Rich Irish Lady- Eakle (VA) 1920 Davis B
[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.
B. [Rich Irish Lady] "The Brown Girl." Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mrs. J. C. Eakle, near Bolar, Va. Bath County. November 3, 1920.
1 There was a rich Irish lady, from Ireland she came,
There was a rich Irish lady, and Sarah by name.
2 Her riches were more than the king could possess,
But her behavior and beauty were more than all thus.
3 That lengthy [1] young squire a-courting her came,
That lengthy young squire came her for to see.
4 She spitefully used. him and denied him with scorn,
And the less he'll revoir [2] her for what she has done.
5 Six months had not ended nor scarcely had passed,
Till this rich Irish damsel fell sick at the last.
6 Being tangled in love, she knew not for why,
She sent for that young man whom she once did deny.
7 "Am I the doctor that you sent for me?
Or am I the young man whom you wanted for to see?"
8 "You are the doctor that can kill or can cure,
And without your assistance, I'- dying, I'm sure."
9 "O Sarah, O Sarah, O Sarahr" said he,
"Don't you remember how you once did slight me?"
10 "Forget and forgive for what's past and gone,
And 'low your darling Sarah some longer to live."
11 "I'll never forget you, I'll never forgive you, nor that ain't half all;
For I'll dance on your grave, girl, after you're laid in the dust."
12 Off of her fingers she pulled diamond rings three,
Saying, "Take and wear those while you're dancing o'er me.
13 "Let no more of your flying colors [3] be seen
While you're dancing over Sarah, o'er Sarah, the queen."
14 Sarah is dead now, that you all may suppose,
And she has left some of those ladies all of her fine clothes.
15 And she has took up her lodging in the banks of cold clay,
And the last of her red rosy cheeks lies moldering away.
Footnotes:
1. For "at length a," probably.
2. For "revile," probably.
3. See notes for Sharp A and B