Rich Irish Lady- Allison (VA) c.1865 Davis C
[Davis: Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1925; Davis defers to Sharp and classifies these ballads as version of 295 "The Brown Girl." The problem is he and John Stone name all the versions "The Brown Girl" although there is no "brown girl" in the ballad and the classification is wrong. At that time (1925) is easy to see why he would go along with Sharp, still we are left with versions titled, 'The Brown Girl." I've changed the title for all such versions. Davis's 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]
50. THE BROWN GIRL
(Child, No. 295)
The Virginia contribution of eleven texts and three melodies more than doubles the- gleanings of this ballad in America. For other American items, see Barry, No. 19 (and melody from Vermont in Journal XVIII, 295; and Campbell and Sharp, No. 36 (six texts and five tunes from North Carolina and Virginia). The Virginia items are reported in Bulletin, Nos. 5, 7, 8, 9,
11. One fragment of this ballad combined with "The Death of Queen Jane" (Child, No. 170) was not reported in the Bulletin but appears as Virginia, No. 35, which see.
The Virginia variants A to J seem to belong to a single version of the ballad, one that has little in common with either of the Child versions, though its phraseology is occasionally reminiscent of Child B, not of A. The Campbell and Sharp texts A to F represent the same version, which we may therefore call the usual American version. In it the girl is no longer brown, and the
lovers have exchanged positions; the man is now the proud one who, once scorned, will not forgive and thus save the life of the sick girl, upon whose grave he will rather dance. These essential changes and others mutt be made in Child's summary, which runs thus: "A young man who has been attached to a girl sends her word by letter that he cannot fancy her because
she is so brown (he has left her for another maid in B). She sends a disdainful reply, He writes again that he is dangerously ill (he is love-sick in B), and begs her to come to him quickly and give him back his faith. She takes her time in going, and when she comes to the sick man's bedside, cannot stand for laughing. She has, however, brought a white band with her, which she
strokes on his breast, in sign that she gives him back the faith which he had given her. But as to forgiving and forgetting, that she will never do; she will dance upon his grave." The Virginia version of the unrelenting male lover over-cruel to the dying Sally because she has rejected him is certainly less moving and less grateful than the picture of the proud brown girl who
refuses the death-bed advances of her once scornful lover. The name Sally or Sarah gives place once to Marthy, in Virginia F. The style of the Virginia ballad shows unmistakably the influence of the broadside-press.
Indeed, it is with some hesitation that these texts have been definitely assigned to "The Brown Girl." But if they are not strictly a version of that ballad, they may well be, and almost certainly are, founded on "The Brown Girl " or perverted from it. Hence, and also following the authority of Campbell and Sharp, they are printed here as variants of the ballad rather
than as appendices to it.
C . [Rich Irish Lady] "The Brown Girl." Collected by Mr. John Stone. Recited by Mrs. Jennie Allison, of Saltville, Va. Smyth County. November 8, 1921. "She learned it from her mother, who learned it from the soldiers in the War between the States. When in winter quarters, the soldiers would meet at parties from house to house and often sing all night. In that way, many songs were spread" (Mr. Stone).
1. A rich Irish lady from London she came,
They called her Pretty Sally, Pretty Sally, by name.
Her riches so noble, her beauty so fair,
And on a young squire she scarcely cast an eye.
2. About six months afterwards, it was a sad surprise,
This young girl was seen with tears in her eyes.
She was wounded and wounded she knew not for why,
She sent for the squire to come see her die.
3. "O Sally, O Sally, O Sally," said he,
"Don't you remember when you slighted me,
You laughed at my courtship and treated me with scorn,
And now I'll reward you for time past and gone."
4. "For time past and gone, O forget and forgive,
And spare me some longer in this vain world to live."
"No, that I won't do, Sally, as long as I have breath,
But I'll dance on your grave when you are laid in cold death."
5. Off of her fingers she pulled diamond rings three,
Saying, "Take these and wear them while dancing o'er me."
"No, that I won't do, Sally, but as long as I have breath
I'll dance on your grave when you are laid in cold earth."