Lord Daniel- Deel/Edwards (VA) 1932 Davis CC
[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 married 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.
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.
CC. "Lord Daniel." Collected by E. J. Sutherland, of Clintwood, Va. Contributed by Miss Myrtle Deel, of Clinchco High School, Va., who learned it from Roy Edwards. Dickenson County. May 5, 1932.
1. First came down was dressed in red,
The next came down in green,
The next came down Lord Daniel's wife,
As fine as any queen, queen, queen,
As fine as any queen.
2 She cast her eyes all around and about;
She cast her eyes all through,
She cast her eyes on Little Mathie Grove,
'This night I'll sleep with you, you, you,
This night I'll sleep with you."
3 "How can I dare sleep with you?
How can I risk my life?
I'll swear by the ring that you wear on your hand
You are Lord Daniel's wife, wife, wife,
You are Lord Daniel's wife."
4 "It makes no difference whose wife I am,
To you nor no other man,
We'll go away and lock ourselves up,
Our hearts be the same as one, one, one,
Our hearts be the same as one."
5 It was one of Lord Daniel's very best friends
Was listening what was done,
He swore Lord Daniel should know this,
Before the rising sun, sun, sun,
Before the rising sun.
6 He had sixteen miles or more to go,
And half of them he run;
He run till he came to the broken down bridge,
He held his breath and swum, swum, swum,
He held his breath and swum.
7 Swum till he came to the grassy side,
He took to his heels and he run,
Till he came to the Keel Gas gate;
He rattled them bells and rung, rung, rung,
Rattled them bells and rung.
8 "What news, what news?" Lord Daniel said,
"What news have you brought to me ?"
"Little Mathie Grove from fair Scotland
Is in bed with your lay-dee, -dee, -dee,
And their hearts the same as one."
9 "If this be a lie you're telling to me,
Which I do believe it to be,
A gallows I will build for you,
And hanged you shall be, be, be,
And hanged you shall be."
10 "If this be a lie I'm telling to you,
Which you do believe it to be,
You need not build a gallows for me,
Just hang me on a tree, tree, tree,
Just hang me on a tree."
11 He counted out his very best men,
It's one, two, by three,
Saying, "Come along and go with me,
This happy couple for to see, see, see,
This happy couple for to see."
12 Was one of Lord Daniel's very best friends
Was wishing Mathie Grove no harm,
He blowed Lord Daniel's bugle horn
To give Mathie Grove a warn, warn, warn,
To give Mathie Grove a warn.
13 Little Mathie Grove said to this young lady,
"I must get up and go;
I hear Lord Daniel corning now,
I heard his bugle blow, blow, blow,
I heard his bugle blow."
14 "Lie down, lie down in bed with me,
And keep my back from the cold,
For it is my father's shepherd dog
Driving the sheep to the fold, fold, fold,
Driving the sheep to the fold."
15. They rolled and tumbled all over the bed,
Till they both fell asleep;
And when they woke up next morning,
Lord Daniel stood at their feet, feet, feet,
Lord Daniel stood at their feet.
16 "How do you like my curtain fine,
And how do you like my sheet,
How do you like my old true love,
That lies in your arms asleep, sleep, sleep,
That lies in your arms asleep?"
17 "Very well I like your curtains fine,
Also do I like your sheets;
Much better do I like your old true love,
That lies in my arms asleep, sleep, sleep,
That lies in my arms asleep."
18 "Rise you up, Little Mathie Grove,
And Put Your clothing on,
It never shall be said that I
Have slain a naked man, man, man,
Have slain a naked man."
19 "Oh, how can I dare to fight with you?
Oh, how can I risk my life?
You have two swords right by your side,
And me not as much as a knife, knife, knife,
And me not as much as as knife'"
20 "I know I have two swords by my side,
And they cost me deep in Purse,
You may have the very best one,
And I will take the worst, worst, worst,
And I will take the worst.
21 "You may strike the very first lick,
And strike it like a man;
I will strike the very next lick,
And kill You if I can, can' can,
Kill you if I can."
22 Little Mathie Grove struck the very first lick,
He wounded Lord Daniel sore;
Lord Daniel struck the very next lick,
And killed him on the floor, floor, floor,
Killed him on the floor.
23 He threw his arms around his wife,
And kisses gave her three,
"Now tell me which you like the best,
Little Mathie Grove or me, me, me,
Little Mathie Grove or me?"
24 "Very well do I like your red rosy cheeks,
Also do I like your chin,
Much better do I love Little Mathie Grove,
Than you and all your kin, kin, kin,
Than you and all your kin."
25 He pulled his pistol out of his pocket;
It was loaded with powder and lead,
He shot his wife, he shot himself,
Said, "Here we all three lie dead, dead, dead,
Here we all three lie dead."