The Love of Barbara Ellen- maid (WV) 1917 Cox H

The Love of Barbara Ellen- maid (WV) 1917 Cox H

[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.

H. "The Love of Barbara Ellen." Communicated by Professor C. E. Haworth,  Huntington, Cabell County, 1917; obtained by Miss Virginia Ranson from  Mrs. Ranson's maid, who had lived both in Kentucky and West Virginia.

1 "O do you remember down in town,
All down where you were drinking,
You drank the health to the ladies in the room,
And slighted Barbara Ellen?"

2 "O yes, I remember down in town,
All down where I was drinking,
I drank the health to the ladies in the room,
And love to Barbara Ellen."

3 She started to go down in town,
She heard the death bells ringing;
She looked due east and looked due west,
And saw the corpse a-coming.

4 Fold down, fold down, those linen white sheets,
And let me gaze upon him;
The more she looked, the more she loved,
And bursted out a-crying.

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5 They grew in height and grew in tall,
Till they could not grow no taller;
And lapped and tied in true-love's knots,
With the rose around the green brier.