He lifted up the sheet:
‘How now, how now, thou Littell Musgrave,
Doest thou find my lady sweet?'"
"Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" is a Murder Ballad recorded as Child Ballad #39, Roud #81. It is also recorded in Roud as "Matty Groves", "Little Matty Groves" and "Little Mathy Groves". It appears to have originated in northern England in the sixteenth century, although the earliest printings are from the collection of Anthony Wood in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, dating from the later seventeenth century. A note by Wood says that the protagonists were alive in 1543.
Synopsis: The wife of an aristocrat, variously named in different versions Barnard, Arnold, Donald or Darnell, is in town to observe a religious feast. In church she sees a young serving lad, Musgrave (or Matty Groves), and afterwards attempts to seduce him. At first he resists, knowing that she is married, but on being told that her husband is away in the further reaches of his estate relents and goes with her. Meanwhile, a servant loyal to Lord Barnard overhears the conversation and runs off to tell him.
Lord Barnard returns to find his wife and her young lover in bed. He demands that Musgrave get up and fight, and when Musgrave protests that he is unarmed he offers his best sword and first strike. Musgrave wounds Lord Barnard severely but not mortally, and Lord Barnard then kills Musgrave with a single blow. Turning to his wife he demands to know which of he and Musgrave makes the better lover, and she defiantly replies that she would rather kiss the dead Musgrave than her living Lord with all his finery. Infuriated by her insolence, Lord Barnard strikes her dead. He then orders Musgrave and Lady Barnard to be buried in the same grave, but with a final act of spite (or simple snobbery) demans that they be buried, not side-by-side, but with his lady on top because of her superior breeding.
Notably recorded (as "Matty Groves") in traditional style by Joan Baez in 1964, in untraditional Folk Rock style by Fairport Convention in 1969, and by many others since.
Tropes featured in the ballad:
- Duel to the Death: Musgrave and Lord Barnard. It's rather one-sided; even fully fit and with Lord Barnard's best sword Musgrave can only wound Lord Barnard, whereas the wounded Barnard then kills Musgrave with a single blow.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Though there's evidently no love in the marriage, Lord Barnard is furious when she seeks it elsewhere.
- The Informant: The servant who rats on the lovers.
- Malevolent Mutilation: In some versions Lord Barnard slices off his wife's breasts."He cut her paps from off her brest
"Great pitty it was to see
"That some drops of this ladie’s heart’s blood
"Ran trickling downe her knee." - Mrs. Robinson: Older woman in unhappy marriage seduces younger man. But Lady Barnard doesn't seem too screwed up about it.
