Barb'ra Allen- Gaines (MS-TX) c1885 Dobie A
[From Dobie; Tone The Bell Easy, p. 146-148. His notes follow. According to Wilgus, Gaines recorded his version for Victor in 1930 and it was issued as Victor- V-40243.
R. Matteson 2015]
Bonny Barbara Allan
(Child, No. 84)
"Bonny Barbara Allan" is without doubt the most widely known Child ballad in America. Davis (op. cit., pp. 302 ff., gives thirty-six variants. He records collecting ninety-five items with this remark, "Her ninety-two Virginia progeny are something of a record achievement, certainly for a lady who, according to the ballad, scorned her lover. One is thankful she did not encourage him!" In recent years this ballad has been further popularized by phonograph records and radio singers.
A. "Barb'ra Allen" is sung by Newton Gaines, of Fort Worth. He learned it from his mother-in-law, Mrs. Lena Porter Jones, who came to Texas from Mississippi in the eighties. This version seems to be a combination of a number of Child variants of "Bonny Barbara Allan" and of three stanzas added from another ballad. Stanzas 1, 2,3 of Gaines are 1, 2, 3 of Child 84 B; 4 is 6 of Child B; 5 is 5 of Child A: 6 is 4 of Child A; 7, 8, 9 seem to be made from 17, 18, 19 of "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (Child 74 A). The "briar and rose" or "briar and birk" ending, however, occurs in most Child versions of "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" and "Lord Lovel." It occurs in no Child version of "Bonny Barbara Allan."
Dark and gloomy there was a town
Where three maids were dwelling,
And one of these I call my own;
Her name was Barb'ra Allen.
'Twas in the merry month of May
The birds were sweetly singin';
Sweet William on his deathbed lay
For the love of Barb'ra Allen.
They sent a message to her house,
They sent it to her dwelling,
"Sweet William's sick and sends for you
If your name be Barb'ra Allen."
Oh slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly, slowly did she go,
And all she said when she got there,
"Young man, I fear you're dying."
"Oh, don't you remember the other day,
'When seated in your tavern,
You drank a health to the ladies all
And slighted Barb'ra Allen?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sick, I'm very sick,
And death is near my dwelling.
f never more the time will see
If I can't get Barb'ra Allen."
Sweet William died on Saturday,
And Barb'ra died on Sunday.
And for the love and sake of both
Her mother died on Monday.
They buried William in one churchyard
And Barb'ra in another;
From William's breast there sprang a rose,
From Barb'ra's sprang a brier.