Matty Groves

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"Matty Groves"
Written by Traditional
Performed by Many; see main text

Matty Groves is an English language folk ballad which describes an adulterous tryst between a man and a woman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It dates to at least the 17th century, and is one of the Child Ballads collected by the 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child. It has several variant names, including Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The wife of a nobleman, Lord Arlen (other names include Lord Daniel, Arnold, Donald, and Barnard) entices Matty Groves (or Little Musgrave), a servant or retainer of her husband, into an adulterous affair. Lord Arlen receives word of the betrayal (in some versions a foot-page hears them planning and warns Lord Arlen; the lord promises reward if he is telling the truth -- to make him his heir, or marry him to his eldest daughter -- and execution if he is lying) and returns home, where he surprises the lovers in bed. The death may be put off by Matty arguing for a weapon. Lord Arlen kills Matty Groves in a duel. When his wife spurns him and expresses a preference for her lover, even in death, over her husband, he stabs her through the heart. The ballad may end there, or with the lord's death, by suicide or execution.

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

[edit] Commentary

Believed to have originated no later than the early 17th century.

[edit] Historical Background

[edit] Cultural Relationships

[edit] Standard References

[edit] Broadsides

[edit] Textual Variants

Google Books Information

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 [1]
Matty Groves Darnell Matty Groves [2]

Some of the versions of the song subsequently recorded differ from Child's catalogued version.

The earliest published version appeared in 1658 (but 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. [3]

Some variation occurs in where Matty is first seen; sometimes at church, sometimes playing ball.

Other names:

  • 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

[edit] Migration

In the United States the song was transformed into the less graphic Shady Grove, which has itself become a tradition.

[edit] Songs that refer to Matty Groves

John Wesley Harding's "Little Musgrave" was recorded on his Trad Arr Jones album.

[edit] Motifs

[edit] 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.

Also a book by Deborah Grabien (3rd in the Haunted Ballad series); the book puts a different spin on the ballad[4].

[edit] Art

[edit] Television and Movie References

[edit] Music

The song has been recorded several times, with best known versions by Fairport Convention and Joan Baez.

[edit] Recordings

Album/Single Performer Year Variant Notes
John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk Songs John Jacob Niles 1956 Little Mattie Groves
Joan Baez in Concert Joan Baez 1962 Matty Groves Lyrics differ from Fairport Convention's one
Home Again Doc Watson 1966
Liege & Lief Fairport Convention 1969 Matty Groves
Prince Heathen Martin Carthy 1969 Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
Ballads and Songs Nic Jones 1970 Little Musgrave
Norman Blake and his wife, Nancy Blake
Christy Moore Christy Moore 1976 Little Musgrave
The Woman I Loved So Well Planxty 1992 Little Musgrave Christy Moore, who also recorded the song, was a member of Planxty
"You Could Be the Meadow" Eden Burning 1994
Robyn Hitchcock
"Live At The Mineshaft Tavern" ThaMuseMeant 1995
"Make Them Come Alive - Live at Stony Point Barn" Uncle Dirtytoes 1997
"Lost Lady Found" Vikki Clayton 1999
"Blind Man's Bluff" Minstrels of Mayhem 2004 Mattie Groves, Lord Donal
Fiddler's Green
Frank Hayes Done as a parody talking-blues version
"Ralph Stanley" Ralph Stanley 2002 Little Mathie Grove
"De Andere Kust" Kadril 2005
"Season of the Witch" The Strangelings 2007 Matty Groves
"Prodigal Son" Martin Simpson 2007 Little Musgrave

[edit] 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".[5]

[edit] Other songs with the same tune

[edit] See also

The previous and next Child Ballads:

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mattie Groves, http://www.contemplator.com/child/mattie.html
  2. ^ Matty Groves, http://celtic-lyrics.com/forum/index.php?autocom=tclc&code=lyrics&id=559
  3. ^ Mattie Groves, http://www.contemplator.com/child/mattie.html
  4. ^ Mattie Groves, http://www.deborahgrabien.com/matty.htm
  5. ^ Reviews at Musical Quarterly 51 (4), 722; Music & Letters 34 (2), 172.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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