Barbara Allen- Franklin (NC) 1929 Henry C
[From: Mellinger Henry, Songs from the Southern Highlands. Collected & edited By Mellinger Edward Henry, 1938 (Version C). His notes follow. This ballad was collected from Franklin's grandmother who only could remember part of it (See Henry D).
Also in Still More Ballads and Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands by Mellinger E. Henry; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 45, No. 175 (Jan. - Mar., 1932), pp. 1-176 where it is: Version A.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
4. BONNY BARBARA ALLAN. Child, No. 84.
A. "Barbara Allen". Recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Miss Mary Franklin, Crossnore, Avery County, North Carolina, July, 1929. This ballad was first printed in "The Tea-Table Miscellany," 1740, and next in Percey's "Reliques," I765. Reed Smith, No. 8, states ten texts have been discovered in South Carolina running from five to sixteen stanzas and declares, "Of all the ballads in America 'Barbara Allan' leads both in number of versions and number of tunes." He adds that it has appeared in ten song books and several broadsides. Cox, in his headnote, No. 16, says that twelve variants have been found in West Virginia. Campbell and Sharp, No. 21, give ten texts and ten tunes. C. Alphonso Smith quotes a Virginia version in "Ballads Surviving in the United States" (Musical Quarterly, 2, No. I, p. 120). James Watt Raine gives a Kentucky version of nineteen stanzas with tune in "The Land of the Saddle Bags" p. 115. Pound, No. 3, gives two versions, one from Missouri and one from North Carolina. See also Wyman and Brockway, p. 1; Adventure Magazine, March 10, 1925; ibid., March 10, 1926; New Jersey Journal of Education, Feb., 1927; Scarborough, 59; R. W. Gordon, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9, 1927; Josephine McGill, "Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains", 40; Mackenzie, "The Quest of the Ballad", 100; Reed Smith ("South Carolina Ballads", Harvard University Press, 1928), 129; Barry-Eckstrom-Smyth, p. 195; Belden, No. 7; Davis, No. 24 (ninety-two versions have been found in Virginia); Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 9; Barry, No. 22; Heart Songs, p. 247; Pound, Syllabus, p. 9; Sandburg, p. 57; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Shoemaker, p. 122 (2nd edition); Bradley Kincaid, Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old Time Songs, p. 14; Hudson, Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore, No. 13. Note also the following references to the Journal: Edmands, VI, 132; Belden, XIX, 285; Kittredge, XX, 256; Beatty, XXII, 63; Pound, XXVI, 352; Perrow, XXVIII, 144; Tolman, XXIX, 16o; Rawn and Peabody, XXIX, 198; Tolman and Eddy, XXXV, 343; Henry, XXXIX, 211; Hudson, XXXIX, 97; Henry, XLII, 268.
1. Early, early in the spring,
When the spring buds were a-swelling,
Sweet William Gray on his death bed lay
For the love of Barbra Allen.
2. He sent his servant to her town,
He sent him to her dwelling,
Saying, "Here's a message for the lady fair,
If your name be Barbra Allen."
3. Slowly, slowly she got up
And slowly she went to him
But all she said when she got there
Was, "Young man, I think you're dying."
4. "Oh, yes, I'm sick, I'm very sick,
And death is nigh me dwelling,
But never, no better will I ever be
Till I get Barbra Allen."
5. "Oh, yes, you're sick, you're very sick
And death is nigh you dwelling,
But never no better will you ever be
For you can't get Barbra Allen.
6. "Do you remember in yonders town
When we were all a-drinking,
You handed wine to ladies all,
But you slighted Barbra Allen ?"
7. "Yes, I remember in yonders town
When we were all a-drinking,
I handed wine to the ladies all,
But my love to Barbra Allen."
8. He turned his pale face to the wall;
He turned his back upon them:
"Adieu, adieu, fair friends, to all,
Be good to Barbra Allen."
9. Slowly, slowly, she got up
And slowly she went from him,
She had not gone but a mile in town,
Till she heard his death bell tolling.
10. She looked to the east, she looked to the west,
She saw his cold corpse coming:
"Hand me down, hand me down that corpse of clay,
That I may gaze upon him."
11. The more she gazed, the more she wept,
Till she burst out in sorrow:
"There is a young man that I could have saved,
If I had done my duty."
12. "Mother, O mother, go make my bed,
Make it both long and narrow;
Sweet William died for me today;
I'll die for him tomorrow.
13. "Father, O father, go dig my grave;
Dig it both long and narrow;
Sweet William died for me in love;
I'll die for him in sorrow."
14. Sweet William died on Saturday eve,
And Barbra died on Sunday;
Her mother died for love of both;
She died on Easter's Monday.
15. They buried William in one church yard,
And Barbra in another;
And from his grave there sprang a rose
And from her grave a briar.
16. They grew to the top of the old church tower
Till they could grow no taller;
They twined and twirled in a true love's knot;
The rose clung to the briar.