US, Canada & West Indies Versions: 81. Little Musgrave & Lady Barnard ("Matty Groves" "Lord Arnold"/"Lord Daniel")
[Matty Groves, the best known American title of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, has been found as far north as Nova Scotia, Canada and as far south as Jamaica, an island in the West Indies. There are 146 traditional versions in my collection-- several are ballad recreations and two are compilations (Mackenzie; Joyner). There are a variety of titles in North America --nearly all are based on the three principle characters. Those based loosely on "Little Musgrave" include "Matty Groves," "Mattly Groves," "Mathey Grove," "Little Mathigrew," "Little Matthew Grove," "Little Mosie Grove," "Little Musgrave and Lady Narmwell" etc. Those based on "Lord Barnard" include "Lord Banner," "Lord Barnett," "Lord Barney," "Lord Daniel," "Lord Darnell," "Lord Darnold," "Lord Valley," "Lord Vanover," "Lord Arnold" etc. Some are based on his wife (Lady Barnard) including "Lord Arnold's Wife," "Lord Orland's Wife" etc.
The ballad has been discussed in some detail by Barry (BBM-1929), Helen Pettigrew (1937 WV Studies), the Traditional Ballad Index, Belden, Flanders (Coffin) and Davis (both in 1929 and 1960). Their notes will be found below (except Pettigrew whose article is currently unavailable to me).
The story has been summarized by Davis: on a certain holiday Little Matty Groves goes to church and there sees Lord Barnett's wife, who makes advances and invites him to lie with her that night. He at first refuses, as he sees by her ring that she is Lord Barnett's wife, but is reassured when she informs him that her husband is away. A little foot-page hears the assignation, and runs off to inform Lord Barnett, who returns and surprises the lovers in bed. He generously offers his best sword to Little Matthew and kills him in fair fight. When he finds that his lady loves little Matthew more than she loves him, he kills her also.
Davis does not mention the alternative opening stanza (found in Child D, E, H, K, L and O) or the bugle sounding (to warn Matty Grove) and variant endings.
* * * *
The ballad is found in different forms in the West Indies. In the article, The English Ballad in Jamaica (1924) Beckwith gives three forms of Matty Groves, two of which are titles "Little Musgrove" that are obviously directly derived from Child 81. An additional form, "If I Went Up to a Hill-Top" is distantly related. In his article, What Shall We Do with "Little Matty Groves"?, MacEdward Leach gives an additional Jamaican variant. In Abrahams' article, Child Ballads in the West Indies, he gives three cante fable versions (with singing) of "Matty Glow" collected in St. Vincent in 1966. A recording has been made by Blinky (Sylvester McIntosh of St. Croix) and the Roadmasters, titled "Matty Gru" (on VIBlinky01) which uses similar lyrics. In Abraham's St. Vincent versions the role of the foot-page is played by a parrot who witnesses the adultery and flies to tell his master. The parrot also warns "Matty Glow" (instead of the horn sounding) and sings:
If any man, if any man
In another nex' man' home,
It is time, it is time
For to rise and go home.
These versions will be added to the US/Canada versions:
Little Musgrove- Forbes (JM) pre1924 Beckwith A, B
Little Musgrove- Maroons (JM) pre1924 Beckwith C
Lord Barnet- female singer (JM) 1957 Leach
Miss Notty- Jobe (St. Vincent) 1966 Abrahams A
Matty Glow- Antoine (St Vincent) 1966 Abrahams B
Garoleen- Joseph (St Vincent) 1966 Abrahams C
Matty Gru- McIntosh (St. Croix) 1989 REC
* * * *
Barry devotes 44 pages to it in BBM, 1929 (150-194) of which there are version A-I with variants and extensive notes. Barry and all (Eckstorm and Smyth) also reprint Eva Warner Case's version from Missouri to use as a comparison. Aside from the 3 1/2 pages devoted to reprinting the Case version there are about a dozen texts with the most detailed notes about the ballad printed after Child's ESPB in 1998. I believe that the extensive notes on this ballad are a reaction to Child 79, a ballad widely known in the Southern Appalachians but not found in New England. An informant or two from Maine recognized the text of Cox A, and no real versions were found. Child 81 gave Barry a chance to redeem himself. Some people don't know about the competition of finding the most Child ballads Barry had as he represented the North (New England) and Reed Smith of South Carolina, the South (Southern Appalachians and states). Smith actually kept count of where the Child ballads were found and printed the results in the JAF.
Barry's interest in the Case text from MO is primarily stanza 11:
"Hark, hark! hark, hark!" said little Matthy Groves,
"I hear the bugle blow,
And every note it seems to say,
'Arise, arise, and go!' "
This stanza compares somewhat to the "Away Musgrove Away!" line found in Beaumont and Fletcher's 1611 play. Barry, as usual, jumps to conclusions and over-simplifies his analysis. When discussing the tune of he reduces it to a single melody similar to the hymn tune "Sweet Land of Rest," and then concludes:
In this, we have additional proof that the American and the British versions of this ballad have come ultimately from a single source, though, if we are to date each by its place in the tradition of the ballad as a whole, the American group, with its fine flavor of unspoiled tradition, its feudal background of castles and towers, and its setting of the incidents in the reign of King Henry, is not far from a century older than the oldest representative of the British group. [BBM 1929]
Barry gives the standard dates of 1611 (single stanza) and 1630 for Child Ca this means that the American group dates back to 1530, I assume (it has to be!) in the British Isles. In another place we find:
". . . so that we need have no hesitation in affirming that the American texts of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" date at least to the time of Henry VIII."
Henry VIII (1491– 1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death. Then shortly after the Henry VIII statement, Barry says that the ballad is 300 years old (this was in 1929) in America which would date it to 1630. I believe Barry is not far off in this last statement because the early English and Scottish settlers did bring the ballads to the New World-- and I think much earlier than they are documented. One form of validation is the study of genealogy-- tracing back through family lines-- the same way the ballads were passed down.
This conclusion by Barry deserves further study:
"Nothing is clearer than that there were two very early forms of this ballad, one containing King Henry, the other "Away Musgrave." The former appears in America where it has been purely traditional until within a very few years; the latter was the original of the English and Scottish copies." [BBM, 1929]
Three years later in BFSSNE after printing Wells' version from Kentucky, Barry again assert the two types of ballad theory but explains it differently: There are two forms of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" in American tradition, distinguished as the Banner type and the Arnold type (Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth, British Ballads from Maine, pp. 181, ff.) Miss Wells's version is of the Arnold type and clearly very old; its nearest textual relatives are Maine E, F, and Belden A (ibid., pp. 169-70, 172-80), particularly the last, with which it agrees in the interpretation of the alarm-call on the bugle. The melody is an excellent set of what was certainly the original air to the ballad. In stanza 8, formed of the second couplets of two stanzas, with the refrain of each, only the second part of the melody is used, repeated to fit each half-stanza. A version of the Banner type is in Bulletin, FSSNE., 8, pp. 6-8.
Flanders headnotes (written by Coffin) in her books Ancient Ballads (1961) explain it this way: Barry feels there-was a pre-American split in the tradition of the ballad, one form featuring the "away, Musgrave, away" lines and the "bugle-blowing" scene, the other retaining mention of King Henry. The Henry type he believes to date back to the time of Henry VIII and to be the progenitor of almost all the American texts. The "away, Musgrave" type, he feels, gave birth to the Anglo-Scottish texts and a few late American arrivals.
Apparently Pettigrew in her article (see Coffin's headnotes to Flanders; also Coffin: British Traditional Ballads in North America -below near bottom of this page) refuted the Henry VIII analogy and some of Barry's other points. It's important to realize (and Barry did) that many of the ballads are much older in North America than previously recognized and that many of the versions in America are closer to the ur-ballad than those from the British Isles.
Barry used print prompting as a technique to help informants remember ballads and texts of ballads. In some cases (McGill, Barry version H and Edwards, Flanders A) the text was sent and then the ballad was written using the printed text and past recollections of the ballad. Mrs. James McGill originally from Scotland then residing in New Brunswick from about 1912, sent in her text and at least the first stanza of it was recorded by Herzog. It is probable she added a Scottish brogue to an existing print version (although McGill seems to legitimately know many traditional ballads). Barry did the same thing with Vermont informant George Edwards (see his "Lord Arnold") and it's clear this information changed what he knew of the ballad. Now we don't know how much of the ballad was known and how much recreated from print. In my opinion Edwards version of Child 81 (see Flanders A, 1933) is worthless as a traditional version. No information was provided by Barry about this "prompting" although it was no secret (he mentions showing texts to informants many times). I think providing texts by mailing them or giving them away so the informants have time to study them makes it easier for informants to recreate ballads. At that point the ballad is no longer traditional.
In BFSSNE, Vol. 7, 1934 ("Lord Benner" sung Mr. Fred Roberts, South Portland, Maine, 1932) Barry gives his last notes on Child 81:
Though the Banner type of text of our ballad, distinguished by three traits generally: the name Banner, the reference to the London convention (condemsion, Indemption, Redemption, and the emphasis on Scotland rather than on England as the country where the injured baron is jealous of his reputation for chivalry, is traditional both North and South, there is a difference in the age of the two traditions. The southern are coeval with the texts of the Arnold, type; both types are sung in the South to sets of the original air of the ballad (FSSNE, Bulletin 4, pp. 12-13). The ballad is not sung in the South to the Drumdelgie air. In the North, however, side by side with the old tradition, is a later tradition, represented by Maine A, I, J, L, Vermont A, B, sung to sets of the Drumdelgie air: one of these, Vermont B, was learned by Mrs. Elmer C. Burditt of Springfield from her father, [William MacDonald] born in 1834 in Edinburgh. Thus it appears that the replacement of the original air by Drumdelgie, is of old-country, probably Scottish origin.
Barry at one point (BBM, 1929) suggested that he knew the identity of "the injured baron." After giving three entries in BFSSNE which he was editor, one thing is clear-- he was no longer sure of the identity of Lord Banner (Barnard, Arnold, Daniel, etc.) or else he would have given the name.
* * * *
Some versions of the ballad in North America use the "Lord Lovel form." Bronson in his TTCB, 1962 gives 72 versions with two main melodic groups (Aa-j and B) and four appendices. According to Lomax, "The House of the Rising Sun" resembled one arrangement of "Matty Groves." Curiously "the rising sun" is mentioned in some versions, although it's a different context:
One of our fair pages standing by
He heard what was said and done;
He says, "My master shall hear of this
Before the rising sun." [Barry A a; ME]
* * *
In her article, The Bent Bow, (Modern Language Notes, Vol. 36, No. 8 (Dec., 1921), p. 507) Blanche C. Sly deals with a ballad commonplace that appears in Child 81:
O whan he came to broken briggs,
He bent his bow and swam. [Lady Maisry, also similarly in several other ballads including Golden Vanity and this ballad, Child 81. Briggs has become "bridge" in many versions.]
