Barbara Ellen- Thompson (NS) 1928 Mackenzie B
[From Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia - Page 39 by William Roy Mackenzie - 1928; version B, no date is given. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
(Child, No. 84)
Of the three Nova Scotia versions the first is based upon Child A, and the second and third are fairly good representatives of group B in Child, Version A, however, cannot be dismissed with the mere remark that it is based on Child A. It corresponds closely to that version in several stanzas, but in several others it departs for distant regions, charted and uncharted. To sum up the correspondence, first:-stanza 1 represents Child A, stanza 1; stanza 11, with a slight change, represents Child A, stanza 3; stanza 12 corresponds in its first line to Chitd A,'stanza 4, and then goes a-roving; stanzas 13, 14, and 18 correspond, respectively, to stanzas 5, 7, and 9 of Child A. Of the remaining 12 stanzas in my version A the most interesting - since they are the mist eccentric - are 4 and 10. As for stanza 4, it may possibly be accounted for by the amplified version of the Buchan MS., in which the dying-lover leaves the freights of nine ships to Barbara Allan, although there is no other evidence of connection with that version. As for stanza 10, it is a brief and strange excursion into the phraseology of "Sir Patrick Spens," or "Lord Derwentwater," or "Geordie." version A from Nova Scotia, take it for all in all, is a queer and unaccountable composite.
Versions B and C present no special difficulties. Version B roughly resembles Child Bd (Percy's Reliques), though it difiers in the following respects: it sends a letter, instead of a messenger, to Barbara Allan; it introduces the slighting of Barbara during the drinking of healths at the tavern, as in Child A;" it adds the rose-and-briar motive at the end. As for Version C, it is remarkably reminiscent of Child Bd; it retains "young Jemmye Grove" (slightly modified to "Young Jimmy Groves") as the lover, and in all other respects, except for the omission of a few stanzas, it corresponds closely to that version.
B. "Barbara Ellen." Contributed by Mrs. Willard Thompson, Cape John, Pictou County.
1 In Charlotte Town where I was born
There was a fair maid dwelling.
Every youth cried, "Well away!"
Her name was Barbara Ellen.
2 'T was very early in the spring,
When all flowers they were blooming,
A young man on his death bed lay
'For the love of Barbara Ellen.
3 He wrote a letter to the town,
To the town where she was dwelling;
He wrote it wide and wrote it long'
Addressed to Barbara Ellen.
4 Then slowly, slowly she arose,
Slowly she went to him,
When she got to his bedside
She said, "Young man, you're dying!"
5. "A dying man indeed I am,
One kiss from You will save me."
"One kiss from me you ne'er shall get
While your false heart is beating!"
6 She said, "Young man, do you forget,
While drinking at the tavern,
You drank success to all your friends,
And you slighted Barbara Ellen? "
? He turned his face to the wall,
And he began a sighing:
"Adieu, adieu to all my friends,
Adieu to Barbara Ellen!"
8 Slowly, slowly she arose,
And slowly she went from him,
And when she got two miles from town
She heard the death-bells tolling.
9 She turned to the east and to the west,
She saw the cold corpse coming
She begged the buriers to set him down
That she may gaze upon him.
10 She pressed the cold form to her heart
And she began a sighing,
All the words that she could say
Was, "God have mercy on him!
11 "Father dear, dig me a grave,
Go dig it deep and narrow!
My true love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow."
12 So in the churchyard they were laid,
Those two and only lovers.
On her grave there grew a rose,
On his there grew a briar.
13 They grew, they grew to the steeple's top,
Till they could grow no higher,
Then they formed a true love's-knot
For the lovers to admire.