Barbara Allen- W. Franklin (NC) 1930 Henry D
[From Mellinger Henry, Songs from the Southern Highlands. Collected & Edited By Mellinger Edward Henry, 1938. His notes follow. See also version C, by her granddaughter.
R. Matteson 2015]
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
(Child, No. 84)
This ballad was first printed in The Tea-Table Miscellany, 1740, and next in Percy's Reliques, 1765. Reed Smith, No. 8, states ten texts have been discovered in South Carolina running from five to sixteen stanzas and declares that, "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. 1, 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 oj'Education, Feb., 1927; Scarborough, 59; R. W. Gordon, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9, 1927; Josephine McGill, Folk Songs oj the Kentucky Mountains, 40; Mackenzie, "The Quest of the Ballad," 100; Reed Smith {South Carolina Ballads, Harvard University Press, 1928), 129; Barry-Eckstorm-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, My 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, 160; Rawn and Peabody, XXIX, 198; Tolman and Eddy, XXXV, 343; Henry, XXXIX, 211; Hudson, XXXIX, 97; Henry, XLII, 268. Add Randolph, p. 183; Thomas, pp. 29, 94; Brown, p. 9; Jones, p. 13; Fuson, 47; PTFLS, No. 10, pp. 146—149.
D. Barbara Allen. Recorded in July, 1930, by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Mrs. William Franklin, also of Crossnore, N. C, and the grandmother of Miss Mary Franklin. Mrs. Franklin says that she learned the song when she was a child. It is worthy of note that the elder could remember only a portion of the song whereas her granddaughter knows a fairly complete text.
1. Early, early in the spring
Green buds were a-swelling.
There was a young man taken down sick
For the love of Barbara Allen.
2. Sent his servants to her town;
Sent them to her dwelling, saying,
"There's a young man taken down sick
For the love of Barbara Allen."
3. Slowly, slowly she got up,
Slowly she went to him, saying,
"Young man, you are very sick
And I think you are a-dying.
4. "Don't you remember in yonders town
We were a-drinking:
You hand a drink to all the young ladies
And slighted Barbara Allen?"
5. "Yes, I remember in yonders town
We were a-drinking:
I hand a drink to all the young ladies
And slighted Barbara Allen."
6. Slowly, slowly she got up,
Slowly she went from him.