Barbara Ellen- Wagoner (NC) 1911 Brown Z
[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.
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.
Z. 'Barbara Ellen.' From the manuscript ballad book of Miss Lura Wagoner of Vox, Alleghany county, dated October 30, 1911.
1 It was the fall season of the year,
The yellow leaves were falling.
Sweet William was taken sick
For the love of Barbara Ellen.
2 He sent a message to the town,
The town where she was dwelling:
'Your true lover's sick and sent for you to come,
If your name be Barbara Ellen.'
3 Slowly, slowly she rose up
And slowly she went to him
And drew the curtain from around his bed:
'Young man, I think you are dying.'
4 'Yes, I'm low, I'm low,' says he,
'And death's in me dwelling;
But never better will I be
Till I get you, Barbara Ellen.'
5 'Don't you remember last Tuesday night.
The town where we were dwelling.
You treated all those ladies kind
But slighted Barbara Ellen?'
6 'Yes, I remember last Tuesday night.
The town where we were dwelling,
I treated all those ladies kind
And slighted Barbara Ellen.'
7 'Yes, you are low, you are low,' says she.
And death is in you dwelling.
And never better will you be
By getting me, Barbara Ellen.'
8 He turned his pale face to the wall;
She whirled her back upon him.
'Adieu, adieu to all my friends,
Adieu to Barbara Ellen.'
9 As she went walking down the town
She heard the death bells ringing ;
And as it rang it seemed to say
'Hard-hearted Barbara Ellen.'
10 She looked to the east, she looked to the west,
She saw his coffin coming.
'Lay down, lay down this fair young man
And let me gaze upon him.'
11 The more she looked the more she wept,
At last she burst out crying:
'Take away this fair young man,
For surely I'm dying.'
12 They carried him to the old church yard,
And there they buried him.
They buried his true lover by his side,
Whose name was Barbara Ellen.
13 'Mother, mother, go make my bed,
Make it both soft and narrow;
Sweet William died for me in love.
I'll die for him in sorrow.
14 'Father, father, go dig my grave,
Dig it both deep and narrow ;
Sweet William died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow.'
15 Out of his grave sprang a red rose
And out of hers a brier.
They tied together in a true love's knot,
The red rose and the brier.