Barbry Ellen- Minnick (AR) 1951 Parler U
[From Ozark Collection (No. 24); Collected by Irene Carlisle; Reel 115 Item 1.
R. Matteson 2015]
BARB'RY ELLEN - Mrs. Betty Minnick and her sister Mrs. Mary Briscoe of High, Arkansas on May 1, 1951.
"Sweet Willie's sick, and very sick,
And sent for you, Barb'ra Ellen[1];
No better will he ever be
If he don't get Barb'ry Ellen."
So slowly, slowly she arose,
And slowly she went traveling;
And all she said when she got there:
"Young man, I think you're a-dying."
"I know I'm sick, and very sick,
And death is on me dwelling;
No better will I ever be,
If I don't get Barbro Allen."
"Don't you recollect that long summer day,
"While we was setting at the tavern,
You passed the wine to the ladies all around;
You slighted Barb'ry Allen."
"Yes, I recollect that long summer day,
While we was sitting at the tavern;
I passed the wine to the ladies all around;
Give my heart to Barbry Allen."
She turned herself around and about;
She came downstairs a-smiling,
Saying, "I might 'a' saved that young man's life,
If I had been a-trying."
He turned his pale face up to the wall,
And he bursted out to crying,
Saying, "I will die with pure hard love;
Barb'ry Ellen shall die with sorrow."
She had not got one mile from town
Till she heared the death-bell a-ringing;
with ever' stroke it seemed to say,
"Hard-hearted Barb'ry Ellen!"
She had not got three miles from town
Till she spied the corpse a-coming;
"Go bring him here and lay him down,
And let me look upon him."
The more she looked, the harder she looked,
And she bursted out to crying;
"Sweet William died for me today,
And I shall die tomorrow."
"Oh, Willie died on Saturday night;
Barb'ra Ellen on Easter Sunday;
The good old mother for the sake of the both,
She died on Easter Monday."
They planted a rose at Willie's feet,
And a briar at Barbro Ellen's;
They growed till they tied in a true-love's knot,
The rose and the briar.
1. She sings the name a variety of different ways.