Lindsay Ragle-Miller
“One night as Polly Oliver lay musing on her bed,
A comical fancy came into her head,
Neither father or mother shall make me false prove,
I’ll list for a soldier and follow my love”
(Dugaw 664)
Originally printed in 1763, “Polly Oliver” is one of the more enduring ones that Dugaw catalogued, in print for almost 100 years, and it continues to pop up in popular culture in modern popular culture. A website that tracks literary tropes in popular culture, All the Tropes Wiki, claims that “Sweet Polly Oliver” has come to encompass all instances of women dressing up as men to accomplish an end. In this comical ballad, Polly Oliver decides to enlist as a soldier and follow her lover to war. While she never actually makes it to the battlefield, she does dress as a soldier, act like a man, and fool her lover into sharing a bed with her while she is crossdressing. This ballad has remained popular because title is memorable, the ballad is comedic, and there is no actual fighting by Polly Oliver; it is an excellent introduction to WW ballads and presents some of the most common and enduring themes in these ballads.
In the 1763 ballad, “Polly Oliver” describes a young woman, Polly Oliver, who decides to go enlist as a soldier to be with her love after her parents have forbidden her to see him (Dugaw 660). When she goes to town in men’s clothing, carrying a sword and, in some versions, pistols, she meets her lover at a tavern. He does not recognize her, but he does offer her a space in his bed, which Polly agrees to take “at his command” (Dugaw 664). The next morning, she comes downstairs in her female clothes, and everyone laughs, her lover marries her, and she lives a happy, married life, usually with quite a bit of money and freedom (Dugaw 660-668).
After the original printing in 1763, “Polly Oliver” continues to appear frequently in popular culture. Dugaw records that, as a broadside, it was printed until as late as 1886 (661). Polly Oliver reappears in a children’s book called Polly Oliver’s Problem; Polly does not cross-dress in this book, but she does assume the traditional male role of breadwinner after her mother becomes very ill. The BBC performed a musical play based on the ballad of “Polly Oliver” on April 14, 1942. In the 1950’s, Polly again appeared in books aimed at children, when she and her cousin, Oliver, embark on adventures in the army during the Napoleonic wars (Daniell 19). These books were later serialized for BBC radio. The theme song for these episodes was a variation of “Polly Oliver” (Twentieth Century Children’s Writers 342).
In Polly and Oliver by David Scott Daniell, the first of two books about the adventures of Polly Trott and her cousin, Oliver Crowe, Polly is the daughter of a sergeant and has traveled with the army to Sicily. Oliver, a young drummer boy, and Polly’s father are sent on a special mission, while Polly is left behind. Shortly after they set sail, Oliver plays the ballad “Polly Oliver” on his fife, and they hear someone humming along nearby. It is, of course, Polly dressed as a boy to stow away on the ship (Daniell 18). Polly and Oliver are soon shipwrecked and taken to be prisoners in Italy. Her father and the other soldiers, who were separated from them during the shipwreck, set out to look for them, singing “As pretty Polly Oliver lay musing in bed; a comical fancy came into her head,” in hopes of attracting the children (Daniell 56). After many adventures, Polly and Oliver are reunited with Sergeant Trott and accomplish their mission. After the final battle, Polly sits under a tree and sews herself a new gown, eager to return to female dress. She is to be rewarded with a new gown and fancy trimmings by the commanding officer, as well.
Although Polly’s motives in this book are different than those in the original ballad, she has still succeeded in fooling the men by dressing as a male. As this is a book for children, it would be unlikely that the author would have Polly follow her lover to war. Even if Polly and Oliver were written for an older teenager, since this was written in the 1950’s, the author would be unlikely to have his main protagonist abandon her family, go to war for a boy, and be happy and safe at the end of the book. By changing the focus of her attention to family, the author avoids encouraging children to abandon their family for a boy/girlfriend. Still, although Oliver and Polly are not romantically involved, they are very concerned for each other and look out for each other throughout the book, allowing some of the “love” from the original ballad to appear, albeit in different form.
