Clerk Saunders

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clerk Saunders is Child ballad 69. It exists in several variants.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Clerk Saunders and may Margaret ("may" meaning maiden and being a title rather than a name) are walking in the garden. He persuades her to go to bed with him before their marriage, saying that he will let himself in and she can cover her eyes, so that she can swear that she did not let him in or see him. Her seven brothers catch them and argue over what to do, but the youngest kills him without a word, and Margaret finds him dead in the morning. They bury him.

His ghost appears at her window and tells her she must release him from his promise. She demands a kiss, but he tells her it would kill her. She frees him.