Barbara Allen- Stevens (NY) 1841 Pioneer Songster
[This is probably the first "collected" version of Barbara Allen and was transcribed between 1841 and 1856. The transcription was published with mistakes- some of which I've edited. According to Thompson, the location of the ballad is Stonington, Connecticut from which settlers moved to Wyoming County, New York, where the ballad was written down. Other versions refer to "Stoney Town" and perhaps are related to this older original.
There is a "warning" stanza (the 10th) similar to Child Bd, Percy's version. The opening is missing the first stanza of the English broadside text, and combines the 2nd and 3rd.
R. Matteson 2012]
Barbara Allen- A Pioneer Songster
Texts from the Stevens-Douglass Manuscript of Western New York, 1841–1856
Edited by Harold W. Thompson, Edith E. Cutting
Cornell University Press
Folklorists and lovers of folk songs will delight in this collection of the lyrics of songs sung by settlers of western New York in the middle of the nineteenth century. The manuscript on which this book is based is the most important collection of traditional song-texts, British and American in origin, to survive from its period. Discovered in the 1930s in the attic of Harry S. Douglass in Arcade, New York, it was written by Julia S. and Volney O. Stevens, who transcribed nearly ninety of the songs with which their father, Artemas Stevens, so often entertained them.
The Stevens family had come to Wyoming County, New York, from New England in 1836, bringing with them traditional songs and ballads. The Stevens-Douglass manuscript contains the texts of 89 songs. In A Pioneer Songster, these are organized first by their origins (36 are from the British Isles; 53 were composed in America) and then according to themes and subjects, including love, history, politics, the pioneering life, politics, murder and shipwrecks, minstrel songs, spirituals, Indian legends, temperance, and satire. The book features a general introduction and shorter introductions to each themed section. In addition, each song is accompanied by an informative headnote detailing its history, meaning, and significance.
A Pioneer Songster, first published by Cornell University Press in 1958, has been edited for the enjoyment of the general reader, but in their annotation, the editors have aimed at assisting students and scholars of folklore, musicology, and American history. While preserving the manuscript's original punctuation and spelling, they have succeeded in creating a resource that will be of interest to all who care for the American folk tradition and the history of New York State.
Notes on Barbara Allen:
On January 2, 1666, Pepys recorded in his Diary his pleasure in having heard Mrs. Knipp, the actress, sing "her little Scotch song of 'Barbary Allen.' " The song was not printed, however, until much later; Child reports it in Ramsay's Miscellany of 1740. Since then this most popular of Child ballads has been printed many times.
The locale of the Douglass version is Stonington, Connecticut, from which settlers probably moved to Wyoming County, New York, where the ballad was written down. Both Ozark and Brown have versions referring to "Stoney Town," which is doubtless a corruption of Stonington. Another striking localization in Douglass is the description of Barbara Allen as a blacksmith's daughter. It is, moreover, unusual for this kind of information to appear in the last stanza rather than the first. Although there are countless versions of this ballad, other variations, less obvious than these already mentioned, are noticeable in this one. They are the "milk white steed," the theme of poverty and wealth, and Barbara's death beside her lover's casket, though this immediate demise is mentioned in two southern versions (Scarborough, H and I). The unnamed lover, the explanation of the slight given to Barbara, and the lack of the rose-and-briar ending, while not uncommon, do set this version apart from many variants.
There are several tunes. Cox, Eddy, Gardner and Chickering, Linscott, Mackenzie, Ozark, and Sandburg include tunes.
BARBARA ALLEN- Artemas Stevens (NY) 1841 Pioneer Songster
1 It was on the early month of May,
When all things were blooming,
It was on his death bed a young man lay,
For the love of Barbara Allen.
2 He sent his servants out of town
He send his servant to her
My master dear, has sent [me] here,
For the love of you Miss Allen.
3 So slowly she put on her clothes,
And slowly she went to him;
And [all] she said when she came there was
"Young man, I think you're dying.
For death is printed on your face
You are on your death bed lying."
4. Oh don't you remember said she
When you and I were at the tavern
You drinked your health to the pretty girls
But you slighted poor Barbara alien
5. He turned his face unto the wall
He turned his back unto her
Adieu adieu to my friends all
But a-woe to Barbary Allen.
6. She mounted on her milk white steed
And out of town was goin'
She had not rode many a mile
Before she heard the bells a-tolling
The bells they tolled all in a row, oh cruel Barbary Allen
7. She looked east, she looked west
And she looked all around her;
And there she saw the lamentable corpse
And the barriers[1] dressed in mourning.
8. Come set you down this clay cold corpse
And let me look upon him
For once his cheeks they beautifully flowed
And now the color is fading.
9. Then she trembled like a leaf
And death it stared upon her
And down she fell as cold as clay
Which made all people wonder
10. Come now all you maidens of this town
And listen to my story
Oh do not slight nor grieve your love
For twill surely blast your glory
11. This young man he died for pure love
This damsel followed after
The richest man in Stonington died
For a poor Blacksmith's daughter.
1. burriers; grave diggers