Wife of Usher's Well- Burditt (VT) 1951 Flanders A
[From Flanders' Ancient Ballads; Traditionally Sung in New England, 1966. Coffin's notes follow. Both Flanders' version A and B are not traditional. They were both sung by the informants: A is taken by Burditt from print and B is a ballad recreation by Fish. I have no problem with the informants- however - there is not excuse from Flanders to include these in a book with "traditionally sung" in the title. And there's not excuse for not finding out the source by asking the informant- and publishing their response (If the informant claimed the ballad was traditional at least it could be published- even though it clearly is from print). Publishing them without comment is misrepresentation bordering on dishonesty.
There should be only one local title, "Wife of Usher's Well," and that is Child A. To have two of them, that's beyond belief.
R. Matteson 2015]
The Wife of Usher's Well
(Child 79)
The tradition of "The wife of usher's Well" is much confused, although most of the American texts are rather consistent in their similarity to child D, from North Carolina. The British versions, now pretty much extinct, are generally incomplete or garbled. child A and B give no motive for the return of the three sons nor do they describe the actions of the sons at home. C is nearly impossible to follow, although the return comes as a result or prayer as it does in D. Belden, 55-56, and Jane Zielonko, "Some American Variants of Child Ballads" (Master's thesis, Columbia university, 1945), 104 f., both discuss the manner in which the
Child D tradition varies from the child A-c texts. Belden seems certain the child D tradition goes back to print, but he can offer no references. However, there is strong circumstantial evidence to back his feeling as the song is rare in Britain, widespread and relatively unvarying in this country. In the light of these facts, the Flanders texts are immensely interesting. Flanders A is a close reproduction of Child A in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802), II, III, and thus quite unusual for America. This brings up the possibility that it was learned directly from Sir Walter Scott's volume or from Child by someone in Mrs. Burditt's family.
Flanders B, which does not seem to be a ghost story at all, rather a sentimental love tale spiced with maternal devotion, is a remarkable find. Obviously it is near print; the trite language and the maudlin plot are proof enough of that. Originally, it may be related to the tradition of the garbled Child C from Shropshire where the boys are named Joe, Peter, and John, although names Malcolm, Jock, and Don seem Scottish or at least Scotch-Irish. It is actually a completely new song, not Child 79 at all, and no closer to its "progenitor" than many of the so-called secondary ballads.
L. C. Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Chicago, 1928), 226, discusses the themes of revenants, moralistic punishment, and transformation that are interwoven into the American texts. Coffin, 83-84, gives an American bibliography and summary. Dean-Smith does not list the song, although it appears in E. M. Leather's The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire (London, 1912), 198.
A. The Wife of Usher's Well. Sung by Mrs. Phyllis Burditt of Springfield, Vermont. Published in Ballads Migrant in New England, 64. M. Olney, Collector October 11 , 1951.[1]
There lived a wife at Usher's Well
And a wealthy wife was she;
She had three stout and stalwart sons
And sent them o'er the sea.
They had not been a week from her,
A week but barely one,
When word came to the carline[2] wife
That her three sons were gone.
They had not been a week from her,
A week but barely three,
When word came to the carline wife
That her sons she'd never see.
"I wish the wind may never cease
Nor fishes in the flood,
Till my three sons come home to me
In earthly flesh and bloodt"
It fell about the Martinmas,
When nights are long and mirk,[3]
The carline wife's three sons came home
And their hats were on the birk.[4]
It neither grew in syke[5] nor ditch,
Nor yet in any sheugh,[6]
But at the gates of Paradise
That birk grew fair enough.
"Blow up the fires, my maidens fair!
Bring water from the well!
For all my house shall feast this night
Since my three sons are well!"
And she has made for them a bed-
She's made it long and wide;
And she's put her mantle round about,
Sat down at their bedside.
The cock he had not crowed but once
And clapped his wings away
When the youngest to the eldest said,
"Brother, we must away!"
Up then did crow the red, red cock
And up then crew the gray;
The eldest to the youngest said,
" 'Tis time we were away."
"The cock doth crow, the day doth dawn,
The channerin[7] worm doth chide;
Gin we be miss out of our place,
A sair pain we maun bide.
Fare you well, my mother dear!
Farewell to barn and byre! [8]
And fare you well, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother's fire."
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Footnotes:
1. When Mrs. Burditt resang this song for the LP record in 1953 (see Vol. I, p.42), the varied stanza 5 as follows:
Up then did crow tie red, red cock
And up and claw the gray;
The eldest to the youngest said,
" 'Tis time we were away."
The cock he hasn't crowed but once,
And clapped his wings away,
When the youngest to the oldest said,
"O brother, we must away!"
This variation is more like Child A, stanza 9-10, than the original singing.
2 "carline": "old woman"
3 "mirk": "dark"
4 "birk": "birch" (associated with the dead)
5 "syke": "marsh"
6 "sheugh": "trench" or "ditch"
7 "channerin": "fretting"
8 "byre": "cow stable"