Gest HP, that is very close.

I posted this on the other rose/briar thread, having forgotten that I'd started this one years ago...

In "O Mother go and make my bed" they aren't named, the true lovers, and we don't know why the man died, but the woman is singing of following to the grave, and then the red rose and the briar finish the song. (Oops, I obviously misremembered the song till I wrote the lyrics down here - the man is healthy till the last verse!)

Here the the Cyhtnia Gooding lyrics:

O MOTHER GO AND MAKE MY BED

O mother go and make my bed, spread me that milk-white sheet
That I may go and lay down on the clothes for to see if I could sleep

Then she sent for a trusty little boy, and he was her sister's son
That he might go and tell her lord for her that his love would die ere he come

The first 2 miles the little boy walked, and the next 2 miles he run
He run till he come to some broad waterside where he laid to his breast and swum

He swum till he come to some high park gates, where they all sat down at meat
O and if you could but hear the bad news brought to you, not a bit more could you eat

Your high park gates are not fallen down, nor your high castle wall overthrown
But your own true love is going for to die, she will die and before you come

He call-ed for his stable groom, go saddle me my milk-white steed
That I may go and kiss her cherry cherry cheeks, that once they were so sweet

That lady she died on a Saturday, just before the prayer was done
And the lord he died the following Sunday, just before the prayers at noon

That lady was buried in the high chancel, and the lord he was buried in the choir
And out of the lady sprang a red rose-bush, and out of the lord a sweetbriar.