Little Mathy Groves- McCord (MO) 1941 Randolph C
[My title. One stanza fragment from Ozark-Folksongs; Vol. 1 1946 Vance Randolph. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
LITTLE MATHY GROVES
This is the ancient "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" ballad (Child, English and, Scottish Popalar Ballads, 1882-1898, No.81) quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle" (Act V, scene 3), which was written about 1611. The songis entered to Francis Coules in the Stationers' Registers, June 24, 1630. For American texts see Kittredge
(JAFL 30, 1917, pp. 309-317), Campbell and Sharp (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appctachians, 1917, No. 20), Pound (American Ballads and Songs, 1922, No. 15), Cox (Falk Songs of the South, 1925, pp. 94-95), Smith (South Carolina Ballads, 1928, pp. 125-128), Davis (Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929, pp. 289-301), Chappell (Folk-Songs of Roanoke and the
Albemerle. 1939, pp. 29-31), Eddy (Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 1939, pp. 48-51), Gardner (Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939, pp. 46-49), Belden (Ballads and Songs, 1940 pp. 57-60), and the Brown collection.
C. Little Mathy Groves. Sung by Mrs. May Kennedy McCord; Springfield, Mo., Oct. 21, 1941. She says that "Young Little Mathy Groves" was regarded a very vulgar song when she was a girl, and her parents would not allow her to sing it. It was a long ballad, but she recalls only the first stanza.
On a high holiday on a high holiday,
On the very first day of the year,
Young little Mathy Groves to the church-house came
God's holy word to hear,
God's holy word to hear