Matty Groves

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Matty Groves
English folk song
"A lamentable ballad of the little Musgrove". A seventeenth-century broadside held in the Bodleian Library.
CatalogueChild Ballad 81
Roud Folk Song Index 52
GenreBallad
LanguageEnglish
PerformedFirst attested in writing in 1613
PublishedEarliest surviving broadside dated to before 1675
Also known by several other names
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

"Matty Groves", also known as "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" or "Little Musgrave", is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It is listed as Child ballad number 81 and number 52 in the Roud Folk Song Index.[1][2] This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least 1613, and under the title Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard is one of the Child ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child.

Synopsis[edit]

Little Musgrave (or Matty Groves, Little Matthew Grew and other variations) goes to church on a holy day either "the holy word to hear" or "to see fair ladies there". He sees Lord Barnard's wife, the fairest lady there, and realises that she is attracted to him. She invites him to spend the night with her, and he agrees when she tells him her husband is away from home. Her page overhears the conversation and goes to find Lord Barnard (Arlen, Daniel, Arnold, Donald, Darnell, Darlington) and tells him that Musgrave is in bed with his wife. Lord Barnard promises the page a large reward if he is telling the truth and to hang him if he is lying. Lord Barnard and his men ride to his home, where he surprises the lovers in bed. Lord Barnard tells Musgrave to dress because he doesn't want to be accused of killing a naked man. Musgrave says he dare not because he has no weapon, and Lord Barnard gives him the better of two swords. In the subsequent duel Little Musgrave wounds Lord Barnard, who then kills him. (However, in one version "Magrove" instead runs away, naked but alive.)[3][4]

Lord Barnard then asks his wife whether she still prefers Little Musgrave to him and when she says she would prefer a kiss from the dead man's lips to her husband and all his kin, he kills her. He then says he regrets what he has done and orders the lovers to be buried in a single grave, with the lady at the top because "she came of the better kin". In some versions Barnard is hanged, or kills himself, or finds his own infant son dead in his wife's body. Many versions omit one or more parts of the story.[1]

It has been speculated that the original names of the characters, Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, come from place names in the north of England (specifically Little Musgrave in Westmorland and Barnard Castle in County Durham). The place name "Bucklesfordbury", found in both English and American versions of the song, is of uncertain origin.

Some versions of the ballad include elements of an alba, a poetic form in which lovers part after spending a night together.

Early printed versions[edit]

There are few broadside versions. There are three different printings in the Bodleian Library's Broadside Ballads Online, all dating from the second half of the seventeenth century. One, The lamentable Ditty of the little Mousgrove, and the Lady Barnet from the collection of Anthony Wood, has a handwritten note by Wood on the reverse stating that "the protagonists were alive in 1543".[5][6][7][8]

Below are the first four verses as written in a version published in 1658.

As it fell one holy-day,

Hay downe

As many be in the yeare,

When young men and maids together did goe,

Their mattins and masse to heare,


Little Musgrave came to the church-dore;

Hay downe

The preist was at private masse;

But he had more minde of the faire women

Than he had of Our Lady’s grace.


Then one of them was clad in green,

Hay downe

Another was clad in pall,

And then came in my lord Bernard’s wife,

The fairest amongst them all.


She cast an eye on Little Musgrave,

Hay downe

As bright as the summer sun;

And then bethought this Little Musgrave,

This lady’s heart have I woonn.[9]

Traditional recordings[edit]

It seems that the ballad had largely died out in the British Isles by the time folklorists began collecting songs. Cecil Sharp collected a version from an Agnes Collins in London in 1908, the only known version to have been collected in England.[10][11] James Madison Carpenter recorded some Scottish versions, probably in the early 1930s, which can be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.[12][13] The Scottish singer Jeannie Robertson was recorded on separate occasions singing a traditional version of the song entitled "Matty Groves" in the late 1950s by Alan Lomax,[14] Peter Kennedy[15] and Hamish Henderson.[16] However, according to the Tobar an Dualchais website, Robertson may have learned her version from Johnny Wells and Sandy Paton, Paton being an American singer and folk song collector.[17]

