Our Good Man (What Brought that Horse Here?)- Sullivan (VT) 1932 Flanders G
[Flanders' title, the form is different other versions. From: Flanders' Ancient Ballads IV, 1965. Her notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
Our Goodman (Child 274)
Mrs. Sullivan's statement that "Our Goodman" is a drinking song, into which is "put anything they like," is an accurate description of this usually bawdy piece. It has been known in Britain at least since the end of the eighteenth century and a German translation of an English broadside started its spread across Europe during the early nineteenth century. Generally, the American texts are Scottish in form, like Child A, but as a rule they attempt to soften the cuckolding of the husband by making him a drunkard. Note, however, Flanders G.
See Coffin, 144-b (American); Dean-Smith, 70 (English); and Greig and Keith, 214-6 (Scottish) for a start on a bibliography. Child, V, 88 f., discusses the use of the motif in literary and folk tales.
Many informants refuse to sing this ballad on moral grounds, though the lines that have caused them to feel this may are not to be found in print.
G. 'Our Good Man' (What Brought that Horse Here?)- Mrs. Ellen M. Sultivan of springfield, vermont, called this "a drinking song." she said, any one put into it anything they liked. When urged, to sing it, she furnished this form. H. H. F., Collector. August, 1932.
"'What brought that horse here, where it should not be?"
"Blind Sally Cockhold and blind you may be,
Don't you see that's a sow Pig my mama sent to me?"
"Miles I have travelled, many miles or more,
But a saddle on a sow pig I never saw before!"
"What brought that hat there, where it should not be?"
"Blind Sally Cockhold and blind you may be,
Don't you see that that's a skimming dish my mama sent to me?'
"Miles I have travelled, many miles or more,
And such a hairy skimming dish I never saw before!"
"What brought that coat there, where it should not be?"
"Blind Sally Cockhold and blind you may be,
Don't you see that that's a blanket my mama sent to me?"
"Miles I have travelled, many miles or more,
And buttons on a blanket I never saw before!"