A Rich Irish Lady- Nuzum (WV) 1916 Cox B
[From John Harrington Cox; Folk Songs of the South; 1925- his 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]
114. PRETTY SALLY
This is the English song usually known as "Sally and her True-love Billy" or "Sally and Billy"; also as "The Bold Sailor" and "The (Young) Sailor from Dover" (see Journal, xxix, 178, note 1; add De Vaynes, The Kentish Garland, No. 153, 11, 678). For other American texts see Barry, Journal, xxvii, 73 (Kansas; reported from Iowa); Campbell and Sharp, No. 36 (North Carolina,
Virginia, Georgia); Tolman, Journal, xxix, 178 (Indiana); Belden's Missouri collection. The piece, as Barry has noted, is a variety of "The Brown Girl" (Child, No. 295), a ballad known in print in the latter half of the eighteenth century; or rather, as Kittredge suggests, it is mixed with a version of "The Brown Girl" similar to that taken down in Devonshire by Baring-Gould and printed by Child as Version B.
B. "A Rich Irish Lady." Communicated by Miss Lily Hagans, Morgantown, Monongalia County, 1916; obtained from Miss Callie Nuzum, Harrison County, who got it from an old gentleman of her neighborhood.
1 From London came a beautiful lady, called Sally by name;
. . . . . .
A rich wealthy merchant, worth thousands a year,
He came to court her, as you shall hear.
2 She being so handsome, her portion so high,
That upon this young man she could scarce cast her eye;
She was tangled in love, but knew not the reason why;
But she sends for this young man that she once did deny.
3 "Am I the doctor, that you send for me here,
Or am I the young man that you once loved so dear?"
"O yes, you are the doctor, that can kill or can cure,
And without assistance I'm ruined, I'm sure."
4 "O where doth your pain lie, doth it lie in your side?
O where doth the pain lie, doth it lie in your head? "
"O no, loving sweetheart, the right you've not guessed;
For the pain that doth pierce me, doth lie in my breast."
5 "You've laughed at my courtship, denied me with scorn;
And now I reward you for what's past and gone."
"For what's past and gone, forget and forgive;
And grant me, darling, some longer to live."
6 "O no, I won't, Sally, whilst e'er I draw breath;
But I'll dance o'er your grave when you're laid in the earth."
Off her finger diamond rings she pulled three
Saying, "Take care of these, love, while dancing o'er me."