Sally and Her True Love Billy- Broadside c.1840 Barry C
[From British Ballads from Maine by Barry, Eckstrom and Smyth; 1929. Phillips Barry places the five versions under "Secondary Ballads" and makes no comment about Child's two ballads other than cf. Child 295. Two of Barry's versions are broadsides and since the Boston broadside was not cataloged by Ford it is probably c. 1840s. Barry C was probably printed and sold by J. Pitts, Wholesale Toy and Marble Warehouse, 6, Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, London between 1819 and 1844. It has "The Robin's Petition" on the same page. The same text, titled, "Sally And Billy," is found in Real Sailor-Songs by John Ashton (London: The Leadenhall Press, 1891), page 71.
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 True Love 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 closely 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]
Harding Broadside- same texts as the Pitts Broadside
Barry: The two broadsides, C and E, are important as showing that the happy and the unhappy endings of the ballad, represented respectively in Maine A and Maine B, did not originate in Maine. A western text (printed by P.8., JAFL, XXVII, 74) makes Willie relent and die of grief after Sally's death. In recent Scottish tradition, "Glenlogie," or "Bonnie Jean of Bethernie" (Child 238), has been crossed with the present ballad. Two of Gavin Greig's texts of "Glenlogie" (Folk-songs of the North-East, pp. 190-191) have the stanza corresponding to E, 7. The melodies to A and B (cf. also Campbell and Sharp, "The Brown Girl," A-8, but especially D), are variants of the "Lord Randall- Vilikins" air.
C. "Sally and Her True Love Billy." Broadside in Yale University Library. Claude Lovat Fraser collection, 2:5. With "The Robin's Petition." No imprint. Printed by permission of the Yale University Library Committee.
'Tis of a young sailor, from Dover he came,
He court a pretty Sally, pretty Sally was her name,
But she was so lofty, and her portion so high,
That she on a sailor would scarce cast an eye.
O Sally! O Sally! O Sally! says he,
I fear that your false heart my ruin will be,
Unless that your hatred should turn into love,
I'm afraid that your false heart my ruin will prove.
My hatred's not to you or any other man,
But to say that I love you is more than I can;
So keep your intention and hold your discourse,
For I never will [love] you unless I am forced.
When seven long weeks were gone and past,
This pretty maid fell sick at last,
Entangled in love, and she knew not for why,
So sent for the sailor whom she deny'd.
O I am the Doctor, and you sent for me,
O I am the young man that you wish'd to see;
O yes, you the Doctor that can kill or cure
The pain that I feel, love is hard to endure.
O Sally! O Sally! O Sally! says he,
Pray don't you remember how you slighted me,
How you slighted my love and treated me with scorn,
So now I'll reward you for what you have done. [1]
For what is gone and past, love, forget and forgive,
And grant me a little while longer to live;
O no my dearest Sally as long as I have breath,
I'll dance upon the grave when you lay underneath.
She took rings from her fingers, by one, two, and three,
Saying here my dearest Billy, in remembrance of me,
In remembrance of me my love when I am dead and gone,
Perhaps you may be sorry for what you have done.
So adieu to my daddy, my mammy, and friends,
And adieu to the young sailor for he will make no amends,
Likewise this young sailor he will not pity me,
Ten thousand times now my folly I see.
1. rhyme missing here, weak stanza