Gentle Fair Jenny- Ritchie(KY); 1941 Version 1 collected Moser; 1953 Version 2 similar to Sharp D, Version 3 published by Lomax.
[There are three versions below of Gentle Fair Jenny, all attributed to Jean Ritchie. In 1941 Jean sang the first version at the Renfro Valley Folk Festival for Artus Moser (who is from NC and released it on NC Mountain Folksongs and Ballads in 1974). It's similar to Version 2 at first but has an entirely new 6th verse that was probably composed, since there are no other traditional verses like it. Verse 8 also seems to be rewritten but with standard text. Verse 9 suddenly mentions the "wether skin" but there was no mention before- adding this makes no sense- it could have been learned this way- who knows. The standard family version (see version 2 and also Sharp's version) does not mention the wether skin (Coffin C).
On the second recording from 1960-61 (released 1961) Jean sang this version (which is very similar to Sharp D collected at Hindman School in 1917) for Folkways, Child Ballads in America, Vol. 2. The main difference between Sharp's and Jean's is fair substituted instead of for in the first refrain. Mike Yates, see below, points out that Jean's version of a different ballad, Edward, is very similar to Sharp's 1917 version of Edward. Perhaps his explanation can be applied here or it could be said it is a local version (see Yates below). Jean says she learned it from her sisters but is not specific about where, citing either Pine Mountain or Hindman Schools as the possible source. The only real difference between Sharp D and Ritchie's version is a slight change in the first refrain (see Sharp D below). Another version collected at Hindman School by Cox just a few years later than Sharp's is different.
After 1932 (where it appears in Sharp's EFSSA as version D), this "family" version appeared in print in A Garland of Mountain Song: Songs from the repertoire of the Ritchie family of Viper, Kentucky in 1953. It later was published by Jean in her Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians as sung by Jean Ritchie - Page 70. Ritchie says, "The men in the family always favored this one, for reasons addition to being field hands and often doing the plowing as easy to see. I don't see that there's anything so funny about a well. The men hunted, claimed they were bringing meat to the man whupping his wife, although I do admit that this Gentle Fair table. Knowing this, you can understand that if a man married Jenny maybe (she) needed a tap or two. To appreciate why, you a woman who wouldn't even cook the vittles, that would be a have to understand that in the Kentucky Mountains, the women- folk used to have to (some still do!) do all the work about the house." Edna Richie has also recorded the family version- I haven't seen or heard that yet.
Are there similarities between the origin of these two ballads- 1. Edward and 2. Wife Wrapt? Mike Yates points out Jean's sisters may have learned Edward from Sharp singing it: According to Kenny Goldstein, 'Jean Ritchie's version, learned from her sisters Patty, Edna, Una, and May (who first learned it at the Hindman Settlement School), is similar to most versions collected in the Southern Appalachians'. Elsewhere Jean writes that the Hindman songs were, 'known to everybody in that community ... the Settlement school's songbooks were made up of songs brought in by the children from their families' repertoires. Thus, the titles credited as having been learned at the school were versions of ones our family already knew, at least in part if not the whole song'. In other words, Jean is claiming that songs learnt at school were, in effect, locally-know songs that were being 'recycled' back into the community.
But, in the case of her version of Edward there is another possibility. On 20th September, 1917, English song collector Cecil Sharp paid a visit to the Hindman Settlement School. Whilst there he collected a version of the song Nottamun Town from Jean's sister Una. Sharp and his assistant Maud Karpeles had previously visited another Kentucky mountain school at Pine Mountain and an account of this visit is given by Evelyn Wells. 'There was an hour after supper in our big dining room, where after the day of farm work and canning and other vacation occupations, we settled back in our chairs while those two (i.e. Sharp & Karpeles) sang to us - The Knight and the Child in the Road, All Alone in the Ludeney, Edward, The Gypsy Laddie'. Jean Ritchie's version of Edward is uncommonly close - both words and tune - to the set that Sharp had collected on 15th April, 1917, from Trotter Gann, of Sevierville, Tennessee; and I would suggest (although I cannot prove this suggestion) that Sharp sang Mr Gann's version of Edward both at Pine Mountain and, later, at Hindman; and that it was from Sharp's singing, directly or indirectly, that the ballad Edward passed to the Ritchie sisters.
The Lomax version is another can of worms. (From: The Folk Songs of North America, Page 167 by Alan Lomax - 1960) Ritchie who was working on the "family" version for Folkways- Child Ballads in America, Vol. 2, copyright 1961, has another version. Lomax says, "As sung by Jean Ritchie," however, there is no recording of this version. It's simply her text arrangement of Child 277- Wife Wrapt, with the same title, Gentle Fair Jenny. The different lyrics, taken from different versions including her "family" version, and her slightly altered refrain, were apparently re-written by Jean to avoid copyright issues. See this version below. Neither Richie or Lomax offer an explanation.
R. Matteson 2013]
GENTLE FAIR JENNY (Version 1) Collected by Artimus Moser in 1941 at the Renfro Valley Folk Festival
1. I married me a wife and took her home,
Gentle fair Jenny, fair Rosy Marie,
But I ofttimes wished that I'd let her alone
As the dew flies over the green valley.
2. All in the kitchen she would not use,
For fear of spoiling her new cloth shoes.
3. First day at noon I come in from the plow,
My dearest wife, is my dinner ready now?
