Barb'ra Allen- (KY) 1909 Beatty JAF
[No informant named. From Some Ballad Variants and Songs by Arthur Beatty; The Journal of American Folklore,Vol. 22, No. 83 (Jan. - Mar., 1909), pp. 63-71. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Nos. I, II, IV-VIII were secured by Mr. Legare L. Oeland. I, II, IV, V, and VIII were taken down in Kentucky from oral recitation by Miss Cora Hylton of Cody, Knott County, Kentucky.
BARBRA ALLEN
'T was all in the merry month of May,
And the green buds they were swellin',
Young Jimmy Grew on his death bed lay
For the love of Barbra Allen.
He sent his servants to the town
To the place where she was dwellin';
Say master's sick and sends for you
If your name be Barbra Allen.
So slowly she got up
And slowly she drew nigh him,
And all she said when she got there,
" Young man, I think you're dyin'."
"O yes, O yes, I'm very sick,
Death is upon me dwellin',
No better, better shall I be
If I don't get Barbra Allen."
"Don't you remember the other day
When you were in town a drinkin',
You drank a health to the ladies all around,
And slighted Barbra Allen."
"0 yes, I remember the other day
When I were in town a drinkin';
I drank a health to the ladies all,
But my love to Barbra Allen."
He turned his pale face to the wall,
She turned her back upon him,
"Adieu, adieu to my friends all around,
Adieu to Barbra Allen."
When she got about a mile o' home
She heard the death bells knelling,
And every time they seemed to say,
"Hard-hearted Barbra Allen."
She looked to the east, she looked to the west,
She saw the corpse a comin',
Says, "Lay (lay) down, lay down this young man
That I may look upon him!"
The longer she looked the worse she felt;
She fell to the ground a cryin',
Saying, "If I'd done my duty to-day
I'd a saved this man from dyin'."
"0 mother, mother make my bed,
And make it long and narrow;
Young Jimmy died for me to-day,
I'll die for him to-morrow."
They buried her in the old church yard,
And buried him a-nigh her;
And out of her grave grew a red, red rose,
And out of his a brier.
They grew till they reached the high church tower,
They could not grow any higher,
And there they tied in a true love's knot,
The red rose and the brier.