I can believe that if two people are together a long time and one dies, that the other might die too as a result. But I have little patience with ballads where some person, usually male, falls instantly in love with a another, and dies when he can't have her.

As in 'Barbara Allen.'

In a long-term relationship, years of smell, touch, food, decor, comfort and familiarity are woven into the survivor's personality. In a case like Barbara Allen, the man's "heartbreak" is mere egoism.