In the English and Scottish Popular Ballads, the phrase bent his bow has remained a puzzle. It is usually assumed that the "bonny boy" ran with bow in hand. Carrying a weapon, however, would retard the runner; and bending the bow would consume time and valuable energy for one who is to swim dangerous streams. I offer the following explanation.
The word "bow" meant "shoulder" or "upper arm" during the old and middle English periods.
In a version of the ballad, Lord Barnard and Little Musgrave, found in Nova Scotia under the name of Little Matha Grove, the
line in question reads,
And he bended his brest (sic) and he swum.
Although this line does not convey a meaning identical with the one suggested, it is possible that rationalization of the usual form may have taken place. While in modern English bow is not used to mean "arm" or " shoulder" in speaking of a man or beast, it is customarily applied to the shoulder of a boat or ship.
* * * *
The following is given in the Ballad Index notes: "There is a somewhat interesting twist in several of the versions. Usually the song says that the wife loves Musgrave/Mattie more than her Lord and all his kin -- but in both of Scarborough's texts and in Creighton and Barry/Eckstorm/Smythe, p. 164 and a version from Sharp (Bronson's #42) and another from Karpeles (Bronson's #56) she loves his finger, and in Creighton/Senior #1 his tongue. Maybe it just strengthens the comparison -- but they're interesting body parts to care for; maybe there was more going on in that bedroom than we thought."
The funniest, in my opinion, goes to Gainer's 1975 ballad (recreation) which has "fingernail." The rhyme for "all his kin" is usually "chin." Consider also a similar stanza standard in Child 73:
"Despise her not," Lord Thomas he says,
"Despise her not to me;
For I do love your little finger
Better than her whole body." (Davis J, stanza 11)
Now compare with Barry Da, which follows the stanza where Lord Banner asks who she likes best- him or Matty Groves:
"O, much I love his ruby lips,
Likewise his dimpled chin,
Much better I loved his little finger
Than you and all your kin."
If Lord Banner wasn't going to kill her for her infidelity, this insult certainly provided a swift end to her life. The "Much better I loved his little finger" is another "ballad commonplace" shared with other old ballads.
* * * *
The second (or third and sometimes first) stanza deserves some investigation. It begins, "The first to come down was. . ." The second line sometimes appears "The next to come down was a girl," which appears to be a variant of "The next to come down was a pearl," neither of which are close to the UR ballad or in this case ballads. Let's look at Child A:
3 The one of them was clad in green,
Another was clad in pall,
And then came in my lord Bernard's wife,
The fairest amonst them all.
The "clad in" or "dressed in" has been left out and it appears this line should be "The next come down was dressed in pearl" which could be derived from "clad in pall." The second line rhymes wit the fourth so if the 4th line is "Fairest of them all" clearly the second should be "clad/dressed in pall." Case in point is Gentry's version (from Sharp) which has as second line "The next to come down was a polly" and has "fairest of them all as the fourth line so polly=pall. She also has "raven white" in the first line instead of "arrayed in white." There is also "raven black"= "arrayed in black." Another well-known variant for the second line is "The next come down in green," which rhymes with "queen" in the fourth line. The other main variant is "came down in blue" which rhymes with "view" which is usually "the flower of the view."
It looks like the progression is pall=pearl=girl. Attempts to rhyme the corruption "girl" or "pearl" include "world' (Sharp G).
* * * *
Cecil Sharp collected about twenty versions with tunes (A-Q in EFSSA, 1932) and several tunes with short texts in his MS. Sharp was given Hilliard Smith's version (KY, 1909) and collected it in 1917. Bronson points out: "The text of this variant is not among the typescripts of Sharp's MSS. at Harvard and is given from the 1932 edition. It differs considerably from Hilliard Smith's copy as collected by Loraine Wyman."
Virginia and Kentucky take honors as leading repositories of this ballad from the South while Maine, and Newfoundland/Nova Scotia are leading Northern repositories. The scales tip toward the South in final tabulations. Traditional versions seem to be still found -- at least as late as 2007 (Mary Lomax, Georgia- Rosenbaum).
At some point I will write an extensive article on this ballad and I will revisit it when I add music and recordings.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
CONTENTS: (To access individual texts click on highlighted title (below) or on the titles attached to this page on the left hand column)
1) Lord Banner's Wife- Carr (ME) c1828 Barry A a -- From Barry, Eckstorm, Smythe; British Ballads from Maine, 1929. Text sent in, February, 1928, by Mr Frank E. Carr of Monmouth, who learned it almost fifty years ago from Mr. Fred McKay of Bangor, who learned it more than fifty years ago, when a boy, of Mrs. George W. Glidden of Brewer.
2) Lord Banner- MacDonald/Burditt (VT)1843 Flanders J -- From Ancient Ballads; 1961 Flanders; also in The New Green Mountain Songster, Flanders et al. In 1934 in BFSSNE Barry published notes with the ballad air. Collected from Mrs Phyllis MacDonald Burditt, VT; June 14, 1931. Learned from her father, William MacDonald, who was born 1834. He migrated from Scotland to Canada when he was 12 years old.
3) Little Matty Groves- Williams (TN) 1832 Boswell -- From Folk song of Middle Tennessee, Boswell. My date- sung by Williams in 1949, dating back through his family to c. 1832. Williams learned "Little Matty Grove" from his mother, Amanda Farris Rear Williams, who had been born in Nashville in 1853.
4) Lord Daniel's Wife- Smith (NC) c.1860s Brown A -- From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore- Volume 2 Ballads, 1953. Written down by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, from the singing of Bennett Smith, "who first heard it sung over 50 years ago"; sent in March 1914 to C. Alphonso Smith, and later to the North Carolina collection.
5) Little Mathy Grove- Graham (CA-OH) 1873 Cowell -- Single stanza with music, recorded by Sidney Cowell for Archive of Folk Culture- 1938, LC/AAFS, rec. No. 3814(A2). Sung by George Vinton Graham, San Jose, Calif., December 3, 1938, who "learned it from an aunt in Ohio, c. 1873 when he was 5 years old."
6) Lord Benner- Glidden (ME) c1878 Barry A b --
Little Mathey Groves- Tuggle (AL-OK) 1895 Moore A
Little Matty Groves- Hollon (IL-OK) 1900 Moore B
Young Magrove- Smith (KY) 1909 Sharp D
Little Matha Grove- Langille (NS) 1910 Compilation
Lord Daniel's Wife- Green (KY) 1910 Combs
Little Matha Grove- Gammon (NS) 1910 Mackenzie A
Little Matha Grove- Brigney (NS) 1910 Mackenzie B
Little Matha Grove- L.Langille (NS)1910 MackenzieC
Little Matha Grove- J.Langille(NS)1910 Mackenzie D
Little Matha Grove- J.Langille(NS)1910 Mackenzie E
Little Musgrove & Lady Barnswell- McGill (NB) 1912
Little Matty Gross- Couch (KY) c1912 Roberts
Little Matthy Groves- King (SC) 1913 Smith A
Lord Daniel- Greer (NC) c.1913; Brown C
Lord Arnold's Wife- Payne (VA) 1914 Davis E
Little Matthy Groves- Griffin (NC) 1916 Sharp A
Little Matthy Groves- Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp B
Little Matthy Groves- Norton (TN) 1916 Sharp C
Little Matthy Groves- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp E
Lord Daniel's Wife- Ford (NC) 1916 Sharp F
Little Matthy Groves- Brewer (KY) 1916 Sharp G
Little Mathew Grove- Adams (KY) 1916
Lord Orlando's Wife- Smith (KY) 1916 Wyman
Little Matthy Groves- Case (MO) pre1916 Belden
Lord Daniel's Wife- Hill (WV) 1916 Cox
Lord Daniel's Wife- (KY) 1916 Wyman
Matthy Groves- Coates (TN) 1916 Sharp H
Lord Darnold- Wiley (VA) 1916 Davis C
Lord Darnel's Wife- Pratt (KY) 1917 Sharp I
MacGroves- Knuckles (KY) 1917 Sharp J
Lord Dannel's Wife- Sloan (KY) 1917 Sharp K
Matthy Groves- Taylor (KY) 1917 Sharp L
Lord Riner's Wife- Jones (KY) 1917 Sharp M
Matthy Groves- Creech (KY) 1917 Sharp N
Matthy Groves- Pratt (KY) 1917 Sharp O
Lord Bander's Wife- Dunagan (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Little Matthy- Wilson (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
How do you like your bed?- Hensley (KY) 1917 Sharp
Lord Arnold's Wife- Pace (KY) 1917 Sharp MS
Little Mosie Grove- Peel (VA) 1918 Davis A
How do you like your pillow- Mayo(VA) 1918 Sharp P
How do you like my bed- Mitchell (NC) 1918 Sharp Q
Little Matthy Groves- Snipes (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Little Moscrow- Underhill (NB) c.1920 Manny/Wilson
Matthy Groves- Norton (NC) c.1920s Adams
Little Matthy Groves- Nolan (KY) 1920 Wells
Lord Darnal's Wife- Ramsay (OK) 1920 Randolph B
Little Mathew Groves- Hart (VA) 1921 Davis B
Little Matthew Groves- Hurt (VA) 1921 Davis D
Lord Banner- Nesbitt (NB) 1922 Barry D a
Lord Daniel's Wife- Kitts (VA) 1923 Davis F
Little Matthew Groves- Tillett (NC) 1924 Chappell
Little Musgrove- Forbes (JM) pre1924 Beckwith A B
Little Musgrove- Maroons (JM) pre1924 Beckwith C
Little Matthy Grove- Stanley (ME) 1925 Barry F a
Little Matthew Groves- Pierce (SC) 1925 Smith B
Little Matthew Groves- Pierce/King(SC) 1925 Joyner
Lord Banner- Robbins (ME) 1926 Barry C
Lord Arnold's Wife- W. Stanley (ME) 1926 Barry F b
Lord Banner- Bailey (ME) 1927 Barry B
Lord Arnold's Wife- Quimby (ME) 1928 Barry E
The Red Rover- Robinson (ME) 1928 Barry G b
Lord Banner- Libby (ME) 1929 Barry I
Little Matty Groves- Harmon (NC) pre1929 Henry A
Lord Daniel- (TN) pre1929 Henry B
Lord Banner- Nelson (NB) 1929 Barry D b
Lord Banner- Whitmore (ME) pre1929 Barry G a
Lord Dannel- Taylor (NL) 1929 Karpeles A
Matthy Groves- Snow (NL) 1929 Karpeles B
Lord Donald- Bost (NC) c.1930s; Brown D
Lord Daniels- Church (NC) 1930 Brown E
Little Musgrove- Dills (KY) pre1931 Fuson
Lord Banner - Merrill (NH-QB) 1931 Flanders F
Little Massey Groves- Bowman (VA) 1932 Davis AA
Lord Barney- Grubb (VA) 1932 Davis BB
Lord Daniel- Deel/Edwards (VA) 1932 Davis CC
Little Matha Grove- McNab (NS) pre1932 Creighton
Lord Benner- Roberts (ME) 1932 Barry J REC
Lord Arnold- Edwards (VT) 1933 Flanders A
Lord Banner's Wife- Blanchard (ME) 1933 Flanders C
Little Matty Groves- Baring (MO-AR) 1933 Randolph
Lord Valley- Muchler (MI) pre1934 Gardner
Lord Arnold- Tracy (ME) 1934 Barry REC
Little Mattie Groves- Gentry (NC) 1934 Niles A
Little Matthey Groves- (NC) 1934 Niles B
Lord Daniel- Maggard (KY) 1934 Thomas REC
Lord Daniel- (TN- VA) 1934 Cambiaire
