The Old Man Went Out to Plow- Ware (VA) 1932 Davis CC
[I've used Davis's title but it seems wrong and probably should be "There was an Old Man who Learned How to Plow." Below are Davis's notes from More Ballads of Virginia, 1960.]
THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE
(Child, No. 278)
Of the group of ballads concerned with the humorous treatment of married life, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" appears to be the most popular. "Our Goodman" treats marital infidelity lightly; "Get up and Bar the Door" (not represented in this volume, but found in TBVA) depicts comically a domestic battle of wits; "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" jestingly suggests a safe method of wife taming; and now "The Farmer's Curst Wife" comments in amusing hyperbole upon a wife's invincible shrewishess.
A farmer who has a bad wife is glad to have the Devil take her rather than his eldest son (oxen, himself), away to hell. But in hell she is as incorrigible as ever, kicking or murdering young imps until one of them urges the Devil to take her back to her husband before she murders them all. This he does, and philosophic remarks about the nature of women often end the ballad. Child prints only two versions, one English (A) and one Scottish (B), to much tire same effect, except that A has "a chorus of whistlers" instead of the nonsense refrains of B, and B has a final stanza in which the woman on her return asks for the food she had left cooking when she went away years before. Child calls attention to a similar ballad composed by Robert Burns "from the old traditional version," but does not print the composed version, though it may be partly traditional. Child prints a traditional tune for B (V, 423).
The ballad seems to be extremely rare in recent British tradition only three English counties seem to have reported in Sussex, Dorsetshire, Wiltshire. See JEFSS, II (1905-6), 184-85; III (1908-9), 131-32; and Alfred Williams, Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, 1923, p. 211. Alfred Williams gives as the title of his Wiltshire text without tune, "There Was an Old F'armer in Sussex
Did Dwell," its first line, and adds a note, "This is called the 'Sussex Whistling Song,' but whether it originated in Sussex, or elsewhere, it was very popular in the Thames valley eighty years ago" (in 1923). The text is practically identical with Child A. which, under the title of "The Farmer's Old Wife," was taken from Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and songs of the Peasantry of England, 1846. Twentieth-century Scotland seems to muster only a single tune, without words, of this ballad (Greig-Keith, p. 220).
Miss Broadwood has an extremely interesting note on whistling refrains in general and on this ballad in particular in JEFSS, V (1914-17), 208-9. "I think . . . that it has not yet been pointed out by anyone that in song, where the devil is openly mentioned there is usually a rude , nonsense refrain, and in some cases the company whistles after each verse. Whistling is, of course, intimately connected. with magic, and to whistle is to keep away, or put oneself on a comfortable footing with, the dreaded power I venture, therefore, to think that in the very old song of 'The Farmer's Old Wife' or 'The Devil and the Ploughman,' still so popular throughout our Islands, the whistling after each verse was intended to keep Satan at a distance." For the lore about whistling and nonsense- refrains we are most grateful, but "still so popular throughout our Islands"? The published record scarcely sustains this statement.
In America both texts and tunes are far more abundant and widely scattered. TBVa printed thirteen texts (of fifteen available and six tunes. FSVa describes eight items more recently added, with five tunes. In addition to Virginia, the following states have been heard from, usually with a number of versions: Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska. The ballad has also been found in Nova Scotia. Sampling of a few representative collections yields the following result- rather less impressive than one would have expected: Barry, five texts and one tune; Cox, one text, no tune; Sharp-Karpeles, Seven texts, seven tunes; Belden, two texts, no tune; Randolph, two texts, one tune; Brown, two texts, four tunes ; Eddy, no text or tune; Gardner-Chickering, five texts, two tunes; and so on.
