The Old Man- Kennison (VT) c.1930 Flanders C
[My title- replacing the generic one with another inferior general title. From: Flanders' Ancient Ballads IV, 1965. Her notes follow. This version is missing the concluding (fourth) verse with the "Never did see before" ending.]
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 usuatty 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.
C. The Old Man (Our Goodman) - As sung by Josiah S. Kennison of Searsburg, Vermont, who learned this in an itinerant life as barker at fairs, scissors grinder, clockmender, etc. H. H. F. Collector. Early 1930's.
The old man came home,
His dear old wife to see.
He found a horse in his stall
Where his horse ought to be.
"O wife, dearest wife,
Will you explain to me
Whose horse is in my stall
Where my horse ought to be?"
"You old fool, you blind fool,
Drunk or can't you see?
'Tis nothing but a sawhorse
My mother sent to me."
The old man came home
His dear old wife to see;
He found a bonnet on a white-a-birch
Where his bonnet ought to be.
"O wife, dearest wife,
Will you explain to me
Whose hat's on my peg
Where my hat ought to be?"
"You old fool, you blind fool,
Blind, or can't you see?
'Tis nothing but a sunbonnet
My mother sent to me."