Little Mose Groves- Presley(VA) 1936 Scarborough A
Lord Donald's Wife- Potter(NC) 1936 Scarborough B
Little Matthew- (TN) 1937 Campbell
Lord Vanover- Smith (OH) pre1939 Eddy
Little Mathey Groves- Prather (NC) 1939 Brown H
Little Mathey Grones- Walker (NC) c.1940 Brown B
Little Mathagroe- (NC) c.1940 Abrams
Lord Daniel's Wife- Nora Hicks (NC) 1940 Brown G
Lord Banner - Hayes (ME) 1940 Flanders H
Little Mathy Groves- McCord (MO) 1941 Randolph C
Lord Banner - Colsie (ME) 1941 Flanders B
Lord Banner - Colville (NH) 1941 Flanders G
Lord Banner- Walker (ME) 1942 Flanders D
Lord Banner - Syphers (ME) 1942 Flanders E
Lord Banner - Finnemore (ME) 1943 Flanders I
Lord Darnell- Riggle (PA) 1943 Bayard/Korson
Little Mattie- Mobley (KY) c.1946 REC
Little Mattie Groves- Lamb/Rowe (KY) 1949 Roberts
Little Matha Grove- Williams (NS) 1950 Creighton A
Little Moth Grone- Gilkie (NS) 1950 Creighton B
Matty Groves- Dobbin (NL) 1951 Leach REC
Mathy Groves- Rena Hicks (NC) 1951 Warner/Burton
Lord Darnell- Paul Clayton (VA) 1956 Recording
Little Massy Groves- Rittenhouse(WV) 1957 Musick A
Maddy Gross- Brown (CA) 1957 Hand WF
Young Arnold's Wife- Ammons (WV) 1957 Musick B
Lord Barnet- female singer (JM) 1957 Leach
Lord Donald- Walters (NL) 1958 Peacock
Little Matty Groves- Brewer (AR) 1958 Max Hunter
Little Musgrave- Ritchie (KY) 1960 Recording
Little Mathy Groves- Baker (AR) 1961 Wolfe
Matty Groves- Joan Baez; 1962 Recording- Gibson
Mathie Groves- Chandler (NC) 1964 Recording
Mattie Grove- Fred Atwood(VT) 1964 MacArthur REC
Matty Groves- Doc Watson (NC) 1966 Recording
Mathy Grove- Trivette (TN) 1966 Recording- Paton
Miss Notty- Jobe (St. Vincent) 1966 Abrahams A
Matty Glow- Antoine (St Vincent) 1966 Abrahams B
Garoleen- Joseph (St Vincent) 1966 Abrahams C
Little Matty Groves- Hedy West (GA) 1967 REC
Hark Ye Hear The Lassies Cry- Aley (MO) 1969
Massey Grove- Lena Harmon (NC) 1969 Burton
Little Mathie Groves- Smith (WV) 1975 Gainer
Lord Daniel- Workman (KY) 1978 Recording
Little Massie Grove- MacAlexander (VA) 1979 Rec
Lord Daniel- Cas Wallin (NC) 1980 Recording
Matty Gru- McIntosh (St. Croix) 1989 REC
Little Mattie Grove- Lozier (KY) 1997 Wilson REC
Little Mathy Grove- Sheila K. Adams (NC) 1998 REC
Little Mathie Groves- Ralph Stanley (VA) 2002 REC
Lord Daniel- Mary Lomax(GA) 2007 REC Rosenbaum
---------------
[Notes from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians I; Sharp/Karpeles 1932, p. 161-182, versions A-Q.]
1932 Edition Notes: No. 23. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.
Texts without tunes:— Child s English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 81. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, p. 125. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 94. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxiii. 371; xxv. 182.
Texts with tunes:—Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques, p. 92. Chappel's Popular Music of the Olden Times, i. 170. MotherwelJ's Minstrelsy, Appendix, tune No. 21. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, No. 8. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs, pp. 22 and 62. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxx. 309. British Ballads from Maine, p. 150. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 289 and 577.
_________________________________________
[Notes from Barry Eckstorm, Smythe; British Ballad from Maine, 1929. I assume they are mainly from Barry.]
LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
(Child 81)
Before beginning our critical examination of the texts of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," we must cite for comparison an invaluable text reported from Missouri by Prof. H. M. Belden. It is the nearest to a complete text yet discovered, and is particularly important as being the only published American text which is not more or less defective at the point where the warning bugle is blown.
[Missouri Text by Case; reprinted from JAF]
Here we have the same text that we found upon the outermost islands of the Maine coast (F a and b), upon an island inhabited only by the light keeper's family and an old lady, who was born on the island, and her son. A part of the test stanzas about the bugle had dropped out of the Gilley family text, but they are replaced by a prose equivalent, and the two lines that remain are all but identical:
And he put his bugle horn to his mouth
And he blew both loud and shrill. (Missouri)
He placed his bugle to his lips
And he blew it loud and shrill. (Maine)
The names of Lord Arnold and of Massy (or Matthy) Grove (or Groves) are the same in both, and both end with the apparently irrelevant stanza about the nightingale and the sparrow.
Along what lines the ballad may have traveled in getting to Missouri we do not know; but if it came up from the southeast, then it is not hard to place its relationships. No ballad that we have gives us so good a chance to work out its history as "Musgrave." In the first place, it is entirely traditional in this country. If it ever was printed in America, no one has yet discovered the fact. In the second place, it was one of the most widely known of all ballads. In the third place, a remarkably large number of good texts have been recovered. Professor Child knew but fifteen English and Scottish versions. We have examined almost sixty American texts, including fragments, from ten states and provinces. They represent the many basketsfull that have been gathered up from that gay little snatch of song in The Knight of the Burning pestle (Act V, scene 3), sung by Merrythought, a jovial old ballad-singer:
And some they whistled, and some they sung,
Hey down, down!
And some did loudly say,
Ever as the Lord Barnet's horn blew,
Away, Musgrave, away!
In Maine-texts, A, B, C, D, G, and I, all have the name Lord Banner. Banner is associated with Young Grover Scott, Young McGrover, Young Mugrove, Young Magrue, Little Matthew Groves, and Red Rover. These texts are all Type one, the Banner type. In Maine texts E and F, Lord Arnold is the principal, and he is associated with Little Matthew Groves, or Little Massy Grove-- Type Two, the Arnold type. Mackenzie's three good texts and one of his two fragments from Nova Scotia have Lord Arnold, or Daniel, and Little Matha Grove; therefore they are Type Two. This is also the type of the Missouri text. It becomes clear, as both types are found in both sections of the country that the split is one which antedated the introduction of the ballad into America.
The northern and the southern texts are remarkably consistent in the details they both preserve. Even the absurd lines in Campbell and Sharp B:
The first came down was a raven white,
And the next came down was a polly,
need very little revision to carry them back to the early form:
The first came down arrayed in white,
The next came down in pall.
"Pall," the fine cloth worn by nobles, often becomes "pearl," and in some of the southern texts "girl"; but the underlying intention is the same in both. In both the northern and the southern texts, where they are not defective, Lady Barnard's eye is cast upon young Musgrave, he knows by the rings on her fingers who she is, she explains more or less clearly (usually much less), where her husband is gone. The foot-page overhears their talk and carries warning to Lord Barnard, who inquires, whether his castles are burnt or his towers won, though in the South he may ask:
Is my old scaffold burned down,
Or is my tavern run? (C and S, G 9)
Usually, however, the reference to his "castle"--something altogether foreign to American intelligence --is much clearer in this country than it was in the old country. Lord Barnard sets out with his men, the warning horn is blown, the lady always makes the same remark about the shepherd (or her father's men) driving the sheep to the fold. There follows the discovery of the guilty pair, Lord Barnard's ironical question, Musgrave's plea, that he is unarmed, the offer of his choice of swords, the first blow and the duel-- all present unless there is a hiatus due to lack of memory. There are some fairly constant local expressions; for in the South, Matthy Groves is offered the "very first lick," followed by:
Little Matthy Groves struck the very first lick,
Which made Lord' Dannel sore.
Lord Dannel struck the very next lick
And killed little Matthy on the floor' (C and S, C 13)
This is followed in one text by the very up-to-date stanza:
He took his wife by the lily-white hand
And he led her through the hall.
He jobbed the Pistol in her breast
And she fell with a special ball. (C and S, C 1A)
The fight is far better staged in the American versions than in Child's British texts. Indeed, throughout, the American forms are superior in incisiveness, vividness and rightness of action to the Child texts, some of which were printed two and a half centuries earlier. We find in the American text, just what we should expect to find in texts nearer to a fresh original, which was an earlier and a better form than that from which the British texts are drawn.
At the beginning the American texts falter; at the end, they differ much from one another; and in the middle, there is in all the published texts, except the one from Missouri, a decided uncertainty as to just what happens, as if there were a break in the text just here. But upon another point, on which the Child texts break down, the American texts show a decided superiority; they know where Lord Barnard has gone, while the Child texts show little or no curiosity as to his whereabouts. He may be "a-hunting," or he is simply "gone away"; or to the "king's court"; some do not mention his absence. But in the American texts, on the contrary, there is a vivid interest in the husband's whereabouts. Sometimes when he's in some foreign land, or else when
He's gone across the waterside,
He's gone there to stay, (C and S, C 8, G 5)
it looks as if it would be hard for the little foot-page, "Speedfoot" as he is, to get him back in time. But Lord Barnard, or Dannel, has also
gone to Kentucky
King Georgie for to view. (C and S, A 4)
In general, in the American texts there is a singular insistence upon King Henry, or at least a king or a throne, having something to do with Lord Barnard's absence. In four of Mackenzie's Nova Scotia texts the lines run:
Lord Daniel (or Arnold) is away to the New Castle
King Henry for to see. (A a, B 5, C 4, D 1)
The Belden Missouri text says:
He's gone to old England
To see King Henery. (stanza 5)
Prof. Reed Smith's South Carolina text (B 4) has it:
He's gone to the new academy,
King Henry for to see.
and Campbell and Sharp (D 5) has:
Lord Vanner is to redemption gone
To King McHenry's throne.