The American texts and tunes of this ballad are so extremely complicated, by multiplicity and variation, that any effort to classify them would be a major undertaking and of doubtful validity. Barry (p. 332) has taken the trouble to piece together the story of the five Maine texts, but the result is of little value as to the Maine texts, and of less value outside them. Barry also tells a good anecdote somewhat paralieling the ballad story. He also would wish to make more of the demonological implications of the ballad. Comparing it to the former "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin," he comments, "In the former the demon is exorcised; in the latter, he meets his match in the person of the cursed wife herself." And as to the present ballad, he concludes: "The cursed wife mav be regarded as a stock character of medieval stories; but this particular ballad is probably steeped more deeply in demonology than appears from the fragments we have left of the tale." Yes, but we have a superb song left, with or without demonological implications. And America is preserving it, in the usual fashion of varying it by oral circulation, in rnany out-of-the-way places. Belden (p. 95), on the basis of two or three American texts which have the little devils "dancing on a wire," suggests a relationship to old mystery plays. But the expression does not occur in the Virginia texts.
The present eight versions or variants are essentially an extension of the TBVa material, but with five good tunes (AA-EE),
especially the three (AA-CC) transcribed from phonograph records, and with many varying details, refrains, and wordings. No whistling refrains have been added, like those in Child A and in TBVa C, D, F, and L. In general, the texts look to Child A (except for its chorus of whistlers) rather than B, but occasional details point rather toward B. Naturally, the resemblance to American texts is closer, but not too close. None of the more recent texts has the detail found in Child B and in TBVa A, in which the returned wife asks for the food she has left cooking long ago. BB (stanza 11) seems to be the only text in which the returned wife beats her sick husband (Coffin's Story Type F). Coffin's Story Typ. A would cover most of these versions, with occasional glances at other types. The old man's plowing with cattle or pigs (Coffin's Story Type C) appears in AA, CC, HH, but the pact between the devil and the man is seldom made clear. The individual headnotes call attention to some specific points of interest. In general, the variation concerns the beginning and the ending, and, of course, the refrains, no two of which are alike. The final moral, whether or not a part of the original ballad, is infinitely varied and always amusing. All told, this ballad seems to be one of the better examples of ballad variation.
CC. "The Old Man That Went Out to Plow." Phonograph record(aluminum) made by A. K. Davis, Jr. Sung by Mrs. Nannie Harrison ware, of Amherst, Va. Amherst County, May, 1936. Text transcribed by M. J. Bruccoli. Tune noted by G. W. Williams and E. C. Mead. An interesting text and tune, with some confusions. There is more than usual antecedent detail in the first four stanzas. Apparently the devil came for the steer but took the wife instead. In stanza 4,"'white" is sung in the first line, omitted
in the repetitions; "him" should read "her" or "my wife," to make sense. The final stanza has an extra line apparently belonging to another stanza, but the singer manages by repetition to get the addition into the stanzaic pattern. The full stanza is given as sung. In stanza 6 it is the devil not her husband that the olcl woman beats. The refrain lines are unusual.
1. There was an old man who learned how to plow,
Whack with a rol dol diddle dol day,
There was an old man who learned how to plow,
Whack with a rol dol day.
There was an old man who learned how to plow,
Whack with a rol dol diddle dol day,
He plowed six steers and one old cow,
Whack with a rol dol day.
2. The old cow fretted him one day,
" 'N I wish the devil would take her away."
3. One day it come for the devil to appear,
"My[1] old man, I want my steer."
4. "Go to the [white] house and take him away,
For she cursed[2] me every day of my life." [3]
5. He picked her up upon his back,
Like a peddler with his pack.
6. When he got to hell's big gate,
She upped the shovel and knocked him on the pate.
7. The little young devils jumped on the wall,
"Take her back, she'll kill us all."
8. He picked her up upon his back,
Like a peddler with his Pack.
9. "Here, old man, I've brought her back,
Take her back and treat her well,"
Whack with a rol dol diddle dol day,
"Take her back and treat her well,"
Whack with a rol dol daY,
"Take her back and treat her well,
She's too mean for heaven and she can't stay in hell,"
Whack with a rol dol day.
Footnotes:
1. Uncertain: could be "Now."
2. Uncertain: could be "fussed."
3. The sense and rhyme in this stanza require mention of the wife. An omitted text has: "Go to the house and get my wife, / She frets me every day of my life."