"Bury My Lady" is based on Child Ballad #81*, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," which recounts the story of an ill-fated youth who lies with his master's wife. The lord is alerted to their betrayal by a servant and, when he finds his wife and her lover in bed together, he wreaks bloody revenge for their deceit.

The first variant of this song I heard remains my favorite: "Matty Groves," by Fairport Convention (featured above). The first time I listened, I was struck by the imbalance of power between the characters, and I still ponder the nuances of the song each time I listen.

Lord Donald, the cuckold, is the most powerful character in the story, but his wife—although she has no name in the song and is only called "my lady" or "Lord Donald's wife"—is a driving force behind Matty's sin and subsequent death. While there may have been motivations behind her longing for a lover, such as loneliness or true love for him, none are revealed. Rather, "little Matty Groves" catches her eye and she invites him to sleep with her, as if she is simply seeking entertainment for an evening.

Initially, Matty refuses his lady's invitation, saying, "by the rings on your fingers I can tell you are Lord Donald's wife." This observation makes it sound he doesn't know her and certainly does not love her. She responds, "Lord Donald's not at home." Her persistence, in addition to her status as a lady and Matty's implied youth, gave me the impression of a predatory woman. That Matty is referred to as "little Matty" paints a picture of a boy, not a man.

Other versions of the song show young Matty (or Musgrave) as less of a boy and more of a man, and also paint him and his lady as tragic lovers. For example, some versions begin with Matty going to church to look at the beautiful women there. When he is first approached by the lady, he thinks, "I've won this lady's love," which gives us the impression that he is confident, or even arrogant, and diminishes the sense that he's just a boy. In other versions, Matty/Musgrave is referred to as a knight, which would at least give him some skills to draw on in a duel. Finally, a few extra lines of dialogue between Matty and his lady in some variations make their adulterous encounter sound less like a one-night stand and more like the culmination of a long, hitherto-unconsummated affair. I drew on these versions for my interpretation of the story.

The most challenging part of writing this selection was not choosing which elements to borrow from different versions of the song, but rather deciding which perspective to use when telling it. I considered looking through Lady Barnard's eyes and also through Musgrave's, but in the end I settled upon the perspective of the unnamed servant who was pulled into the lovers' scheme. In some versions of the song, the servant simply overhears the lovers talking and rushes off to betray them, but in others he is asked to stand watch, and I wondered how he might have felt having his loyalties tested in such a way.

If you'd like to hear the folk songs that underlie this story, check out the playlist below to get started. There are plenty more where these came from. Some poking around online will produce enough variants of this song to keep you satisfied for months. Beware: many are graphic.

Playlist

Matty Groves || Fairport Convention (featured)

Little Musgrave || Planxty

Matty Groves|| Doc Watson

Little Musgrave || Daniel Simpson

The Little Musgrave || Round the House

*In the late 19th century, Francis James Child published a collection of 305 ballads in a work titled The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. These songs are often referred to as "Child Ballads" and numbered according to where they appear in the collection. Many of the stories in this collection are based on folk songs that were studied and published by Child. For more on Child's anthology, you can type his name or "Child Ballads" into Google. I am using a record of the anthology available digitally at the following URL as a reference for this project: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/index.htm