1. Synopsis
    Standard references  Early printed versions  Collected versions  Textual variants and related ballads  Literature 

2. Field recordings

3. Commercial recordings

4. Film and television
    Film  Television 

5. Musical variants

6. Other songs with the same tune

7. See also

8. References

9. External links

"Matty Groves" is a Border ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a man and a woman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least the 17th century, 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

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 goes to find Lord Barnard (Arnel, 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. 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]

The name Musgrave originates in Westmoreland, a former county in the north of England now part of Cumbria.{{cn|date=February 2019}}

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

Standard references

• Child ballad 81, Roud 52^[1][2]

Early printed versions

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".^[3][4][5][6]

Collected versions

Child published 14 examples.^[1]

The Roud Folk Song Index contains over 300 instances of this ballad,^[7] and shows that the ballad has been collected mostly in North America: 113 versions listed in Roud were found in the USA, with the bulk in North Carolina (24), the Virginias (24), Kentucky (23), New England (16) and Tennessee (9). In Canada, 18 versions were found, the majority in Nova Scotia. Scotland produced 9 versions, and England only 2. Cecil Sharp is listed as the collector for 22 of the versions.^[7]

A number of songs and tales collected in the Caribbean are based on, or refer to, the ballad.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Textual variants and related ballads

Some of the versions of the song subsequently recorded differ from Child's catalogued version.^[14] 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.^[12] 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).^[15][16]

Other names for the ballad:

• Based on the lover
  • Matthy Groves
  • Young Musgrave
  • Wee Messgrove
  • Little Musgrave
  • Little Sir Grove
  • Little Miushiegrove
  • Little Massgrove
• Based on the lord
  • Lord Barnard
  • Lord Barnaby
  • Lord Barlibas
  • Lord Barnabas
  • Lord Bengwill
  • Lord Barnett
  • Lord Arlen
  • Lord Arnold
  • Lord Aaron
  • Lord Donald
  • Lord Darlen
  • Lord Darnell
• Based on a combination of names
  • Lord Barnett and Little Munsgrove
  • Little Musgrave and Lady Barnet

Literature

There is an allusion to the ballad in Beaumont and Fletcher's play The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1613); this is the earliest known reference.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Field recordings

• In August 1928, a version of the song was recorded by Mrs. Henry (for Mellinger Edward Henry) from "Uncle" Sam Harmon in Tennessee.^[19]
• In 1934, Jean Bell Thomas recorded Green Maggard singing "Lord Daniel" in Kentucky. This version was released on the anthology 'Kentucky Mountain Music' Yazoo YA 2200.^[20]
• On 2 June 1949, Jean Ritchie sang "Little Musgrave" for Alan Lomax, who made a reel-to-reel recording of it in his apartment in Greenwich Village.^[21]
• In September 1960, Hamish Henderson recorded Aberdeenshire singer Jean Robertson singing "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard ". However, the protagonists are Mattie Groves and Lord Donal, and another version by the same singer is called "Lord Donal". The notes to the recording on the Tobar an Dualchais webpage suggest that the singer learned her version from Johnny Wells and Sandy Paton. Paton was an American singer and folk song collector.^[22]
• In August 1963, John Cohen recorded Dillard Chandler singing "Mathie Groves" in Sodom, North Carolina. This version was published on Smithsonian-Folkways SFW CD 40159 ('Dark Holler').^[23]

Commercial recordings

Versions of some performers could be mentioned as the most notable or successful, including the ones by Jean Ritchie^[24] or Martin Carthy.^[25]

Film and television

Film

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

Television

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

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".^[29]

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."

Other songs with the same tune

• Dave van Ronk's version of "House of the Rising Sun" uses the tune of a version of "Matty Groves".{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}
• The folk/Bluegrass song "Shady Grove" from the United States also with many variations in wording, some arising in and around the Civil War, has a tune very similar to and possibly arising from the tune of Matty Groves.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

See also

The previous and next Child Ballads:

• "The Bonny Birdy"
• "Old Robin of Portingale"

References

External links

• "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard". Francis James Child. traditionalmusic.co.uk
• "Matty Groves". Fairport Convention. celtic-lyrics.com.
• "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard". sacred-texts.com
• "Mattie Groves". contemplator.com
• {{MetroLyrics song|fairport-convention|matty-groves}}
• Broadside Ballads Online

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