Barbara Allan - Child 84

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Barbara Allan - Child 84

Aboot

This is a aboot a young lassie throwin a tantrim cos she thinks her lad's ignored her fan they were oot for a drink we their pals. In fairness tae her, they hid bin gaan thegither for seven year, so she wis probably scunnert waitin for the big day.

The story say's the wye she treated him fan he wis naeweel wis cruel, but she wis affa sorry fan he deid, so maybe she jist didna realise fou ill he wis. In fact, she wis sae broken heirtit that she deid as weel.

This sang is sae auld that it wis menshind bi Samual Pepys in ees diary in 1666. It's ane o the maist popular ballads in the English spikin wirild, and anither American professor, Bernard Bronson, collected 198 tunes for it. There's lots o different versions, so I've picked oot my favrit verses, and changed a few wirds here an there tae mak the story clearer.