Types of the Folk Song "Father Grumble" by Arthur K. Moore
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 64, No. 251 (Jan. - Mar., 1951), pp. 89-94
TYPES OF THE FOLK SONG "FATHER GRUMBLE"
By ARTHUR K. MOORE
FEW POPULAR SONGS OF BRITISH ANCESTRY have undergone less alteration in America than "Father Grumble," a humorous account of the misadventures of a farmer who assumes the household duties while his wife goes to the field to plow. Most of the specimens recovered from oral tradition fall into two categories so closely related as to suggest a common source not far distant. Of two eccentric types thus far printed, the first is the Scottish "John Grumlie," with some additions at the end, and the second is a fragment in two stanzas preserved in the archives of the Missouri Folk-Lore Society.[1]
This study considers briefly the oral and literary ramifications of "Father Grumble," and at the same time presents an example, with music, of the sort found in Missouri, and a striking variant in seventy-two lines, published a century ago but seemingly unnoticed since. Sixteen American specimens [2] are in substantial agreement with the version published in 1842 by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, possibly from oral sources.[3] The English song begins with the statement that the husband believes himself capable of more work than his wife:
There was an old man, who lived in a wood,
As you may plainly see;
He said he could do as much work in a day,
As his wife could do in three.
The wife agrees to undertake the plowing if he will do her chores. She directs him to milk the cow, feed the pigs, mind the "speckled hen," and "reel the spool of yarn." The farmer manages very awkwardly, and is apparently prepared at the end, as in "John Grumlie," to grant some measure of domestic equality to his wife:
So he swore by the sun, the moon, and the stars,
And the green leaves on the tree;
If his wife didn't do a day's work in her life,
She should ne'er be rul'd by he.
At this point, American versions are usually more coherent, merely indicating after the swearing that the husband is convinced of his error. The second group, thus far represented by at least thirteen specimens, [4] differs from the first chiefly in the identification of the husband as "Father Grumble," or variants thereof, and the addition of chores, as represented in the first four lines of the third stanza of the Pound version:
"But don't forget the jar of cream
That stands within the frame, frame;
And don't forget the fat in the pot,
Or it will all go into flame, flame."
In the surname "Grumble" a connection is struck with the Scottish "John Grumlie," as Kittredge observed in a note interpolated in Miss Pound's article;[5] but otherwise the songs are not especially close, though of course employing the same motif. On the other hand, the American "Grumble" and "old man who lived in a wood" types probably exhibit only superficial deviations from an original as yet undiscovered.
"John Grumlie," which clearly represents a distinct type, was published in 1825 by Allan Cunningham, with the observation, "I took it from the recitation of Mr. George Duff of Dumfries, with whose father it was a great favourite." [6] This apparently sincere explanation has not gone unchallenged. In a note appended to "The Woman to the Plow, and the Man to the Hen-Roost," a Roxburghe ballad employing the "Grumble" motif, J. W. Ebsworth pompously and uncritically rejected Cunningham's statement, maintaining that the Scottish author himself wrote "John Grumlie"[7] from suggestions furnished by the "Wyf of Auchtirmwchty,"[8] an analogue preserved in the Bannatyne Manuscript (1568).[9] The recovery in recent years of a version of "John Grumlie" from the singing of a Scotchman in Indiana[10] tends to confirm Kittredge's guess that Ebsworth erred. It is now abundantly clear that the oral versions do not spring immediately from any of the literary treatments presently known. The Roxburghe broadside, the "Wyf of Auchtirmwehty," and the late fifteenth-century "Ballad of a Tyrannical Husband,"" moreover, disclose no significant interrelationships, and in all likelihood represent independent handlings of the domestic theme.