Despite the change in Polly’s motives, Daniell manages to stay true to broadside ballads in general, and “Polly Oliver” in particular. Polly is the person who initiates the crossdressing, as the woman warrior does in the majority of the ballads that feature crossdressing. The shipwreck, while not present in “Polly Oliver,” is a popular motif in early modern ballads, appearing in seven of the ballads in Dugaw’s catalogue. Luckily for Polly and her cousin Oliver, they survive the shipwreck and are eventually successful in their original mission. Oliver is injured during the shipwreck, but recovers quickly, following another familiar theme of “lover injured” that appears in seven of the Dugaw ballads. Finally, Polly returns to feminine dress, as the other warrior women do in 22 of the ballads in Dugaw’s catalogue. Although Polly and Oliver was an adaptation of the original “Polly Oliver” and was written almost two hundred years later, David Scott Daniell included many of the familiar elements of the ballad, simply adapting them to be appropriate for the audience and time period.
The major adaptations of “Polly Oliver” in the 19th and early 20th century were aimed at children, but why? What is it about this ballad that makes it so appealing to creators of content for children? One reason might be that Polly never actually fights. The ballad plays off Polly’s rebellious behavior as a delightful prank that did not harm her or put her in harm’s way. Instead, she had a brief jaunt to town, fooled her lover, and returned home unscathed at the end of the ballad. This ballad is remarkably tame when compared to others from the catalogue. Not only is there no violence, there is no explicit sex. Polly and her captain spend the night together, but other than the inherent sexual nature of sharing a bed, the reader/listener is not given any hint that anything happened between the two, other than a good night’s sleep. Finally, all variations of the ballad end with Polly being married to her captain, wealthier for the experience. This happy-ever-after ending reinforces the gender stereotypes that the ballad might otherwise challenge. Polly, never actually fighting, returns home a good little wife, having played a harmless prank on her lover/husband, but settling into her expected role in life. The tame nature and happy ending of this ballad explain why it was so often adapted for younger audiences, and part of the reason the ballad continues to be popular.
After Polly and Oliver, the ballad continues to appear in various formats; however, more often for an adult audience. Sarah Brightman recorded a version of “Polly Oliver,” which asserts that the men’s clothes that Polly Oliver wears to enlist were her “dead brother’s”, and she nurses her sick lover. This variant appears more frequently than the original when conducting a Google search. According to All the Tropes Wiki, “Sweet Polly Oliver” has become the ballad that represents all situations involving a woman dressed as man and going to war. In the description of the ballad, they use the version in which Polly dresses up in her brother’s clothes. The website then tracks the appearance of the trope across many genres, including anime, film, comic books, and literature. There is also a variant on the trope, “Sweet on Polly Oliver,” in which a man falls in love with Polly while she is cross-dressed as a man, leading to some confused emotions on the cisgender man’s part.
The additional fact that the clothes belong to Polly’s dead brother becomes a major plot point in a novel by Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment (2003), in which Polly puts on the uniform of her brother, who is missing in action, and goes by the name Oliver; she soon wishes she had picked a different name because, although she chose the name based on the popular ballad that her father used to sing to her, she tires of people asking her if she had ever heard a song called “Polly Oliver” (Pratchett 390). Polly does not go to war to search for a lover, but for her brother, similar to Polly in Polly and Oliver. Interestingly, Polly’s last name is “Perkins,” which appears in an earlier parody of the ballad described by Dugaw as “The Pretender’s Army,” sung to the same tune, with the first line “as Perkin one morning lay musing in bed” (Dugaw 663). This attention to detail in “Polly Oliver” and its variants is only one sign that Pratchett did thorough research into women warrior ballads.
