THE OLD BALLAD OF LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND THE LADY BARNARD. THE popularity of this ancient ballad is evinced by its being frequently quoted in old plays. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, (produced in 1611,) the fourteenth stanza is cited, thus: "And some they whistled and some they sung, And some did loudly say, Ever as the lord Barnet's horn blew, Away, Musgrave, away." Act V. Scene 3. The oldest known copy of this piece is found in Wit Restor'd, (1658,) p. 174, and from the reprint of that publication we have taken it, (p. 293.) Dryden seems to have adopted it from the same source into his Miscellanies, and Ritson has inserted Dryden's version in Ancient Songs and Ballads, ii. 116. Percy's copy (Reliques, iii. 106,) was inferior to the one here used, and was besides somewhat altered by the editor. A Scottish version, furnished by Jamieson, is given in the Appendix to this volume, and another, extend ing to forty-eight stanzas, in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, vol. xvii. p. 21. Similar incidents, with a verbal coincidence in one stanza, occur in the ballad immediately succeeding the present. As it fell one holy-day, hay downe, As manybe in the yeare, When young men and maids together did goe, Their mattins and masse to heare, Little Musgrave came to the church dore, The one of them was clad in green, Another was clad in pall; And then came in my lord Barnards wife, The fairest amonst them all. She cast an eye on little Musgrave, As bright as the summer sun, And then bethought this little Musgrave, "This ladys heart have I woonn.” 5 10 15 8, lady. 10, pale. 11, Bernards. Quoth she, "I have loved thee, little Musgrave, Full long and many a day : "So have I loved you, fair lady, Yet never word durst I say." “I have a bower at Buckelsfordbery, Full daintyly it is deight; 20 If thou wilt wend thither, thou little Musgrave, Thou's lig in mine armes all night." Quoth he, "I thank yee, faire lady, This kindnes thou showest to me; But whether it be to my weal or woe, This night I will lig with thee." All that heard a little tinny page, By his ladyes coach as he ran : 25 20 [Quoth he,]"allthough I am my ladyes foot page, Yet I am lord Barnards man. "My lord Barnard shall knowe of this, Whether I sink or swimm : And ever where the bridges were broake, He laid him downe to swimme. “ Asleepe, awake! thou lord Barnard, As thou art a man of life; 22, geight. 23, wed. 29, With that he heard: tyne. 34, sinn. 37, or wake. 35 For little Musgrave is at Bucklesfordbery, Abed with thy own wedded wife.” “If this be true, thou little tinny page, I freely will give to thee. 40 "But if it be a ly, thou little tinny page, 45 This thing thou tellest to me, On the hyest tree in Bucklesfordbery He called up his merry men all : 50 And some of them whistl'd, and some of them sung, And some these words did say, Ever when my lord Barnards horn blew, "Away, Musgrave, away!" 55 "Methinks I hear the thresel-cock, Methinks I hear the jaye ; Methinks I hear my Lord Barnard, And I would I were away." 55, And ever. 60 "Lye still, lye still, thou little Musgrave, A driving his sheep to the fold. "Is not thy hawke upon a perch? And thou [a] fair lady in thine armes,— With that my lord Barnard came to the dore, And lit a stone upon; He plucked out three silver keys, And he open❜d the dores each one. He lifted up the coverlett, He lifted up the sheet; 65 70 “How now, how now, thou little Musgrave, 75 Doest thou find my lady sweet?" "I find her sweet," quoth little Musgrave, I would gladly give three hundred pounds "Arise, arise, thou littell Musgrave, It shal ne'er be said in my country, 89 |