Lord Banner - Hayes (ME) 1940 Flanders H
[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.
H. Lord Banner. Sung by Hanford, Hayes in Stacyville, Maine, to H. H. F. and A. C. B. --H. H. F., collector. September 22, 1940
Four and twenty ladies
Assembled at a ball,
Lord Banner's wife she being there,
The fairest of them all,
And young MaGrew from Scotland
As fair as any king.
He looked at her and she winked at him--
The like was never known.
"Or will you take a sleigh ride,
Or will you take a walk?
You shall have servants to wait on you
And a fair lady by your side."
"I dare not take a sleigh ride,
No, nor for all my life,
For by the ring that you wear on your finger,
You are Lord Banner's wife."
"What if I am Lord Banner's wife?
I hear he's not to home.
He has gone over to Scotland to
Receive young Henry's throne."
The servant boy, he listening
To all that was said and done,
He swore he'd tell his master
Before the rising sun.
He ran till he came to the river's side;
He jumped in and he swum;
And when he got to the other shore,
He took to his heels and he run.
"Is any of my castles down
Or any of my towers three
Or is there anything wrong with
My own, my fair ladee?"
"No, there's none of your castles down
Or none of Your towers three,
But young MaGrew from Scotland, too,
Is in bed with Your fair ladee."
"If this be a lie that You tell to me,
As I suppose it to be,
Then I shall rig a gallows
And hang-ed You shall be."
"If this be a lie that I tell to you,
As you suppose it to be,
You need not rig any gallows
But hang me to a tree."
He call-ed all his soldiers,
By one, by two and by three,
Saying, "We'll go over to Scotland,
Our fancies for to see."
"Oh, how do you like my bed, sir,
And how do you like my sheets
And how do you like my false ladee
Who lies in Your arms and sleeps?"
"Oh, well I like your blankets, sir,
Oh, well I like your sheets
But better I like your false ladee
Who lies in my arms asleep."
"Rise up, rise up, young Matt MaGrew,
Rise up as quick as you can,
For it never shall be said in fair Scotland
I killed a naked man."
"Oh, to rise up I dare not do;
Oh, not for all of my life,
For by your side hangs two broadswords
And I, not a single knife."
"If by my side hangs two broadswords
And you not a single knife,[1]
And you shall take the better one
And I shall take the worst.
And you may have the very first blow
And strike it like a man
And I will have the second blow
And kill you if I can."
Young MaGrew had the very first blow
And wounded Lord Banner sore,
And Lord Banner had the second blow
And left him in his gore.
He caught his fair lady by the waist;
He gave her kisses three,
Saying, "Which of us do you like the best,
Your young MaGrew or me?"
"Oh, well I like your rosy cheeks,
Likewise your dimpled chin,
But better I like my young MaGrew
Than you or all of your kin."
He caught her by the hair of the head
And he split her head in twain.
He threw her body on the floor
And it never rose again.
He put the hilt of his sword to the floor,
The point of it to his breast,
Saying, "Was there ever two true lovers met
So quickly sent to rest?"
1. On December 7, 1940, Mr. Hayes returned to H. H. F. a typed copy she had sent him of his September singing with this line corrected as follows:
They cost me deep in price (purse),