Maine A 4 reads:
Lord Banner has gone to Indemption
To get an emerald throne;
Maine B 4:
He has gone to Redemption
To fetch young Henry his throne,
while Maine D a 4 (from New Brunswick) runs:
He has gone to fair England
Where the king sits on his throne.
Maine B may be called identical with Campbell and Sharp D. And, singularly, this same Campbell and Sharp text has in it the invitation to take a ride, which, in a more expanded form, we find in Maine A, I. But why is King Kenry mixing up in these American texts when he does not appear in any British text? There is an awful persistency about the name, which sticks so fast in these fluid ballads, never written down in this country before. There was no King Henry after the eighth of the name in England; none at all in Scotland; and no balladist would be likely to bring in his name long after his own reign. This detail of the story must be old, - not adventitious in a later tradition of the ballad. Indeed, we have sufficient evidence that the King referred to was Henry VIII. Two unpublished southern texts, independent of each other, contain a significant reference to Whitehall Palace. The Sharp MSS text 544, stanza 4, says:
He run till he came to King Henry's white hall,
He rattled the bell and it rung.
In a letter, Prof. Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., the archivist of the Virginia Collections, soon to be published, writes of his texts: "There is at least one reference to a king; 'King Georgie's white horses (or house) to see'." The king may be called King George, or, as in one text, in the sharp MSS, be replaced by Queen Anna, and still be the same as King Henry; but the "white house" and the "white hall" are the significant details; for whitehall came into the possession of the crown in the reign of Henry VIII, so that we need have no hesitation in affirming that the American texts of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" date at least to the time of Henry VIII. On the other hand, there is, in the American tradition, a significant absence of the lines sung by Merrythought in Beaumont and Fletcher's play. There is no doubt that the ballad, licensed for printing as early as June 24, 1630 (Arber, IV 236, quoted by Child, V, 225), was one of the most sung songs in the first half of the seventeenth century. In Child's oldest texts, A, B, C, eight copies in all (the earliest, C a, printed by Henry Gosson before 1641), and in most of his other texts, whether early or late, English or Scottish, in some form or other appears the "Away, Musgrave, away," which never is found in any American text except the Missouri text quoted and a hint in one of Miss Wyman's, neither of them being closer than (Belden 11):
And every note it seems to say,
"Arise, arise, and go."
There is the most distinctive stanza in the ballad, chosen by Beaumont and Fletcher as a snatch known by everyone, which is not found in America. But on the other hand we are getting King Henry in many texts, with a similarity which shows that there was some form of "Little Musgrave" which was known to the earliest American settlers from Massachusetts to Virginia. And every American text yet printed, except Professor Belden's, breaks just at that point of the horn saying,
"Away, Musgrave, away!"
Nothing is clearer than that there were two very early forms of this ballad, on containing King Henry, the other "Away Musgrave." The former appears in America where it has been purely traditional until within a very few years; the latter was the original of the English and Scottish copies. The American copies must have come over very early to escape all contamination with the English type. That they went both to Virginia and to Massachusetts is apparent from their present distribution --otherwise we should not find both the Appalachian Highlands and the Maine seacoast singing of King Henry going to Redemption, which is the sort of accident that has to happen before a split begins, not afterwards. The ballad must have been nearly three hundred years in this country, diverging ever farther and farther; but it never has lost its integrity. We note how well the various American texts are preserved; how well they agree; how spirited they are I how splendidly dramatic, when the folk-singer throws himself into the ballad, and we wonder at the virility of a song which can thus keep itself alive. Of all the ballad problems that have come to us, that of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" seems the finest to solve, should it be capable of any solution.*
* There is not space for the proof here, but the editors feel that in their detailed study of "Musgrave" they have proved that all Child's English texts, A, B, C, are mere personal lampoons, of the reign of James I, directed against a prominent personage.
The traditional music to "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" forms an important chapter in the history of the ballad. The only
melody known in Child's time was the one printed by Motherwell (Minstrelsy, Boston, 1846, II, 275), set to the text of Child M. This air, partly Mixolydian, was reprinted without the distinctive minor seventh, by Rimbault (Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's Reliques, p. 92). Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 170) took over the mutilated setting from Rimbault. Since Child's time, the valuable work done by collectors in America has greatly increased our knowledge of the musical, no less than of the textual tradition of the ballad. We have for the purpose of this study, necessarily incomplete, as long as there shall be any collectors of ballads at work, examined and collated forty tunes, constituting the entire available corpus of the music.
The results of our investigation may be summarized in the following catalogue:
Group I:
A a. Motherwell, Minstrelsy, II, 275.
b. Rimbault 92, Chappell 170.
B a. Campbell and Sharp A. (Lord Daniel)
b. Campbell and Sharp B. (Lord Thomas)
c. Campbell and Sharp C. (Lord Dannel)
d. Campbell and Sharp D. (Lord Vanner)
e. Campbell and Sharp E. (Lord Thomas)
f. Campbell and Sharp F. (Lord Dannel)
g. Campbell and Sharp G. (Lord Donald)
h. Campbell and Sharp H.
i. Sharp MSS 3617a.
j. Sharp MSS 3639. (Lord Dannel)
k. Sharp MSS 3686. (Lord Banner)
l. Sharp MSS 3872.
m. Sharp MSS 3907. (Lord Diner)
n. Sharp MSS 3942.
o. Sharp MSS 4009. (Lord Bander)
p. Sharp MSS 4050. (Lord Aulan)
q. Sharp MSS 4090. (Lord Darnel)
r. Sharp MSS 4L40. (Lord Arnold)
s. Sharp MSS 41?1.
t. Sharp MSS 4563. (Lord Daniel)
u. Sharp MSS 4700.
v. Mackenzie, p. 392. (Lord Arnold)
w. Wyman l, JAFL, XXX, 309. (Lord Orland)
x. Belden, JAFL, XXX, 314. (Lord Arnold)
y. Maine D b. (Lord Banner)
z. (Hymn tune: Land of Rest.)
aa. Jamaica 1. (Lord Barnaby), PMLA, XXXIXT 4-TL.
bb. Jamaica 2. PMLA, XXXIX, 473.
Group 2. Sharp MSS 3795.
Group 3. Sharp MSS 4043.
Group 4. Wyman 2, JAFL, XXX, 311.
Group 5:
a. Maine I. (Lord Banner)
b. Maine A a. (Lord Banner)
c. Maine A b. (Lord Benner)
d. Maine B. (Lord Banner)
Group 6. Maine H. (Lord Barnswell)
Group 7. Maine G. (Red Rover)
Group 8. Maine E. (Lord Arnold)
In the foregoing catalogue, the tunes have been arranged, as far as possible, according to evidences of relationship. The relationship between A and B of the first group is remote, but it is indicated by Sharp MSS 3992, which, though of the B-class, is yet vaguely reminiscent of A, as well as by Jamaica L. Many of the variants of the B-class consist of five phrases, allowing for the repetition of the last line of each stanza as a refrain. Several, however, have lost the refrain, leaving the melody incomplete. In Campbell and Sharp, G (also in Sharp MSS 3872) the air has been re-created from major to Aeolian, through the treatment of the sixth of the scale, first as a secondary, then as a primary tonic. Wyman 1- shows the intermediary stage between the earlier and the later forms.
Of the airs in groups 2-4, little need be said. Sharp MSS 3795 belongs to Child 4, and differs only very slightly from a Pennsylvania air in the Barry Collection, to which was sung a text of Child 4, in the form as printed in the American Songster.
The Maine tunes, exclusive of D b, are not related to the air so widely current in the south. Maine E is sung to "Yankee Doodle." The melodies to Maine A a, A b, and I, are all variants of an Irish air, of which I has obviously retained the oldest form. In the melody to A a, we have already under way, a wearing-down process, which has left for A b only half the air. B, moreover, which is textually akin to both A and I, is sung to a melody of which only a fragment, probably crossed with a different air, has been recorded. Yet this fragment is dimly reminiscent, in part, of the melody to A. On the basis of the evidence, then, we should infer that our versions A and B, the history of which is not completely known, may have come originally from across the border, bringing their air with them. Whether or not ultimately traceable to Province tradition, they have become perfectly established as Maine ballads. The warning to ballad students is clear-to beware of overstressing the importance of state or provincial boundaries. Ballads have as little concern as rare plants, or bird-migrants, for mere matters of political geography.
Mr. Nelson's tune, however, is distantly related to the southern air. This relationship is indicated by the following melody, given to one of the editors about twenty-five years ago, by a neighbor, a civil war veteran, who, in his childhood, heard the hymn "Sweet Land of Rest, for thee I sight" sung to it.
[Music- land of Rest]
The melody is patently a folk-tune, and a good one. Its relationship to Mr. Nelson's melody is quite clear. comparison with the large number of variants, both published and unpublished, of the "Little Musgrave" air recorded in the South, by Sharp and others, demonstrates its relation to several of them.
A particularly significant feature of the distribution of the melodies is that texts of both the "Banner" and "Daniel-Arnold" types of the American tradition of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" are sung to variants of the same air. In a few cases, this air has been so worn down that evidences of its kinship have been all but obliterated. The conclusion is obvious, --there is but one original traditional source for the ballad in America. Even the Maine texts, which have lost this original air, are (except for Maine H, a recent importation from Scotland), otherwise, through textual affinity, shown to be of the same original stock as the texts, both northern and southern, which have kept this same air.
The Jamaica versions (published by Martha W. Beckwith, "The Popular Ballad in Jamaica," Publications of the Modern Language Association, XXXIX, 470 tr.), are textually distinct from the American tradition of the ballad, as represented by texts recorded in this country and in the British maritime provinces of the northeast. They are obviously of late introduction; their kinship is with Child A, B, C, and the group of Child's secondary Scottish texts. The name "Lord Barnard" of Child A, has survived in one of the Jamaica texts as "Lord Barnaby" (compare the Scottish texts, Child E, F). Yet the two melodies, worn down and mutilated fragments, it is true, are related to the characteristic "Musgrave" air of our southern highlands. In this, we have additional proof that the American and the British versions of this ballad have come ultimately from a single source, though, if we are to date each by its place in the tradition of the ballad as a whole, the American group, with its fine flavor of unspoiled tradition, its feudal background of castles and towers, and its setting of the incidents in the reign of King Henry, is not far from a century older than the oldest representative of the British group.
