Barbara Allen (song)

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"The Ballad of Barbara Allen", also known as "Barbara Ellen", "Barb'ry Allen", "Barbriallen", etc., is a folk song known in dozens of versions. It has been classified as Child Ballad 84. The author is unknown, but the song may have originated in England, Ireland or Scotland.

Colin Meloy, Joan Baez, Shirley Collins, Doris Day, The Everly Brothers, John Travolta, Pete Seeger, John Jacob Niles, Bob Dylan, Thomas Baynes, Michael Hurley, Art Garfunkel, The Grateful Dead, Eddy Arnold and many others have recorded the song.

Most versions of "Barbara Allen" can be summarised thus: a young man is dying of unrequited love for Barbara Allen; she is called to his deathbed but all she can say is, 'Young man, I think you're dying.' When he dies, she is stricken with grief and dies soon after. Often, a briar grows from her grave and a rose from his, until they grow together.

Not surprisingly, given that this is a ballad of unknown age and origin, largely passed down orally, the details of the story vary significantly in different printed and recorded versions. The setting is usually in the fictitious Scarlet Town (possibly a pun on the English town of Reading, pronounced "redding"), although London town and Dublin town are also popular. The action usually takes place "in the merry month of May" although some versions place it in the autumn. The young man who dies of a broken heart is usually called Sweet William or some slight variant such as young Willie Grove, sweet Willie Graeme. In other versions the name is Sir John Graeme. The version printed below calls him Jemmye Grove. Some longer versions of the ballad explain Barbara's "cruelty" by saying that she (mistakenly) believed that the young man slighted her first.

The ballad of Barbara Allen was first printed in England in 1780 but had existed in oral versions at least a century before that date. The first known reference to the song has been found in Samuel Pepys' diary[1] for 1666. The ballad was first printed in the United States in 1836.

1 Uses in Popular Culture
2 One version
3 Media
4 External links

[edit] Uses in Popular Culture

The first verse was sung by Porky Pig, in the character of Friar Tuck, in the 1958 Warner Bros. cartoon "Robin Hood Daffy". Much of the song is sung throughout the 1951 film classic "Scrooge," starring Alastair Sim, which many consider to the best of the film versions of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." It is also sung in the 1940 movie, "Tom Brown's School Days."

In the stage play "Dark of the Moon" by Howard Richardson and William Berney, as a reference to the influence of English, Irish and Scottish folktales and songs in the Appalachian region, the name of the female lead is Barbara Allen.

[edit] One version

In Scarlet towne, where I was borne,

There was a faire maid dwellin,

Made every youth crye wel-awaye !

Her name was Barbara Allen.

All in the merrye month of May,

When greene buds they were swellin,

Yong Jemmye Grove on his death-bed lay,

For love of Barbara Allen.

He sent his man unto her then,

To the town, where shee was dwellin;

You must come to my master deare,

If your name be Barbara Allen.

For death is printed on his face,

And ore his harte is stealin:

Then haste away to comfort him,

O lovelye Barbara Allen.

Though death be printed on his face,

And ore his harte is stealin,

Yet little better shall he bee,

For bonny Barbara Allen.

So slowly, slowly, she came up,

And slowly she came nye him;

And all she sayd, when there she came,

Yong man, I think y'are dying.

He turnd his face unto her strait,

With deadlye sorrow sighing;

O lovely maid, come pity mee,

Ime on my death-bed lying.

If on our death-bed you doe lye,

What needs the tale you are tellin:

I cannot keep you from your death;

Farewell, sayd Barbara Allen.

He turnd his face unto the wall,

As deadlye pangs he fell in:

Adieu ! adieu ! adieu to you all,

Adieu to Barbara Allen.

As she was walking ore the fields,

She heard the bell a knellin;

And every stroke did seem to saye,

Unworthye Barbara Allen.

She turnd her bodye round about,

And spied the corps a coming:

Laye downe, laye downe the corps, she sayd,

That I may look upon him.

With scornful eye she looked downe,

Her cheeke with laughter swellin;

That all her friends cryd out amaine,

Unworthye Barbara Allen.

When he was dead, and laid in grave,

Her harte was struck with sorrowe,

O mother, mother, make my bed,

For I shall dye to morrowe.

Hard harted creature him to slight,

Who loved me so dearlye:

O that I had beene more kind to him,

When he was live and neare me !

She, on her death-bed as she laye,

Beg'd to be buried by him;

And sore repented of the daye,

That she did ere denye him.

Farewell, she sayd, ye virgins all,

And shun the fault I fell in:

Henceforth take warning by the fall

Of cruel Barbara Allen.

[edit] Media

Barbara Allen (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- A Florida State Prison recording of this song.
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.