As The Dew Falls Over the Valley- Dunagan (KY) 1917 Sharp C
[My title, Sharp used the generic, The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin. The "dew" falling over the valley make more sense than it flying over the valley. In some English versions the dew=doo=dove, which make sense since in most versions the dew flies over the valley. Whether this is the origin is uncertain.]
From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians
Two Editions: Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, 1917; Sharp and Karpeles 1932 Edition
Sharp's 1917 notes: No. 33. (1917) No. 39 (1932) The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 277. Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North-East, I., art. 13; and II., art. 122. Ford's Song Histories, pp. 271-274. Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii., 223; v., 260. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 97. Ford's Vagabond Songs of Scotland, p. 192. American variants:—Journal of American Folk-Lore, vii., 253; xix., 298.
C. [As The Dew Falls Over the Valley]- Sung by Mrs. MARGARET DUNAGAN at St. Helen's, Lee Co., Ky., Sept. 9, 1917
Hexatonic (no 3rd).
1. I married me a wife, I got her home,
For gentle, for Jenny, my Rosa Maree,
But I've often times wished I'd let her a-lone,
As the dew falls over the green valley.
2 Then I come in it's from my plough,
For gentle, etc.
O now, my kind wife, is my dinner ready now?
As the dew, etc.
3 There's a piece of bread upon the shelf,
If you want any more you can bake it yourself.
4 I gets me a knife and I went to the barn,
And I cut me hickory just as long as my arm.
5 Then I come back it's to the house,
I make my hickory go wickechy whack.
6 Then I come it's from my plough,
O now, my kind wife, is my dinner ready now?
7 She flew around, the board it was spread,
And every word it was 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir.'