On 2nd March 2004 9.09 pm I posted about this on the subject "Origins of: Barbara Allen, is there a story?"

Perhaps I can be forgiven for repeating one parargraph:

"The last word on someone dying for love was possibly said by George Bernard Shaw. When a friend asked him if he knew of a case of someone dying for love, he replied that he had known a man who was deeply in love with a girl, and was rejected by her. His friend said "And did he die of it?" Shaw replied, "Yes, he did - fifty years later". (Probably an apocryphal story in my opinion)."

Perhaps we are in danger of taking this all a bit too seriously; after all it is an old folksong which even if based on an actual event has probably been greatly embellished or exaggerated. In the Peggy Seeger version (my favourite, though to be honest I have heard very few others) the man/wimp ("Sweet William") denies he slighted Barbar(y) Allen as he says "I drank a toast to the ladies round, and my love to Barbary Allen". Perhaps Barbara (aka "The Bitch") was too busy gossipping to hear. As this apparently happened "last Saturday night" he seems to have taken to his bed and pined away pretty quickly.

When over 100,000 people have died recently as a result of the tsunami in Asia, we should get a sense of perspective on these things.