Barbara Ellen- Starkey (WV) 1916 Cox C
[From: Folk-Songs of the South- 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow. This is much older than 1916.
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.
C. "Barbara Ellen." Communicated by Miss Lalah Lovett, Bulltown, Braxton County, 1916; obtained from Mrs. Cora Starkey, Harrison County, who learned it when a child from her parents; they learned it in Virginia from their parents, who were of English descent.
1 Early, early in the spring,
When the green buds were a-swelling,
Young Johnnie Green, from a foreign country,
Fell in love with Barbara Ellen.
2 This young man was taken sick,
And he lay in a low condition;
And all he said both night and day,
Was, "Send for Barbara Ellen."
3 They sent a servant to the town,
Where Barbara was a-dwelling:
"Arise you up and quickly go,
If your name be Barbara Ellen."
4 Slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly she drew nigh him;
And all she said when she got there,
Was, "Young man, I think you're dying."
5 "O yes, O yes, my pretty fair maid,
I lay in a low condition;
But one sweet kiss would comfort me,
Hard-hearted Barbara Ellen."
6 "Do you remember the long summer day,
Around the table gathered,
You treated all other pretty maids
And slighted Barbara Ellen?"
7 He turned his pale face to the wall,
He turned his back unto her:
"Adieu, adieu to all pretty maids,
And woe to Barbara Ellen."
8 As she went walking through the fields,
She heard the death bells ringing;
The more they rang they seemed to say:
"Hard-hearted Barbara Ellen."
9 As she looked east, as she looked west,
She spied the corpse a-coming:
"Lay down, lay down that ice-cold corpse,
Till I may look upon it."
10. She knelt down and kissed his cheek,
And then rose up a-smiling;
And all her friends cried out, "For shame,
Hard-hearted Barbara Ellen!"
11. "O mother dear, go make my shroud,
Go make it long and narrow;
Young Johnnie Green has died for love,
And I shall die for sorrow."
12. Young Johnnie was in the churchyard laid,
And Barbara laid beside him;
And out of her grave grew a bright red rose,
And out of his a green briar.
13 They grew up to the top of the church,
And then they could grow no higher;
And there they tied in a true-lover's knot,
For the sake of Barbara Ellen.