The Scolding Wife- Brackett (ME) 1942 Flanders Q
Flanders' Ancient Ballads- 1965; Notes by Coffin
The Farmer's Curst Wife
(Child 278)
Coffin's notes: There is an old proverb that says there are but two places where a man wants to have his wife- in bed and in the grave. Certainly, the scolding wife, one who can rout the devil himself, has left her mark on folklore from India and Russia to the western countries. This particular anecdote concerning her is a favorite of the American informant with a similar song, "The Devil in search of a wife," it was also popular among the printers of nineteenth-century London broadsides. ["The Sussex Farmer" being close to, or the origin of, Child A. "The Devil in search of a wife" is quite different- see English & Other versions- except for the last few stanzas.]
Originally, it must have concerned a contract in which a farmer hired the devil to do some plowing in exchange for a member of the family. The farmer, in many texts, worries that he may lose his eldest son and is relieved when his wife is taken. The American versions follow Child A as a rule, it being rare that the wife come back to her cooking as in Child B. However, the yoking of the dogs and hogs to the plow and the proverbial sayings at the close of the song are frequently added to the Child A base in the New world.
The Flanders material needs little comment. Texts A and B, in which the farmer seems to be rather proud of his wife's triumph over the forces of hell are not common, though Phillips Barry, British Ballad's from Maine, 330-1, prints an example from Northeast Harbor. Nor are the C-I "Anthony Rowley" texts with the "right leg, left leg," refrains. But C in which the wife is the farmer, harnesses the cattle herself, and goes to the gates of hell, is the only text that introduces a really radical story variation. C is a noteworthy find.
American references for Child 278 may be found in Coffin, 148-50. see also Dean-Smith, 66, and Belden, 94-95, for English citations. Barry, op. cit., 332, cites local uses of the motif in New England.
The tunes for child 278 all belong to one tune family. A large proportion of them are especially closely related; the following tunes are slightly divergent: Ordway, Davis, Weeks, Brackett. The Underhill, Farnham, and Lorette tunes are very similar, as are the Moses and Blake tunes.
For general relationship to the larger group of tunes, see FCBa, 116, 117, 119; DV, 598 No. 46 (c), 599 No. 46 (E) and (F), 601 No. 46 (L); GCM, 373; Sharp I, 215, 278.
Flanders Q. Sung by Fred, Brackett of Stacyville, Maine. This ballad is an example of how the story was of primary importance to the singer; the air or meter, of no importance. M. Olney, Collector; May 10, 1942.
Structure: A1 B1 A2 B1 C D AB B2 (2 1/2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2 1/2); Rhythm A; Contour: approaching an arc; Scale: Mixolydian; t.c. D.
The Scolding Wife
The old farmer yoked up his pigs one day to plow.
'Twas this way and that way, the devil knows how.
The old man was to work in his garden one day,
And he spied the old devil just over the way.
The old man, he cried, "It's I'm undone,
For it's my oldest son now that you do crave."
"Oh, no, it's not your oldest son I crave,
But your damned old. scolding wife, and her I must have."
"Oh, take her, oh, take her," the old devil cries--[1]
The old devil he took her and put her in his pack,
And like a bold soldier he shouldered his sack.
He lugged her along till he come in sight of hell's gates.
He laid her down and opened the door
And then he kicked her in among ten thousand more.
She saw ten little devils a-pickin'up chains;
She rolled up her fist and knocked out nine of their brains.
"Oh, take her away," the little devils they cries,
"For she will kill us all - - -"
The old devil he thought the little devils were setting her up higher;
She swung round her leg and kicked nine in the fire.
Oh, the old devil he put her then in his pack
And then like a bold soldier he shouldered his sack.
And now he says that women are worse than the men
For they've been to hell and got safe back again.
Mr. Brackett's comment: "That's giving the women quite a hard gouge."
1. (Should be:) The old man cries--