Dozens of traditional versions of the ballad were recorded in the Appalachian region. Jean Bell Thomas recorded Green Maggard singing "Lord Daniel" in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1934, which was released on the anthology 'Kentucky Mountain Music' Yazoo YA 2200.[18] Bascom Lamar Lunsford was recorded singing a version called "Lord Daniel's Wife" in 1935.[19] Samuel Harmon, known as "Uncle" Sam Harmon, was recorded by Herbert Halpert in Maryville, Tennessee, in 1939 singing a traditional version.[20] The influential Appalachian folk singer Jean Ritchie had her family version of the ballad, called "Little Musgrave", recorded by Alan Lomax in 1949,[21] who made a reel-to-reel recording of it in his apartment in Greenwich Village;[22] she later released a version on her album Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition (1961).[23] In August 1963, John Cohen recorded Dillard Chandler singing "Mathie Groves" in Sodom, North Carolina,[24] whilst Nimrod Workman, another Appalachian singer, had a traditional version of the song recorded in 1974.[25]

The folklorist Helen Hartness Flanders recorded many versions in New England in the 1930s and 40s,[26] all of which can be heard online in the Flanders Ballad Collection.[27]

Canadian folklorists such as Helen Creighton, Kenneth Peacock and Edith Fowke recorded about a dozen versions in Canada, mostly in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.[28]

A number of songs and tales collected in the Caribbean are based on, or refer to, the ballad.[29][30][31][32]

Textual variants and related ballads[edit]

Variant Lord/Lady's surname Lover Notes
The Old ballad of Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnard Barnard Little Musgrave This version has the foot-page
Mattie Groves Arlen Little Mattie Groves [33]
Matty Groves Darnell Matty Groves [34]

Some of the versions of the song subsequently recorded differ from Child's catalogued version.[35] The earliest published version appeared in 1658 (see Literature section below). A copy was also printed on a broadside by Henry Gosson, who is said to have printed between 1607 and 1641.[33] Some variation occurs in where Matty is first seen; sometimes at church, sometimes playing ball.

Matty Groves also shares some mid-song stanzas with the ballad "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (Child 74, Roud 253).[36][37]

Other names for the ballad:

  • Based on the lover
    • Little Sir Grove
    • Little Massgrove
    • Matthy Groves
    • Wee Messgrove
    • Little Musgrave
    • Young Musgrave
    • Little Mushiegrove
  • Based on the lord
    • Lord Aaron
    • Lord Arlen
    • Lord Arnold
    • Lord Barlibas
    • Lord Barnabas
    • Lord Barnaby
    • Lord Barnard
    • Lord Barnett
    • Lord Bengwill
    • Lord Darlen
    • Lord Darnell
    • Lord Donald
  • Based on a combination of names
    • Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
    • Little Musgrave and Lady Barnet
    • Lord Barnett and Little Munsgrove
    • Lord Vanner’s Wife [and Magrove][3][4]

Literature[edit]

The earliest known reference to the ballad is in Beaumont and Fletcher's 1613 play The Knight of the Burning Pestle:

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![38]

Al Hine's 1961 novel Lord Love a Duck opens and closes with excerpts from the ballad, and borrows the names Musgrave and Barnard for two characters.[39]

Deborah Grabien's third book in the Haunted Ballad series, Matty Groves (2005), puts a different spin on the ballad.[40]

Commercial recordings[edit]

Versions of some performers could be mentioned as the most notable or successful, including those by Jean Ritchie[41] or Martin Carthy.[42]

