Mary Alling- Degreenia (VT-CT) pre1932 Flanders E
[From Flanders; Ancient Ballads 1961, notes by Coffin follow. This version is one of the few with a name other than Barbara.
R. Matteson 2015]
Barbara Allen
(Child 84)
In America, "Barbara Allen" has the widest geographical spread and overall currency of any ballad. It is not quite so popular in Britain, in spite of the well-known comments by Samuel Pepys and Oliver Goldsmith concerning its excellence. Nor are there Western or Northern European analogues, although a Spanish romance treats the same theme (certainly not a unique one) and a Serbian song (see WF VIII, 371); is strikingly similar. The ultimate source of the Anglo-American texts has never been located, nor has James Graeme, the hero of the Scottish tradition, been identified "Barbara Allen" has a tradition in print, on broadsheets in song books, on the stage, that is particularly vigorous across Britain and America. As a result, the plot of the spiteful girl and the unhappy lover is much the same wherever the song is found. Nevertheless, all sorts of minor variations have crept into the texts. The ballad may open in the spring or at Martinmas; the lover's name may be William, James, David, etc., etc.; he may give Barbara gift as he dies; he may curse her; she may curse him; she may blame her parents for the whole mess; and so forth. Frequently, at least in this country, the song ends with a cliche: the "rose and briar" Stanza, the "turtle-dove" Stanza or a warning to "ye virgins all." Detailed discussions of the local texts are given by most editors. The best are in Arthur K. Davis' Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 302-4; in C. A. Smith's treatment the song in Musical Quarterly, II, 109; and in W. Roy MacKenzie's Ballads and Sea-Songs from Nova Scotia (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), 35. Coffin, 89-90, also gives a list of interesting variations that have occurred in the American texts. From such discussions one can see that the "rose-briar" ending (Flanders E-G), nor found in child, and the references to the tavern toasts in which Barbara was slighted (most of the Flanders texts) are the characteristic New World traits.
Flanders A-C follow Child A in the Martinmas opening and the hero's name. undoubtedly such texts stem from the Scottish tradition represented in J. S. Locke's Forget-Me-Not Songster, printed in Boston and known all over the Northeast. Flanders D f. are of the child B, a seventeenth-century broadside, type. This is the most widespread form of the song. The basin of blood and the gifts offered by the dying man to Barbara (see Flanders D, F, and G, for example) are not in Child B, though common enough in the northern American regions. As the song has been frequently localized, it is likely that Flanders E, entitled "Mary Alling," recalls some nineteenth-century belle. In a similar way, Flanders O may reflect local events. Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 200, notes a tale told around Newburg, Vermont, about a certain Barbara Allen who was jilted by her lover in favor of a girl he described as an "angel without wings." The Flanders H 1-3 and K 1-2 series offer interesting comparisons for the study of ballad variations and transmission. Flanders J, where the lover points to the basin where he "threw up" his heart's blood, teeters on comedy. And L, mentioning the Christmas Day Kissing, is unique.
Any song as popular as "Barbara Allen" will have many uses. Benjamin A. Botkin, American Play-Party Song (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1837), 58, cites its development as a game song. Coffin, 87-88 (American); Dean-Smith, 51, and Belden, 60-61 (English); and Greig and Keith, 67-70 (Scottish) give one a start on an extensive bibliography of texts from oral tradition. See Kitredge's notes in JAF, XXIX, 160-61, and XXX, 3I7, for song book and broadside references. Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 195-200, includes it.
With the exception of the Smith tune, all of the tunes for Child 84 are related. They can be subdivided as follows: 1) Richards, Degreenia, Reynolds; 2) Barlow; 3) Sullivan, Wilson, Armstrong, Halvosa, Fairbanks (which is also related to the Richards group, see end of line 1); 4) Bush; 5) Merrill; and 6) Braid, which is also close to the Sullivan group, at the beginning. Of the great multitude of related tunes, only a selected few, rather closely related ones are given. Relations are found for groups I and 4 to a greater extent than for the others.
E. Mary Alling. As sung by Oscar Degreenia in West Cornwall, Connecticut, to H. H. F. and Mrs. H. S. Beat. His parents sang many songs to their children-eight of them, when they lived in a log house at Barton, Vermont. Mr. Degreenia moved to
West Cornwall seventeen years ago. Printed in Ballads Migrant in New England, 197. H. H. F., Collector; May 16, 1949
Structure: AB CD (2,2,2,2); Rhythm Band C but divergent; Contour: arc; Scale: major t.c. G. For mel. rel. see FCB4, 59(A) (4).
Mary Alling
'Twas early in the springtime of the year
When all the flowers were blooming
A young man on his dying bed
In love with Mary Alling.
Slowly she rose, slowly she rose
And slowly she went to him.
When she got there, "Young man," she said,
"I really think you're dying."
"A dying man I am not yet.
One kiss from you would save me."
"One kiss from me you never shall have
If your heart was really a-breaking.
"Do you remember in the dancing hall
When all the music were ringing
You danced around with all the rest
And slighted Mary Alling?"
"Do you remember to your father's house
To a place called dwelling
You drank your wine with all the rest
And slighted Mary Alling?"
"You look to the head of my bed;
There is a napkin hanging.
Into it is my gold watch and chain.
It's all for Mary Alling.
"You look to the side of my bed;
There is a basin standing.
It quite overflows with my heart's blood
I shed for Mary Alling."
As she was standing in her father's gate
She heard the church bell tolling
And every time the church bell tolled
It sounded, "Mary Alling."
As she was standing in her father's gate
She saw the hearse a-coming.
"Pull down, pull down that cold, cold corpse,
So I can gaze upon him."
And the more she gazed and the more she scorned
And the more she gazed upon him
Until the girls did all cry out,
"A shame on Mary Alling."
Unto her mother she did go
And unto her did say,
"O mother, mother, make my bed,
Go and make it long and narrow;
My true love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow."
Unto her father she did go
And unto him did say,
"O father, father, dig my grave,
Go and dig it long and narrow;
My true love died for me today,
I'll die for him tomorrow.''
And on his grave there grew a rose
And onto hers a briar.
They grew so tall, they grew so tall
And twined away together.