Barbaree Allen- Pat Fyre (NC) 1945 Brown EE
[From the Brown Collection; Volume 2, 1952; with music in Part 4 added to Part 2. There are also several additional texts in Part 4. The Brown editors' notes follow. Text from Abrams Collection.
R. Matteson 2015]
27. Bonny Barbara Allan (Child 84)
Of all the ballads in the Child collection this is easily the most widely known and sung, both in the old country and in America. Scarcely a single regional gathering of ballads but has it, and it has been published in unnumbered popular songbooks. See BSM 60-1. Mrs. Eckstorm in a letter written in 1940 informed me that she and Barry had satisfied themselves, before Barry's death, that as sung by Mrs. Knipp to the delight of Samuel Pepys in 1666 it was not a stage song at all but a libel on Barbara Villiers and her relations with Charles II; but so far as I know the details of their argument have never been published. The numerous texts in the North Carolina collection may conveniently be grouped according to the setting in three divisions: (1) those that begin in the first person of Barbara's lover (or at least of the narrator), (2) those that begin with a springtime setting, and (3) those that begin with an autumnal setting. Of course those in group 1 may also have either the springtime or the autumnal setting. The rose-and-brier ending is likely to be attached to any of the texts. The lover's bequests to Barbara, a feature not infrequent in modern British versions but unusual in America, appears once in the North Carolina texts, in F. The first person of the lover commonly is dropped after the opening stanza, but in F it holds through four stanzas. Not all of the texts are given in full.
EE. 'Barbaree Allen.' One of the songs collected by Professors W. Amos Abrams and Gratis D. Williams of the Appalachian State Teachers College in 1945 from Pat Frye of East Bend, Yadkin county. See headnote to 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' G. Nine stanzas. Does not begin in the first person, and makes no mention of the time of year. She is overcome with remorse when she meets "them corpse." Rose-and-brier ending.
1. He sent his servant to the town,
Where his love were dwelling,
My master's sick and he sends for thee,
If your name be Barbaree Allen.
2. Oh slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly she went unto him,
These were the words she said to him,
"Young man I think you're dying.
3. "Oh don't you remember the other day,
When you're in town a-drinking,
You treated to the ladies all around,
You slighted Barbaree Allen.
4. "I do remember the other day,
When I's in town a-drinking
I treated to the ladies all around,
My respects for Barbaree Allen.
5. He turned his pale face to the wall,
He turned his back upon her,
"It's farewell, farewell all my friends,
Farewell Barbaree Allen."
6. She look-ed East, she look-ed west,
She saw them corpse a-coming,
Oh, lay him down by the cold-side clay,
That I may look upon him.
7. The further [1] she got, the more she wept,
She burst out in a-crying,
I might have saved this young man's life,
Hard-hearted Barbaree Allen.
8. Come mother now and make my bed,
Come make it soft and narrow,
Sweet William died for me today,
I'll died for him tomorrow.
9. Out of his grave growed a white rose,
And out of hern[2] a brier,
They growed and they tied in a true love's know,
The rose around the brier.
1. originally "fudder"
2. hers