Child Ballads in the West Indies: Matty Glow (Excerpt)
[This is an excerpt from Abrahams' article. He gives three cante fable versions (with singing) of "Matty Glow" collected in St. Vincent in 1966. A recording has been made by Blinky (Sylvester McIntosh of St. Croix) and the Roadmasters, titled "Matty Gru" (on VIBlinky01) which uses these lyrics. See also Beckwith's article: The English Ballad in Jamaica. In Abraham's St. Vincent versions the role of the foot-page is played by a parrot who witnesses the adultery and flies to tell his master.
Mary Jane Soule in the liner notes to VIBlinky01: " 'Matty Gru' exhorts a young man to leave the bedroom of a married lady. (Although the need for such advice is not outside the realm of possibility in St Croix, the song actually derives from a British folk drama known locally as the King George play.)" (See VIZoop01. The CD and liner notes by Mary Jane Soule give the background of scratch bands, a little on Matty Gru -- included as an instrumental -- and a selection from a "King George play.") A version of Matty Gru is in the Supplemental Traditional Text File. The insertion of the sex theme of Matty Gru into the St/King George play is not as much a reach as might seem. See the discussion of the St George play for "Sweet Moll." The St Croix and St Vincent versions are similar -- sharing a verse -- though the Crucian version is connected with the St/King George mummers' play and the St Vincent version is connected with wakes. The Jamaica versions, like the St Vincent version, mix prose and song, but the story line is closer to the usual Child 81 plot. In all versions a parrot - not in other versions of Child 81 - is a central character. Beckwith notes, "The theme of the messenger bird who reveals crime appears in all collections of African texts and is closely bound up with the idea that the spirit of the dead takes the form of a bird in order to protect the innocent or avenge itself upon the guilty here on earth." [Trad. Ballad Index notes]
R. Matteson 2015]
Child Ballads in the West Indies: Familiar Fabulations, Creole Performances by Roger D. Abrahams; Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. 24, No. 2 (May - Aug., 1987), pp. 107-134.
A number of European-style folktales are told at these wakes, some of which come from the Anglo-American ballad repertoire. The same "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (Child 81) that Beckwith had found in her forays has undergone transformations that nicely illustrate the process by which non-African forms are adapted to the West Indian aesthetic.
The story shifts in both form and focus.[25] In the British and American ballad renditions of this story, the action focusses on the headstrong seduction by Lady Barnard of Mattie Groves, her pageboy, and of the subsequent discovery of the miscreants in bed by her husband Lord Barnard, who executes the two. The agency of this discovery is Lord Barnard's "little servant boy" who plays an incidental part in the action, never appearing except in the one scene in which he tells his lord about the wife's wantonness.
In the Vincentian rendering, the relationship between the lovers is subordinated, while that of the message carrier is greatly expanded. In the form of a message-singing parrot,[26] this figure actually instigates the action. It is one of many stories from St. Vincent in which an observer and tale-carrier becomes the fulcrum of the action.[27] In the case of the Vincentian story, the parrot enters into the action only to stir things up. He makes embarrassing private matters public by singing about them. In the main, his messages are unmotivated. While he seems to want to tell his master of the wife's infidelity, he also attempts to warn her and her lover. The plot development, indeed, rests on his flying back and forth between his master and mistress.
The interest in the theme of adultery reflects the fact that in St. Vincent one spouse often must leave home to find work. Stories about adultery in this situation are legion among the jokers of the island, and a number of such jests are performed at a nine night, with a great deal of laughter attending the discovery scene.
The story of the adulterers discovered because of the message-singing parrot, however, is not performed completely as a comic entertainment. Indeed, in the first version that I will report, the storyteller breaks into the narrative flow to refer to himself and his personal, if conventional, feelings about how wives whose husbands have to leave home to find work spend the money sent home on another man. Certainly on this island casual discussion most commonly concerns sexual behavior and misbehavior, especially by those who are married. Such comments reflect not only commonplace wisdom, then, but one of the ways a storyteller may introduce his own voice and feelings into an otherwise "objective" account.[28]
If any man, if any man
In another nex' man' home,
It is time, it is time
For to rise and go home.
If any man, if any man
In another nex' man' home,
It is time, it is time
For to rise and go home.
