Matty Groves


"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. 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

Little Musgrave 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 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.
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. 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.

Standard references

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".

Collected versions

Child published 14 examples.
The Roud Folk Song Index contains over 300 instances of this ballad, 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, the Virginias, Kentucky, New England and Tennessee. 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.
A number of songs and tales collected in the Caribbean are based on, or refer to, the ballad.

Textual variants and related ballads

VariantLord/Lady's surnameLoverNotes
The Old ballad of Little Musgrave and the Lady BarnardBarnardLittle MusgraveThis version has the foot-page
Mattie GrovesArlenLittle Mattie Groves
Matty GrovesDarnellMatty Groves

Some of the versions of the song subsequently recorded differ from Child's catalogued version. The earliest published version appeared in 1658. A copy was also printed on a broadside by Henry Gosson, who is said to have printed between 1607 and 1641. 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".
Other names for the ballad:
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!

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.
Deborah Grabien's third book in the Haunted Ballad series, Matty Groves, puts a different spin on the ballad.

Field recordings

Versions of some performers could be mentioned as the most notable or successful, including the ones by Jean Ritchie or Martin Carthy.
YearRelease PerformerVariantNotes
1956John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk SongsJohn Jacob NilesLittle Mattie Groves
1958Shep Ginandes Sings Folk SongsShep GinandesMattie Groves
1960British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volume 2Jean RitchieLittle Musgrave
1962Joan Baez in ConcertJoan BaezMatty Groves
1964Introducing the Beers FamilyBeers FamilyMattie Groves
1966Home Again!Doc WatsonMatty Groves
1969Liege & LiefFairport ConventionMatty GrovesSet to the tune of the otherwise unrelated Appalachian song "Shady Grove"; this hybrid version has therefore entered other performers' repertoires over time. Several live recordings also.
1969Prince HeathenMartin CarthyLittle Musgrave and Lady Barnard
1970Ballads and SongsNic JonesLittle Musgrave
1976Christy MooreChristy MooreLittle MusgraveSet to a music by Andy Irvine
1977Never Set the Cat on FireFrank HayesLike a Lamb to the SlaughterDone as a parody talking blues version
1980The Woman I Loved So WellPlanxtyLittle Musgrave
1990MasquePaul RolandMatty Groves
1992Just Gimme Somethin' I'm Used ToNorman Blake and his wife, Nancy BlakeLittle Matty Groves
1992Out Standing in a FieldThe Makem Brother and Brian SullivanMatty Groves
1993In Good King Arthur's DayGraham DodsworthLittle Musgrave
1994You Could Be the MeadowEden Burning
1995Live at the Mineshaft TavernThaMuseMeant
1997On and OnFiddler's GreenMatty Groves
1999Trad Arr JonesJohn Wesley HardingLittle Musgrave
2000HepsankeikkaTarujen SaariKaunis neito
2001Listen, ListenContinental DriftersMatty Groves
2002Ralph StanleyRalph StanleyLittle Mathie Grove
2003sings Sandy DennyLinde NijlandMatty Groves
2004Live 2004PlanxtyLittle Musgrave
2005Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and BalladsDillard ChandlerMathie GroveAcapella Appalachian.
2005De Andere KustKadrilMatty Groves
2007Season of the WitchThe StrangelingsMatty Groves
2007Prodigal SonMartin SimpsonLittle Musgrave
2008The Peacemaker's ChauffeurJason WilsonMatty GrovesReggae version, featuring Dave Swarbrick & Brownman Ali
2009Folk SongsJames Yorkston and the Big Eyes Family PlayersLittle Musgrave
2009Alela & AlinaAlela Diane featuring Alina HardinMatty Groves, Lord Arland
2009Tom WaitsMathie Grove
2009Tales from the Crow ManDamh The BardMatty Groves
2010Sweet Joan:ru:Sherwood|SherwoodMatty Groves
2011Birds' AdviceElizabeth LaprelleMathey Groves-
2011"Little Musgrave"The MusgravesLittle MusgraveYouTube video recorded to explain the band's name
2011In SilenceMarc CarrollMatty Groves
2012RetrospectiveThe KennedysMatty Groves
2013The Irish Connection 2Johnny Logan
2013FugitivesMoriartyMatty Groves
2019Návrat krále''AsonanceMatty Groves

Film and television

Film

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

Television

In season 5 episode 2, "Gently with Class", 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".
The Big Musgrave, a parody by the Kipper Family appears on their LP Fresh Yesterday . The hero in this version is called Big Fatty Groves.
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