201. The Scolding Wife

201

The Scolding Wife

There are divers traditional songs on this subject, but this one
I have not found in other collections. Randolph reports from
Arkansas (OFS iii 127-8) a song with the same title but a quite
different text. Compare 'The Dumb Wife,' No. 183 above.

 

'The Scolding Wife.' Contributed by Ethel Day of Cook's Gap, near
Blowing Rock, Watauga county, in 1922.

 

OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH 479

Oh, you've often heard it asked

Why a woman talks so fast.

Oh, she runs around with every bit of news.

She'll talk a man to death

Before he can catch his breath,

And the way she wags her tongue it beats the Jews.

Chorus:

Oh, there's no use to try.

The reason for is, why.

Whatever you say she'll quarrel.

Just take my advice and drop it,

For I'm sure you cannot stop it ;

For a woman's tongue will never take a rest.

When a man goes home to his meals,
Oh, it's how do you reckon he feels?
Her chin music she will commence.
When he's off working hard
She'll be standing in the yard
A-chatting to the neighbor across the fence.

Oh, the young folks go a-courting,

They say it is for sport ;

Oh, the old folks say, 'You'll catch it while you're young.*

To live a scornful life

Marry a loving childish wife ;

Better marry one that's blind, deaf, and dumb.

'The Scolding Wife.' Obtained by Dr. Brown from Mrs. Daisy Jones
Couch of Durham. Only the first stanza is given, and that is the same
as in A. Dr. Brown has noted on the manuscript "Otherwise same as
in JAFL xxviii p. 88" ; but there is nothing of this sort at that place
in JAFL.
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201

The Scolding Wife

 

'The Scolding Wife.' Sung by Ethel Day. Recorded at Cook's Gap, Watauga
county, in 1922. As the e in the scale given occurs only once in the penultimate

 

 

measure of the chorus, which measure otherwise is an exact repetition of that in
the stanza, one could probably assume that this leading tone was merely a lapse
into a more accustomed idiom. The beginning of the chorus reminds one some-
what of 'Aloha.' Other songs with the same title but different text can be
found in FSRA 'jy and BSSM 432-3.

Scale: Heptachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: abaibiccida^b^
(2,2,2,2,1,1,2,2,2) = aaiba2 (4,4,4,4) = Reprisenbar. The smaller subdivision
above shows strophic form with a miniature barform as third member.