Volume 2 — 84 BONNY BARBARA ALLAN
Reading edition
A. a. 'Bonny Barbara Allan,' Tea-Table Miscellany, IV, 46, ed. 1740; here from the edition of London, 1763, p. 343. b. 'Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allan,' Percy's Reliques, 1765, III, 131.
B. a. 'Barbara Allen's Cruelty,' etc., Roxburghe Ballads, II, 25; reprint of the Ballad Society, III, 433. b. Roxburghe Ballads, III, 522. c. Broadside formerly belonging to Percy. d. Percy's Reliques, 1765, III, 125.
C. 'Barbara Allan,' Motherwell's MS., p. 288, from recitation.
A a is wrongly said by Stenhouse, The Scots Musical Museum, IV, 213, to have appeared in Ramsay's Miscellany in 1724. It is not even in the edition of 1733, but, according to Mr Chappell, was first inserted in that of 1740. Ramsay's copy is repeated in Herd, 1769, p. 29, 1776, I, 19, Johnson's Museum, p. 230, No 221, and Ritson's Scotish Song, II, 196. C was perhaps derived from Ramsay, but possibly may have come down by purely oral tradition. Some later copies of B have Reading Town for Scarlet Town (Chappell).
The Scottish ballad is extended in Buchan's MSS, I, 90, Motherwell's MS., p. 671, to forty-one stanzas. In this amplified copy, which has no claim to be admitted here, the dying lover leaves his watch and gold ring, his Bible and penknife, a mill and thirty ploughs, nine meal-mills and the freights of nine ships, all to tocher Barbara Allan. This is the ballad referred to by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe in Stenhouse's edition of the Museum, IV, 300*, as sung by the peasantry of Allandale. Doubtless it was learned by them from some stall-print.
Pepys makes this entry in his Diary, January 2, 1666: "In perfect pleasure I was to hear her [Mrs Knipp, an actress] sing, and especially her little Scotch song of Barbary Allen." Goldsmith, in his third essay, 1765, p. 14, writes: The music of the finest singer is dissonance to what I felt when an old dairy-maid sung me into tears with 'Johnny Armstrong's Last Good-night,' or 'The Cruelty of Barbara Allen.'[143]
A b is translated by Loève-Veimars, p. 379, von Marées, p. 34; B d by Bodmer, I, 85.
A
a. The Tea-Table Miscellany, IV, 46, ed. 1740; here from the London edition of 1763, p. 343. b. Percy's Reliques, III, 131, ed. 1765, "with a few conjectural emendations from a written copy."
1 It was in and about the Martinmas time, When the green leaves were a falling, That Sir John Græme, in the West Country, Fell in love with Barbara Allan. 2 He sent his men down through the town, To the place where she was dwelling: 'O haste and come to my master dear, Gin ye be Barbara Allan.' 3 O hooly, hooly rose she up, To the place where he was lying, And when she drew the curtain by, 'Young man, I think you're dying.' 4 'O it's I'm sick, and very, very sick, And 'tis a' for Barbara Allan:' 'O the better for me ye's never be, Tho your heart's blood were a spilling. 5 'O dinna ye mind, young man,' said she, 'When ye was in the tavern a drinking, That ye made the healths gae round and round, And slighted Barbara Allan?' 6 He turnd his face unto the wall, And death was with him dealing: 'Adieu, adieu, my dear friends all, And be kind to Barbara Allan.' 7 And slowly, slowly raise she up, And slowly, slowly left him, And sighing said, she coud not stay, Since death of life had reft him. 8 She had not gane a mile but twa, When she heard the dead-bell ringing, And every jow that the dead-bell geid, It cry'd, Woe to Barbara Allan! 9 'O mother, mother, make my bed! O make it saft and narrow! Since my love died for me to-day, I'll die for him to-morrow.'
B
a. Roxburghe Ballads, II, 25; reprint of the Ballad Society, III, 433. b. Roxburghe Ballads, III, 522. c. A broadside formerly belonging to Bishop Percy, d. Percy's Reliques, 1765, III, 125.
