Barbara Allen- Johnson 2 (NC) 1940 Brown X
[From the Brown Collection; Volume 2, 1952. Some texts have music from Vol. 4 added. There are also several additional texts in Vol. 4. The Brown editors' notes follow.
The complete ballad reconstructed from the Brown notes is found at the bottom of this page.
R. Matteson 2015]
27. Bonny Barbara Allan (Child 84)
Of all the ballads in the Child collection this is easily the most widely known and sung, both in the old country and in America. Scarcely a single regional gathering of ballads but has it, and it has been published in unnumbered popular songbooks. See BSM 60-1. Mrs. Eckstorm in a letter written in 1940 informed me that she and Barry had satisfied themselves, before Barry's death, that as sung by Mrs. Knipp to the delight of Samuel Pepys in 1666 it was not a stage song at all but a libel on Barbara Villiers and her relations with Charles II; but so far as I know the details of their argument have never been published. The numerous texts in the North Carolina collection may conveniently be grouped according to the setting in three divisions: (1) those that begin in the first person of Barbara's lover (or at least of the narrator), (2) those that begin with a springtime setting, and (3) those that begin with an autumnal setting. Of course those in group 1 may also have either the springtime or the autumnal setting. The rose-and-brier ending is likely to be attached to any of the texts. The lover's bequests to Barbara, a feature not infrequent in modern British versions but unusual in America, appears once in the North Carolina texts, in F. The first person of the lover commonly is dropped after the opening stanza, but in F it holds through four stanzas. Not all of the texts are given in full.
X. 'Barbara Allen.' Johnson's second version differs from the first chiefly in the following particulars: It omits stanzas 4 and 5; in place of stanza 9 it has
She walked and walked on through the town,
She heard his death-bell ringing.
And every stroke they seem to say
'O cruel Barbara Allen !'
and stanzas 11 is less moralistic:
The more she looked the more she grieved.
She burst out crying, saying
'Pick me up and carry me home.
For I feel like I am dying.'
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 the 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 brier.
16 They grew to the top of the old church tower
Till they could grow no higher;
They wrapped and tied in a true love's knot;
The rose clung to the brier.
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Barbara Allen- Complete reconstruction. Version 2 from Obadiah Johnson of Crossnore, Avery county, in July 1940.
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 that she said when she got there:
'Young man, I think you're dying.'
4 'Do you remember in yonders town,
When we were all a-drinking,
You handed wine to the ladies all
But you slighted Barbra Allen.'
5 '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.'
6 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.'
7 She walked and walked on through the town,
She heard his death-bell ringing.
And every stroke they seem to say
'O cruel Barbara Allen!'
8. She looked to the east, she looked to the west,
She saw his cold corpse coming.
'Hand me down, hand down that corpse of clay
That I may gaze upon him.'
9 The more she looked the more she grieved.
She burst out crying, saying
'Pick me up and carry me home.
For I feel like I am dying.'
10. '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.
11 '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.'
12 Sweet William died on Saturday eve
And Barbra died on Sunday;
Her mother died for the love of both;
She died on Easter's Monday.
13 They buried William in one church yard
And Barbra in another;
And from his grave there sprang a rose
And from her grave a brier.
14 They grew to the top of the old church tower
Till they could grow no higher;
They wrapped and tied in a true love's knot;
The rose clung to the brier.