Although Polly is the main character, and “Polly Oliver” is the ballad on which the premise of the novel is largely based, Pratchett plays with other women warrior ballads in the text, again using his research into the ballads. Polly soon finds out that all the members of her new squad are women dressed as men. One character, Shufti (Betty), is pregnant and looking for her lover, who left to break a penny in half to share as a token and never returned, “because of some bloody, stupid song” (Pratchett 119); ballads that use this trope include “The Soldier’s Farwel to his Love,” “William of the Man-Of-War,” and “High Germany,” which also includes a main character named Polly. Igor (Igorina) has joined the military to be a surgeon, which is discouraged for females of her race; although seeking the role of a surgeon is not a common reason to cross-dress as a soldier, many of the women warrior do begin careers as surgeons or surgeons’ assistants, like in “The Bristol Bridegroom,” “The Valiant Virgin,” and “The Constant Lovers of Worcestershire.” Tonker (Magda) and Lofty (Tilda) cause some confusion in the corps because they are clearly lovers, but also eventually revealed as females. Originally, Polly though only Lofty was female, making their situation a textbook ballad situation; however, she quickly discovers that both are female, much to her chagrin. The same-sex relationship between Tonker and Lofty plays with the occasional hints at same-sex relationships between the women warriors in the ballads and other women, such as in “The Female Cabin Boy” and “The Female Sailor.” Finally, Jade and Maledict, a troll and a vampire, enlist for patriotic pride and the opportunities being in the military offer to them. Their stories best fit into the Dugaw category of “Miscellaneous,” with ballads such as “The Female Volunteer.” With the connections to ballads other than “Polly Oliver,” Pratchett makes his book more than an adaptation of a single ballad, instead choosing to showcase the entire genre of women warrior ballads and folksongs.
So, why is it “Polly Oliver” that comes to represent all cross-dressing women warriors? One reason for “Polly Oliver” becoming the panoptic ballad for women warriors is likely the enduring popularity of “Polly Oliver.” Dugaw lists 22 broadside ballad versions as well as 32 folksong versions, proving that the song was frequently republished and adapted. As previously shown, the ballad continued in many iterations other than song format. The common nature of the name “Polly” might also have something to do with this name becoming the one that sticks in popular culture. The name “Polly” appears in 7 other ballads form the Dugaw collection and can be a nickname for “Mary,” the most popular female name in Britain from 1720-1880 (Galbi). Another reason for the continuing popularity of the ballad could be its comic nature. In the 1763 ballad, everyone, including Polly, treats the whole situation as a joke, and she never actually goes to war. Instead, her captain gladly marries her, and she lives happily ever after, in some versions with considerable wealth. This comic style and happy ending, coupled with the relatively short length of the ballad, make this an easy-to-sing song that is frothy and fun. Finally, the original “Polly Oliver” does not include many era or location specific details. The original ballad only lists “London-Town” as Polly’s destination, so she could have come from any town in England (Dugaw 664). The uniform that Polly puts on is generic, described as “man’s suit of clothes; Coat, waistcoat, and breeches” (Dugaw 664). The reader/listener never even learns the name of Polly’s lover, addressing him only as the “kind captain” (Dugaw 664). “Polly Oliver” is a great introduction to the genre of WW ballads as well as an example of the enduring legacy of the genre and its themes. For these reasons, or possibly many others, “Polly Oliver” has remained a part of popular culture since it was first published, appearing in original ballad form as well as other genre adaptations, making it one of the most enduring ballads of Dugaw’s catalog.
Works Cited
Daniell, David Scott. Polly and Oliver.
Dugaw, Diane. A Catalogue and Collection of Anglo-American Female Warrior Ballads. Collection of Diane Dugaw, University of Oregon.
Galbi, Douglas. A. Long-Term Trends in Personal Given Name Frequencies in the UK. Federal Communications Commission, July 20, 2002, https://www.galbithink.org/names.htm
Mckowan, Scott. Monstrous Regiment. 2003. Doubleday Publishing. https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Book:Monstrous_Regiment
Twentieth-century Children’s Writers. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978. Print.