Farmer's Curst Wife- Demorest (MI) c1900 Gardner E
[No title given- my title. From: Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, 1939. This version tells why the farmer had to plow with hogs instead of oxen or horses.]
154. THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE
(Child, No. 278)
This is a very old ballad, steeped in demonology, of which many versions have been recorded in America. Child (V, 107-108) notes that "A curst wife who was a terror to demons is a feature in a widely spread and highly humorous tale, Oriental and European." Neither of the two Child texts mentions any earlier dealings between the devil and the farmer, as Michigan E. The Michigan texts A, C, D, and E are all more similar to Child A than to B, which is in Scotch dialect. There is a refrain in Child B, and A has a chorus of whistlers. The refrains of Michigan A, B, and D are quite different from those of other published texts. For British texts see JFSS, II, 184-185, and III, 131-132; and Williams, p. 211. For American texts see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, pp. 325-335 Cox, pp. 164-165; Davis, pp. 505-515, Flanders and Brown, pp. 226-228; Lomax, pp. 110-111; Mackenzie, p 64; and Sharp, I, 275-281. Burns remodeled an old ballad which, his wife said, he gave "a terrible brushing" and which he called "Kellyburnbraes" (JIFSS, XVIII, 27-38). It is somewhat similar to the Michigan text of the same name, but there are many variations in the words, and the refrains are different For comment on the refrain see Introduction, pp. 20-21.
E. [Farmer's Curst Wife] Sung and recited in 1935 by Mr. Lyle Demorest, Smyrna, who remembered the story of the song and a fragment of the words from hearing Mr. Charles Cooper, his grandfather, sing it. His grandfather settled in Smyrna in 1858; he came from Canada and was of French and Scotch descent.
Recited The devil keeps coming around and taking things away from the farmer according to some pact between them. His cows and horses are taken, until he has only hogs left to plow with. Then finally the devil comes and takes the farmer's wife with him to hell.
Sung: One little devil brought out the chains;
She up with her fist and knocked out his brains.
Six more little devils peeped over the wall, Saying,
"Take her back, daddy, or she'll brain us all."
Recited The devil takes the farmer's wife back to her husband and tells him that he won't bother him any more, that if he can live with his wife he is welcome to her, that she has been through hell and is ten times worse.