Farmer's Curst Wife- Welsh (VT) 1937 Flanders J
[No title, rather than "There was an old Man" I've used the generic title.]
Flanders' Ancient Ballads- 1965; Notes by Coffin
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 J. Mrs. Delia Welch of Groton, Vermont, sister of Mrs. W. B. Morton, sang this song, as known to her mother. H. H. F., Collector
October 19, 1937
There was an old man; he hired a farm.
Fi-eye, fi-diddle, fi-day.
There was an old man; he hired a farm;
He had no oxen to carry it on.
To my twice fi-eye, fi-diddle, fi-day, fi-down.
(Follow pattern of lirst stanza 1 or all stanzas.)
He yoked up his hogs in order to plow,
He made a mistake and he yoked his old sow.
The devil he came one certain day,
Saying, "I'm after one of your nice familee."
The old man cries, "I am undone,
For the devil is after my oldest son."
" 'Tis not your oldest son I crave
But 'tis your old scolding wife and she I'll have."
"Pray take her, pray take her, with all my heart,
For the damned old rip, I'll gladly part."
He shouldered her upon his back
Just like a pack pedlar do their pack.
He carries her to the Tophet's door
And give her a kick, says, "Go in, you old whore."
She saw some young devils a-mending their chains;
She up with a fire-shovel and beat out their brains.
Another young devil peeped over the wall,
Saying, "Take her back or she'll kill us all."
He shouldered her upon his back
And like a darned fool come trudging her back.
"I believe my wife is born for a curse
And since she's been to hell, she's a darn sight worse."