Barbary Allen- Barbour (IL) 1933 McIntosh
[From Southern Illinois Folk Songs- McIntosh 1935, p. 14. Bronson No. 64.
Frances Barbour was one of McIntosh's leading informants.
R. Matteson 2015]
[Barbary Allen] Sung by Frances Barbour, Carbondale, Ill., 1933.
1. He sent his servant down to tell
The town where she was dwellin',
Saying, "Come, oh come, to my master's bed
If your name be Barbary Allen,
z. "For death is printed in his face,
And o'er his heart am stealin',
And none the better will he be
Till he sees Barbary Allen."
3. "If death be printed on his lips
And o'er his heart am stealin',
Then none the better will he be
While my name's Barbary Allen."
4. As she was walking in the fields,
She heard the death bells pealin',
And every stroke they seemed to say,
"Hard-hearted Barbary Allen."
5. She turned her body round and round
And spied the corpse a-comin'
Saying, "Let him down, oh let him down
That I may gaze upon him."
6. The more she looked the more she cried.
Her heart was filled with sorrow '
Saying, "Mother, oh Mother, go fix my bed;
I'm bound to die tomorrow."
7. Saying, "Mother, oh Mother, go fix my bed
And fix it soft and narrow;
Sweet William died for me to-day;
I'll die for him tomorrow."
8. From her breast there sprang a red rose;
From his there sprang a briar;
They climbed and climbed to the church steeple top,
And there they tied in a true lover's knot, the rose around the briar.