A Brave Irish Lady- Hyder (MO) pre1910 Belden A
[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.
A . 'A Brave Irish Lady.' Sent in by Miss Welty as secured by her from Mabel Hyder, one of her pupils in the Excelsior Springs High School, Clay County, in 1910. Mabel Hyder learned it from her grandmother, a native Missourian.
A brave Irish lady to London she came,
A beautiful damsel called Sallie by name.
A young squire earning five hundred a year
He courted pretty Sallie and loved her so dear.
Her beauty was great, her fortune so high
That upon this young squire she scarce east an eye.
'O Sallie! O Sallie! O Sallie,' cried he,
'I'm sorry that your love and mine can't agree.'
'No hatred. to you nor no other man,
But to say that I love you is more than I can;
I wish you would retire and end. your discourse,
For I never will love you unless I am forced.'
When eight weeks was over, when eight weeks went by,
Young Sallie fell sick and she knew not why.
She sent for young Jimmie to come back indeed,
She sent for her true love to come with full speed.
Young Jimmie came in, he came to her bedside.
'Am I the doctor?' young Jimmie replied.
'Oh yes, you're the one that can kill or can cure,
And without your assistance I'm ruined, I'm sure.'
'Oh, where does the pain lie? Does it lie in your head?
Oh, where does the pain lie? Does it lie in your side?'
'Oh no, loving Jimmie, that's quite the wrong guess,
But the pain doth pierce me right through my breast.'
'O Sallie! O Sallie! O Sallie!' said he,
'Don't you remember when I courted thee?
You laughed at my courtship, you denied me to scorn,
And now I'll reward thee for what's past and gone.'
'For what's past and gone, dear, forget and forgive,
And grant me a little longer to live.'
'Oh, no, I won't, Sallie, while I draw breath,
But I'll dance on your grave when you're laid in the earth.'
She retch out her hands and gave him diamond rings three,
Saying, 'Take these and wear them while you're dancing o'er me.
Oh, farewell father! and farewell friends!
Farewell loving Jimmie, God maketh amends!
'Oh, now I must be laid in a cold bed of clay,
Where my red, rosy cheeks will moulder away,
I'd freely forgive you, although you won't me,
Ten thousand times over my folly I see.'