The injunction to his followers attributed to Charles Wesley, not to let the Devil keep all the good tunes, has ever been kept. Long before the day when catchy vaudeville airs were set to the words of hymns, fine traditional melodies of old ballads were put to similar use. We refer our readers to Miss A. G. Gilchrist's article, "The Folk-Element in Early Revival Hymns and Tunes" (JFSS, VIII, 61 ff.). In this article, Miss Gilchrist has shown the relation, also, to certain variants of the "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" group of melodies, of the hymn tune "Land of Rest," of which she prints a later and less characteristic version, and has traced not less than three other hymn tunes to the "Little Musgrave" air.
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[Davis- More TBVa ballads; 1961. It should not be forgotten that Barry wrote a review in BFSSNE of TBVa, 1929. He took Davis to task on several ballads and the review was in places dismissive of Davis and the book. Davis, who does some bragging about Virginia's wealth of ballads, perhaps deserved this comeuppance. Then, almost 30 years later Davis comments on Barry's "overbold" statements in a respectful way. Note that Davis AA by Bowman (before she married- her last name was Plemmons) edited her version, feeling that "hugging and kissing" was too erotic. ]
LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
(Child, No. 81)
"Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" is one of numerous ballads quoted in old plays of the Elizabethan or seventeenth-century periods. Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle" Act V, Scene 3) contains the earliest (about 1611) quotation from this ballad:
And some they whistled and some they sung,
Hey down, down
And some did loudly say,
Ever as the lord Barnet's horn blew,
Away, Musgrave, away!
Child (II, 243) mentions a number of later seventeenth-century plays in which the ballad is either quoted in part or referred to.
Child prints fifteen versions, some from manuscript, some from broadside or other printed sources. But the ballad does not seem to survive in recent British tradition either in England or in Scotland, according to Miss Dean-Smith's survey or Gavin Greig's Last Leaves. In contrast, it is vigorously alive in American tradition, North, South, and Midwest. Sharp-Karpeles (I, 161-82) print seventeen tunes and texts or part texts from the Southern Appalachians. Barry (pp. 150-94) presents nine texts, some with tunes, from Maine. Belden (pp. 59-60) gives three fragments and two tunes from Missouri. The Brown Collection (II, 101-11, and IV, 53-57) gives five texts and seven tunes from North Carolina, TBVa (pp. 289-301 and 577 prints six of seven texts then available, plus one tune. Subsequently, five new items of the ballad have been recovered in Virginia. Of these, three texts with two tunes are here included. Miss Beckwith has also found the ballad in Jamaica (see PMLA, XXXIX, 455 ff.). Barry (pp. 150-94) has an elaborate discussion of this ballad, both textually and musically. He is perhaps overbold in presenting a number of interesting conjectures about the ballad as if they were established facts, and he is properly modified or corrected on some points by Helen Pettigrew (University of West Virginia Studies, III [Philological Papers II], 8 ff.). Barry is perhaps overhasty in dividing American texts into two types, the Lord Banner type and the Lord Arnold (or Daniel) type, with other differentiating details, in asserting that the split antedates the introduction of the ballad into America, in believing that the American texts are nearer to an earlier and better form than that from which the British texts are drawn, and in identifying the King Henry of the ballad too unequivocally with Flenry VIII of England. But one can sympathize with his statement: "The ballad must have been nearly three hundred years in this country, diverging ever farther and farther; but it has never lost its integrity. We note how well the various American texts are preserved; how well they agree; how spirited they are; how splendidly dramatic, when the folk-singer throws himself into the ballad, and we wonder at the virility of a song which can thus keep itself alive. Of all the ballad problems that have come to us, that of 'Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, seems the finest to solve, should it be capable of any solution." His elaborate grouping of the then (early 1929) known American tunes is ingenious, and we are not inclined to quarrel with his still somewhat speculative conclusion that "the American and British versions of this ballad have come ultimately from a single source, though, if we are to date each by its place in the tradition of the ballad as a whole, the American group, with its fine flavor of unspoiled tradition . . . is not far from a century older than the oldest representative of the British group." The statement makes very clear the importance of coliecting these British ballads in America. The American "Little Musgrave" is one of the ballads least spoiled by broadside, songster, or print.
The Virginia texts here presented follow in general Coffin's Story Typ. A, but with varied inclusions and exclusions.
AA, in which the leading characters are little Massey Grove and Lord and Lady Darnell, begins in church on a high holiday, the very first day of the year-a time and place not specified in either BB or CC. It is a somewhat condensed version, omitting all mention of the warning sent to Lord Darnell and stopping short of the two final killings with their attendant barbarity. The ending is tragic pathos rather than violence. Lord Darneil has gone "on top of the king's mountain, Prince Henry for to see." The tune is a fine one, especially as sung by Miss Bowman.
BB, with Marthyful Globes and Lord and Lady Barney as chief characters, has lost its opening stanzas, but the rest of the story is fully told, with the elaborate exchange between Lord Barney and the little footpage at King Henry's gate, and the full ending in the triple deaths, Lord Barney's barbaric slaying of his unfaithful wife before his own suicide by sword, following his killing of little Matthy in fair fight. There is evidently a euphemism in the line, "This night a bad fellow to be," perhaps representing the singer's effort to clean up what some American folk singers regard as a "dirty" song. (See Randolph, I, 125-25.) Both this text and CC following, but not AA, have tire Lord's two swords "cost me deep in purse," a characteristic expression which marks many American texts.
CC, with the main characters identified as Little Mathie Grove and Lord and Lady Daniel, is one of the fullest of American texts, even though it lacks the churchly opening. The messenger to Lord Daniel is not a little footpage, but "one of Lord Daniel's very best friends" and it may or may not be the same friend who "wishing Mathie Grove no harm" blows the warning bugle blast. Rather incongruously, after killing Little Mathie Grove by stroke of sword, Lord Daniel disposes of his wife and himself by pistol shot- obviously a late variant, possibly imported from some later song of the tragic triangle.
An omitted text identifies the principals as Lord and Lady Banner and Little Jack Grover, names which differentiate Barry's Type One of the ballad, as distinguished from his Type Two, to which AA, BB, and CC all belong. But for the names, the text does not seem to differ significantly from the three here printed, a fact which raises some question as to Barry's criteria of classification. The omitted text is fragmentary and without tune.
The excellent text of R. E. Lee Smith and Thomas P. Smith, also contributed to the Virginia collection, has been omitted because it has already been published in the Brown Collection, II, 102-4, with its tune also, IV, 53.
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[From Ozark-Folksongs; Vol. 1 1946 Vance Randolph
LITTLE MATHY GROVES
This is the ancient "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" ballad (Child, English and, Scottish Popalar Ballads, 1882-1898, No.81) quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle" (Act V, scene 3), which was written about 1611. The songis entered to Francis Coules in the Stationers' Registers, June 24, 1630. For American texts see Kittredge (JAFL 30, 1917, pp. 309-317), Campbell and Sharp (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appctachians, 1917, No. 20), Pound (American Ballads and Songs, 1922, No. 15), Cox (Falk Songs of the South, 1925, pp. 94-95), Smith (South Carolina Ballads, 1928, pp. 125-128), Davis (Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929, pp. 289-301), Chappell (Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the Albemerle. 1939, pp. 29-31), Eddy (Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 1939, pp. 48-51), Gardner (Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939, pp. 46-49), Belden (Ballads and Songs, 1940 pp. 57-60), and the Brown collection.
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[Notes from Flanders' Ancient Ballads (Coffin) 1961.]
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
(Child 81)
This ballad has a vigorous American oral tradition but, in spite of the fact that Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 173, reports his H version to have been learned in Scotland, seems to have died out in Britain. Here it is known everywhere, from Nova Scotia to Jamaica and west. Barry, op. cit., 180 f., and Helen Pettigrew, University of West Virginia Studies, III philological papers, II, 8 f., both spent much effort on the American heritage of Child 81. Barry feels there-was a pre-American split in the tradition of the ballad, one form featuring the "away, Musgrave, away" lines and the "bugle-blowing" scene, the other retaining mention of King Henry. The Henry type he believes to date back to the time of Henry VIII and to be the progenitor of almost all the American texts. The "away, Musgrave" type, he feels, gave birth to the Anglo-Scottish texts and a few late American arrivals. Pettigrew attacks this thesis vigorously, among other things, attributing the visit to King Henry to romanticization and citing a host of American texts, such as the Flanders ones below, that retain "bugle-blowing" scenes. Whoever is right, one thing seems sure: Barry was nor far wrong in stating the song has been in America a long time and that the texts here are more vivid and generally better than those in Child, some of which are pretty old.
The Flanders texts demonstrate Barry's two types. Flanders A includes a strong "bugle-blowing" scene, the "away" lines (stanzas 18-20), and opt"s with a church-gathering like Child A, C, H, and many of the southern American texts. This version is similar to the one in Belden, 58 (also printed in British BaIIads from Maine, 177), but is unusual for the New World in its inclusion of Lady Barnard's effort to bribe the page as in Child C-F, H-L, and O. Edwards it should be noted, wanted to leave these lines and some of the "bugle" material out (see the letter betow). The Flanders B-J series is more typical of the northern tradition of the ballad and starts like-Child D, E, K, L with a "ball-playing" scene. The "bugle-blowing" is presented, but briefly, and there are no "away, Musgrave" lines.
See Coffin, 84-86, for the bibliography of the American texts and summaries of the scholarship done on the song. It is interesting that American versions do not mention any past relationship between the lovers, although Musgrave needs no encouraging when the Lady flirts with him in one Southeastern text. He emblaces her at once. PMLA xxxlx,4ssf.,contains a report on the Jamaican tradition of Child 81. The ballad as known in the West Indies is closer to Child A-C than it is to the American material. In Act V, scene 3, of Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Merrythought quotes lines from the song.
The seven tunes given are related except for the Edwards tune, which seems separate. The rest fall into two related groups: 1) Colsie and Walker, and 2) Syphers, Merrill, Finnemore, and Burditt. The following runes show general relationship to rhe second of these related groups: Sharp I, 166 (D), 181 (L); and BES, 150. The New England tunes seem more closely related to the second group, while those in the collections from the southern United States seem largely to belong to another family exemplified by the majority of the tunes in Sharp I.
