William Morris Archive

Ballad: Malmston had a dream in the night

Draft in Morris's hand in Fitz. MS 1. Another draft in Murray's hand in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 79-80.

Pub. AWS, I, 517-18

Malmston had a dream in the night
That harm had come to his heart’s delight.

He called his pages fair and free:
"Get up and saddle the grey for me.

Get up in haste and saddle the grey;
I must see my love before the day."

As he rode through the greves [green?]
He saw two ladies well beseen.

The one of them was dressed in blue.
"My Lord Malmston, what aileth you?"

The other of them was dressed in blue.
"My Lord Malmston, what aileth you?"

The other of them was dressed in red.
"O, who is sick, and who is dead?"

"No one is sick; no one is dead,
But the Lord of Malmston’s love," she said.

But as he drew anight the town
He saw the bier a-coming down.

He let his horse loose hastily,
And by the dead corpse quick stood he.

He pulled off five rings of gold
And gave them to the clerks to hold.

"Dig a tomb right large and deep:
There must we walk while men do sleep."

Malmston waxed both pale and red,
With a deep wound he fell down dead.

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