Home Comes the Good Old Man- Dearing (VA) 1914 Davis D
[From: TRADITIONAL BALLADS OF VIRGINIA- Davis; 1929. His notes follow. Davis D ends in the middle of a verse group and is poorly remembered in Verse 7.
R. Matteson 2013]
OUR GOODMAN (Child, No. 274)
Five texts and five tunes are the harvest of this ballad in Virginia, two of the texts being without tunes, and two of the tunes without words. Virginia A is Child A, Virginia B Child B, both with variations. Virginia C, D, and E are closer to Child A than to B, but show numerous divergences. Virginia B is the rarest version here given, as most of the texts so far recovered in
America have belonged to Child A. As an appendix is printed "A Jacobite Song," which though it comes from a Virginia collector is of West Virginia, Canadian, and British navy ancestry. It seems to correspond to the piece printed in Smith's Scottish Minstrel, where the goodwife is found to be concealing her cousin McIntosh, a Tory. None of the more or less ribald stanza's sometimes added to or superimposed upon this ballad have found access to the Virginia files; hence the problem of their publication does not arise. The Virginia titles are "Our Goodman," "Hobble and Bobble," "Home Comes the Good Old Man," "Down Came the Old Man," "The Old Man," and "Cairo Gal," which the singer also called, "A Blackguard Song."
For American texts, see Barry, No. 17; Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-5; Campbell and Sharp, No. 32 (North Carolina); Cox, No. 28; Finger, p. 161; Hudson, No. 20 (Mississippi); Jones, P. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 295 (Barry, Massachusetts); XXX, 199 (Parsons, North Carolina); Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 14; C. A. Smith, p. 17 (Virginia, fragment and two melodies, British melody); Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 14. For additional references, see Journal, XXXIX, 166; XXXV 328; XXXV, 348.
D. "Home Comes the Good Old Man." collected by Miss Juliet Fauntleroy. Sung by Mr. James Dearing, of Lynchburg, Va. Campbell County. May 10, 1914. With music.
1 Home comes the good old man,
Home comes he,
He finds a horse a-standing
Where his own horse ought to be.
2 "My own wife, my dear wife,
What can the matter be?
I find a horse a-standing
Where my own horse ought to be."
3 "You old fool, You blind fool,
Can't you plainly see
It's nothing but a milk cow
My mother gave to me?"
4 "I've traveled many thousand miles,
I'll travel many more,
But I never saw a milk cow
With a saddle on before."
5 "My own wife, my dear wife,
"What can the matter be?
I find a hat a-hanging
Where my own hat ought to be."
6 "You old fool, you blind fool,
Can't you plainly see?
It's nothing but a milk pail
My mother gave to me?"
7 "I've traveled many thousand miles,
I'll travel many more,
But I never saw a milk pail [1]
With a handle (?) on before."
8 "My own wife, my dear wife,
What can the matter be?
I find a coat a-hanging
Where my own coat ought to be."
Footnote:
Usually as follows:
1. But I never saw a milk pail
With a sweatband on before."