Matty Groves
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"Matty Groves" | |
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Song | |
Writer(s) | Traditional |
"Matty Groves" is an English folk ballad that 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 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child. It has several variant names, including "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard."
Synopsis
Matty Groves (or Little Musgrave) is a servant or retainer of Lord Arlen. (Other names for Arlen include Daniel, Arnold, Donald, Darnell, and Barnard.) Lady Arlen entices Matty Groves into having an adulterous affair with her. Lord Arlen receives word of the betrayal; in some versions a foot-page hears them planning and warns Lord Arlen; the lord promises a 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. The nobleman 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. Yet another version has him cutting off his wife's head and kicking it against the wall in anger.
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
Textual variants
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.[1]
Some variation occurs in where Matty is first seen; sometimes at church, sometimes playing ball.
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.
A book by Deborah Grabien (3rd in the Haunted Ballad series) puts a different spin on the ballad.[3]
Recordings
Album/Single | Performer | Year | Variant | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk Songs | John Jacob Niles | 1956 | Little Mattie Groves | |
Shep Ginandes Sings Folk Songs | Shep Ginandes | 1958 | Mattie Groves | [4] |
British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volume 2 | Jean Ritchie | 1960 | Little Musgrave | |
Joan Baez in Concert | Joan Baez | 1962 | Matty Groves | |
Introducing the Beers Family | Beers Family | 1964 | Mattie Groves | |
Home Again | Doc Watson | 1966 | Matty Groves | |
Liege & Lief | Fairport Convention | 1969 | Matty Groves | Several live versions released since |
Prince Heathen | Martin Carthy | 1969 | Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard | |
Ballads and Songs | Nic Jones | 1970 | Little Musgrave | |
Just Gimme Somethin' I'm Used To | Norman Blake and his wife, Nancy Blake | 1992 | Little Matty Groves | |
Christy Moore | Christy Moore | 1976 | Little Musgrave | |
The Woman I Loved So Well | Planxty | 1980 | Little Musgrave | Christy Moore, who also recorded the song, was a member of Planxty |
Masque | Paul Roland | 1990 | Matty Groves | |
Out Standing in a Field | The Makem Brother and Brian Sullivan | 1992 | Matty Groves | |
In Good King Arthur's Day | Graham Dodsworth | 1993 | Little Musgrave | |
You Could Be the Meadow | Eden Burning | 1994 | ||
Robyn Hitchcock | Matty Groves | performed live; never released | ||
Live at the Mineshaft Tavern | ThaMuseMeant | 1995 | ||
Trad. Arr. Jones | John Wesley Harding | 1999 | Little Musgrave | |
Hepsankeikka | Tarujen Saari | 2000 | Kaunis neito | (in Finnish) |
On and On | Fiddler's Green | 1997 | Matty Groves | |
Never Set the Cat on Fire | Frank Hayes | 1977 | Like a Lamb to the Slaughter | Done as a parody talking blues version |
Listen, Listen | Continental Drifters | 2001 | Matty Groves | Trad. Arr. Fairport Convention |
Ralph Stanley | Ralph Stanley | 2002 | Little Mathie Grove | |
Maid on the Shore | Goo Brids Flight | 2002 | Matty Grove | |
sings Sandy Denny | Linde Nijland | 2003 | Matty Groves | |
YouTube (live) | Planxty | 2004 | Little Musgrave | Trad. Arr. Planxty; acoustic |
De Andere Kust | Kadril | 2005 | Matty Groves | |
Bucket of Guts | Rant & Roar | 2006 | Maddie Grove | |
Season of the Witch | The Strangelings | 2007 | Matty Groves | |
Prodigal Son | Martin Simpson | 2007 | Little Musgrave | |
The Peacemaker's Chauffeur | Jason Wilson | 2008 | Matty Groves | Reggae arrangement featuring Dave Swarbrick, based largely on the Fairport version. |
Foxhat Compilation | The Fox Hat! | 2009 | Matty Groves | |
Folk Songs | James Yorkston and the Big Eyes Family Players | 2009 | Little Musgrave | |
Alela & Alina | Alela Diane featuring Alina Hardin | 2009 | Matty Groves, Lord Arland | |
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards | Tom Waits | 2009 | Mathie Grove | |
Sweet Joan | Sherwood | 2010 | Matty Groves | In Russian language |
Little Musgrave | The Musgraves | 2011 | Little Musgrave | Recorded as a YouTube Video to help explain band's name origins |
In Silence | Marc Carroll | 2011 | Matty Groves | |
Retrospective | The Kennedys | 2012 | Matty Groves | |
Aloha | Contranym | 2012 | Matty Groves | Dub Folk Version |
Matty Groves | Ebony Buckle, Bobby Eccles, John Steele, Phillip Granell, Cormac Byrne, Nick Hendrix | 2013 | Matty Groves | In 2012's 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. |
Fugitives | Moriarty | 2013 | 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".[5]
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". 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.
See also
shares a mid-song stanza with Fair Margaret and Sweet William
The previous and next Child Ballads:
References
- 1 2 "Mattie Groves". Contemplator.com. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
- ↑ "The Celtic Lyrics Collection - Lyrics". Celtic-lyrics.com. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
- ↑ "Deborah Grabien". Deborah Grabien. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
- ↑ Mattie Groves by Shep Ginandes, SecondhandSongs.com
- ↑ Reviews at Musical Quarterly 51 (4), 722; Music & Letters 34 (2), 172.
External links
- Lyrics (F.J.Child)
- Lyrics (Fairport Convention)
- Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
- Mattie Groves a variant
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics