The Irish Lady- Allison (MO) 1924 Belden E
[Belden: Ballads and Songs; Collected by The Missouri Folk-Lore Society, 1940; Belden does not, to his credit, list these versions under Child 295. See his notes below.
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]
A Brave Irish Lady
This seems the most fitting title for American texts of this ballad, tho some collectors enter it as a form of Child 295, The Brown Girl. It is related, certainly, to that ballad, but is sufficiently distinct to be ranked as a separate song. In The Brown Girl it is the woman, not the man, that is hard-hearted; the story is put in her mouth; and there is no Irish lady. In fact the figure of the Irish lady is American; the British broadside, Christie's Scotch text, Sharp's from Somerset, even the Boston broadside (printed in B.BM 422-3) know nothing of her. The man's declaration that he will dance on her grave- which is probably what has most contributed to keep the song alive- goes back to Child's two versions of 295, and his suggestion that she has called him in as a doctor is at least implied in Child B, tho not fully developed till later. The peculiarly flat statement, with its false rhyme, that
'You can quit your intentions, and end your discourse,
For I will never have you unless I am forced
is apparently to be credited to the nineteenth century stall prints; it appears in both of them as printed in BBM, and maintains itself pretty well in American tradition. Only in American texts has the stanza from Death and the Lady (100EFS 52)
Now Sally is dead, lies cold in the clay,
Her rosy-red cheeks are all moldering away
crept in; it is found in TBV B, SharpK F H, FSS C D, and all the Missouri texts. The song has been reported since Child's time from Scotland (Christie II 240-1) and. Somerset (JFSS VIII 5-6), from Maine (BBM 478-25), Vermont (VFSB 244-6), Virginia (TBV 537-43, SharpK I 297,300-1, 303-4, SCSM 98), West Virginia (JAFI-, XXXII 502, FSS 366-70), Kentucky (SharpK I 299-300, 304), Tennessee (ETWVMB 119-20, FSSH 134-5), North Carolina (SharpK I 295-7,302-3), Georgia (SharpK I 298), Mississippi (FSM 128-30), and Kansas (JAFL XXVII 73-4). Tolman had a text from Indiana but did not print it because it was so much like that given by Barry in JAFL XXVII 73-4. It is listed as recorded in Tennessee but the text not given in SFLQ II 79.
E. 'The Irish Lady.' Contributed in 1924 by Beulah Pendergrass, student at the University of Missouri, who knew it in her childhood in northeastern Arkansas.
There was an Irish lady, from London she came,
A beautiful lady, and Molly by name;
Her riches was so great and her honors so high
That upon this young man she could scarce cast an eye.
'Oh Molly! oh Molly! oh Molly!' said he,
'I wish that my love and yours could agree.
I'd marry you, Molly, by the powers above,
If I knew that your hatred would turn into love.'
'Oh no, I don't hate you nor no other man,
But to say that I love you is more than I can;
So drop your attentions and cease your discourse,
For I shall not marry you unless I am forced.'
On Friday this lady was taken down sick;
She sent for this young man to come and come quick.
He came to her bed, sat down by her side:
'Is there a pain in your head, love, or a pain in your side?'
'Oh no ! oh no, love ! You did not guess right;
The pain that torments me will soon take my life,
And you are the doctor, can kill or can cure;
And without your assistance I'll die, I am sure.'
'Oh Molly! oh Molly! oh Molly!' said he,
'Won't you remember when you first slighted me?
I courted you with pleasure; you denied me with scorn;
And. now I'll reward you with what's past and gone.'
'Of what's past and gone, love, forget and forgive,
And grant me still longer while on earth to live.'
'Oh no, I can't, Molly, whatever I must,
But I'll dance on your grave, love, when you're laid in the dust.'
She drew from her fingers a diamond ring free,
Saying, 'Take this, and remember, while dancing o'er me,
Ten thousand times over to your folly I'd flee,
And I would forgive you, but you won't forgive me.
'Farewell to my father, and all of my friends ;
Farewell to young Johnny; God will make you repent,
I'm going, I'm going to my cold bed of clay,
Where these red rosy cheeks will moulder away.'