+The Text+ here given is the version printed, with very few variations, in _Wit Restor’d_, 1658, _Wit and Drollery_, 1682, Dryden’s _Miscellany_, 1716, etc. The Percy Folio contains a fragmentary version, consisting of some dozen stanzas. Child says that all the Scottish versions are late, and probably derived, though taken down from oral tradition, from printed copies. As recompense, we have the Scotch _Bonny Birdy_. +The Story+ would seem to be purely English. That it was popular long before the earliest known text is proved by quotations from it in old plays: as from _Fair Margaret and Sweet William_. Merrythought in _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_ (1611) sings from this ballad a version of stanza 14, and Beaumont and Fletcher also put quotations into the mouths of characters in _Bonduca_ (circ. 1619) and _Monsieur Thomas_ (circ. 1639). Other plays before 1650 also mention it. The reader should remember, once for all, that burdens are to be repeated in every verse, though printed only in the first. LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD 1. As it fell one holy-day, _Hay downe_ As many be in the yeare, When young men and maids together did goe, Their mattins and masse to heare; 2. Little Musgrave came to the church-dore;-- The preist was at private masse;-- But he had more minde of the faire women Then he had of our lady[’s] grace. 3. The one of them was clad in green, Another was clad in pall, And then came in my lord Barnard’s wife, The fairest amonst them all. 4. She cast an eye on Little Musgrave, As bright as the summer sun; And then bethought this Little Musgrave, ‘This lady’s heart have I woonn.’ 5. 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.’ 6. ‘I have a bower at Bucklesfordbery, Full daintyly is it deight; If thou wilt wend thither, thou Little Musgrave, Thou’s lig in mine armes all night.’ 7. Quoth he, ‘I thank yee, fair lady, This kindnes thou showest to me; But whether it be to my weal or woe, This night I will lig with thee.’ 8. With that he heard, a little tynë page, By his ladye’s coach as he ran: ‘All though I am my ladye’s foot-page, Yet I am Lord Barnard’s man. 9. ‘My lord Barnard shall knowe of this, Whether I sink or swim’; And ever where the bridges were broake He laid him downe to swimme. 10. ‘A sleepe or wake, thou Lord Barnard, As thou art a man of life, For Little Musgrave is at Bucklesfordbery, A bed with thy own wedded wife.’ 11. ‘If this be true, thou little tinny page, This thing thou tellest to me, Then all the land in Bucklesfordbery I freely will give to thee. 12. ‘But if it be a ly, thou little tinny page, This thing thou tellest to me, On the hyest tree in Bucklesfordbery Then hanged shalt thou be.’