(repeated twice more)
This is a parrot now. This is a master have a parrot. Well he see now he cannot make a living in this [part of the] island. He go away and he leave the parrot with the mistress and he have gone wander for work. Well [helived in the mountains around Richland Park, where this story was being told] Well now, soon as e turn [his] back, an' e have his wife, that's Miss Notty now take [another] husband, because the man must have some woman. Just as the man turn e back [to] them, no waitin' for no ... wha' happenin' for now is some news coming 'pon me, [for that's the way it always goes] now you done gone then [your husband or wife is going to] pick somebody else. And when time come for you send for them now, for you [start to] make a good living for you [to] get along [on] now, she done have somebody [else]. So that how they going till today, right around here. Well now, well when he reach by Leeward and all, the parrot have come; the parrot there . . . watching the men [who were working there] with all they're doing. [He flew back home] Well, Miss Notty [back home] going to cook [for Garoleen] now, feed the man. And they eat and they go up and they lay down. And they going to play, just as [if] he rule the home. Well the parrot sing out now:
If any man, if any man
In another nex' man' home,
It is time, it is time
For to rise and go home.
E na try to bar a the parrot, man, becau' e a living [there]. He t'ink the parrot like [him] the man, you know, with the parrot there living and becau' he relax eself all the time. Oh good, the man he going back and tell he friends he done the horning. He tell [everybody that] already he done something. Well, he did you know. Well, the parrot get vex, now, he pick [i.e., flew] up Leeward, [to] Chateaubelaire an' e ax now, where they are doing the building up at Chateaubelaire, now, for true, he ax for his master there. But they tell him "No" [he isn't working there anymore]. Here he come a sing:
Oh, master there, oh, master there?
They tell him no master in there. Well, they say e go up [away from the shore to a town, Rose Bank, which is higher up on the mountain, on the Leeward side of the island]. They said, "Go now, go a Rose Bank to meet your master there by now." Well, he reach there now. Well now when e ax the master there again, now, they say "No he reaching to Troumaka [another town on the Leeward shore]. Well, on Troumaka, they say "No, [he has] gone along, reach Barouallie [another town in that area of the coast]. Ax there again, say "No, a come [here, but he left and went to] reach Loman's Hill. [When] e ax if his master there, say, "No, [your] master there; he been [here] but he gone again." Well, he [flew all over the island and finally found him all the way over at the top of the Windward shore] going to catch e master down by Georgetown. Well, after e meet him by Georgetown, you know, e say:
Oh, master there, oh, master there?
And the master come out, an' e watch now, an' e see parrot, an' parrot say:
I am telling you no lie.
Miss Notty go, Miss Notty go
On your bed with Garoleen.
The master there say:
Oh, pretty Polly, oh, pretty Polly.
Don't you tell me no lie.
E parrot say:
Oh, master dear, oh, master dear,
I don't tell you no lie.
Miss Notty dey, Miss Notty dey
On your bed with Garoleen.
Well, my friends, well e come out an' e get vex now, because he no know is dat lady he going to work for, and he got that kind of picky jam in e pocket [at] home. He coming back again, is parrot come back again, now. E say:
If any man, if any man ...
E a tell him fo' go all the time, for master come:
In another nex' man' home.
It is time, it is time
For to rise and go home.
Well e ain't bother [wouldn't listen] with him at all. He there, eyes like this [shut]. He not watchin'. All the time the master reach up, box the door: BLAM! Bedroom, pick'em up and he a go. When e come, e [Garoleen] has Miss Notty, lay down 'pon he 'oman, punch, punch e belly. An' meet them good an' dippin' on another man that he be on. And he fired one bullet an' killed both of them. Is that so you see now, 'oman cause man' death, still today.
[Sings:] Yes, father, that is true.[29]
A good deal of local cultural information must be known to understand what is being described here. References to Vincentian locales situate the action and orient the audience to the "real" character of the problem as does the commentary on adultery. To Vincentians, the notorious act is not fornicating; it is more egregious to allow the illicit relationship to become so public. Having one's behavior related in a public manner, in song or story, holds the actors up to derision. The cultural "meaning" of the story, then, rests on other enactments of discovered adultery, those performances which fall in the general Vincentian category of nigger business and include scandal songs sung at Carnival or at hangings, mock-trials and effigy lynchings directed at those in the community who do not sufficiently control their private affairs.[30]
In the second version, the localization of activities differs; the master leaves the island to go to Trinidad. As in the first rendering, a large part of the actual performance consists of the parrot's search for the master.
