Barbry Allen- Gregory (TN) 1949 Boswell
[From Folk Songs from Middle Tennessee, The Boswell Collection, 1997. Wolfe's notes follow.
R. Matteson, 2015]
Barbara Allen
By far the ballad collected most often in Tennessee is this account of Sweet William and his unforgiving lover, Barbara Allen. The Boswell collection contains no fewer than twelve versions, making it the most popular song in his archives; Edwin Kirkland's "A Check List of the Titles of Tennessee Folksongs" lists no fewer than thirty-three versions. It is generally considered the most
common of all traditional ballads nationwide; there are reports that it was sung during Colonial days, and Abe Lincoln sang it as a boy growing up in Indiana. Its earliest mention in English tradition comes from 1666, when Samuel Pepys mentions it in his Diary (January 2 and 6, 1666); it appears in Bishop Percy's Reliques in 1765, and in an essay by the poet William Goldsmith of about the same time; he describes a maid who sings the ballad about "Barbara Allen's Cruelty." By 1888 it was even found as a children's game song in New England (Newell). The full histories of the piece can be found in Child (number 84), Belden (60 ff.), Randolph (l:126 ff.), and Sharp and Karpeles (1:183 21 ).
Barbry Allen- from Martha Corwin Gregory of Brentwood, who sang it on July 14, 1949. She probably learned it from her maternal grandmother, a Latham. The Lathams were plantation owners in Carrollton, Alabama.
1. 'Twas in the merry month of May,
When all the flowers were a-blooming,
Sweet William on his death-bed lay,
For the love of Barbry Allen.
2. He sent his servant to the town,
To the place where she was a-dwelling,
And bid her quickly come to him,
If her name be Barbry Allen.
3. So she got up and went to him,
To the place where he was a-lying,
But ere she drawn the curtains back,
She said, " Young man, you're a-dying."
4. "Oh yes, I'm sick, I'm very sick,
And death is nigh me a-dwelling,
And I will never better get,
If I don't get Barbry Allen."
5. Says she, "Young man, don't you recollect,
When you sat at the tavern,
You drank a health to the ladies all around,
And slighted Barbry Allen."
6. Says he, "Oh yes, I do recollect,
'When I sat in the tavern,
I drank a health to the ladies all around,
But my love to Barbry Allen."
7. Says she, "Young man, you are very sick,
And death is nigh you a-dwelling,
And you will never better get,
For you won't get Barbry Allen."
8. So she got up and went away,
To the place where she was going,
But ere she'd gone three miles from town,
She heard the death bells tolling.
9. "Oh mother, oh mother, go dig my grave,
Dig it both deep and narrow,
My true love died for me today,
I will die for him tomorrow."
10. Sweet William died on a Saturday,
Fair Barbry on a Sunday,
And the good old mothers, for the love of both,
They died on an Easter Monday.
11. They buried Sweet William in the old churchyard,
Fair Barbry beside him,
And out of his grave grew a red, red rose,
And out of hers a briar.
12. They grew and grew to such an extent,
They could not grow any higher,
Then twined themselves in a true lover's knot,
The red rose and the briar.
13. They grew and grew to such an extent,
They could not grow any higher,
Then twined themselves in a true lover's knot,
The red rose and the briar.