Barbara Allen- Scott (NC) c1927 Brown F
[Undated, but c. 1927-28. From the Brown Collection; Volume 2, 1952; with music in Part 4 added to Part 2. There are also several additional texts in Part 4. The Brown editors' notes follow. Additional text from Abrams MS.
Stanza 7 is a rare "gift" stanza.
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.
F. 'Barbara Allen.' Secured by Julian P. Boyd while principal of schools at Alliance, Pamlico county, from Duval Scott, one of his pupils. Exceptional in that the first person of the lover is maintained through several stanzas and the lover makes a bequest to Barbara.
1 It was one morning in the month of May
When all the flowers were blooming,
I fell in love with a fair young girl;
Her name was Barbara Allen.
2 I courted her six months or more.
Was about to gain her favor;
'Oh wait! oh wait, oh wait!' she said.
'Some young man's gained my favor.'
3 I went right home, was taken sick.
And sent for Barbara Allen.
She came, she came, so slow she came
To see her true love dying.
4 When she came in, she said to me:
'Young man, you are a-dying!'
'One kiss, one kiss from your sweet lips
Would save me, Barbara Allen.'
5 'If I knew one kiss would kill you dead,
I would freely give you a hundred.'
He turned his face to the milk-white walls
And turned his back upon her.
6 'Do you remember the other day
When we were at the tavern?
You treated all those fair young girls
And slighted Barbara Allen.'
7 'When I am dead, look under my head
And you will find two rolls of money.
Go share it with those fair young girls,
And share with Barbara Allen.'
8 It was the next morning, when she woke up.
She heard those death bells ringing;
They rang so loud they seemed to say
'Hard-hearted Barbara Allen.'
9 She looked to the east, she looked to the west;
She saw the cold corpse coming.
'Oh, mother dear, come carry me home.
For now I am dying.
10 'Oh, mother, oh, mother, go make my bed!
Go make it high and narrow!
Today Sweet William died for love.
Tomorrow I'll die for sorrow.'
11 They buried him in one church yard
And Barbara in another.
From his grave there grew a rose,
And from hers there sprang a briar.
12 They grew, they grew to the steeple top
Till they could grow no higher;
They tied themselves in a true love knot,
The wild rose and the briar.