Fair Sally loved a bonny seaman (Maurice Greene)

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Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2022-04-02).   Score information: A4, 2 pages, 89 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA
Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.

General Information

Title: Fair Sally loved a bonny seaman
Composer: Maurice Greene
Lyricist: John Hoadlycreate page
Number of voices: 1v   Voicing: solo high
Genre: SecularArt song

Language: English
Instruments: Basso continuo

First published: c.1755
Description: From "Amaryllis", "a collection of "such songs as are most esteemed for composition and delicacy and sung at the Publick Theatres or Gardens". A song first appearing in Greene's collection, "The Chaplet", 1738.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English.png English text

Fair Sally loved a bonny seaman,
With tears she sent him out to roam;
Young Thomas loved no other woman,
But left his heart with her at home.
She viewed the sea from off the hill
And, as she turn'd the spinning-wheel,
Sang of her bonny seaman.

The winds blew loud and she grew paler,
To see the weather-cock turn round;
When lo! she spied her bonny sailor
Come singing o'er the fallow ground.
With nimble haste he leapt the stile,
And Sally met him with a smile,
And hugg'd her bonny sailor.

Fast round the waist he took his Sally,
But first around his mouth wip'd he;
Like home-bred swain he could not dally,
But kiss'd and press'd her with a glee:
"Thro' winds and waves and lashing rain"
cried he, "thy Tom's return'd again,
And brings a heart for Sally".

"Welcome!" cried she, "my constant Thomas,
Tho' out of sight, ne'er out of mind;
Tho' seas our hearts have parted from us,
Yet still my thoughts were left behind;
So much my thoughts took Tommy's part,
That time nor absence from my heart
Could drive my constant Thomas".

"This knife, the gift of lovely Sally,
I still have kept for thy dear sake;
A thousand times in am'rous folly
Thy name has carv'd upon the deck:
Again the happy pledge returns,
To tell how truly Thomas burns;
How true he burns for Sally".

"This thimble didst thou give to Sally;
When this I see I think of you.
Then why does Tom stand shilly-shally,
While yonder steeple's in our view?"
Tom, never to occasion blind,
Now took her in the coming mind,
And went to church with Sally.