The fragment published without music as Belden A, taken from the singing of a Tuscumbia, Missouri, fiddler, has until now remained the sole exemplar of a sub-type distinguished by the use of "Hickerknocker" and "Phoebe" as the names of the antagonists. According to George C. Simmons, of New Orleans, who recorded the song for me while a student at Tulane University, "Hickerknocker" was communicated to his mother by "Great-grandmother Clark .. . [who] had come to the Missouri Ozarks from Kentucky in a covered wagon." Belden's version preserves the first two stanzas of the song, whereas the Simmons recording seems to consist of the first and third. For this transcription, I am indebted to Dr. Kenneth Wright of the University of Kentucky Department of Music:
Hickerknocker swore by the green leaves
On the peach tree,
That he could do more work in a day
Than Phoebe could in three, three,
That he could do more work in a day
Than Phoebe could in three.
Little Phoebe took the whip
And went to follow the plow, plow,
While Hickerknocker took the pail
And went to milk the cow, cow,
While Hickerknocker took the pail
And went to milk the cow.
Mr. Simmons' mother, Mrs. George E. Simmons, was born and reared in Tuscumbia, the community from which Belden A was reported; it is therefore not unlikely that the two fragments represent the same version. If "Hickerknocker" and "Phoebe" actually indicate species of woodpeckers and flycatchers, as Mr. Simmons thought, this sub-type may have been re-worked in this country, for the habitat of the phoebe is North America. The variant probably resembles in the main the "old man who lived in a wood" type.
While examining the files of the Louisiana Spectator, a Lafayette weekly catering to a German-American audience, I discovered quite by accident a "Grumble" song which is the longest and in several respects the most interesting specimen yet reported. It was published in the issue of May 24, 1850, without any indication of musical setting or source. Although few new elements are added to the prototype as represented by the Percy, a great deal of elaboration, designedly humorous, has been undertaken in the rehandling. Moreover, the mutual discomfiture suggested by the fifteenth and sixteenth quatrains is an unusual note, for only Grumble ordinarily suffers. In the absence of any indication of source, it is difficult to say whether this variant is traditional or "literary." Furthermore, the possibility that the song had been printed previously deserves consideration, for nineteenth-century editors were especially prone to piece out the local news with clippings from the columns of exchange papers, as often as not failing to give credit.
"Owld Grumbleton"
Owld Grumbleton was a terrible Turk,
As I've 'eard people zay,
And a zwore in an hour a'd do more work
Than his wife would do in a day.
"Wi' ael my 'eart," zays the good owld dame,
I'm agreeable any how!
Zo thee shalt bide at whoame to-day,
And I'll go drive the plough.
"But thee must veed the brindle zow,
And the leetle peags in th' sty,
And thee must milk the tiny cow,
Or Tiney, her'll gwo dry;
"And thee must mind the hank o' yarn
As I spun yesterday;
And thee must watch the speckled hen,
Or her'll go lay astray;
"And thee must zee to the dairy pans,
Or the crame'll be spoilt therein,
And thee must mind to turn the malt,
That's dryin' in the kiln."
The owld 'oman tuk the whip in her hand,
And trudged to drive the plough;
The owld man tuk the milking pail,
And tackled unto the cow.
But Tiney winced and Tiney haunched,
And Tiney cocked her nose.
And Tiney kicked the pail down,
And the milk ran auver his hose.
And 'tis "Oh, Tiney!" and "Wo, Tiney!"
And "Drat th' cow, bide still!
If I milks zich a maggoty runt again,
'Twill be sore agin my will."
And he vorgot the hank o' yarn,
And the puppy-dog stole it away;
And he vorgot the speckled hen,
And zo her laid astray.
A went to veed the hungry peags
A grunting in the sty,
A run his nose agin a pwoast,
And amwoast knocked out his eye.
"A vine joke, my yead's broke;
A plague on the peags and sty!
If they gets no vittles till Doomsday,
They'll never be zarved by I!"
A left the crame to stand in the churn,
And turnin' hizzelf about,
Lar' massy haw! there stood the zow,
A zlushin' in her snout!
A stooped to pick a swingein' stick,
To gie the owld zow her hire;
Her run between his legs in a vright,
And drowed un into the vire.
