Barbary Ellen- Langille (NS) 1919 Makenzie C
[From The Quest of the Ballad, 1919 by William Roy Mackenzie; also from Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia - Page 39 by William Roy Mackenzie - 1928; version C. This version dates back a ways, no date is given.
Mackenzie: Version C, it is remarkably reminiscent of Child Bd; it retains "young Jemmye Grove" (slightly modified to "Young Jimmy Groves") as the lover, and in all other respects, except for the omission of a few stanzas, it corresponds closely to that version.
In 1919 it was Barberry Ellen. An excerpt from Quest follows.
R. Matteson 2015]
In the shame occasioned by this lapse in conduct she [Mrs Languille] was exceedingly anxious to make such atonement as lay within her power, and with this purpose in view she presently announced that she could remember part of an old song which her uncle used to sing for the women "when he was feelin' good-natured," and which was called "Barberry Ellen." I signified a willingness to listen, and she proceeded eagerly with the following version of "Barbara Allen," the most widely known and sung of all the surviving "English and Scottish popular ballads."
It was the very month of May,
And the green buds they were swelling.
Young Jimmy Groves on his death-bed lay
For the love of Barberry Ellen.
He sent his man down to the town
In the place where she was dwelling.
"Make haste and come to my master's house
If your name is Barberry Ellen."
Slowly, slowly she got up,
And so slowly she came nigh him.
"I cannot keep you from your grave.
Young man, I think you're dying."
He turned his back to her then,
A deadly swound he fell in.
He bid adieu to all his friends
And adieu to Barberry Ellen.
As she was walking in the plain
She heard the death-bell tolling.
And every stroke it seemed to say,
"O cruel Barberry Ellen."
As she was walking on the road
She met the corpse a-coming.
"Lay down, lay down the corpse," she said,
That I may look upon him."
The more she looked the more she laughed
For the love that he had for her,
While all of her friends cried out, "For shame,
O cruel Barberry Ellen."
When he was dead and laid in grave
Her heart was struck with sorrow.
"O mother, mother, make me a bed
For I will die tomorrow.
"Hard-hearted creature that I was,
Who loved me so dearly.
O that I had more kinder been
When he was alive and near me.
"Come young and old, both great and small,
And shun the fall I fell in.
Henceforth take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barberry Ellen."