Hi,

I'll be making some conclusions, after our brief discussion of Barbara Allen. According to Ed Cray who studied all the extant print versions and traditional versions up in the 1960s:

Conjecturally, the oldest texts are those which begin: "It fell about a Martinmas time /When the green leaves were a- fallin'." These "Martinmas" versions, more specifically the traditional Scottish variants represented by Child C, may contain a legacy motif where in the dying lover leaves Barbara a series of gifts, including a bowl of his heart's blood.

The "It fell about a Martinmas time" versions are represented by Child A and Child C. These are the "Scotch" versions, Child A was published in 1740, Child C was taken from tradition c. 1823 by Motherwell. We can assume by Pepys, however, that Mrs. Knipp's Scotch version "Barbary Allen" could be part of this group and bring the date to 1666. These versions include the gifts stanzas, found in traditional Child C and according to C.K. Sharpe, the gifts stanzas are traditional to the ballad and were found in Annadale.

The important stanza that establishes Barbra's motive for rejecting her dying love is part of the tradition of Child A:

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.

and not found in the broadside, Child B. We know that Child A is rarely found in tradition and the "It fell about a Martinmas time" is found in a few versions in the US and others have a fall setting - as does Child C which has the derivative, "Lammas". Martinmas would be Nov. 11 and represents the fall or harvest.

We know Child B, the English broadside, predates the 1740 version by at least 50 years. It begins with "In Scarlet Town" which is also "In Reading Town" and according to Chappell "Scarlet" was derived from the earlier "Carlisle" town (although he offers no proof). Percy's "English" version offers a name for the dying love, Sir John Graeme (also Graham) and an additional ending stanza.

Neither Child A or B have the rose/briar ending, or use the name 'Sweet William' or William/Willie for the dying love. It is likely that these stanzas and the name Sweet William were adapted from Child 74, which likely originated in the late 1500s.

I will make several posts examining the opening stanzas and exploring different versions. In the US/Canada the ballad has been traced to the 1700s through family lines and was printed circa 1830. Several of the "Martimas" opening versions can be traced to The Forget-Me-Not Songster dated c. 1844 (Flanders A and B; Mackenzie A for example) and are clearly taken from print.

Richie