Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797) - William and Margaret from Percy's ‘Reliques of Ancient English Poetry', ca 1785

 

Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797) - William and Margaret from Percy's ‘Reliques of Ancient English Poetry', ca 1785
oil on cavas, 121.9 x 139.7 cm
Yale Center for British Art

This painting represents the devastation wrought by the fickleness of youthful love. William, the man in bed, had given his lover Margaret cause to think they would marry, but the very next day she saw him marry another. She promptly died of grief. On William’s wedding night, Margaret appeared to him in a dream at the foot of his bed. She was dressed in her winding sheet (or burial cloth) to announce her death. William hastened to confirm his dream the next morning and, finding Margaret dead, died the same day stricken with remorse. The tragic story comes from an ancient poem published in Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1766). As the poem says: “Fair Margaret dyed for pure true love, / Sweet William dyed for sorrow.”