Bonny Barbara Allen- Chatham (PA) c.1850s
[From: North Pennsylvania minstrelsy: as sung in the backwood settlements, hunting cabins and lumber camps in nothern Pennsylvania 1840-1910 (pub. 1919).
This version was sung by Walter S. Chatham, (1777-1855) no date given, but likely dates back to the 1700s. I've assigned a date of c. 1850 when John H. Chatham his grandson and the ballad source, may have learned the ballad.
R. Matteson 2012]
58— BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Sometimes Called "Barbara Ellen") -Sung by Walter S. Chatham, 1777-1855, Wayne Township, Clinton County. Recited by his grandson, John H. Chatham, born 1847, famous Bard of Central Pennsylvania.
In Reading town, when I was young,
There was a fair maid dwellin',
Made every youth cry, "well away!"
Her name was Barbara Allen.
All in the merry month of May,
When green buds they were swellin',
Young Johnny Grove on his death-bed lay,
For love of Barbara Allen.
He sent his man unto her then,
To the town where she was dwellin';
"You must come to my master dear,
If your name be Barbara Allen.
"For death is printed on his face,
And o'er his heart is stealin';
Then haste away to comfort him,
Oh, lovely Barbara Allen.
"Though death be printed on his face,
And o'er his heart is stealin',
Yet little better shall he be
For Bonny Barbara Allen."
So, slowly, slowly, she came up,
And slowly she came nigh him;
And all she said, when there she came,
"Young man, I think you're dying."
He turned his face unto her straight,
With deadly sorrow sighing;
"Oh, lovely maid, come pity-me,
I'm on my death-bed lying."
"If on your death-bed you do lie,
What needs the tale you're tellin';
I cannot keep you from your death;
Farewell," said Barbara Allen.
He turned his face unto the wall,
As deadly pangs he fell in:
"Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye to all,
Good-bye to Barbara Allen."
As she was walking o'er the fields,
She heard a bell a-knellin';
And every stroke did seem to say,
"Hard-hearted Barbara Allen."
She turned her body round about,
And spied the funeral coming:
"Lay down, lay down the corpse," she said,
"That I may look upon him."
With scornful eye she did look down,
Her cheeks with laughter swellin';
Whilst all her friends cried out aloud,
"Hardhearted Barbara Allen."
When he was gone, and laid in grave,
Her heart was struck with sorrow.
"Oh, mother, mother, make my bed,
For I shall die tomorrow.
"Hard-hearted creature him to slight
He who loved me so dearly:
Oh, that I had been more kind to him,
When he was alive and near me!"
She, on her death-bed as she lay,
Begged to be buried by him;
And sore repented of the days
That she did ere deny him.
"Farewell," she said, "ye friends of mine.
All shun the fault I fell in:
Henceforth take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barbara Allen."