Barbey Ellen- Proctor (TN) 1928 Henry B
[From Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands; Henry, 1938. His notes follow. This is a Hicks/Harmon version originally from North Carolina.
R. Matteson 2012]
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN. Child, No. 84.
This ballad was first printed in "The Tea-Table Miscellany," 1740, and next in Percey's "Reliques," I765. Reed Smith, No. 8, states ten texts have been discovered in South Carolina running from five to sixteen stanzas and declares, "Of all the ballads in America 'Barbara Allan' leads both in number of versions and number of tunes." He adds that it has appeared in ten song books and several broadsides. Cox, in his headnote, No. 16, says that twelve variants have been found in West Virginia. Campbell and Sharp, No. 21, give ten texts and ten tunes. C. Alphonso Smith quotes a Virginia version in "Ballads Surviving in the United States" (Musical Quarterly, 2, No. I, p. 120). James Watt Raine gives a Kentucky version of nineteen stanzas with tune in "The Land of the Saddle Bags" p. 115. Pound, No. 3, gives two versions, one from Missouri and one from North Carolina. See also Wyman and Brockway, p. 1; Adventure Magazine, March 10, 1925; ibid., March 10, 1926; New Jersey Journal of Education, Feb., 1927; Scarborough, 59; R. W. Gordon, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9, 1927; Josephine McGill, "Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains", 40; Mackenzie, "The Quest of the Ballad", 100; Reed Smith ("South Carolina Ballads", Harvard University Press, 1928), 129; Barry-Eckstrom-Smyth, p. 195; Belden, No. 7; Davis, No. 24 (ninety-two versions have been found in Virginia); Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 9; Barry, No. 22; Heart Songs, p. 247; Pound, Syllabus, p. 9; Sandburg, p. 57; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Shoemaker, p. 122 (2nd edition); Bradley Kincaid, Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old Time Songs, p. 14; Hudson, Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore, No. 13. Note also the following references to the Journal: Edmands, VI, 132; Belden, XIX, 285; Kittredge, XX, 256; Beatty, XXII, 63; Pound, XXVI, 352; Perrow, XXVIII, 144; Tolman, XXIX, 16o; Rawn and Peabody, XXIX, 198; Tolman and Eddy, XXXV, 343; Henry, XXXIX, 211; Hudson, XXXIX, 97; Henry, XLII, 268.
B. "Barbey Ellen." This version was recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Mrs. Hiram Proctor, Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, August, 1928. She learned it from her father, Mr. Samuel Harmon.
1. Way down South where I came from
Is where I got my learning.
I fell in love with a pretty little girl,
And her name is Barbey Ellen.
2. I courted her for seven years,
And I asked her if she would marry.
With a bowed down head and a sweet little smile,
She never made no answer.
3. Early along in the spring,
When the red roses were blooming,
A young man on his death bed lay
For the love of Barbey Ellen.
4. He sent his servant down to town
To a place where she was dwelling:
"My master is love-sick and sent for you,
If your name is Barbey Ellen."
5. She slightly talked and slowly walked
And slowly went unto him.
"Young man, young man, I heard you were sick,
For the love of me, your darling."
6. "Yes, I am sick, and very sick
And with me death is dwelling
And none the better will I be,
Till I get Barbey Ellen."
7. "Yes, you are sick, and very sick,
And with you death is dwelling,
But none the better will you be
While my name is Barbey Ellen.
8. "Don't you remember the other day
When we were all a-drinking,
You passed the glass to the ladies all around,
But you slighted me, your darling?"
9. "Yes, I remember the other day,
When we were all a-drinking:
I passed the glass to the ladies all around,
But all for you, my darling."
10. He turned his pale face to the wall,
His back he turned towards them:
"Adieu, adieu, to all this world,
But be kind to Barbey Ellen."
11. She had not rode five miles from town,
Till she heard the death bells ringing,
And every lick, it seemed to strike:
"Hard hearted Barbey Ellen."
12. She looked east, she looked west,
Till she saw the pale corpse coming:
"Lay him down, lay him down,
And let me look upon him."
13. The more she looked, the worse she got
Till she bursted out in crying:
"Young man, young man, you died for me,
I will die for you tomorrow."
14. They buried Sweet Willie in one church yard,
And Barbey in the other,
And out of Barbey's breast sprang a red, red rose,
And out of his a brier.
15. They grew and grew to such a length of height,
Till they could not grow no higher;
And there they tied in a true-lover's knot
And the rose run around the brier.