Faithless Sally Brown
An Old Ballad
I
YOUNG BEN he was a nice young man,
A carpenter by trade;
And he fell in love with Sally Brown,
That was a lady’s maid.
II
But as they fetch’d a walk one day,
They met a press-gang crew;
And Sally she did faint away,
While Ben he was brought to.
III
The Boatswain swore with wicked words,
Enough to shock a saint,
That though she did seem in a fit,
’Twas nothing but a feint.
IV
“Come, girl,” said he, “hold up your head,
He’ll be as good as me;
For when your swain is in our boat,
A boatswain he will be.”
V
So when they’d made their game of her,
And taken off her elf,
She rous’d, and found she only was
A coming to herself.
VI
“And is he gone, and is he gone?”
She cried, and wept outright:
“Then I will to the water side,
And see him out of sight.”
VII
A waterman came up to her,—
“Now, young woman,” said he,
“If you weep on so, you will make
Eye-water in the sea.”
VIII
“Alas! they’ve taken my beau Ben
To sail with old Benbow;”
And her woe began to run afresh,
As if she’d said, Gee woe!
IX
Says he, “They’ve only taken him
To the Tender-ship, you see;”
“The Tender-ship,” cried Sally Brown,
“What a hard-ship that must be!
X
“Oh! would I were a mermaid now,
For then I’d follow him;
But oh!—I’m not a fish-woman,
And so I cannot swim.
XI
“Alas! I was not born beneath
The virgin and the scales,
So I must curse my cruel stars,
And walk about in Wales.”
XII
Now Ben had sail’d to many a place
That’s underneath the world;
But in two years the ship came home
And all her sails were furl’d.
XIII
But when he call’d on Sally Brown,
To see how she got on,
He found she’d got another Ben,
Whose Christian-name was John.
XIV
“O Sally Brown, O Sally Brown,
How could you serve me so?
I’ve met with many a breeze before,
But never such a blow!”
XV
Then reading on his ’bacco box,
He heav’d a bitter sigh,
And then began to eye his pipe,
And then to pipe his eye.
XVI
And then he tried to sing “All’s Well,”
But could not though he tried;
His head was turn’d and so he chew’d
His pigtail till he died.
XVII
His death, which happen’d in his birth,
At forty-odd befell:
They went and told the sexton, and
The sexton toll’d the bell.