The Fair Damsel From London- Revolutionary Soldier (VT) pre1823 Flanders B
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads (Version B) also Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads. This is the oldest extant version from the US which was compiled into a songbook in 1823 by a Revolutionary soldier from Vermont. It could date back to c. 1760 and probably takes the date back to the late 1700s. In 1966 Flanders/Coffin place this version under the heading The Irish Lady, or Sally from London (Laws P9, related to Child 295). In 1932 Flanders list it under Child 295 (Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads). Coffins notes follow mine.
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]
The Irish Lady, or Sally from London
(Laws P9, related to Child 295) [Notes by Coffin]
Child, V, 166, gives the story of "The Brown GirI" as follows:
A young man who has been attached to a girl sends her word by letter that he cannot fancy her because she is so brown (he has left her for another). she sends a disdainful reply. He writes again that he is dangerously ill (he is love-sick), and begs her to come quickly and give him back his faith. she takes her time in going, and when she comes to the sick man's bedside, cannot stand for laughing. she has, however, brought a white wand with her, which she strokes on his breast, in sign that she gives him back the faith which he had given her. But as to forgiving and forgetting, that she will never do; she will dance upon his grave.
There are not traditional versions of this ballad in America. However, a song much like "The Brown Girl" and usually called something similar to "The Irish Lady" or "Sally from London" has had great popularity in Britain and this country. It derives from broadsides of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; in it, the sexes of the lovers are reversed, the brown complexion of the girl is not mentioned, and "Are you the doctor?" lines are almost always present. Normally, it ends with the death of the girl, but a great many minor variations occur in the plot. Texts with a happy ending, like A and B below, have been found in New England (Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine,438) and in Michigan (Evelyn E. Gardner and Geraldine J. Chickering, Ballad's and Songs of Southern Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1939, 150). They seem to derive from the printed versions that relate to the Boston broadside reproduction in Barry, op. cit., 424, although that text is not particularly close to any of the ones mentioned above.
The song is also frequently found containing material common with other ballads, such as "Glenlogie" (Child 238); "Barbara Allen" (Child 84); "The Death of Queen Jane" (Child 170); "Clerk Saunders" (Child 69); "The Unquiet Grave." (Child 78); "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child 77); and "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (Child 73). See Coffin, 159-61, for discussion and an American bibliography. Dean-Smith, 56, and Belden, 111, give English references. Laws, ABBB, 252-3, treats the entire tradition and includes a great many Anglo-American citations.
B. This Song is copied literatim from The Green Mountain Songster, compiled by an old, Revolutionary soldier of Sandgate, Vermont, in 1823. The book is now in the possession of Harold Rugg, Assistant Librarian of the Dartmouth College Library. printed, in Vermont Folk-Songs & Ballads, 244. H. H. F., Collector 1931
B. The Fair Damsel From London
There was a fair damsel, from London she came,
Her name it was Sally, O Sally by name.
Her riches were more than the king could possess,
And her beauty was more than her riches would fetch.
There was a young lord, one night he did steer
To court this fair damsel with thousands a year;
She being so lofty, her Portion so high,
That upon this young man she would scarce cast an eye.
"O Sally, O Sally, O Sally," said he,
"I'm sorry that your love and mine can't agree;
Forever more my ruin you'll prove,
Unless that your hatred be turned into love."
"No hatred to you nor to no other man,
But to say that I love you I'm sure I never can;
So drop your intention and end the discourse'
For I never will marry you unless I am forc'd."
Five or six weeks being over and past,
We heard of this fair maid's misfortune at last,
She sent for this young man she'd slighted with scorn,
She was pierced through the heart and did nothing but mourn.
"Well, good morning, pretty Sally, and how do you feel?
Is your pain in your head or is it in your heel?"
"O no, kind sir, the truth you have not guess'd,
For the pain that I feel pierces me through the breast."
"Well, am I a doctor, you sent for me so?
The truth of the story I mean for to know: "
"Oh! yes, kind sir, you can kill or can cure,
For without your assistance I'm ruined I'm sure."
"O Sally, O Sally, O Sally," said he,
"Oh, don't you remember how you slighted me?
I asked you a question, you answered with scorn,
And now I'll reward you for things past and gone."
"For things past and gone sir, I pray you'd forgive,
May Heaven permit me one day more to live."
"I ne'er will forgive you not while I have breath,
And I'll dance on your grave when your laid in the earth."
"Farewell to my parents, farewell to my friends,
Farewell to this young man, God make him amends,
For I can forgive him although he can't me,
For ten thousand times over my folly I see.
"Farewell to my friends, farewell to my foes,
Farewell to this troublesome world also;"
Then oft of her fingers took diamond rings three,
Saying,"Wear these for my sake when you're dancing on me."
"O Sally, O Sally, O Sally," said he,
"Put your rings on your fingers and married we'll be;"
This couple were married, they married speedily,
And as happy a couple as ever you see.