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[Notes from Davis; Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929:
LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
(Child, No. 81)
THE seven variants found in Virginia have the titles, "Lord Arnold's Wife," "Lord Daniel's Wife," "Lord Vanner's Wife," "Lord Darnold," "Little Matthew Groves," and "Little Mosie Grove and Lord Burnett's wife." A general concurrence with Child A is to be noted, but the divergences are many. In the Virginia texts, the lady is more definitely the aggressor; the stanza in which Little Matthew recognizes her as Lord Barnard's wife by her rings (found in Child D, E, F, H, J, K, and L, but not in A) is included, while the stanzas in which the two lovers profess their past affection are excluded; except in Virginia A, no regret is expressed by Lord Barnett for either of his killings; except in Virginia B where the lady is shot, she dies by stroke of sword, not by the barbarity of Child A; Lord Barnett's instructions for the lovers' burial are omitted; repetition is frequent in the Virginia texts.
The story told by the Virginia texts is this: on a certain holiday Little Matthew (Mathy, Marthy, Mosie) Grove (Groves) goes to church and there sees Lord Barnett's (Burnett's, Daniel's, Arnold's, Darnold's) wife, who makes advances and invites him to lie with her that night. He at first refuses, as he sees by her ring that she is Lord Barnett's wife, but is reassured when she informs him that her husband is away. A little foot-page hears the assignation, and runs off to inform Lord Barnett, who returns and surprises the lovers in bed. He generously offers his best sword to Little Matthew and kills him in fair fight. In A, he regrets his rash act. When he finds that his lady loves little Matthew more than she loves him (B, D, and E), he kills her also.
For American texts, see Brown, p.9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 3, 6, 7, 9, 11; Campbell and Sharp, No. 20 (North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky) Cox, No. 15; Journal, XXIII, 371 (Mackenzie, Nova Scotia); XXV, 192 (Mackenzie, Nova Scotia); XXX,309 (Kittredge, Kentucky, three texts and two melodies, Missouri, text and melody); Mackenzie, pp. 14, 88 (fragment); Mackenzie , Ballads No. 8; Pound, Ballads, No. 15; Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 8, Reed Smith, No.7; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 2; Wyman and Brockway, songs, pp. 22, 62. For additional references, see Journal, XXXI 309.
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Notes from BALLAD AND SEA SONGS FROM NOVA SCOTIA; Mackenzie 1928
LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
(Child, No. 81)
Two versions in oral circulation in Nova Scotia correspond, on the whole, to Child A. They exhibit, however, the inevitable list of omissions and changes: Little Musgrave has become Little Matha Grove, and Lord Barnard is Lord Arnold (A) or Lord Daniel (B and C); after the duel between the husband and the lover the tale comes more swiftly to its conclusion; A has a final stanza which is an importation from "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (as in Child D, last stanza); in B, Little Matha Grove recognizes Lord Daniel's wife by the ring on her hand, a detail which is not in Child A, but which appears in Child: E. F, H, J, K, and L. A composite text, made up from the following versions, was published by me in Journal, XXIII, 371-374 (additional stanzas in Journal, XXV, 182-183), and in Quest, pp. 14-18. For references to versions found in the United States Kittredge, Journal, xxx, 309; Cox, p. 94.
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"Following Music" in a Mountain Land by Josephine McGill (The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3; Jul., 1917, pp. 364-384)
While the collector lingered in the musical neighborhood where The Greenwood Side was heard, one morning there walked in from several miles away a feeble dame. A first glance roused sympathy for her decrepitude-entirely unnecessary sympathy. In truth her elan vital was her chief characteristic. There was every evidence that curiosity about the stranger-the collector had prompted the visit. But besides curiosity, high sociability may be mentioned as another inspiration of the early morning call. Desire for companionship is a prevailing trait among these people who suffer from so much enforced isolation. In this particular dame's case sociability was freely indulged in; she spent her time visiting her children and her friends. An indefatigable pilgrim, week by week she might be seen trudging upland and valley, or perched aloft on the mail-hack or behind some one on a mule, thus shortening the way over rough roads.
The day she arrived the visit was unmistakably an "occasion," for which she had obviously dressed. Around the neck of her gingham frock a bright handkerchief lent a note of color--as did a string of blue beads. Her endearing gentleness and sweetness immediately worked the spell of pleasing personality. Besides her sociability and her curiosity, one more urge was responsible for her presence-a certain pardonable vainglory not uncommon in the artistic temperament. It soon transpired that she had a repertoire and was eager to share it. The most entertaining part of the performance was the singer's surprising memory and vitality. To special advantage these were displayed in her presentation of Little Musgrave or Lord Daniel's Wife. In the mountains this famous old song sometimes becomes Lord Vanner's Wife--by whatever name a ballad of singular charm, as the second stanza indicates:
One holiday, one holiday,
The very first month in the year,
They all went down to the old church house,
The gospel for to hear.
The first came down all dressed in red,
The next came down in green,
The next came down Lord Daniel's wife
As fine as any queen.
But for all this felicitous beginning the story is one of domestic infelicity and tragedy. The minor melody is distinctly Scottish. The twenty-eight stanzas, elsewhere forty-eight, are typical survivals of the erosion of age and changing circumstance.
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McNeil Notes: (Ruby Bowman Plemmons)
This is a version of Child 81 "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," a ballad whose first notice is a reference in a play of 1613. It was also mentioned or quoted in several later seventeenth-century dramas. It has been widely sung and collected, being reported from folksingers in Maine, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Vermont, Kentucky, Michigan, and Oklahoma as well as in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. It is known traditionally by numerous titles including "Lord Banner," "Lord Barney," "Lord Daniel," "Lord Darnell," "Lord Darnold," "Lord Valley," "Lord Vanover," "Lord Arnold's Wife," "Little Matthew Grove," "Little Mosie Grove," "Little Musgrave and Lady Narmwell," "The Red Rover," "Tomper's Song," "Mathey Grove," "Little Mathigrew," and "Lord Thomas," and the title used for the present version. There are four story types of the ballad as found in the United States, the first being that contained in the present text. The second type has the same story, but it is mentioned at the end that the Lord is to be hanged. A third story type has the same narrative minus the cajoling of the lover by the lady or refusal by Massie at the start. Upon seeing Massie embrace the lady, the page leaves. The final story type tells that the lord is to be hanged but at the beginning it is Lord Dannel who attends church one holiday where he learns of his wife's infidelity.
Because this ballad apparently exists in America purely by means of oral tradition (at least some scholars have assumed this to be the case) it has been seen as especially important in revealing how folksongs develop. Phillips Barry examined it for this purpose, concluding that there were two versions (one containing the bugle blowing and the "away, Musgrave, away" refrain, the other mentioning King Henry). He maintained that these split in Britain and developed independently in America. Barry further argued that the American texts are more vivid and incisive than Child's and probably older. Ultimately, he concluded that the song has been in this country over 500 years, i.e. since about 1630.
Barry's ideas, however, about a pre-American split have not been generally accepted. American versions of the ballad begin either at church, at a ball, or while playing ball. Generally, southern American texts begin at church while northern ones begin while playing ball. Sometimes the lord regrets killing Massie and in a few American versions commits suicide. The lady is more aggressive in the united states than she is in English versions. American texts are also unlike Old World ones in that no past affair between the lovers is indicated.
The present version was collected October 25, 1976, by Kip Lornell from Ruby Bowman Plemmons, Meadows of Dan, Virginia. In 1932 she recorded the same ballad, and several others, for Arthur K. Davis of the University of Virginia, All of her songs welr learned from her parents or friends but, for Davis, she admittedly refreshed her memory by going through a book of ballads. The present text is almost identical to that Plemmons supplied Davis, the single difference being in verse six where Davis's "a-laughin' and a-talkin' " becomes "huggin' and-a-kissin'." This is, as Lornell correctly notes, evidence that for the ballad singer there is indeed a "correct" version; it is the one they have learned. Ballad scholars, of course, have traditionally maintained that all versions are equally "correct." Plemmons's version, although fifteen velses long, is a condensed version of the total narrative. The warning sent to Lord Darnold is omitted as is the two final killings found in many versions. Thus, the ending becomes tragic pathos rather than violence.
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George Edwards's version: Lord Arnold
Ballads Migrant in New England, Helen Hartness Flanders and Marguerite Olney, (1953), Farrar, Strauss and Young: New York, pg. 75-76
…We have innumerable songs dating from Elizabethan days. How do we know? Certain ballads were quoted in snatches, in Beaumont and Fletcher’s “The Knight and the Burning Pestle,” in 1611. This is true of “King William and Sweet Margaret” charmingly sung by Mrs. Winifred Haskins of Savoy, Massachusetts, and by Asa Davis of Milton, Vermont; true also of “Lord Banner” which we have found in northern New England states. The version of the latter which seems to have the longest family history was furnished as “Lord Arnold” by Mr. George Edwards of Burlington, Vermont. When I first met Mr. Edwards he told me that his grandfather had always taught the border ballads to his own family, as history. As one example only of the many instances where we record genealogical data for the ballad, I quote from his letter:
The song has been handed down from one to another in our family for nearly two hundred years as follows. My great grandfather, Henry W. Edwards, whose wife was Margaret Douglas of Scotland, was born in Westchester, England, in 1739 and died in 1820, my grandfather, William H. Edwards whose wife was Martha Bennings, a Northumberland girl, was born in the town of Seaton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1785 and died on the second day of July 1881, the day that President Garfield was shot.
My father, Henry R. Edwards whose wife was an American woman, a native of Vermont, by the name of Wetherell, was also born in the town of Seaton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1826 and died in 1895.
This song was passed down from my great grandfather, or grandmother, I do not know which, to my grandfather, who in turn taught it to my father, and also to me, as he did many other songs including several of the so-called “border songs.” This is a record for the song that I think few could equal.
Again, it is a matter of history that the royal court was held at Winchester, in the county of Hampshire, in the South of England, prior to the year one thousand, and was known and referred to as the Hampshire Court. It was, however, removed to Westminster by Edward the Confessor for a comparatively short time but was again restored to its former location in Hampshire by King William the Conqueror about 1068 and remained there some time, during the reign of Henry I and Henry II.
Referring to the verse that reads as follows: “Lord Arnold has gone to the Hampshire Court King Henry for to see” seems to me better and more appropriate than anything offered in the other versions. The description of the foot page’s journey to the court is much more natural and lucid than anything the other selections give. Again, as follows, when Lord Arnold arrived at his castle, “Lord Arnold he summoned his merry men all, by one’s, by two’s and by three’s, he ordered them not a drum should be beat, nor a bugle sounded be.” What could be more natural, or plainly stated than this? It seems to me the other versions suffer, in comparison with this.
Again, “Lord Arnold strode through the castle halls and opened the door so wide, they did not know that Lord Arnold had come, till he stood by their bed-side.” Or this, when Motta Grow answered Lord Arnold’s order to arise, “Must I arise, said Mottha Grow, and fight you for my life, while you have a glittering sword at your side and I have not a knife.” And Lord Arnold’s answer, “Yes, I have a sword, here at my side, and others in their place, and you shall have the best one of them and I will take the worst.” The other selections give it as two swords by his side. I never knew of heard of a man wearing two swords at one time, did you?
