Little Massey Groves- Bowman (VA) 1932 Davis AA (Also Ruby Plemmons)
[From: Davis- More TBVa Ballads; 1961. It should not be forgotten that Barry wrote a review in BFSSNE of TBVa, 1929. He took Davis to task on several ballads and the review was in places dismissive of Davis and the book. Davis, who does some bragging about Virginia's wealth of ballads, perhaps deserved this comeuppance. Then, almost 30 years later Davis comments on Barry's "overbold" statements in a respectful way. Note that Davis AA by Bowman (before she married- her last name was Plemmons) edited her version, feeling that "hugging and kissing" was too erotic.
Ruby Bowman Plemmons version can be heard on Digital Appalachia - recorded by Kip Lornell. See text at bottom.
Listen: http://dla.acaweb.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/Ferrum/id/126/rec/1
R. Matteson 2015]
LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD
(Child, No. 81)
"Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" is one of numerous ballads quoted in old plays of the Elizabethan or seventeenth-century
periods. Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle" Act V, Scene 3) contains the earliest (about 1611) quotation
from this ballad:
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!
Child (II, 243) mentions a number of later seventeenth-century plays in which the ballad is either quoted in part or referred to.
Child prints fifteen versions, some from manuscript, some from broadside or other printed sources. But the ballad does not seem to survive in recent British tradition either in England or in Scotland, according to Miss Dean-Smith's survey or Gavin Greig's Last Leaves. In contrast, it is vigorously alive in American tradition, North, South, and Midwest. Sharp-Karpeles (I, 161-82) print seventeen tunes and texts or part texts from the Southern Appalachians. Barry (pp. 150-94) presents nine texts, some with tunes, from Maine. Belden (pp. 59-60) gives three fragments and two tunes from Missouri. The Brown Collection (II, 101-11, and IV, 53-57) gives five texts and seven tunes from North Carolina, TBVa (pp. 289-301 and 577 prints six of seven texts then available, plus one tune. Subsequently, five new items of the ballad have been recovered in Virginia. Of these, three texts with two tunes are here included. Miss Beckwith has also found the ballad in Jamaica (see PMLA, XXXIX, 455 ff .). Barry (pp. 150-94) has an elaborate discussion of this ballad, both textually and musically. He is perhaps overbold in presenting a number of interesting conjectures about the ballad as if they were established facts, and he is properly modified or corrected on some points by Helen Pettigrew (University of West Virginia Studies, III [Philological Papers II], 8 ff.). Barry is perhaps overhasty in dividing American texts into two types, the Lord Banner type and the Lord Arnold (or Daniel) type, with other differentiating details, in asserting that the split antedates the introduction of the ballad into America, in believing that the American texts are nearer to an earlier and better form than that from which the British texts are drawn, and in identifying the King Henry of the ballad too unequivocally with Henry VIII of England. But one can sympathize with his statement: "The ballad must have been nearly three hundred years in this country, diverging ever farther and farther; but it has never lost its integrity. We note how well the various American texts are preserved; how well they agree; how spirited they are; how splendidly dramatic, when the folk-singer throws himself into the ballad, and we wonder at the virility of a song which can thus keep itself alive. Of all the ballad problems that have come to us, that of 'Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, seems the finest to solve, should it be capable of any solution." His elaborate grouping of the then (early 1929) known American tunes is ingenious, and we are not inclined to quarrel with his still somewhat speculative conclusion that "the American and British versions of this ballad have come ultimately from a single source, though, if we are to date each by its place in the tradition of the ballad as a whole, the American group, with its fine flavor of unspoiled tradition . . . is not far from a century older than the oldest representative of the British group." The statement makes very clear the importance of collecting these British ballads in America. The American "Little Musgrave" is one of the ballads least spoiled by broadside, songster, or print.
The Virginia texts here presented follow in general Coffin's Story Type A, but with varied inclusions and exclusions.
