Barbara Allen

…of the English ballad “Barbara Allen,” found 198 versions of the story sung in the English-speaking world, accompanied by tunes belonging to three tune families. (Accompanying this article are audio recordings of five renditions of “Barbara Allen” from collections at the Library of Congress.)

“Barbara Allen” is typical: Barbara cruelly spurns her lover because of an unintentional slight; he dies of lovesickness, she of remorse. The Freudian paradigm operates rigidly in ballads: fathers oppose the suitors of their daughters, mothers the sweethearts of their sons. Thus, “The Douglas Tragedy”—the…