Anthony Rowley- Weeks (VT) 1939 Lomax Flanders F
[From: Flanders' Ancient Ballads- 1965; Notes by Coffin. Compare to Gardner and Chirkering D and Barhight's NY version.]
The Farmer's Curst Wife
(Child 278)
Coffin's notes: There is an old proverb that says there are but two places where a man wants to have his wife- in bed and in the grave. Certainly, the scolding wife, one who can rout the devil himself, has left her mark on folklore from India and Russia to the western countries. This particular anecdote concerning her is a favorite of the American informant with a similar song, "The Devil in search of a wife," it was also popular among the printers of nineteenth-century London broadsides. ["The Sussex Farmer" being close to, or the origin of, Child A. "The Devil in search of a wife" is quite different- see English & Other versions- except for the last few stanzas.]
Originally, it must have concerned a contract in which a farmer hired the devil to do some plowing in exchange for a member of the family. The farmer, in many texts, worries that he may lose his eldest son and is relieved when his wife is taken. The American versions follow Child A as a rule, it being rare that the wife come back to her cooking as in Child B. However, the yoking of the dogs and hogs to the plow and the proverbial sayings at the close of the song are frequently added to the Child A base in the New world.
The Flanders material needs little comment. Texts A and B, in which the farmer seems to be rather proud of his wife's triumph over the forces of hell are not common, though Phillips Barry, British Ballad's from Maine, 330-1, prints an example from Northeast Harbor. Nor are the C-I "Anthony Rowley" texts with the "right leg, left leg," refrains. But C in which the wife is the farmer, harnesses the cattle herself, and goes to the gates of hell, is the only text that introduces a really radical story variation. C is a noteworthy find.
American references for Child 278 may be found in Coffin, 148-50. see also Dean-Smith, 66, and Belden, 94-95, for English citations. Barry, op. cit., 332, cites local uses of the motif in New England.
The tunes for child 278 all belong to one tune family. A large proportion of them are especially closely related; the following tunes are slightly divergent: Ordway, Davis, Weeks, Brackett. The Underhill, Farnham, and Lorette tunes are very similar, as are the Moses and Blake tunes.
For general relationship to the larger group of tunes, see FCBa, 116, 117, 119; DV, 598 No. 46 (c), 599 No. 46 (E) and (F), 601 No. 46 (L); GCM, 373; Sharp I, 215, 278.
Flanders F. As sung by Luther Weeks of Springfield, Vermont. H. H. F. and A. Lomax, Collectors; November, 1939; Structure: A B A C D E (2,2,2,2,2,2,2) ; Rhythm A; Contour: undulating; Scale: major t.c. C. For mel. rel. see Sharp I, 281 G.
Anthony Rowley
There was an old farmer; he got him a farm,
O fie-liddy, fie-lay.
There was an old farmer; he got him a farm,
But he hadn't any oxen to carry it on.
To me right leg, left leg, over leg, under leg,
Over old Anthony Rowley.
(Follow pattern of first stanza 1 or all stanzas.)
So he yoked up a hog and his brother's old cow
And he carried it on as the devil knows how.
Oh, the devil he came to the old man one day,
Saying, "One of your family I do crave."
"Oh," says the old farmer, "I am undone,
For the devil is after my oldest son!"
" 'Tis not your oldest son I crave
But your damn old scolding wife I must have!"
"Take her, oh, take her with all of my heart
And I hope you two may never part!"
So the old devil he swung her up onto his back
And down to hell's gate went full clickety clack.
There was a little devil a-mending some chains,
she up with her club and. she kicked out his brains.
"Oh," says the old devil, "Let's put her up higher."
She up with her club and knocked nine in the fire.
"Oh," says the old devil, "let's put her down lower."
She up with her club and killed nine more.
It was a little devil peeked over hell's wall,
Saying, "Carry her back for she'll kill us all."
And so the old devil he put her in a sack
And like a damn fool went lugging her back.
"Oh," says the old woman, "I think I've done well.
I've killed nineteen devils and conquered hell."
So you see that the women are worse than the men,
You see that the women are worse than the men,
They'll go through hell and back again.