Matty Groves

"Matty Groves"
Song
Songwriter(s)	Traditional

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.

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.

Commentary

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

Cultural Relationships

Standard References

• Child ballad 81

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
Matty Groves	Darnell	Matty Groves

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.

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 Barnabas
  • Lord Arlen
  • Lord Arnold
  • Lord Donald
  • Lord Darlen
  • Lord Darnell
• Based on a combination of names
  • Lord Barnett and Little Munsgrove
  • Little Musgrave and Lady Barnet

Migration

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

Songs that refer to Matty Groves

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

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.

Music

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

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
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
	Doc Watson
	ThaMuseMeant
Christy Moore	Christy Moore	1976	Little Musgrave
The Woman I Loved So Well	Planxty	1992	Little Musgrave	Christy Moore, who also recorded the song, is a member of Planxty
	Visitations
	Eden Burning
	Robyn Hitchcock
Make Them Come Alive - Live at Stony Point Barn	Uncle Dirtytoes	1997
Blind Man's Bluff	Minstrels of Mayhem	2004	Mattie Groves, Lord Donal
De Andere Kust	Kadril	2005
	Fiddler's Green
	Frank Hayes			Done as a parody talking-blues version
	Ralph Stanley
Season of the Witch	The Strangelings	2007	Matty Groves
Prodigal Son	Martin Simpson	2007	Little Musgrave

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".

See also

The previous and next Child Ballads:

• The Bonny Birdy
• Old Robin of Portingale

External links

• Lyrics (F.J.Child)
• Lyrics (Fairport Convention)
• Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
• Mattie Groves a variant