Matty Glow is in the bed with Garilee;
If any man, any man, any man,
Any man in another one' house,
It is time for to rise and go home.
"Pretty Poll, Pretty Poll, Pretty Poll
Pretty Poll don't you tell me no lie."
"Yes, Matty Glow is in the bed with Garilee."
That was a man, he was a baker, he works all over [on the] sea, [by the] name of Dean. And e wife name Matty Glow. And Matty Glow is keepin' by a man call name of Garilee, when Dean gone away. But Dean have a parrot, that anything happen the parrot goin' say. And this day when Dean come-e come, so happens, [to] hit 'pon the woman, meet she cleanin' out the parrot cage. An' she was so glad she turn off an' lef' the cage open. An' the parrot [got] out [and immediately flew] for town. When the parrot reach in town, it was only one vessel there to go with. An' e get on the mas'. An' when e reach in Trin'dad, when e reach in Trin'dad, the fo's' [first] bakeshop e meet, he sing:
Masta Dean, Masta Dean, Masta Dean,
Matty Glow is in the bed with Garilee.
The baker then come out. They say, "He is not here. He been here an' e jus' gone up the nex' big tree. The parrot fly to the nex' big tree. When e go to the nex' big tree, an' e sing, they tell 'im e gone up the other big tree, the royal [palm] big tree there. And the parrot went there. When e went there Dean was in the bake shop. He hear Dean' voice, an' e go 'pon top the roof, between some ol' shingle top up the'. E sing:
Masta Dean, Masta Dean, Masta Dean ...
Dean say, "I hearin' my name call." E come out an' e look right roun'- can't see nothin'. E goin back. The parrot sing. E come out an' e look. E ain't see the parrot. The parrot climb an' come right down by the window, an' he sing. An' when the parrot sing-when Dean see the parrot-he took down the parrot. The parrot start to sing:
Masta Dean, Masta Dean, Masta Dean,
Matty Glow is in the bed with Garilee.
Dean says:
Pretty Pol, Pretty Pol, Pretty Pol,
Pretty Pol, don't you tell me no lie.
The parrot say:
"Yes, Matty Glow is in the bed with Garilee."
E got a boat they call "Quickstep"-as quick as you do say, you reach whe' you a go. Go anywhere, that boat. An' e come to St. Vincent. When he reach-e got the parrot-e reach aroun' eight the night. An' Matty Glow an' Garilee, dey in bed. An' as e reach the door, that parrot start to sing. (Well if me dey in a one man' house an' me hear somebody dey before the door a sing, me a mek window. They have a ... if I heard a parrot singing at my door, I would go out right away through the window; there you have it!) An' the parrot sing, sing, sing, tell Matt-Dean himself sing out:
If any man, any man, any man,
Any man in another man' house,
It is time for to rise an' got home.
An' with that e bus' the door. An' e go in. When e go in, e meet them fas' asleep. An' e bus' the woman in two with a sword. The man in two, with a sword. E fling them eas' wes' nart' sout'. Is that why you see that harnin' [horning] business runnin' to an' fro in the world today. The story end.[31]
The third version begins with the announcement that an Anansi story, usually a tale of nonsensical behavior, is about to be told. In this telling, the nonsensical dimension becomes especially significant when both the parrot and the husband act sensibly in the end-that is, they keep their heads, don't make any noise when the errant couple is discovered and they are thus able to keep the whole business to themselves.
Well, this is a Nansi story. With a woman named of Miss Notty, and a gentleman name of Garoleen. Well when she was married and her husband leave her and go to England for twenty years. While he was in England another fellow come by her some nights. They have a parrot and the parrot used to talk.
Well, the first time the parrot going to see the action that happen at home. When he saw the man, the parrot get up and he follow Garoleen around the house. And he was seeing what took place. An' he leave and he fly to England where he master was working. Before he get there, he wake up in the morning, he sing:
If any man, if any man
In another man's home.
It is time, it is time
For to rise and go home.