Year Release (Album / "Single") Performer Variant Notes
1956 John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk Songs John Jacob Niles Little Mattie Groves
1958 Shep Ginandes Sings Folk Songs Shep Ginandes Mattie Groves [43]
1960 British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volume 2 Jean Ritchie Little Musgrave
1962 Joan Baez in Concert Joan Baez Matty Groves
1964 Introducing the Beers Family Beers Family Mattie Groves
1966 Home Again! Doc Watson Matty Groves
1969 Liege & Lief Fairport Convention Matty Groves Set to the tune of the otherwise unrelated Appalachian song "Shady Grove"; this hybrid version has therefore entered other performers' repertoires over time (the frequency of this as well as the similarity of the names has led to the erroneous assumption that "Shady Grove" is directly descended from "Matty Groves"). Several live recordings also.[citation needed]
1969 Prince Heathen Martin Carthy Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
1970 Ballads and Songs Nic Jones Little Musgrave
1976 Christy Moore Christy Moore Little Musgrave Set to a tune by Andy Irvine[44]
1977 Never Set the Cat on Fire Frank Hayes Like a Lamb to the Slaughter Done as a parody talking blues version
1980 The Woman I Loved So Well Planxty Little Musgrave
1990 Masque Paul Roland Matty Groves
1992 Just Gimme Somethin' I'm Used To Norman and Nancy Blake Little Matty Groves
1992 Out Standing in a Field The Makem Brother and Brian Sullivan Matty Groves
1993 In Good King Arthur's Day Graham Dodsworth Little Musgrave
1994 You Could Be the Meadow Eden Burning
1995 Live at the Mineshaft Tavern ThaMuseMeant
1997 On and On Fiddler's Green Matty Groves
1994 You Could Be the Meadow Eden Burning
1999 Trad Arr Jones John Wesley Harding Little Musgrave
2000 Hepsankeikka Tarujen Saari Kaunis neito (In Finnish)
2001 Listen, Listen Continental Drifters Matty Groves
2002 Ralph Stanley Ralph Stanley Little Mathie Grove
2004 Live 2004 Planxty Little Musgrave
2005 Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads Dillard Chandler Mathie Grove Acapella Appalachian.[45]
2005 De Andere Kust Kadril Matty Groves
2007 Season of the Witch The Strangelings Matty Groves
2007 Prodigal Son Martin Simpson Little Musgrave
2008 The Peacemaker's Chauffeur Jason Wilson Matty Groves Reggae version, featuring Dave Swarbrick & Brownman Ali
2009 Folk Songs James Yorkston and the Big Eyes Family Players Little Musgrave
2009 Alela & Alina Alela Diane featuring Alina Hardin Matty Groves, Lord Arland
2009 Tales From the Crow Man Damh the Bard Matty Groves
2009 Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards Tom Waits Mathie Grove
2010 Sweet Joan Sherwood Matty Groves (In Russian)
2011 Birds' Advice Elizabeth Laprelle Mathey Groves
2011 "Little Musgrave" The Musgraves Little Musgrave YouTube video recorded to explain the band's name
2011 In Silence Marc Carroll Matty Groves
2012 Retrospective The Kennedys Matty Groves
2013 The Irish Connection 2 Johnny Logan
2013 Fugitives Moriarty Matty Groves
2019 Dark Turn of Mind Iona Fyfe Little Musgrave Scots folklore variant written in Scottish English[46]
2019 Návrat krále Asonance Matty Groves (In Czech)

Film and television[edit]

Film[edit]

In the film Songcatcher (2000), the song is performed by Emmy Rossum and Janet McTeer.

Television[edit]

In season 5 episode 2, "Gently with Class" (2012), of the British television series Inspector George Gently, the song is performed by Ebony Buckle, playing the role of singer Ellen Mallam in that episode, singing it as "Matty Groves".

Musical variants[edit]

In 1943, the English composer Benjamin Britten used this folk song as the basis of a choral piece entitled "The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard".[47]

"The Big Musgrave", a parody by the Kipper Family, appears on their 1988 LP Fresh Yesterday. The hero in this version is called Big Fatty Groves.[48]

Frank Hayes created a talking blues version of Matty Groves called "Like a Lamb to the Slaughter," which won the 1994 Pegasus Award for "Best Risqué Song."

"Maggie Gove", a parody by UK comedy folk-band The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, appears on their 2022 album Rugh & Ryf. The anti-hero in this version is Margaret Gove, a folk-singer of traditional broadside ballads.[49] The song features guest appearances from Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks from Fairport Convention.[citation needed]

See also[edit]

The previous and next Child Ballads:

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Francis James Child (13 November 2012). The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol. 2. Courier Corporation. p. 243. ISBN 9780486152837. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Matty Groves". vwml.org. English Folk Dance and Song Society / Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Katherine Jackson French: Kentucky's Forgotten Ballad Collector". Oldtime Central. 23 June 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  4. ^ a b DiSavino, Elizabeth (2020). Katherine Jackson French: Kentucky's Forgotten Ballad Collector. University Press of Kentucky.
  5. ^ "A Lamentable Ballad of Little Musgrave, and the Lady Barnet". ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Bodleian Ballads Online. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  6. ^ "The lamentable Ditty of little Mousgrove, and the Lady Barnet". ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Bodleian Ballads Online. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  7. ^ "[A] Lamentable Ballad of the Little Musgrove, and the Lady Barnet". ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Bodleian Ballads Online. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  8. ^ "Ballads Online". ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
  9. ^ "Child Ballads - Lyrics". 71.174.62.16. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  10. ^ "Little Musgrave (Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) CJS2/9/1553)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Little Musgrave (Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) CJS2/10/1691)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  12. ^ "Little Musgrove (VWML Song Index SN18800)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Little Musgrove (VWML Song Index SN19227)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  14. ^ "Lord Donald (Roud Folksong Index S341660)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  15. ^ "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard (Roud Folksong Index S242813)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  16. ^ "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard (Roud Folksong Index S437094)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  17. ^ Jeannie Robertson singing "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard", recorded in Scotland by Hamish Henderson (September 1960). "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard". www.tobarandualchais.co.uk (Reel-to-reel). Scotland: Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o' Riches. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  18. ^ "Roud Folksong Index (S243414) - "Lord Daniel"". vwml.org. English Folk Dance and Song Society / Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  19. ^ "Lord Daniel's Wife (Roud Folksong Index S262168)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Little Matthew Grove (Roud Folksong Index S261972)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  21. ^ "Little Musgrave (Roud Folksong Index S341705)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  22. ^ Jean Ritchie singing "Little Musgrave" in Alan Lomax's apartment, 3rd Street, Greenwich Village, New York City (New York), United States (2 June 1949). "Little Musgrave". research.culturalequity.org (Reel-to-reel). New York: Association for Cultural Equity. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  23. ^ "Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  24. ^ "Mathie Groves (Roud Folksong Index S373182)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  25. ^ "Lord Daniel (Roud Folksong Index S401586)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  26. ^ "VWML: rn52 sound usa flanders". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
  27. ^ "Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection : Free Audio : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive". archive.org. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  28. ^ "rn52 sound canada". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
  29. ^ "Little Musgrove- Maroons (JM) pre1924 Beckwith C". bluegrassmessengers.com. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  30. ^ "Garoleen- Joseph (St Vincent) 1966 Abrahams C". bluegrassmessengers.com. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  31. ^ "Matty Glow- Antoine (St Vincent) 1966 Abrahams B". bluegrassmessengers.com. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  32. ^ "Little Musgrove- Forbes (JM) pre1924 Beckwith A , B". bluegrassmessengers.com. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  33. ^ a b "Mattie Groves". contemplator.com. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  34. ^ "The Celtic Lyrics Collection - Lyrics". celtic-lyrics.com. Archived from the original on 20 November 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  35. ^ Francis James Child (13 November 2012). The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Courier Corporation. p. 243. ISBN 9780486152837. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  36. ^ Keefer, Jane (2011). "Fair Margaret and Sweet William". Ibiblio. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  37. ^ Niles, John Jacob (1961). The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles. Bramhall House, New York. pp. 159–161, 194–197.
  38. ^ "The Knight of the Burning Pestle, by Beaumont & Fletcher, edited by F. W. Moorman". gutenberg.ca.
  39. ^ Hine, Al (1961). Lord Love a Duck. Longmans, Green & Co. pp. 2, 367. Retrieved 12 March 2017 – via babel.hathitrust.org.
  40. ^ Grabien, Deborah (2005). Matty Groves. Minotaur Books. ISBN 0-312-33389-7. Retrieved 28 February 2016 – via amazon.com.
  41. ^ Midwest Folklore. Indiana University. 1954.
  42. ^ The Gramophone. C. Mackenzie. 1969.
  43. ^ ""Mattie Groves" by Shep Ginandes". secondhandsongs.com. SecondHandSongs. 1958. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  44. ^ "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
  45. ^ Smithsonian Folkways – SFW 40170
  46. ^ Fyfe, Iona [in Scots] (1 January 2019). "Little Musgrave". Dark Turn of Mind. Bandcamp (Media notes). Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  47. ^ Stone, Kurt (1 October 1965). "Reviews of Records". The Musical Quarterly. LI (4): 722–724. doi:10.1093/mq/LI.4.722.
  48. ^ "Big Musgrave". The Kipper Family. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  49. ^ "RUGH & RYF | LYRICS". The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican. Retrieved 1 March 2023.

External links[edit]

Preceded by
51 		List of Roud folk songs
52 		Succeeded by
53
Preceded by
80 		List of the Child Ballads
81 		Succeeded by
82
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