Pretty Sally- Wilson (WV) c.1865 Cox C
[From John Harrington Cox; Folk Songs of the South; 1925- his notes follow. This ballad is not to be confused with the popular ballad, Child No. 73 Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, which is commonly known in the US, and Canada as "The Brown Girl."
US and Canada versions are based on the hundreds of late 18th century English broadsides sometimes titled "The Sailor from Dover" or "Sally and her Truelove Billy."
Child's B version of 295, "The Brown, Brown Girl" collected by Rev. S. Baring-Gould, introduced stanzas from the "Sally and her Truelove Billy" songs. In his article "Folk Song Tradition, Revival and Re-Creation" Steve Gardham has shown that Baring-Gould's ballad is a re-creation of two ballads and not traditional.
To put it simply, the versions are not related to "The Brown Girl" but are part of the "The Sailor from Dover" and "Sally and her Truelove Billy" song group. In the US and Canada some common titles are "Pretty Sally," "Sally," and "A Rich Irish Lady." They have been put here following Bronson and others who have attached them to Child 295, not because they belong here.
R. Matteson 2014]
114. PRETTY SALLY
This is the English song usually known as "Sally and her True-love Billy" or "Sally and Billy"; also as "The Bold Sailor" and "The (Young) Sailor from Dover" (see Journal, xxix, 178, note 1; add De Vaynes, The Kentish Garland, No. 153, 11, 678). For other American texts see Barry, Journal, xxvii, 73 (Kansas; reported from Iowa); Campbell and Sharp, No. 36 (North Carolina,
Virginia, Georgia); Tolman, Journal, xxix, 178 (Indiana); Belden's Missouri collection. The piece, as Barry has noted, is a variety of "The Brown Girl" (Child, No. 295), a ballad known in print in the latter half of the eighteenth century; or rather, as Kittredge suggests, it is mixed with a version of "The Brown Girl" similar to that taken down in Devonshire by Baring-Gould and printed by Child as Version B.
C. "Pretty Sally." Communicated by Mr. J. Harrison Miller, Wardensville, Hardy County, 1916; obtained from Mrs. Sofia Funk, who secured it from Zachariah Wilson. He took it down and learned it while serving in the Civil War on the Confederate side.
1 There was a fair damsel, from London she came,
A beautiful damsel, called Sallie by name.
There was a young squire, hired at six hundred a year,
And he came to court Sallie, for he loved her very dear.
2 But Sallie being rich, her fortune very high,
Upon this young man she scarce cast an eye.
"Sallie, Sallie!" said he,
"I am sorry your love and mine can't agree;
3 "We'll make no great out, but your love will improve,
Unless that your hatred will turn into love."
"No hatred for you, sir, nor for another man!
But to say that I love you, I am sure I never can.
4 "So drop your intention, and end your discourse,
For I never will have you unless I am forced."
When six weeks had come on, when six weeks had passed,
Pretty Sallie she had a misfortune at last.
5 She was pierced to the heart, and she knew not what for;
So she sent for this young man whom she slighted before.
"Good morning, pretty Sallie, good morning," said he;
"It's where does your pain lie? In your head or your knee?"
6 "The pain that I feel, sir, lies deep in my heart;
The pain that I feel, sir, lies deep in your heart.
It's you are my doctor, you can kill or can cure;
Without your assistance I must die, I am sure."
7 "O Sallie, Sallie, Sallie!" said he,
"It's don't you remember when I came to court thee?
You laughed at my courtship and bade me begone;
But now I reward you for what is past and gone."
8 "For things past and gone, love, forget and forgive;
And grant me some longer, in this world to live."
"I would freely forgive you, although you would n't me;
And I'll dance on your grave while you lay in the earth."
9 She pulled from her ringers diamond rings, she said three,
And gave them to William, to William for his fee:
"I'm going to leave you; in my cold bed of clay
My rosy red cheeks shall moulder away."