4. There's a little piece of corn bread lying on the shelf,
If you want anymore you can cook it yourself.
5. Second day at noon I come in from the plow,
My dearest wife, is my dinner ready now?
6. I am not your servant, I am not your slave,
That is the answer the young wife gave.
7. I took my knife and went out to the barn,
I cut me a hickory as long as my arm.
8. I place it around my young wife's back,
And made my hickory go wickety- whack.
9. I'll tell my father and all of my kin,
I was only tanning my wether's skin.
10. Third day at noon I come in from the plow,
My dearest wife, is my dinner ready now?
11. She flew about, the table was spread,
And Yes sir, and, No sir, was all that she said.
B 6. GENTLE FAIR JENNY (Version 2)
FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album No. FA 2302 ©1961 Folkways Records & Service Corp., 43 W. 61st 81., N. Y. C., USA
CHILD BALLADS IN AMERICA, Volume 2 sung by Jean Ritchie Notes by Kennee: S. Goldstein
Goldstein comments: Jean Ritchie's version, corresponding most closely to Cffin's story type C, was learned from her
sisters who first learned it at either Hindman Settlement School or the Pine Mountain Settlement School.
SIDE II, Band 3: GENTLE FAIR JENNY (Child #277)
I married me a wife and took her home,
Gentle fair Jenny, fair Rosy Marie,
I ofttimes wished that I'd let her alone
As the dew flies over the green valley.
All in my kitchen she would not use,
For fear of spoiling her new cloth shoes.
First day at noon I come in from the plow,
My dearest wife is my dinner ready now.
There's a little piece of corn bread layin' on the shelf,
If you want anymore you can cook it yourself.
Second day at noon I come in from the plow,
My dearest wife, is my dinner ready nov.
Get out of here your dirty thief, [usually elf]
If you want any dinner you can cook it yourself.
I got my knife and went out to the barn,
I cut me a hickory as long as my arm.
I took my limb and I bent back,
Around her back I made it crack.
I'll tell my father and all of my kin,
You whupped me with a hickory limb.
You can tell your father and all your kin
I whupped you once and I'll whup you again.
GENTLE FAIR JENNY- (Version 3) As Sung by Jean Ritchie. The Folk Songs of North America, Page 167; Alan Lomax - 1960.
1. Sweet William married him a wife,
Gentle fair Jenny, come rosemary
To be the comfort of his life,
The dew flies over the green valley.
2 He married his wife and took her home,
But I think her married a little too soon.
3 His wife would neither card nor spin,
For fear of spoiling her delicate skin.
4 His wife would neither bake nor brew
For fear of spoiling her high-heeled shoe.
5 Sweet William come in from a-jogging the plough,
It's, 'O my sweet wife, is the food ready now?'
6 "There's cheese and johnny-cake on the shelf,
If you want any more you can get it yourself.'
7 Sweet William has gone out to his barn,
And there he's taken his sheepskin down.
8 He laid the sheepskin over her back,
And with two little willows went wickety whack.
9 'I'll tell my family and all my kin,
How you this quarrel did begin.'
10 'Go tell your family and all your kin,
That I was tanning my old sheepskin,
11 Now he comes in from a-jogging the plough,
It's 'Sit you down, sir, the meal's ready now.'
12 Now they live free from care and strife,
And she makes William a very good wife.
Sharp D- The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin
As The Dew Flies Over the Valley- Kelly (KY) 1917
[My title, Sharp used the generic, The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin. In this version there's no wether skin so the title is less appropriate. In some English versions the dew=doo=dove, whether this is the origin is uncertain. See Gilchrist's article about "Herb refrains." The first refrain- For gentle, for Jenny, for rosa maree, is somtimes "fair Jenny" etc. (see Jean Ritchie's version, which is either based on this or the possibly the "Hindman School" version that her sisters learned.) The 6th stanza, first line usually ends with elf- so it rhymes with shelf.]
From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians
Two Editions: Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, 1917; Sharp and Karpeles 1932 Edition
Sharp's 1917 notes: No. 33. (1917) No. 39 (1932) The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 277. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, I., art. 13; and II., art. 122. Ford's Song Histories, pp. 271-274. Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii., 223; v., 260. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 97. Ford's Vagabond Songs of Scotland, p. 192. American variants:—Journal of American Folk-Lore, vii., 253; xix., 298.
D. [As The Dew Flies Over the Valley] The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin- Sung by Miss POLLY ANN KELLY at Hindman School, Knott Co., Ky., Sept. 20, 1917; Heptatonic. Dorian.
1. I married me wife and took her home,
For gentle, for Jenny, for rosa maree,
I often wish I'd left her a lone,
As the dew flies over the green valley.
2 For fear of spoiling her new cloth shoes,
All in the kitchen she would not use.
3 First day at noon came in from plough.
My dearest wife, is my dinner ready now?
4 Lays a piece of bread upon the shelf.
If you want any dinner go get it yourself.
5 Next day at noon came in from plough.
My dearest wife, isn't dinner ready now?
6 Get out of here, you dirty scamp (?). [elf]
If you want any dinner go get it yourself.
7 Took my knife and went to the barn.
I cut me hickory as long as my arm.
8 As I went back to the house,
Around her back I made it crack.
9 I'll tell my father and all my kin
That you have hit me with a hickory limb.
10 You can tell your father and all your kin;
I've whipped you once and I'll whip you again.