I never heard this piece sung by anybody outside of my own family and was greatly surprised to learn that it was so widely scattered.
November 1, 1933 /s/ George J. Edwards
___________________________________________
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
81. LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
Texts: The American Songster (Cozzens, N.Y.) / Barry, JBrit Bids Me, 150 / Belden, Mo F-S, BrownCo\ll BFSSNE, III, 6; IV, 12; VII, 9/ Bull (75C#i62,#7/ Cambiaire, Ea Ttnn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 50 / Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 29 / Cox, F-S South, 94 / Creighton, Sgs Bids N Sc, 1 1 / Davis, Trd Bid Fa, 289 / Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 63 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 48 / Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 135 / Fuson, Bids Ky Hgblds, 52 / Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 46 / Grapurcbat, East Radford (Va.) State Teachers College, 8 25 '32 / Henry, F-S So Hgblds, 73 / Henry, Sgs Sng So Aplchns, 65 / JAFL, XXIII, 371 ; XXV, 182; XXX, 309; XLII, 265 / MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc, 27 / MacKenzie, Quest Bid, 14, 88 / Notes from ike Pine Mt. Settlement School, Harlan County, Ky., 1935, VII, :Ji/Perry, CarterCnty, 1 05 / PMLA, XXXIX, 470 /Randolph, Oz F-S, 1, 124 /Scarborough, Sgctcbr So Mts, 143 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, #20 / Sharp K, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, I, 161 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 8 / Reed Smith, SC Bids, 125 / Smith and Rufty, Am Anth Old Wrld Bids, 26 / Va FLS Bull, #s 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 / Univ. West Virginia Studies, III (Philological Papers, II), 14 / Wyman and Brockway, 20 Ky Mt Sgs, 22, 62. Korson, Pa Sgs Lgds, 32.
Local Titles: Lord Banner, Lord Daniel, Lord Darnell, Lord Darnold, Lord Valley, Lord Vanover, Lord Arnold (Banner, Daniel, Donald, Orland, Vanner)'s Wife, Little (Young) Matthew (Mathy, Matha, Matly, Mose) Grove(s), Little Mosie Grove (Grew), Little Musgrave and Lady Barnswell, The Red Rover.
Story Types: A: Matthew Groves attends church or a ball and catches the eye of Lord Arnold's wife who, even though pregnant in some versions, makes advances toward him and asks him to sleep with her that night. When he sees by the ring on her finger that she is the Lord's wife, he refuses, but consents when she assures him her husband is away. A page overhears their plans and hurries off to inform the Lord. After blowing on his bugle (sometimes it is a friend of Matthew's in the Lord's retinue who blows the bugle against orders), Lord Arnold surprises the sleeping lovers in bed. He offers Matthew the best sword and then kills him in a fair fight. In some texts he regrets his act. However, he then slays his wife when she tells him she loves Groves better than she loves him. In a group of texts the Lord plans suicide or says he will die in the near future.
Examples: Barry (Aa), Belden, Davis (A), Fuson.
B: The story is the same as that of Type A, but it is mentioned at the end that the Lord shall "be hanged tomorrow".
Examples: Chappell, Creighton, Smith (A).
C: The story is the same as that of Type A, but there is no cajoling of the lover by the lady or refusal by Matthew at the start. He embraces her at once, when she makes advances toward him. The page, seeing this, departs.
Examples: Henry, F-S So Hghlds (A).
Discussion: This ballad, as it has a pure oral tradition in America, offers the scholar an excellent subject for study. Several of the texts are outstanding, and identical versions have been found as far apart as Maine and Missouri (See Barry, Brit Bids Me, 17711. and JAFL, XXX, 315). Barry, op. cit. 9 iSoff. prints a long discussion of the ballad as a means of revealing how folk songs develop. His contention is that there are two versions (the Banner and the Arnold or Daniel: one containing the bugle blowing and the "away, Musgrave, away" refrain, the other mentioning King Henry) which split in Britain and developed independently in America. In connection with this argument, he points out (p. 182) that the American texts are more vivid and incisive than Child's and probably older and decides that the song has been in this country over three hundred years.
The idea of a pre-American split is attacked point-blank by Helen Pettigrew (Univ. of West Virginia Studies III, Philological Papers II, 8ff.) She also disagrees with Barry's interpretation of the trip of the husband and discusses the American versions and variants farther. She indicates how few New World texts have the lady pregnant and that none (as do eight Child texts) have Musgrave blame the lady for the compromising situation when the lovers are discovered. In addition, she points out that the horn-blowing is still frequently retained over here (See MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc, A, C; Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mick; Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, A; SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, F) and attributes the visit to King Henry to American romanticization.
The American texts vary somewhat in their inclusion and exclusion of material, as do those in Child. Type A stories may begin at church (Child A, C, H), at a ball (BFSSNE, III, 6), or playing ball (Child D, E, K, L), although the letter-writing (Child G) does not seem to be in America. (Belden, Mo F-S 58 points out that the church-beginning characterizes southern American texts, while the playing at ball, the northern.) The attempts to bribe the page are missing (Child C-F, H-L, O). The bugle-blowing scenes are faulty and, if included, disagree as to whether the Lord himself or a friend of Musgrave's warns the lover against orders. The Lord may or may not regret his act, and a few times, as in Child C and G, he commits suicide. Musgrave's wife is omitted, but the pregnancy of Lady Barnard is frequently retained. The Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 50 version finds a close friend of the family taking the page's role.
Type B follows the ending of Child E, while Type C is perhaps closer to the spirit of the British texts than the other American versions. The lady is never as aggressive in England as she is on this side of the ocean. Nevertheless, no American song that I have seen contains the barbaric torture to be found in Child A, nor do any indicate clearly a past affair between the lovers. However, see Type C.
For a discussion of this ballad in Jamaica see PMLA, XXXIX, 455 ff.
The song is generally considered "dirty" by folk-singers. Check the headnotes in Randolph, Oz F-S 9 I.
__________________________________
Lord Daniel
Green Maggard
Kentucky Mountain Music, Part 5
LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
Source Creighton, Maritime Folk Songs (1961) pp.11-13
Performer Hilshie, Harold
Place collected Canada : : Pope's Harbour
Collector Creighton, Helen
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
LORD BANNER'S WIFE
Source Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 9 / FO 75)
Performer Turner, Harold
Place collected Canada : Quebec : Lennoxville
Collector Fowke, Edith
PADDY MAGRUE
Source Bethke, Adirondack Voices (1981) pp.109-112
Performer Ashlaw, Ted
Place collected USA : New York : Hermon
Collector Bethke, Robert D.
WALTER GROVES
Source Lore & Language 7:2 (1988) pp.61-63
Performer White, William
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Cull's Harbour
Collector Ashton, John / Bishop, Julia
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
--------------------------
Little Musgrave (Little Massie Groves)
Cowell, Sidney Robertson
Karpeles, Maud
Sung by Mrs Naomi Lydford,
Dates 1950
Location Bee Log
North Carolina
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LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
Source Leach, Folk Ballads & Songs of the Lower Labrador Coast (1965) pp.32-35
Performer Odell, Ned
Place collected Canada : Labrador : Pinware
Collector Leach, MacEdward
LITTLE MUSGROVE AND LADY BARNET
Source Dicey & Marshall's Catalogue of Old Ballads, p.91
Folk songs of Peggy Seeger: 88 traditional ballads and songs
Peggy Seeger - 1964 (compilation)
... British ballad and softened much of the savagery of Lord Banner's revenge. Simply
First come down was a lady in red,
Then a lady in pearl.
Last come down was Lord Banner's wife,
The fairest among them all,
The fairest among them all.
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LITTLE MATTHEW GROVE, THE [This text is unavailable]
Source MacArthur, Country Dance & Song 11/.12 (1981) p.19
Performer Atwood, James / Atwood, Mary
Place collected USA : Vermont : West Dover
Collector MacArthur, Margaret C.
MATTHY GREW
Source Bush, Folk Songs of Central West Virginia 5 pp. 96-100
Performer
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Summers County
Collector Bush, Michael E.
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
LORD DANIEL
Source Yazoo YA 2200 ('Kentucky Mountain Music') disc 5
Performer Maggard, Green
Place collected USA : Kentucky
Collector Thomas, Jean
LITTLE MATTHEW GROVE
Source Library of Congress recording 1030 A1
Performer Cullipher, Mrs. Ruth Clark / Angie Clark
Place collected USA : S. Carolina : Mullins
Collector Lomax, John A.
LORD DANAVER AND LITTLE MUSGRAVE
Source Library of Congress recording 1427 B2
Performer Sizemore, john
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Middlefork
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
LORD DANIEL
Source Library of Congress recording 1447 B2
Performer Bailey, Vergie
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Hyden
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
LORD DANIEL
Source Library of Congress recording 1448 A1 & B1
Performer Bailey, Vergie
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Hyden
Collector Lomax, Alan & elizabeth
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.105
Performer Smith, Carl
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County
LORD DANIEL
Source Library of Congress recording 1447 B2
Performer Bailey, Vergie
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Hyden
Collector Lomax, Alan & elizabeth
LORD DANIEL
Source Library of Congress recording 1455 B
Performer Begley, Sewanee
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Middlefork
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
LORD DANIEL'S HORN
Source Library of Congress recording 3112 B3
Performer Watkins, Dr. C.L.
Place collected USA : Mississippi : Vancleave
Collector Halpert, Herbert
LORD DANIEL'S WIFE
Source Library of Congress recording 1473 A1
Performer Keen, W.M.
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Hyden
Collector Lomax, Alan & Elizabeth
LORD DANIEL'S WIFE
Source Library of Congress recording 1780 A
Performer Lunsford, Bascom Lamar
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Asheville (New York)
Collector Hibbitt, George W. / William Cabell Greet
LORD DARNOLD
Source Library of Congress recording 2779 A&B; 2780 A1
Performer Hamilton, Mrs. Goldie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Hamiltontown
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
LORD DARNELL [See Clayton's version]
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version b)
Performer Bolling, Boyd J.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Flat Gap
Collector Adams, John Taylor
LORD DARNOLD
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version c)
Performer Hamilton, Mrs. Goldie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
MATHY GROVES
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version d)
Performer Beverly, Mrs. Donna
Place collected USA : Virginia : Norton
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
MATHY GROVES
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version e)
Performer Holyfield, Mrs. Lurline
Place collected USA : Virginia : Pound
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
THERE WAS A BALL IN THE FAR SCOTLAND
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version g)
Performer Salyers, Mrs. Julia
Place collected USA : Virginia : Indian Creek
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
LORD THOMAS ?
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version h)
Performer Dockery, Mrs. Mary
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hylton, James M.