1 In Scarlet Town, where I was bound, There was a fair maid dwelling, Whom I had chosen to be my own, And her name it was Barbara Allen. 2 All in the merry month of May, When green leaves they was springing, This young man on his death-bed lay, For the love of Barbara Allen. 3 He sent his man unto her then, To the town where she was dwelling: 'You must come to my master dear, If your name be Barbara Allen. 4 'For death is printed in his face, And sorrow's in him dwelling, And you must come to my master dear, If your name be Barbara Allen.' 5 'If death be printed in his face, And sorrow's in him dwelling, Then little better shall he be For bonny Barbara Allen.' 6 So slowly, slowly she got up, And so slowly she came to him, And all she said when she came there, Young man, I think you are a dying. 7 He turnd his face unto her then: 'If you be Barbara Allen, My dear,' said he, 'come pitty me, As on my death-bed I am lying.' 8 'If on your death-bed you be lying, What is that to Barbara Allen? I cannot keep you from [your] death; So farewell,' said Barbara Allen. 9 He turnd his face unto the wall, And death came creeping to him: 'Then adieu, adieu, and adieu to all, And adieu to Barbara Allen!' 10 And as she was walking on a day, She heard the bell a ringing, And it did seem to ring to her 'Unworthy Barbara Allen.' 11 She turnd herself round about, And she spy'd the corps a coming: 'Lay down, lay down the corps of clay, That I may look upon him.' 12 And all the while she looked on, So loudly she lay laughing, While all her friends cry'd [out] amain, 'Unworthy Barbara Allen!' 13 When he was dead, and laid in grave, Then death came creeping to she: 'O mother, mother, make my bed, For his death hath quite undone me. 14 'A hard-hearted creature that I was, To slight one that lovd me so dearly; I wish I had been more kinder to him, The time of his life when he was near me.' 15 So this maid she then did dye, And desired to be buried by him, And repented her self before she dy'd, That ever she did deny him.
C
Motherwell's MS., p. 288; from Mrs Duff, Kilbirnie, February 9, 1825.
1 It fell about the Lammas time, When the woods grow green and yellow, There came a wooer out of the West A wooing to Barbara Allan. 2 'It is not for your bonny face, Nor for your beauty bonny, But it is all for your tocher good I come so far about ye.' 3 'If it be not for my comely face, Nor for my beauty bonnie, My tocher good ye'll never get paid Down on the board before ye.' 4 'O will ye go to the Highland hills, To see my white corn growing? Or will ye go to the river-side, To see my boats a rowing?' 5 O he's awa, and awa he's gone, And death's within him dealing, And it is all for the sake of her, His bonnie Barbara Allan. 6 O he sent his man unto the house, Where that she was a dwelling: 'O you must come my master to see, If you be Barbara Allan.' 7 So slowly aye as she put on, And so stoutly as she gaed till him, And so slowly as she could say, 'I think, young man, you're lying.' 8 'O I am lying in my bed, And death within me dwelling; And it is all for the love of thee, My bonny Barbara Allan.' 9 She was not ae mile frae the town, Till she heard the dead-bell ringing: 'Och hone, oh hone, he's dead and gone, For the love of Barbara Allan!'
A. b.
13. o the.
44. a wanting.
51. Remember ye nat in the tavern, sir.
52. Whan ye the cups wer fillan.
53. How ye.
64. And wanting.
71. Then hooly, hooly.
72. And hooly, hooly.
82. deid-bell knellan.
83. that wanting.
84. It wanting.
94. I 'se.
B. a.
Barbara Allen's Cruelty, or, The Youngman's Tragedy. With Barbara Allen's Lamentation for her Unkindness to her Lover and her Self.... Printed for P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare, J. Back. Black Letter.
134. undone we.
b.
Barbara Allen's Cruelty, or, The Young Man's Tragedy. No name of printer.
13. for my own.
22. they were.
24. the sake of.
34. name is.
44. thy name is.
53. Then wanting.
61. she came to him.
63. came to him.
64. a wanting.
72. you are.
74. As I am on my death-bed lying.
81. If you are on your death-bed lying.
83. from your.
84. Then farewell: said wanting.
92. on him.
93. and wanting: to you all.
101. And wanting: out one day.
102. bells.
103. And they.
112. And saw.
113. corps said she.
123. cry'd out.
131. in his.
134. will quite undo me.
141. A wanting.
143. more kind.
144. In time of life.
153. eer.
16. As she was lying down to die, A sad feud she fell in; She said, I pray take warning by Hard-hearted Barbara Allen.
c.
Title the same as in a. Printed and sold at the Printing-office in Bow-Church-Yard, London.
13. for my own.
22. they wore.
34. name is.
43. And thou.
44. thy name is.
53. O little.
61. she came to him.
63. came to him.
64. a wanting.
72. you are.
74. As I am on my death-bed lying.
83. from your.
84. Then farewell: said wanting.
92. on him.
93. to you all.
101. And wanting: out one day.
102. bells.
103. And they.
112. And espy'd.
113. corps said she.
123. cry'd out.
134. will quite undo me.
141. A wanting.
143. more kind.
144. In time of life.
154. eer.
16 as in b.
d was "given, with some corrections, from an old printed copy in the editor's possession." That these corrections were considerable, we know from the [asterism] at the end. The old printed copy is very likely to have been c, and, if so, the ballad was simply written over. It does not seem necessary to give the variations under the circumstances. In 23 Percy has Yong Jemmye Grove.
C.
21. bonny should perhaps be comely, as in 31.
42. Originally written To see my white... courting.
52. Originally dwelling.
53. Originally it's.
54. The is written over His, probably as a conjecture.
72. After stoutly, slowly? as a conjectural emendation.
74. lying. 'An ingenious friend' of Percy's suggested the transposition of lying and dying in A 32, 4.