Fair Sally- Pointer (MO) c.1880 Randolph B
[From Randolph's Ozark Folksongs; Volume 1: British Ballads and Songs. Randolph takes no position on the debate about the classification of "Pretty Sally" but he places the ballads in his Child ballads section and seems to accept the ballads as versions of Child 295. Randolph's notes follow.
This version is missing the first opening stanzas.
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
40. PRETTY SALLY OF LONDON
Similar to several pieces reported from Virginia by Davis (Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 537-543), who publishes them as variants of "The Brown Girl" (Child, English and the Popular Ballads, 1882-1898, No. 295). In this he follows the authority of Campbell and Sharp (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917, No. 36) who recovered similar items in Virginia and in North Carolina. Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth (British Ballads from Maine, 1929, pp.418-425) print five texts from Maine, and consider it as a secondary form derived from Child 295. For other American references see Barry (JAFL 18, 1905, p. 295, Tolman (JAFL 29,1916, p. 17S), Cox (Folk-Songs of the South, 1925, pp. 366-370), Kirkland (Southern Folklore Quarterly 2, 1938, p. 79), who reports a "Rich Irish Lady" version, "Sally Dover" in Chappell (Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the Albermarle, 1939, pp. 75), Gardner (Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939, pp. 150-151), Treat (JAFL 52, 1939, pp. Belden (Ballads and, Songs, 1940, pp. 111-118), Brewster (Ballads and Songs of Indiana 1940, pp. 164-165), and "A Brave Irish Lady" in the Brown (North Carolina Folk-Lore collection.
B. [Fair Sally] Sung by Mrs. Lillian Short, Galena, Mo., Aug. 28, 1940. She had it from Mrs. Joseph Pointer, Cabool, Mo., who learned "Fair Sally" as a child about sixty Years ago.
Oh Sally, oh Sally, oh Sally, said he,
Oh don't you remember when I courted thee?
You laughed at my courtship, denied me with scorn,
And now I'll reward you for what's past and gone.
Oh Jimmie, oh Jimmie, oh Jimmie, said she,
How can you be so cruel to one who loves thee?
For what's past and gone, love, forget and forgive,
And grant me some long years yet for to live.
No I won't, Sally, not while I have breath,
But I'll dance o'er your grave after your death,
For what's past and gone I shan't forgive and forget,
And the shame that you showed me you must pay for yet.
Off her lily white hand she pulled diamond rings three,
Said, for my sake wear these when you dance upon me,
I freely forgive you, although you don't me,
Ten thousand times o'er my folly I see.
Now Sally is dead, as we may suppose,
She's left all her lovers for other girls' beaux, [1]
She's gone to lie down in a bed of cold clay,
And her red rosy cheeks are a-mouldering away.
1. See Belden