Lord Banner - Finnemore (ME) 1943 Flanders I
[From Flanders' Ancient Ballads; 1961. Notes from Coffin follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard
(Child 81)
This ballad has a vigorous American oral tradition but, in spite of the fact that Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 173, reports his H version to have been learned in Scotland, seems to have died out in Britain. Here it is known everywhere, from Nova Scotia to Jamaica and west. Barry, op. cit., 180 f., and Helen Pettigrew, University of West Virginia Studies, III philological papers, II, 8 f., both spent much effort on the American heritage of Child 81. Barry feels there-was a pre-American split in the tradition of the ballad, one form featuring the "away, Musgrave, away" lines and the "bugle-blowing" scene, the other retaining mention of King Henry. The Henry type he believes to date back to the time of Henry VIII and to be the progenitor of almost all the American texts. The "away, Musgrave" type, he feels, gave birth to the Anglo-Scottish texts and a few late American arrivals. Pettigrew attacks this thesis vigorously, among other things, attributing the visit to King Henry to romanticization and citing a host of American texts, such as the Flanders ones below, that retain "bugle-blowing" scenes. Whoever is right, one thing seems sure: Barry was nor far wrong in stating the song has been in America a long time and that the texts here are more vivid and generally better than those in Child, some of which are pretty old.
The Flanders texts demonstrate Barry's two types. Flanders A includes a strong "bugle-blowing" scene, the "away" lines (stanzas 18-20), and opt"s with a church-gathering like Child A, C, H, and many of the southern American texts. This version is similar to the one in Belden, 58 (also printed in British BaIIads from Maine, 177), but is unusual for the New World in its inclusion of Lady Barnard's effort to bribe the page as in Child C-F, H-L, and O. Edwards it should be noted, wanted to leave these lines and some of the "bugle" material out (see the letter below). The Flanders B-J series is more typical of the northern tradition of the ballad and starts like-Child D, E, K, L with a "ball-playing" scene. The "bugle-blowing" is presented, but briefly, and there are no "away, Musgrave" lines.
See Coffin, 84-86, for the bibliography of the American texts and summaries of the scholarship done on the song. It is interesting that American versions do not mention any past relationship between the lovers, although Musgrave needs no encouraging when the Lady flirts with him in one Southeastern text. He embraces her at once. PMLA xxxlx,4ssf.,contains a report on the Jamaican tradition of Child 81. The ballad as known in the West Indies is closer to Child A-C than it is to the American material. In Act V, scene 3, of Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Merrythought quotes lines from the song.
The seven tunes given are related except for the Edwards tune, which seems separate. The rest fall into two related groups: 1) Colsie and Walker, and 2) Syphers, Merrill, Finnemore, and Burditt. The following runes show general relationship to the second of these related groups: Sharp I, 166 (D), 181 (L); and BES, 150. The New England tunes seem more closely related to the second group, while those in the collections from the southern United States seem largely to belong to another family exemplified by the majority of the tunes in Sharp I.
I. Lord Banner. Sung by Charles Finnemore of Bridgewater, Maine, as he learned it from his sister. Structure: A B C Db (4,4,4,4); Rhythm B; Contour: undulating; Scale: major; M. Olney, Collector. October 28, 1943; t.c. B-flat. For mel. rel. see
BES, 186 (not close).
There's four and twenty ladies
All gathered at a ball,
Lord Banner's wife she being there,
The fairest one of all,
And Young Magrue from Scotland, too,
Fair as the rising sun.
He looked at her, she winked at him,
The likes was never known
"Nor would you take a walk with me,
Or would you take a ride?
There's men and maid-servants to wait upon you
And a fair lady by your side."
"For me to take a ride with you,
I dare not on my life,
For by the ring on your finger,
You are Lord Banner's wife."
"Now, what if I be Lord Banner's wife?
Oh, he is not at home.
He is over in Scotland,
A-visitin' Lord Henery's home."
The little page being standing by,
He heard what they had said and done.
He says, "My master shall hear the news
Before the rising sun."
He ran till he came to the river side,
Then he jumped in and swum.
He swam till he came to the other side,
He took to his heels and run.
He ran till he come to Lord Banner's hall,
So loudly he did ring,
There was none so ready as Lord Banner himself
To rise and let him in.
"Oh, is any of my temples down,
Or any of my castles three
Or is there anything the matter
With my fair ladye?"
"No, there is none of your castles down,
Nor none of Your palaces three,
But young Magrue from Scotland
Lies with your fair ladye."
"If this be true you tell to me,
A rich man you shall be.''
"If this be false I tell to you,
I'll[1] be hanged on the gallus tree.''
1. You'll