Sally- Cheatham (VA) 1825 Abrams Collection
[My title, it makes no sense to call this "Sweet Sally" since that name is not found in the MS. Naming it after the Bostic version is not an alternative. From Abrams Collection, found in a Lunenburg County (Virginia) manuscript dated 1825. I've not footnoted every minor spelling and punctuation error. Abrams comments:
"For complete account of this version, see November, 1973, issue of North Carolina Folklore Journal, pp. 177-180 (which I do not have a copy).
An examination of this quite valuable manuscript reveals the meticulous pains Mr. Cheatham took to prepare a perfect copy. He apparently wrote the words first in prose form with no division into rhyming couplets and four-verse stanzas. Then he most carefully divided the song into ten marginally numbered stanzas, using two short parallel lines in the left margin to separate the stanzas. In fact, the Cheatham version appears to be more perfect than either the Adams version or the Bostic version which I discussed in the earlier story.
One big question, however, is this: Was it by sheer happenstance that this particular ballad manuscript, exactly contemporaneous with the Adams Manuscript version, came into my hands? Pure coincidence? If not, what?"
This is similar to the Green Mountain Songster version compiled by a Revolutionary soldier in 1823. The same problem is found in stanza two as in the 1824 Adams MS.
SALLY- Thomas Cheatham variant; 1825- with original spelling
There was a young damsel from London she came
Her name it was Sally oh Sally her fame
Her wealths [1] it was more than the king could possess
Her beauty it was more than her wealth it would fetch
A young knight of the city of [2] five hundred a year
[And] to this young damsel away he did steer
Her looks were so lofty & her portion so high
It was on this knight she would not cast an eye
3 Oh Sally oh Sally oh Sally says he
I'm sorry that your love and mine cant agree
And I fear that forever my ruin may prove
Except all your hatred being turned into love
4 No hatred to you Sir nor no other man
But as for/to love you as I never can
So drop your intentions and end your discourse
I never will leave [3] you untill I am forced
5. Before six months there/were ever and passed
I heard of this young damsels misfortune at last
She was peerced to the heart she could not tell in what form[4]
She sent for this young man she had slighted with scorn
6. Am I your Doctor you send for me so
The truth of the story I long for to know
She answered kind sir you can kill or can cure
And without your assistance I am ruined I am sure
7 He steped up unto her unto her bed side
He asked her if the pain in the head or the side
She answered kind sir tho right you have not guessed
The pain that will kill me peers me through the breast
8 Oh Sally oh Sally oh Sally says he
And dont you remember when I courted thee
I would ask you so kindly you would answer with scorn
And now I will reward you for things passed and gone
9. For things passed & gone Sir I hope you'll forgive
It's out of the heavens this day as I live
I'll never forgive you enduring my breath
I will dance on your grave when you are laid in the earth
10. When off of her fingers pulls dimonds [5] rings three
Saying take these for my sake when you are dancing on me
You will fly from your colours and be no more seen [6]
Untill you are done dancing on Sally your Queen
1. wealth
2. worth; the point is that the suitor is poor.
3. have you unless
4. pierced to the heart- the last part of this line usually is "tell what from" although the rhyme is weaker.
5. diamond (singular)
6. See Sharp A and B for an explanation; uses old English spelling of color.