Barbara Allen- (NY) pre1939 Thompson C
[No informant named; 7 end stanza excerpt from: Body, Boots, & Britches: Page 380 by Harold William Thompson - 1939. His notes follow.
His A version sounds very generic. Thompson give three versions from NY, two are partial versions and C has a few unusual stanzas.
R. Matteson 2015]
The last part of another version is interesting in several ways; for here, the locale seems to be Stonington, Connecticut, from which settlers probably moved to Wyoming County, New York, where the ballad was set down:
He turned his face unto the wall,
he turned his back unto her.
"Adieu, adieu to my friends all,
but a-woe to Barbara Allen!"
She mounted on her milk-white steed
and out of town was going.
She had not rode many a mile
before she heard the bells a-tolling.
The bells they tolled all in a row,
"O cruel Barbary Allen!"
S:e looked east, she looked west,
and she looked all around her,
And there she saw the lamentable corpse
and the barriers (sic) dressed in mourning.
"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."
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.
Come now, all you maidens of this town,
and listen to my story.
I do not slight nor grieve your love,
for 'twill surely blast your glory.
This young man he died for pure love,
this damsel followed after;
The richest man in Stonington,
died for a poor blacksmith's daughter.