Barbara Allen (3)- Eden Nash (Child 84)
[This is the third of three versions of Child No. 84, Barbara Allen, the most widely collected Child ballad.
R. Matteson 2014]
BARBARA ALLEN
1, In London City where I was raised
There used to be a dwelling.
I fell in love with a pretty fair maid,
Hen name was Barbara Allen.
2. He courted her for six long years;
She said she would not marry;
Sweet Willie went home at nine o'clock
And very likely died.
3. "Go write a note for Barbara Allen,
Go slow that she walks so slow,
So slow that she goes
Go tell him I am coming."
4. She went unto his own bedroom,
And stood and looked upon him,
He stretched to her his pale white hands,
Saying, "Won't you tell me howdy?"
5. "Its I am sick and very sick,
And on my death-bed lying,
One kiss or two from you ruby lips,
Will take away the dying."
6. "Not a kiss or two from me you get ;
Not if your heart were breaking,"
He turned his pale face to the wall,
And bursted out a-crying.
7. "Don't you remember when I saw you last?
It was at Mr. Allen's;
You passed a kiss to the rest of the girls,
But, slighted Barbara Allen.
8. "O no, O no, my pretty little miss,
I think you're mistaken
I passed a kiss to the rest of the girls,
But love for Barbara Allen.
9. As she tripped across the fields next day,
She heard the death bells ringing;
And every tone seemed to say,
"Hard-hearted Barbara Allen."
10. As she looked across tho lonely field
She saw the pale corpse coming :
"O bring him here and set, him down,
That I may look upon him, "
11. "Oh Father, Father, go dig my grave,
Go dig it long and narrow;
Sweet William died for the love of me,
And I must die tomorrow."
12. Sweet Willie was buried in the new churchyard,
And Barbara Allen beside him,
And at the foot of their two graves
Sprang a red rose and a brier.
13 . They grew unto the steeple top
And could get no higher;
They looped and tied in a true lover's knot,
The red rose and the brier.
The above version was obtained from Mrs. Eden Hash in 1940. She had it, among many other old songs, in faded writing on old and yellowed paper.