AA, in which the leading characters are little Massey Grove and Lord and Lady Darnell, begins in church on a high holiday, the very first day of the year-a time and place not specified in either BB or CC. It is a somewhat condensed version, omitting all mention of the warning sent to Lord Darnell and stopping short of the two final killings with their attendant barbarity. The ending is tragic pathos rather than violence. Lord Darnell has gone "on top of the king's mountain, Prince Henry for to see." The tune is a fine one, especially as sung by Miss Bowman.
BB, with Marthyful Globes and Lord and Lady Barney as chief characters, has lost its opening stanzas, but the rest of the story is fully told, with the elaborate exchange between Lord Barney and the little footpage at King Henry's gate, and the full ending in the triple deaths, Lord Barney's barbaric slaying of his unfaithful wife before his own suicide by sword, following his killing of little Matthy in fair fight. There is evidently a euphemism in the line, "This night a bad fellow to be," perhaps representing the singer's effort to clean up what some American folk singers regard as a "dirty" song. (See Randolph, I, 125-25.) Both this text and CC following, but not AA, have tire Lord's two swords "cost me deep in purse," a characteristic expression which marks many American texts.
CC, with the main characters identified as Little Mathie Grove and Lord and Lady Daniel, is one of the fullest of American texts, even though it lacks the churchly opening. The messenger to Lord Daniel is not a little footpage, but "one of Lord Daniel's very best friends" and it may or may not be the same friend who "wishing Mathie Grove no harm" blows the warning bugle blast. Rather incongruously, after killing Little Mathie Grove by stroke of sword, Lord Daniel disposes of his wife and himself by pistol shot- obviously a late variant, possibly imported from some later song of the tragic triangle.
An omitted text identifies the principals as Lord and Lady Banner and Little Jack Grover, names which differentiate Barry's Type One of the ballad, as distinguished from his Type Two, to which AA, BB, and CC all belong. But for the names, the text does not seem to differ significantly from the three here printed, a fact which raises some question as to Barry's criteria of classification. The omitted text is fragmentary and without tune.
The excellent text of R. E. Lee Smith and Thomas P. Smith, also contributed to the Virginia collection, has been omitted because it has already been published in the Brown Collection, II, 102-4, with its tune also, IV, 53.
AA. "Little Massey Grove." Phonograph record (aluminum) made by A. K. Davis, Jr. Sung by Miss Ruby Bowman, of Laurel Fork, Va. Carroll County. August 10, 1932. Text transcribed by P. C. Worthington. Tune noted by G. W. Williams and E. C. Mead.
1. Now high, now high, now high holiday,
And the very first day in the year,
The little Massey Grove to the church did go,
The gospel for to hear, hear,
The gospel for to hear.
2. The first one in was a fair lady,
And the next one was a girl,
And the next one was Lord Darnell's wife,
And the fairest of them all, all,
And the fairest of them all.
3. Little Massey Grove was a-standing by,
To him she cast an eye,
Saying, "You must go home with me today,
All night in my arms to lie, lie,
All night in my arms to lie."
4. "Oh no, no," said the little Massey Grove,
"I'm dassn't for my life,
For tr can tell by the ring that you wear on your hand,
That you are Lord Darnell's wife, wife,
That you are Lord Darnell's wife."
5. "Why should I hold such vows sacred,
When he's so far away,
He's gone on top of the king's mountain,
Prince Henry for to see, see,
Prince Henry for to see."
6 So they went home a-laughin' and a-talkin',[1]
And when they fell to sleep,
And when they awoke on the next day's morn,
Lord Darnell stood at their feet, feet,
Lord Darnell stood at their feet.
7 Saying, "How do you like my new coverlids,
Oh, how do you like my sheets,
And how do you like my fair young wife,
That lies in your arms and sleeps, sleeps,
That lies in your arms and sleeps ?"
8 "Pretty well do I like your new coverlids,
Pretty well do I like your sheets,
Much better do I like your fair young wife,
Who lies in my arms and sleeps, sleeps,
Who lies in my arms and sleeps."
