Barbry Allen- Larkin (IL) 1866 Musick
[The Old Album of William A. Larkin was published in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 60, No. 237 (Jul. - Sep., 1947). Larkin's original spelling was keep in all cases, some corrections in parenthesis appear to the right of misspelled words. Larkin's version starts with the rarely collected "Martimas" opening verse found in the broadside published in Boston in 1829:
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN [first verse only]- Broadside; Boston 1829; Sold Wholesale and Retail, by L. Deming corner of Merchant's Row & Market Square, Boston.
IT was in and about the Martimas time,
When the green leaves were a falling,
That Sir John Graeme in the west country
Fell in love with Barbara Allan.
This opening stanza is found, of course, in Child A: 'Bonny Barbara Allan,' Tea-Table Miscellany, IV, 46, ed. 1740 and the Boston broadside is a reprint of the 1740 version. Larkin's version has some stanzas not found in Child A which were printed in the Forget-Me Not Songster of c. 1844. Clearly Larkin's text was memorized directly or indirectly from the Forget-Me Not Songster (it was not copied from it) or possibly, tho less likely, from the tradition (source) of the Songster version. Similar versions of the Songster have been collected in the US, for example in Flanders A-C (Ancient Ballads).
Th seven ships stanza (Larkin's 4th and printed in the Songster) appears to be traditional in Scotland by the 1830s and it appears in a corrupt form in Child C (c. 1823) and more exactly in Buchan's MS (c.1830). It's also referenced by C.K. Sharpe-- although it's possible Sharpe may be referring to Buchan's MS, which Motherwell also had a copy.
R- Matteson 2012, 2015]
From: The Old Album of William A. Larkin
by Ruth Ann Musick
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 60, No. 237 (Jul. - Sep., 1947), pp. 201-251
William Larkin as a Young Man
Barbry Allen[17] No 6th Written By / William A / Larkins Aprill the 25th / A D 1866
I. It fell about the martimus day
When the green leaves they were afalling
Sir James Graham in the west country
Fell in love with barbry allen
2. She was a fair and comely maid
And a maid nigh to his dwelling
Whitch made him to admire the more
The beauty of Barbry allen
3. Oh whats thy name my bony maid
Or where has though thy dwelling
She answered him right modestly
My name is barbry allen
4. Oh see you not your own ships
So bonny as they are asailing
I will make you mistress of them all
My bonny barbry all (Allen)
5. But they fell out apon a day
At the wine as they were adrinking
He tossed the glasses around andabout
And slighted barbry allen
6. Oh she has taken it so ill
That she would no more look on him
And for all the letters he could send
Still swore she never would have him
7. Oh if I had aman a man
A man within my dwelling
That will write a letter with my blood
And cary to barbry allen
8. Desire her to come withe speed
For I am at the dying
And speake one worde to her true love
For I will dy for barbry allen
9. His man is off with all his speed
To the place where she is dwelling
Here is aletter from your master dear
If your name be barbry allen
10. Oh when she looked the letter apon
with a loud laughter gide she
But ere she read the letter through
the tears had blinded her eyes
11. Oh slowly slowly rose she up
And slowly gaded to him
And slightly drew the curtains by
Young man I think your are a dying
12. Oh I am sick and very sick
And my heart is at the breaking
One kiss or two from thy sweet mouth
Would keep me from the dying
13. Oh minde you not young man said she
When you sat in the tavern
You made the health go round and a bout
And slighted barbry allen
14. And slowly slowly rose she up
And slowly slowly left him
And sighing said she would not stay
Since death of life had left him
15. She had not gone a mile from town
Till she heard the death bell knelling
And every knell that death bell gave
Was woe to barby allen
I6. Now when the virgin heard the same
Sure she was grately troubed
When in the coffin his corpse she viewed
Her sorrow was all doubled
17. What has though died for me she cried
Let all true lovers shun me
To lots I may this sadly say
That death has quiet undone me
18. Oh mother mother make my bed
And make it soft and narrow
Since my love died for me to day
I will dye for him to morrow
I9. The very last words that ever she spoke
She beged to be beryed by him
Repenting of that sorrowful day
That ever she denied him
20. Its out ove her grave there gowed a red rose (growed)
And out ove his a brier
They growed and tyed in a truelover not
And could not grow any hier (higher)
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Notes by Musick: 17 Barbara Allen (Child No. 84) is perhaps the most popular of all the old ballads, and appears in almost every collection. Its wide occurrence can be charted in Child, and in such representative American collections as Belden, Sharp, Randolph, Barry-Eckstorm-Smyth (British Ballads from Maine), and Davis (Traditional Ballads of Virginia).