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
LORD VANNERS
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version i)
Performer Ison, Mrs. Sarah
Place collected USA : Virginia : Norton
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
LORD DANIEL
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version a)
Performer Bentley, Martin
Place collected USA : Virginia : Esserville
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
LITTLE MATHY GROVES
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.808 (version f)
Performer Johnson, Mrs. Polly
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 52 | Roud number search
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Nic Jones - Analysis of Little Musgrave
From: DannyC - PM
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 03:24 PM
If Menelaus had been able to quickly get at Paris and brush away all those tedious little details involving Hector, Achilles and that bunch, we might end up with this tight little story. On another nopte, the ballad nearly perfectly lends itself to a Gravesian interpretation - as an upside-down ritual murder of some year-and-a-day sun king with Musgrave serving as the older man's surrogate.
Much like Menelaus, Lord Bernard seems compelled to pursue his actions. The regret that Bernard expresses is the most moving portion of the piece (for me).
Perhaps Musgrave becomes a self-selected victim by bringing his imperfect intentions into church on the first day of the year. His selection is sealed when she casts her eye on him "as bright as the summer sun". Moons are as likely to be dressed "in velvet red, and some in velvet pale" as are court women. Why does the footpage need to encounter the broken bridge? Does swimming thru the river purify him as a messanger? The hinge/passage images are abundant:
Buckle
Ford
Broken Bridge
Red Moon/Pale Moon
First day of the year
When I sing it, I have the foot page address Bernard: "Me Lord Bernard, Me Lord Bernard, You are a man of light." (It doesn't really matter what I sing, as our late night versions here in Kentucky have little reach into the world at large.)
At any rate, the ballad works on several levels for me - in fact - you need only to pick up the paper here in Kentucky on just about any given Sunday morning to read of another chilling version of the story being brutally enacted in situations ranging from some Bourbon County ascendancy mansion to an isolated trailer up a hollar. I suppose that's part of what makes for a 'classic' tale.
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WPA Guide: Virginia’s Folklore and Music
Children repeated the verses their parents and grandparents sang. Lord Darnell, one of the oldest ballads in the State, tells of a young farmer lad who met his death when led astray by Lord Damell's wife:
She placed her eyes on little Matthew Groves, And these words to him did say: 'You must go home with me this night; This live-long night to stay.'
'I can't go home with you this night, I cannot for my life, For by the ring on your finger You are Lord Darnell's wife.'
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Little Mathy Groves Contributor Della Matthews Angura, North Carolina [circa 1930]
Southern Appalachian Archives, Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies, Mars Hill University
Source Bascom Lamar Lunsford Collection, Box 71, Folder L
Little Mathie Groves 1 Little Mathie Groves went to church the very first day in the year, he went to church, the holy word, the holy word to hear. 2 And who did he spy that day at church, 'twas Lord Donalds wife she fell to beg little Mathie Groves to go along home with her, to go along home with her. 3 I cannot go along home with you for all my life, I can tell by the ring on your right hand that you are Lord Donalds wife, that you are Lord Donalds wife. 4 Well if I'm Lord Donalds wife Lord Donald he ain't at home he's gone to old King Henry's, King Henry for to see, King Henry for to see. 5 There was a little footman by and heard what they said he went right straight and Lord Donald every word that was said, every word that was said. 6 Lord Donald formed all his men and started them on home, one of little Mathie's friend blew Lord Donald's horn blew Lord Donalds horn. 7 Little Mathie Groves, he rose up I think I'd better go I heard Lord Donalds horn blow I think he's coming home, I think he's coming home. 8 Little Mathie Groves you lie down and also go to sleep that's nothing but the shepherd boys blowing the sheep to the corn blowing the sheep to the corn. 9 Little Mathie Groves he lay down also went to sleep the very next time Little Mathie awoke Lord Donald was at his feet, Lord Donald was at his feet. 10 It's how do you like my fine feather beds, it's how do you like my sheets it's how do you like that pretty little wife who lies in my arms and sleeps, who lies in my arms and sleeps. 11 It's well I like your fine feather beds it's well I like your sheets, much better than I like that pretty little wife who lies in your arms and sleeps, and lies in your arms and sleeps. 12 Little Mathie Groves you rise up and put on your clothes I never want it to be told a naked man I slain, a naked man I slain. 13 Little Mathie Groves you're unarmed, my arms I'll divide with you I'll give you the very first lick what fairer can I do, what fairer can I 14 Little Mathie Groves gave one stroke, it edged Lord Donalds throat. the very next lick Lord Donald little Mathie could strike no more, Little Mathie could strike no more. 15 Lord Donald took his lady by the arm and set her on his knee, says he which do you like the best Little Mathie Groves or me Little Mathie Groves or me. 16 It's well I like your red rosy cheeks, it's well I like your chin I wouldn't give a kiss from Little Mathie's lips for all of you and your kin, for all you and your kin. 17 Lord Donald took his lady by the hand and led her through the hall and drew out a sword and cut off her head and kicked it against the wall, and kicked it against the wall. Della Matthews Angura N.C.
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Southern Appalachian Archives, Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies, Mars Hill University
Source Bascom Lamar Lunsford Collection, Box 69, Folder L
Lord Donald
Contributor Marie Ray 1935-09-06
Place Pensacola, Yancey County, North Carolina
LORD DONALD Little Mathey went to church one night to hear those richeous words. The first came in was dressed in green, the next came in was dress- ed in brown, the next came in was a pretty fair miss, dressed fine as any a queen, queen, dressed fine as any a queen. She stepped up to little Mathey's side, says will you go home with me? I swear, I swear by the rings on your fingers you are Lord Donald's wife, wife, you are Lord Donald's wife. It matters not whose wife I am, whose rings I wear on my finger, my husband not at home to night, he is in some foreign land, land, he is in some foreign land. Little Paddle Foot standing near, heard all they had to say, say, heard all they had to say. Says if I live Lord Donald shall hear of this, this Lord Donald shall hear of this. He had fifteen miles to go, ten of them he ran, ran, ten of them he ran, he ran till he came to the broken down bridge, he fell to his breast he swam, swam, till he came to Lord Donald's gate, he tingle the bells, he rang, rang, he tingle the bells, he rang. Oh! is my castle burning down or what in the world is wrong? No your castle is not burning down and that is not what is wrong, another man is with your own true love and their hearts is one, one, and their hearts is one. Lord Donald gathered him up about fifty good men, he done it with his own free will, he put his bugle to his mouth, he blew it loud and shrill, shrill, he blew it loud and shrill. Get up, get up my lady, get up for I must go. Lord Donald is comming home tonight, I heard his bugle blow, blow, I heard his bugle blow. Lie down, lie down, little Mathey Grove and keep my bed side warm, and lets us go to sleep its nothing but my father's shepherd voice calling for his sheep, sheep, a calling for his sheep.
First they fell to hugging and kissing and next they fell asleep and when they awoke it was broad day light, Lord Donald standing at their feet, feet, Lord Donald standing at their feet. Oh how do you like my pillow sir, Oh how do you like my sheet, Oh how do you like my own true love who lies in your arms and sleeps, sleeps, who lies in your arms and sleeps? Very well do I like your pillow sir, much better do I like your sheet, still better do I like my own true love who lies in my arms and sleeps, sleeps, who lies in my arms and sleeps. Get up, get up little Mathey Grove and put your clothes all on I never want it to be said a naked man I have slown, a naked man I have slown. I can not rise, I will not rise for the risk of my own life, you have two swords all buckled on and I haven't even a knife. It is quite true I have two swords all buc- kled on, they cost deep down in my purse, you can have the best of them and I will take the worse, and I will take the worse. You can strike the very first strike, now strike it like a man, and I will strike the very next strike and kill you if I can, can, kill you if I can. Little Mathey struck the very first strike, it fell on Lord Donald full sore. Lord Donald struck the very next strike and killed little Mathey on the floor, floor, killed little Mathey on the floor. He took his lady by her hand, says come sit down upon my knee and tell me which you love best little Mathey Grove or me, little Mathey Grove or Me. Very well do I like your checks, much better do I like your change, still better do I like little Mathey Grove than you and all your friends. He led his lady through the hall, he aimed his revover at her breast, he shot her with a leaden ball, ball, he shot her with a leaden ball. Go dig my grave on that green hill yonder and dig it deep and wide, place Lord Donald at my feet, little Mathey by my side, side, little Mathey by my side.
Written September 6, 1935 By Marie Ray YANCEY COUNTY Pensacola, N. C.
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Southern Appalachian Archives, Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies, Mars Hill University
Source Bascom Lamar Lunsford Collection, Box 71, Folder L
Lord Daniel's Wife [c. 1930]
Lord Daniels Wife Sunday was the sabbath day the very first day in the year Mathy Grew went to church the holy words to hear. The first came down was purple and blue the next come down was green and the next come down was Lord Daniels wife the finest he had ever seen. She cast her eye on little Massie Grew saying go home with me this nite to dewell. I daresent for my life I know from those rings you wear you are Lord Daniels wife. But if I am Lord D. wife as you suppose me the as he has gone to New Orleans King David to see. A little foot page standing by the holy words to hear he took to his heels and he ran and ran till he came to the riverside and wet his breast and swam. What news have you brought to me little foot page why Lord Massie Grew has gone home with your wife to spend the nite if its a lie as it might be you might as well be dead, and if it be the truth tomorrow he shall die. He marched out 24 men and put them in a row not a word to be spoken but a bugle to blow the very first man in the row he knowed little Massie well, he put his bugle in his mouth and blowed both long & slow. He jumped up and said I heard Lord Daniels horn and she said lie ye down my little man and keep one from the cold its only fathers boys drawing the sheep to the fold. From that they fell to hugging and kissing the next they fell asleep. And the next they knowed Lord D. was standing at the foot of their bed saying how do you like my feather bed how do you like my sheep how do you like my lady that lies in your arm asleep. Well I like your feather bed so well I like your sheep, but I like your lady best that his in my arms asleep. Rise up my little man & put you on your clothes I never once want it said I slew a naked man. Must I git up you to try my life with your two sharp swords and me neither sword nor knife I'll give you the best and I'll take the worst and give you the 1st lick and if you dont kill me I'll kill you if I can. and the 1st lick Massie struck he struck to low, the 1st lick Lord D struck he couldn't strike no more. Rise ye up my lady & sit on my knee and tell me which you like the best Little Massie Grew or me. So well I like your rosy cheek so well I like your chin I wouldn't give little Mathy Grew's little finger for you and all your kin. Pull off them gold rings and lay them on the desk they are too costly to lie in the dust and rust. He took her by the hand and led her to the place he took his sword from his side and split her head atwain says don't you hear the sparrows cheap don't you hear
them cry I've been the death of two today and tomorrow I must die.