"Oh drat thee vor a plaguey zow,
A urprizin' zow bist thee;
Thy snout it does mwore harm in an hour
Than I can mend in dree!"
In commed th' owld 'oman wringin' her hands,
And thus in haste her spoke.
"The vore hos lays on his back in the pond,
And the plough and the stilts be broke."
And 'tis "Oh Dobbin! my poor Dobbin!
And what an owld vool was I,
If I wears the breeches vor arr'n agen,
I wishes as I med die!"
Owld Grumbleton zwore by the zun and moon
And ael the green laves on the tree,
If his wife 'ou'd but take to her gear agen
Her shou'd never be caddled by he.
And 'tis "Oh zay no mwore, pray,
Vor I hates to be called a vool;
But bustle to-night, and put all things right,
And I'll gie thee lave to rule!"[12]
FOOTNOTES
1 H. M. Belden, Ballads and Songs (Univ. of Missouri Studies, Vol. XV, No. 1; Columbia, 1940), p. 225 (Version A).
2 J. H. Cox, Folk-Songs of the South (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), No. 156 A, B, C; A. P. Hudson, Folksongs of Mississippi and Their Background (Chapel Hill, 1936), No. 59; Dorothy Scarborough, A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains (New York, 1937), pp. 243 f.; H. H. Flanders and George Brown, Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads (2d ed.; Brattleboro, Vt., 1932), pp. 104 f.; Library of Congress, Folk Music of the United States, Album 14; Belden, Versions B, C, E; B. A. Owens, "Songs of the Cumberlands," JAF, 49 (1936), 237 f.; A. H. Tolman, "Some Songs Traditional in the United States," JAF, 29 (1916), 173 f.; Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs (Columbia, Mo., 1946), No. 74 A, B; P. G. Brewster, Ballads and Songs of Indiana (Indiana Univ. Folklore Series, No. 1, Bloomington, 1940), No. 40 B. See also Edith Wheeler, "Irish Versions of Some Old Ballads," JIFSS, I (1904), 43 f.
3. The Nursery Rhymes of England (Percy Soc., IV, London, 1842), pp. 32 f.
4 Cox 156 D, E, F, G; Belden D; Randolph 74 C; H. H. Flanders, A Garland of Green Mountain Song (Brattleboro, Vt., 1934), No. 14; Tolman B, C; Tolman and M. O. Eddy, "Traditional Texts and Tunes," JAF, 35 (1922), 366; Louise Pound, "Traditional Ballads in Nebraska," JAF, 26 (1913), 365 f.; Brewster 40 A; C. J. Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, ed. Maud Karpeles (London, 1932), No. 188 A. Sharp 188 B is an exceedingly corrupt blend of "Father Grumble" and lyric matter of doubtful origin.
5 JAF, 26, 364 f.
6 The Songs of Scotland (London, 1825), II, 125.
7 The RoxburgheB allads (Ballad Soc., XXXI-XXXIII, Hertford, 1890), VII, 187.
8 This poem was apparently known to Cunningham through Allan Ramsay's Ever Green
(1824).
9 Ed. W. T. Ritchie, STSNS, XXII, London, 1928, ii, 320 ff.
10 Brewster 40 C.
11. Thomas Wright and J. O. Halliwell[-Phillipps], Reliquiae Antiquae (London, 1841-3), II, 196 ff. Only the first fit of this long poem has survived. After a lengthy colloquy in which the husband and wife enumerate their duties, the exchange is made; but the poem breaks off after the first line of the second fit. For other British analogues, see Robert Ford, Song Histories (Glasgow and Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 44-47.
12. The conspicuous non-literary forms indicate a Southern dialect of England, possibly Southwestern; nearly all occur in two specimens of eighteenth century Devonshire speech, edited by F. T. Elworthy as An Exmoor Scolding and Courtship (Eng. Dial. Soc., IX, London, 1879).