Barbara Allen- Delorme (VT-NY) 1879 Flanders C
[My date, assuming Delorme was 10 years old. The title is clearly wrong (I've left it). It should be Barbary Allen. From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin follow. It's odd that no music is provided for this version- which makes it even more suspicious. Delorme, besides being a traditional singer, knew ballads from print. Barry, Flanders mentor, supplied ballad texts to informants to spark their memories. Barry also required the tune to accompany the text- Olney, the collector, wrote down tunes.
This is very similar to Child A which is nine stanzas, only a few words have been changed.
R. Matteson 2015]
Barbara Allen
(Child 84)
In America, "Barbara Allen" has the widest geographical spread and overall currency of any ballad. It is not quite so popular in Britain, in spite of the well-known comments by Samuel Pepys and Oliver Goldsmith concerning its excellence. Nor are there Western or Northern European analogues, although a Spanish romance treats the same theme (certainly not a unique one) and a Serbian song (see WF VIII, 371); is strikingly similar. The ultimate source of the Anglo-American texts has never been located, nor has James Graeme, the hero of the Scottish tradition, been identified "Barbara A|len" has a tradition in print, on broadsheets in song books, on the stage, that is particularly vigorous across Britain and America. As a result, the plot of the spiteful girl and the unhappy lover is much the same wherever the song is found. Nevertheless, all sorts of minor variations have crept into the texts. The ballad may open in the spring or at Martinmas; the lover's name may be William, James, David, etc., etc.; he may give Barbara gift as he dies; he may curse her; she may curse him; she may blame her parents for the whole mess; and so forth. Frequently, at least in this country, the song ends with a cliche: the "rose and briar" Stanza, the "turtle-dove" Stanza or a warning to "ye virgins all." Detailed discussions of the local texts are given by most editors. The best are in Arthur K. Davis' Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 302-4; in C. A. Smith's treatment the song in Musical Quarterly, II, 109; and in W. Roy MacKenzie's Ballads and Sea-Songs from Nova Scotia (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), 35. Coffin, 89-90, also gives a list of interesting variations that have occurred in the American texts. From such discussions one can see that the "rose-briar" ending (Flanders E-G), nor found in Child, and the references to the tavern toasts in which Barbara was slighted (most of the Flanders texts) are the characteristic New World traits.
Flanders A-C follow Child A in the Martinmas opening and the hero's name. undoubtedly such texts stem from the Scottish tradition represented in J. S. Locke's Forget-Me-Not Songster, printed in Boston and known all over the Northeast. Flanders D f. are of the child B, a seventeenth-century broadside, type. This is the most widespread form of the song. The basin of blood and the gifts offered by the dying man to Barbara (see Flanders D, F, and G, for example) are not in Child B, though common enough in the northern American regions. As the song has been frequently localized, it is likely that Flanders E, entitled "Mary Alling," recalls some nineteenth-century belle. In a similar way, Flanders O may reflect local events. Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 200, notes a tale told around Newburg, Vermont, about a certain Barbara Allen who was jilted by her lover in favor of a girl he described as an "angel without wings." The Flanders H 1-3 and K 1-2 series offer interesting comparisons for the study of ballad variations and transmission. Flanders J, where the lover points to the basin where he "threw up" his heart's blood, teeters on comedy. And L, mentioning the Christmas Day Kissing, is unique.
Any song as popular as "Barbara Allen" will have many uses. Benjamin A. Botkin, American Play-Party Song (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1837), 58, cites its development as a game song. Coffin, 87-88 (American); Dean-Smith, 51, and Belden, 60-61 (English); and Greig and Keith, 67-70 (Scottish) give one a start on an extensive bibliography of texts from oral tradition. See Kitmedge's notes in JAF, XXIX, 160-61, and XXX, 3I7, for song book and broadside references. Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 195-200, includes it.
With the exception of the Smith tune, all of the tunes for Child 84 are related. They can be subdivided as follows: 1) Richards, Degreenia, Reynolds; 2) Barlow; 3) Sullivan, Wilson, Armstrong, Halvosa, Fairbanks (which is also related to the Richards group, see end of line 1); 4) Bush; 5) Merrill; and 6) Braid, which is also close to the Sullivan group, at the beginning. Of the great multitude of related tunes, only a selected few, rather closely related ones are given. Relations are found for groups I and 4 to a greater extent than for the others.
C. Barbara Allen. As sung by Mrs. Lily Delorme of Cadyville, New York. Mrs. Delorme was born in Schuyler Falls, New York, in 1869. Her father was born in Starksboro, Vermont; her mother, in Schuyler Falls. This ballad was learned in her childhood home. M. Olney, Collector December 4, 1941.
It was in about Martinmas time,
When the green leaves were a-falling
That Sir John Graham of the North Countries
Fell in love with Barbary Allen.
Now she is taken so ill out,
And she'll no more look on him,
And all the letters he can send,
She still vows she'll never have him.
"Oh, if I had a man, a man,
A man within my dwelling,
To write a letter in my blood,
And carry it to Barbary Allen."
Then slowly, slowly she up,
And slowly, slowly went to him
And softly moved the curtain aside,
Saying, "Young man' I think you're a-dying."
"Mind you not, young man," she said,
"When you were in the tavern a-drinking,
You made the health go 'round and 'round,
And you slighted Barbary Allen."
" 'Tis I am sick and very sick,
And it is for Barbary Allen,
But just one kiss from your sweet lips
Would keep me from a-dying."
Then slowly, slowly raised she up,
And slowly, slowly left him,
And sighing said she could not stay,
Since death of life had reft him.
But ere she got one mile from town,
She heard the death bell knelling,
And every knell that death bell tolled,
Was woe to Barbary Allen.
"O mother, mother, make my bed!
And make it soft and narrow!
Since my love died for me today
I'll die for him tomorrow."