Pretty Sarah- Crites (WV) pre1975 Gainer
[Here is the controversial version from Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills- Patrick Gainer; 1975, his notes, where he calls this a version of Child 295-B, follow. Commentary by Steve Gardham below. Steve is not familiar with Gainer's work. This is controversial because it is a version of "Sally" where the lover is rejected because her skin is brown. So far there are no versions of Sally that mention the brown skin color. The roles of the rejected suitors are reversed suddenly in the last half of the 3rd stanza-- taking a similar position as Child 295A and B. The man is dying and "Sarah" visits him- another first for US versions. This seems like a recreation by Gainer whose versions should be considered suspect, in my opinion. Caveat emptor!
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
PRETTY SARAH
(CHILD 295, "THE BROWN GIRL")
There will be folklorists who will dispute my claim that this ballad is a variant of Child No. 295-B. However, the similarities in the two ballads are so striking that I believe I am correct. This version, which we found in Nicholas county, tells a good story, although the language in some stanzas suggests a broadside origin. The lady who sang it, Mrs. Maggie Crites, said she learned it long ago from her parents.
1. A rich Irish lady from Ireland she came,
A beautiful damsel, Sarah by name,
Her riches were more than a king could possess,
And her beautiful behavior[1] was worth all the rest.
2. At once a young doctor a-courting her came,
This beautiful damsel, Sarah by name,
He courted her for six months, I'll tell you the truth,
This beautiful damsel, this beautiful youth. [2]
3. "O Sarah, O Sarah, O Sarah," said he,
"If it's that in love we cannot agree,
For you are too brown for me," said the young man, [3]
"I'll find one with beauty as soon as I can."
4. Oh, seven months had passed and gone,
When this young man fell sick at last,
And tangled in love he knew not why,
He sent for his damsel he once did deny.
5 "Are you the young doctor sent for me here,
Or am I the doctor can kill or can cure?"
"Oh, yes, you're the doctor can kill or can cure,
And without your assistance I cannot endure."
6 "O Sarah, O Sarah, O Sarah," said he,
"Don't you remember when I courted thee?"
But then you denied me and left me forlorn,
And now I'll reward you with hatred and scorn."
7 "For what's past and gone, love, forget and forgive,
And grant me some longer time here to live."
"No, I won't forgive you as long as I have breath,
But I'll dance on your grave when I'm under the earth."
8 Then off from his finger a gold ring he drew,
Saying, "Wear this ring, Sarah, when you dance over me,
Let your colors shine brighter where'er you are seen, [4]
When you are dancing, Sarah, the queen."
1. "Behavior" is not found in other ballads. Otherwise this is a standard opening verse.
2. The last two lines are not found in any other ballad and seem contrived.
3. It makes no sense that this doctor courts the rich woman for six months then tells her "you are too brown for me." First, it's the rich woman that rejects the man in every instance of the "Sally" ballads. The last two lines do not fit the stanza and immediately the roles are reversed- the man is dying. That just doesn't happen in US versions- and it continues on until the end.
4. "colors" is found in several versions but the way it's used is different than any other version. See Sharp A and B for an explanation.
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Steve Gardham: Here is the appropriate paragraph from my paper that includes the only American version to mention a 'brown girl'. It was collected as late as 1975 so it could easily have been influenced by the Child printings.
'One further American collection of more recent publication, Patrick Gainer's Folk Songs From The West Virginia Hills (1975) is worth noting - not so much for the comments on its relationship of the two ballads as for the unusual version of the song that it includes. It is given under the title 'Pretty Sarah' and has a fairly conventional opening line, 'A rich Irish lady, from Ireland she came', but what is apparently unique among American versions is an actual reference to the girl being brown (in stanza 3):
3. "O Sarah, O Sarah, O Sarah," said he,
"If it's that in love we cannot agree,
For you are too brown for me," said the young man,
"I'll find one with beauty as soon as I can."
The third line here certainly echoes the sentiment of the last line in stanza 3 of Child 295B, although the rhyme of 'man' with 'can' is paralleled in stanza 3 of the broadside ballad. Gainer's version came from Nicholas County, West Virginia, and was sung by Maggie Crites, who 'Learned it long ago from her parents'. the West Virginia Folk-Lore Society had been active around the state collecting folk songs since 1915. One of the earliest fruits of its labours was John Harrington Cox's Folk-Songs of the South, and although none of Cox's six versions of this ballad came from Nicholas County at least one of his contributors hailed from there. It is not inconceivable that Mrs Crites or her parents had been visited by a song collector and been told that what they were singing was a version of a prestigious Child ballad. In my own collecting I have encountered source singers who will go to great lengths to please collectors, sometimes learning extra songs or stanzas, and even composing whole new songs in the traditional idiom.'