My Dear Wife- Dillan (IN) 1936 Brewster
[My Title.]
OUR GOODMAN
(Child, No. 274)
The only specimen of "Our Goodman" in the files of the Indiana collection is a three-stanza fragment belonging to Child A, and is an importation from Pennsylvania. The contributor writes: "All the old ballads I know were heard in western Pennsylvania, and as I am now sixty-eight years old, it was a long time ago. I remember particularly hearing The Lass of Roch RoyaP sung by a wedding procession going to the bridegroom's house for the infair—the bride and groom in the front buggy, top laid back, the bride wearing a large hat with immense white feather, groom with white tie, white flower in buttonhole, and white ribbon on the whip. . . . My mother's people were Scotch-Irish and were singers. One of the family was always precentor in the old Seceder church, and in their frivolous moments they sang some of these cheerful ballads. The first thing I can remember, almost, is my mother singing around her work— psalms, hymns, ballads—nothing written, just handed down by word of mouth."
For American texts, see Barry, No. 17; Brown, p. 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 32; Cox, No. 28; Davis, p. 485; Finger, p. 161; Hudson, No, 20; Hudson, Folksongs, p. 122; Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 295; XXX, 199; Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 14; C. A. Smith, p. 17; Smith, Ballads, No. 14; Scarborough, Song Catcher, p. 232; Randolph, Ozark Mountain Folks, p. 225; Henry, Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians, p. 14; Henry, Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands, p. 119.
British: Williams, Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 188; Ford, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland, II, 31.
JFSS, VII, 302, has a Manx version, "Haink fer-thie thie Amnagh." A Hungarian version appears in Buday and Ortutay, Szekely Nepballadak (No. 23 "A megcsalt ferj"). A practically identical text is given in Bartok, Hungarian Folk Music (No. 260).
For additional references, see Journal, XXIX, 166; XXX, 328; XXXV, 348.
No title given. Contributed by Miss Florence Eva Dillan, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Marion County. January 30, 1936.
1. "My dear wife, my loving wife,
What is this that I see;
Whose is this cap a-hanging
Where my cap ought to be?
2. "You old fool, you loving fool,
It's nothing. Don't you see,
It's nothing but a milk can
My mother sent to me?"
3. "Miles have I traveled
A thousand or more,
But fur upon a milk can
I never saw before."