Barbara Allen- Baker/Keller (WV) pre1906 Cox A
[From: Folk-Songs of the South- 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
16. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Child, No. 84)
Twelve variants have been found in West Virginia under various titles. A is a very close reproduction of Child B, stanza for stanza, with an added stanza at the end not found in Child; B, in general, follows Child B, with two stanzas at the beginning not found anywhere in Child; C, D, E, J, agree closely with Child A; the first three stanzas of E are like Child B, the next five, like Child A; the leaving of three rolls of money to Barbara in F indicates some connection with the ballad in Buchan's MS. Cf. Child II, 276, also West Virginia G 3; in H 2 the lover defends himself, an incident not found in Child; for similar stanzas in American texts, see Smith, p. 13; Journal, xix, 286; xix, 287; XXII, 63; Campbell and Sharp, p. 90; Wyman and Brockway, p. 5; McGill, p. 39; Pound, p. 9. In this connection it is interesting to note that one of the American texts makes the lover acknowledge the charge as a just one (Journal, xx, 256).
For American texts, in song-books and in oral circulation, see references in Journal, xxix, 160, Xxx, 317; Xxxv, 343. Add Focus, V, 282; Shoemaker, p. 107; Pound, No. 3; Bulletin, Nos. 6-10; Minish MS.
A. "Barbara Allen." Contributed by Mr. Lyndell O. Baker, Belington, Barbour County, January 28, 1915; learned about nine years before from Roy Keller, who learned it from his father in Tucker County. Printed by Cox, XLIV, 305.
1 In Scarlet town, where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwelling,
Made every youth cry ''Well away!"
Her name was Barbara Allen.
2 All in the merry month of May,
When green buds they are swelling,
Young Jimmy Green on his death bed lay
For the love of Barbara Allen.
3 He sent his man unto her there,
To the town where she was dwelling;
"O you must come to my master dear,
If your name be Barbara Allen.
4 "For death is printed on his face
And o'er his heart is stealing;
O haste away to comfort him,
O lovely Barbara Allen!"
5 "If death is printed on his face
And o'er his heart is stealing,
Yet little better shall he be
For the love of Barbara Allen."
6 So, slowly, slowly she came up,
And slowly she came nigh him;
And all she said when there she came,
"Young man, I think you're dying."
7 He turned his face unto her straight,
With deadly sorrow sighing:
"O lovely maid, come pity me!
I'm on my death bed lying."
8 "If on your death bed you do lie,
What need the tale you 're telling?
I cannot keep you from your death:
Farewell," said Barbara Allen.
9 He turned his face unto the wall,
And deadly pains he fell in:
"Adieu, adieu, adieu to all,
Adieu to Barbara Allen."
10 As she was walking o'er the fields,
She heard the bell a-knelling;
And every stroke it seemed to say,
Unworthy Barbara Allen."
11 She turned herself around about
And spied the corpse a-coming:
"Lay down, lay down the corpse," said she,
"That I may look upon him."
12 With scornful eyes she did look down,
Her cheeks with laughter swelling;
While all her friends cried out amen, [1]
"Unworthy Barbara Allen!"
13 When he was dead and laid in grave,
Her heart was struck with sorrow:
"O mother, mother, make my bed,
For I shall die to-morrow.
14 "Hard-hearted creature him to slight,
He who loved me so dearly!
O had I been more kind to him,
When he was alive and near me!"
15 On her death bed as she did lay,
She begged to be buried by him,
And sorely repented of that day
That she e'er did deny him.
16 "Farewell, ye virgins all," she said,
"And shun the fault I've fell in;
Henceforward take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barbara Allen."
1 for "amain."