"Barbara Allen", also known as "Barbara Allen's Cruelty", "Barbarous Ellen", "Hard Hearted Barbary Ellen", "Bonny Barbara Allan", "Barbry Allen" and other variations is a traditional folk ballad that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It is the stereotypical "died for true love" story in which the main character denies a man's love. He then dies of a broken heart. She then dies of grief soon after his untimely death. They are buried in the same church; a rose grows from his grave, a briar from hers, and the plants form a true lovers' knot. The last two verses of this ballad correspond to the last verses of "Lord Lovell" except that in this case the roles are reversed and the rose grows from the man and the briar from the woman. Samuel Pepys in his "Diary" under the date of January 2nd 1665, speaks of the singing of "Barbara Allen". The English and Scotts both claim the original ballad in different versions, and both versions were brought over to the US by the earliest settlers. Since then there have been countless variations (some 98 are found in Virginia alone). An alternate tune is given as "Barbara Allen (1)". It is in Child as #84 and in the Roud Folk Song index as #54. This ballad, along with "Edward" and "Lord Randall" usually comprise the English Traditional Ballad section of most English literature anthologies. Following the example of Francis Child, they were presented with lyrics only. We had to discover the collections of Cecil Sharp and Bertrand Bronson to find the relevant melodies. It was printed in Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany (1740), Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), The Burl Ives Songbook (1953), Lomax's Folk Songs of North America (1960), Niles' The Ballad Book (1960), Sharp's 100 English Folk Songs (1916) and English Folk Songs in the Southern Appalachians (1932) and many other publications.