Barby Ellen- McAtee (WV) 1916 Cox D
[From: Folk-Songs of the South- 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
16. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Child, No. 84)
Twelve variants have been found in West Virginia under various titles. A is a very close reproduction of Child B, stanza for stanza, with an added stanza at the end not found in Child; B, in general, follows Child B, with two stanzas at the beginning not found anywhere in Child; C, D, E, J, agree closely with Child A; the first three stanzas of E are like Child B, the next five, like Child A; the leaving of three rolls of money to Barbara in F indicates some connection with the ballad in Buchan's MS. Cf. Child II, 276, also West Virginia G 3; in H 2 the lover defends himself, an incident not found in Child; for similar stanzas in American texts, see Smith, p. 13; Journal, xix, 286; xix, 287; xxn, 63; Campbell and Sharp, p. 90; Wyman and Brockway, p. 5; McGill, p. 39; Pound, p. 9. In this connection it is interesting to note that one of the American texts makes the lover acknowledge the charge as a just one (Journal, xx, 256).
For American texts, in song-books and in oral circulation, see references in Journal, xxix, 160, Xxx, 317; Xxxv, 343. Add Focus, V, 282; Shoemaker, p. 107; Pound, No. 3; Bulletin, Nos. 6-10; Minish MS.
D. "Barby Ellen." Communicated by Mrs. Hilary G. Richardson, Clarksburg, Harrison County, 1916; obtained from Mrs. Nancy McDonald McAtee.
1 Early, early in the spring,
When green buds they was swelling,
This young Johnnie Green on his death bed lay
For the love of Barby Ellen.
2 He got hisself a waiting boy
To do his errants in dwelling;
He sent him down to Strawberry Town,
For to fetch him Barby Ellen.
3 So slow-li, slow-li she got up,
And so slow-li she drawed near him;
And all she said when she got there,
"Young man, I think you're dyin'."
4 "Yes, indeed, I know I am,
Cold death is on me dwellin';
And never better can I be,
Till I git Barby Ellen."
5 "Never better could you be,
If your own heart's blood was spillin' ;
Never better can you be,
For you'll never git Barby Ellen."
6 So slow-li, slow-li she got up,
So slow-li she did leave him.
7 "You remember the time in Strawberry Town,
Where we was all a-dwellin',
You treated all the pretty girls round
And slighted Barby Ellen?"
8 She hadn't got a mile from the place,
Till she heard the church bell tollin';
And all it seemed to say,
Be woe upon Barby Ellen!"
9 She looked to the east and she looked to the west,
And she seen the corpse a-comin':
"Set you down upon this road,
Till I git one kiss upon him." -
10 This young Johnnie Green died on one glad day,
Barby Ellen died to-morrow;
Johnnie Green died for the loss of his dear,
Barby Ellen died for sorrow.
11 Johnnie Green was buried in a churchyard,
Barby Ellen was buried close by;
And out of his breast grew a red, red rose,
And out of his 'n there grew a brier.
12 They grew till they came to the top of the church,
And couldn't git any higher;
And there they tied in a true-lover's knot,
The red rose round the brier.