Well that was the tune the parrot sing to the gentleman. Well after he sing it, and he leave and he go to England where his master is working on a four-story building, up in the air. And as the master see the parrot, because he leave it small, that he know it's his. When he sing:
Oh master dear, oh master dear
I don't carry you no lie
Miss Notty go, Miss Notty go
On your bed with Garoleen.
Well, the parrot sing that, an' he come back home. Well the minute he come, the parrot see the gentleman, and the gentleman sleep and sleep until the morning. An' he go an' sing:
If any man, if any man
In another man's home
It is time, it is time,
For to rise and go home.
Well, when day-clear [dawn], Miss Notty gets sleep, and e leave for home. [And parrot went down to the sea] when is his master coming on the ship. And he say, the bird on e ship, and sing e his master, and his master answer him:
Oh, Pretty Poll, oh, Pretty Poll
Don't you tell me no lie.
Parrot sang:
Oh, master dear, oh, master dear,
I don't tell you no lie.
Miss Notty, Miss Notty go
On your bed with Garoleen.
Parrot come back. When the master come, master come, leave all his things in the customs an' take a taxi. An' he come home at night. An when e come parrot saw him, but the parrot didn't say anything. He was so sensible, but he want his master to see what is happening in e home. Well the master come, an' he have a revolver. An' when he up to de door, nobody is open e door. An' when he was so sensible that he get to the dining room where he see the parrot. Well he going on and he get something sensibly, pick up a [piece of wood] and he bar the place. An' the gentleman couldn't come out. An' he bust the door. And when he goin' he shoot the two of they, two person. And there the wire bend, the story end.[32]
In these versions of the Matty Groves story, one finds an Anglo-American story that has gone through the transformation of becoming an Anansi story. The basic tale of discovered adultery and revenge remains. But the local setting and cultural meanings are greatly altered. Most importantly, the story is told in cante-fable form, which encourages all those attending to enter into the storytelling process, for the entire group sings the song.
Footnotes:
25. See his "The Problem of Ballad-Story Variation and Eugene Hahn's 'The Drowsy Sleeper,"' Southern Folklore Quarterly 14 (1950): 87-96; see also Roger D. Abrahams and George Foss, Anglo-American Folksong Style (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968), pp. 20-24, 31.
26. The parrot, while not found in "Little Musgrave," is a common figure in British ballads (see Child 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," and 68 "Young Hunting") in which the parrot is more a scold and a possible witness than a message carrier. A reader of this paper not only has pointed this out (for which I am grateful) but suggested that in terms of the plot, the stories here are closer to the very rare "Bonny Birdy" (Child 82) than to "Little Musgrave." The use of the name "Matty Glow" in the Vincentian texts for the interloping male seems to argue against such an attribution.
27. I discuss this pattern of action, which features a message carrying shadowy figure, in other Vincentian tales in "Play in the Face of Death: Transgression and Inversion in a West Indian Wake" in The Many Faces of Play, ed. Kendall Blanchard (Champaign: Human Kinetics Press, 1986), pp. 29-45.
28. Throughout these texts I follow the standard orthographic shortcuts for rendering this anglophonic creole so that it may be followed by the reader with the least amount of trouble, while retaining the special rhythms of the narrators. The two greatest problem areas are that the "he," "she," and "it" are all produced as "e," a genderless third person form, most of the time. I have transcribed what I heard, and when I thought that the meaning was unclear because of the lack of specificity of the pronoun reference, I have indicated in brackets the person or things being referred to. The other major problem for the reader arises with the employment of elliptical forms, sentences in which the object and the phrase indicating the object is not given. Where this happens, or some other elliptical expression is employed (as is common with all storytellers who can assume that their hearers are capable of filling in the gaps), I have given the reader an indication in brackets of my reading of what the speaker meant. There is always a certain amount of subjectivity to transcriptions, but especially so in those from a creole language. Karl Reisman has been helpful over the years in assisting me in the transcription.
29. Collected from Sephus Jobe, Greggs, St. Vincent, May 11, 1966.
30. See here Hymie Rubenstein, "Incest, Effigy Hanging, and Biculturation in a West Indian Village," American Ethnologist 3 (1976): 765-81.
31. Collected from Elisha Antoine, Georgetown, St. Vincent, May 9, 1966; transcribed by Karl Reisman.
32. Collected from Remus Joseph, Richland Park, St. Vincent, May 3, 1966.