Collins''American variant
American variant
Child Ballads
{{Folk-song-stub