Barbara Allen- Easley (MS) pre-1926 (listed as Hudson B in 1926)
[From: Ballads and Songs from Mississippi by Arthur Palmer Hudson; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 39, No. 152 (Apr. - Jun., 1926), pp. 93-194. Version C in Folksongs of Mississippi, without stanza 8 and minor changes.
R. Matteson 2012]
[Stanzas 1-6 were taken from version A]
4. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Child No. 84.)
The second of Four texts. For other texts from the South, see Cox, No. 16; Campbell and Sharp, No. 21 ; Wyman and Brockway, p. I; Reed Smith, pp. 104--I16.
Version C- Barbara Allen. From MS. of Mrs. G. V. Easley, Tula, Mississippi, who has known it and sung it since she was a little girl. Like A (version B in 1936) as far as the sixth stanza. From the seventh some variations, and one additional stanza, as follows:
1. 'Twas in the pleasant month of May,
When the green leaves all were growing,
Sweet William on his death-bed lay
For the love of Barbara Allen.
2. He sent his servant to the town
Wherein she was dwelling,
Saying, "My master is sick and sends for you,
If you be named Barbara Allen."
3. And slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly went unto him,
And all she said when she got there,
"Young man, I think you're dying."
4. "O yes, I'm sick, I'm very sick,
And death's now on me dwelling,
And none the better I never will be
Unless I get Barbara Allen."
5. "O yes, O yes, you're very sick,
And death's now on you dwelling,
And none the better you never will be,
For you'll never get Barbara Allen."
6. He turned his pale face to the wall.
She turned her back upon him:
"Adieu, adieu to the friends all around,
And a woe to Barbara Allen."
7. Scarcely had she got one mile from town
When she heard the death bell knelling,
And every knell the death bell tells
Is a woe to Barbara Allen.
8. "Go bring him here and lay him down
And let me look upon him."
The longer she looked, the more she wept,
Till she bursted loud to crying:
9. "Go dig my grave both deep and wide;
Oh, dig it both deep and narrow;
Sweet William died for me in love,
I'll die for him in sorrow."
10. Sweet William was buried in the high churchyard
And Barbara by his side,
And out of his breast grew a blood-red rose,
And out of her bier a thorn.
11. They grew and they grew till they grew to the top,
And could not grow no higher.
They tied themselves in a true lover's knot
For all true lovers to admire.