Sarah- Moore (GA) 1909 Campbell; Sharp F
[My title. From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol 2 by Cecil J. Sharp (1859-1924) and Maud Karpeles; 1932 edition. This is also in the 1917 edition and was not collected by Sharp, so I assume Campbell procured it (although I haven't researched it).
My title, Sharp used the generic title, The Brown Girl for all versions, no local titles supplied. Sharp called the ballad "Fine Sally" in his field notes.
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]
Notes from Cecil Sharp No. 44. The Brown Girl.
Texts without tunes:— Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 295. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, i, art. 79. Broadside by Such, 'Sally and her True Love Billy' Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 366 (see also further
references). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxvii. 73 ; xxxii. 502 ; xxxix. 110.
Texts with tunes: — Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, ii. 241. Kidson's Garland of English Folk Songs, p. 20. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii. 295 (tune only). Journal of the Folk-Song Society, viii. 5. British Ballads from Maine, p. 418.
Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 537 and 604.
'Colours' (Texts A and B) may be a corruption of 'country' as given in Folk Songs of the South.
Version J is reminiscent of The Death of Queen Jane (No. 32).
F. [Sarah] Sung by Mrs. MOORE, Rabun Co., Ga., May 2, 1909. (Tune not noted.)
1 There was a young doctor, from London he came,
He courted a damsel called Sarah by name.
Her wealth it was more than the king could possess;
Her beauty it was more than her wealth at the best.
2 O Sarah, O Sarah, O Sarah, said he,
I am truly sorry that we can't agree,
But if your heart don't turn unto love,
I fear that your beauty my ruin will prove.
3 O no, I don't hate you, and no other man,
But to say that I like you is more than I can.
So now you may stop with all your discourse,
For I never 'low to have you unless I am forced.
4 After twenty-eight weeks had done gone and passed,
The beautiful damsel she fell sick at last.
She sent for the young man she once did deny,
For to come and see her before she did die.
5 Am I the young man that you sent for here?
Or am I the young man that you loved so dear?
You're the only young doctor can kill or can cure,
And without your assistance I'm ruined, I'm sure.
6 O Sarah, O Sarah, O Sarah, said he,
Don't you remember you once slighted me?
You slighted, deviled me, you slighted me with scorn,
And now I'll reward you for things past and gone.
7 Forget and forgive, O lover, said she,
And grant me some longer a time for to live.
O no, I won't, Sarah, enduring your breath,
But I'll dance on your grave when you lay in cold death.
8 Gold rings off her finger ends she pulled three,
Saying: Take these and wear them when you dance on me.
. . . . . [1]
Ten thousand times over my folly I see.
9 Now pretty Sarah is dead, as we all may suppose.
To some other rich lady willed all her fine clothes.
At last she made her bed in the wet and cold clay;
Her red, rosy cheeks is moulderin' away.
1. Sharp did not mark this line as missing. It should be something like version H: I'll freely forgive you although you won't me,