Whoops, looks like Brian did so as well and we both posted the text.

Anyways, here are the notes to John Clare's Daemon Lover:

This song is another of those not commonly encountered in English collections from oral sources.
Untitled in the only manuscript copy, which shows no sign of having been altered or Corrected by
Clare, it is a version of "The Daemon Lover" (Child, No. 243). Despite the resemblance between the
first two verses of Clare's version and the opening verses of "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child, No. 77),
comparison with the text that Child prints from Bucan's Ballads of North of Scotland reveals a remarkably
similar opening to the ballad. Apart from providing us with evidence of the ballad's having been sung in
Northamptonshire, Clare's version also retains not only the unusual opening but a stronger reminder of the
ghostly nature of the returning lover than do most versions (see verse 10 "& cause he was drest like a man").
Songs on the theme of returning ghost lovers are not uncommon and useful comparisons can be made with "Sweet
William's Ghost" and songs bearing the title "The Lover's Ghost" or "The Grey Cock", and with Clare's own
"Shipwreck Ghost".

Verse 11, which lacks two lines, may be completed by inserting variants of lines 3 and 4 of verse 9, i. e.

With rich velvet they were lined
To keep her feet from cold

The only other problem is the variation in verse length (from six lines to four lines). I have chosen to use a
four-line tune, repeating the last two lines of the tune for the first three, although a six-line tune could be
employed with a repetition of the last two lines of each verse. This, while not common is not unknown in other
versions of the song.

It is perhaps worth noting that this song is one of the survivors in the oral tradition from the black-letter
broadside tradition, having been printed in the seventeenth century with the following title:

"A Warning for Married Women
Being an example of Mrs Jane Reynolds (a West Country Woman) born near Plimouth, who having plighted her Troth
to a Seaman, was afterwards married to a Carpenter, and at last carried away by a Spirit, the manner how shall
presently be recited. To a West country tune, call'd The Fair Maid of Bristol, or, John True."
London: Printed for A.M. W.O. And T. Thackeray in Duck Lane.

The above is taken from a copy in the British Library which has thirty-two verses of four lines. The initials
are those of A. Milbourn and W. Onley who, with Thackeray, were printing in London during the seventeenth century.