Barbara Ellen- Jenkins (WV) 1916 Cox B
[From: Folk-Songs of the South- 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
16. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Child, No. 84)
Twelve variants have been found in West Virginia under various titles. A is a very close reproduction of Child B, stanza for stanza, with an added stanza at the end not found in Child; B, in general, follows Child B, with two stanzas at the beginning not found anywhere in Child; C, D, E, J, agree closely with Child A; the first three stanzas of E are like Child B, the next five, like Child A; the leaving of three rolls of money to Barbara in F indicates some connection with the ballad in Buchan's MS. Cf. Child II, 276, also West Virginia G 3; in H 2 the lover defends himself, an incident not found in Child; for similar stanzas in American texts, see Smith, p. 13; Journal, xix, 286; xix, 287; xxn, 63; Campbell and Sharp, p. 90; Wyman and Brockway, p. 5; McGill, p. 39; Pound, p. 9. In this connection it is interesting to note that one of the American texts makes the lover acknowledge the charge as a just one (Journal, xx, 256).
For American texts, in song-books and in oral circulation, see references in Journal, xxix, 160, Xxx, 317; Xxxv, 343. Add Focus, V, 282; Shoemaker, p. 107; Pound, No. 3; Bulletin, Nos. 6-10; Minish MS.
B. "Barbara Ellen." Communicated by Miss Lalah Lovett, Bulltown, Braxton County, 1916; obtained from Miss Martha Jenkins, Valley Point, Preston County, who learned it from Miss Callie Long, Morgantown, Monongalia County.
1 In Scotland I was bred and born,
In London was my dwelling;
I fell in love with a pretty maid,
Her name was Barbara Ellen.
2 I courted her for months and weeks,
Hoping that I might gain her;
Although she solemnly replied,
No man on earth should have her.
3 'T was in the merry month of May,
The flowers and trees were swaying;
A young man on his death bed lay
For the love of Barbara Ellen.
4 He sent his servant to his home,
To the place of Barbara's dwelling:
"My master he doth call on thee,
If thy name be Barbara Ellen."
5 Slowly she put on her things,
And slowly she went to him;
And all she said, when she got there,
Was, "Young man, I think you're dying."
6 "And if it be for love of me
You're on your death bed lying,
But little better would you be
For the love of Barbara Ellen."
7 "Do you remember last New Year's Eve,
Way down at yonder dwelling,
You drank a toast to all around
And slighted Barbara Ellen?"
8 He turned his pale face to the wall,
As death was creeping on him :
"Farewell, farewell to all around,
And adieu to Barbara Ellen."
9 As she was walking in the fields,
She heard the bells a- tolling;
And every toll it seemed to say,
"O cruel Barbara Ellen!"
10 As she was walking in the street,
She saw the corpse a-coming:
"Lay down, lay down that corpse," she cried,
"That I may gaze upon him."
11. "Mother, mother, make my bed,
Make it soft and narrow;
For Willie was buried for me to-day,
And I'll die for him to-morrow."
12 One was buried in the high churchyard,
The other in the choir;
On one there grew a red rose bush,
On the other there grew a brier.
13 They grew and they grew to the high steeple top,
Till they could grow no higher;
And there they locked in a true-lover's knot,
For true lovers to admire.