9 "Rise up. rise up, little Massey Grove,
Put on your clothes just as quick as you can,
Shall never be said in this wide world,
That I slayed a naked man, man,
That I slayed a naked man."
10 "Oh no, no," said the little Massey Grove,
"I'm dassn't for my life,
For around your waist you have two swords,
And me not as much as a knife, knife,
And me not as much as a knife."
11. "If around my ''waist I have two swords,
And you not as much as a knife,
Then you may take the best of them,
And then I'll take your life, life,
And then I'll take your life.
12. "And you may strike the first blow,
Now strike it like a man,
And I will strike the next blow,
And I'll kill you if I can, can,
I'll kill you if I can."
13 The little Massey Grove struck the first blow,
It wounded deep and sore,
Lord Darnell struck the next blow,
Little Massey couldn't fight any more, more,
Little Massey couldn't fight any more.
14 Then he took his lady by the hand,
And he set her on his knee.
"Now which one do you love the best,
Little Massey Grove or me, me,
Little Massey Grove or me?"
15 "Pretty well do I like your deep blue eyes,
Pretty well do I like your chin,
Much better do I love the little Massey Grove,
Than you and all your kin, kin,
Than you and all your kin."
___________________________
Little Massie Grove - COLLECTED OCTOBER 25, 1976 BY KIP LORNELL FROM RUBY BOWMAN PLEMMONS, MEADOWS OF DAN, VIRGINIA. TRANSCRIPTION BY W. K, McNEIL.
My high, my high, my high holiday
And the very first day in the year.
Little Massie Grove to the church did go,
The gospel for to hear, hear,
The gospel for to hear.
The first one in was a fair lady,
And the next one was a girl,
And the next one was Lord Darnold's wife,
And the fairest of them all, all,
And the fairest of them all.
Little Massie Grove was standing by
To him she cast an eye,
Saying, "You must go home with me today
All night in my arms to lie, lie,
All night in my arms to lie."
"Oh no, Oh no," said little Massie Grove,
"I daresn't for my life,
For I can tell by the ring that you wear on your hand,
That you are Lord Darnold's wife."
"Why should we hold such vows sacred,
When he's so far away,
He's gone on top of the King's mountain,
Prince Henry for to see, see
Prince Henry for to see,"
So they went home, huggin' and a-kissin',
And then they fell asleep,
But when they awoke on the next day's morn,
Lord Darnold stood at their feet, feet
Lord Darnold stood at their feet.
Saying, "How do you like my new coverlet,
And how do you like my sheets?
How do you like my fair young wife
Who lies in your arms and sleeps, sleeps
Who lies in your arms and sleeps?"
"Pretty well do I like your new coverlet,
Pretty well do I like your sheet,
But much better do I like your fair young wife,
Who lies in my arms and sleeps, sleeps
Who lies in my arms and sleeps."
"Rise up, rise up little Massie Grove,
Put on your clothes just as quick as you can,
It shall never be said in this wide world,
That I slayed a naked man, man
That I slayed a naked man."
"Oh no, Oh, no," said the little Massie Grove,
"I daresn't for my life,
For around your waist you have two swords
And me not as much as a knife, knife
And me not as much as a knife."
"If around my waist I have two swords,
And you not as much as a knife,
Then you may take the best of them,
And then I'll take Your life, life
And then I'll take Your life,
"And you may strike the first blow,
Now strike it like a man,
And I will strike the next blow,
And I'll kill you if I can, can
And I'll kill you if I can."
So little Massie Grove struck the first blow,
It wounded deep and sore,
But Lord Darnold struck the next blow,
Little Massie couldn't fight no more, more
Little Massie couldn't fight no more.
Then he took his lady by the hand,
And he set her on his knee,
Saying, "Which one do you love the best,
Little Massie Grove or me, me
Little Massie Grove or me?"
"Pretty well do I like your deep blue eyes,
Pretty well do I like your chin,
But much better did I love the little Massie Grove
Than you and all your kin, kin
Than you and all your kin."