Broadside ballad entitled 'The Paisley Officer'

Commentary

This ballad begins: 'In blythe and bonny Scotland where the blue bells do grow, / There dwelt a pretty maid down in a valley low. / Its all the day long she herded sheep upon the banks of Clyde, / Although her lot in life was low she was called the village pride.' The broadside carries no publication details.

In a relatively short space this song tells a story which mixes class, gender non-conformity, and imperial colonialism with romantic drama. An officer courts a shepherdess, who is described as a stereotypically beautiful woman. When he has to leave for India, she offers to 'go disguised in man's attire' as his servant. The text refers to 'her' and 'Mary' throughout but imagines women looking at a person they see as an attractive but 'gentle, slight' man. The ballad ends with both Mary and Henry killed by Indian fighters. This ballad has been identified as belonging to the genre of 'warrior women'. It also links Paisley, then at the height of its fame as the home of the 'Paisley shawl' which appropriated Kashmiri patterns, with the military actions of the British colonisation of India.        

Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.

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