Cairo Gal- Sprouse (VA) Fauntleroy; Davis E
[From: TRADITIONAL BALLADS OF VIRGINIA- Davis; 1929. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013]
OUR GOODMAN (Child, No. 274)
Five texts and five tunes are the harvest of this ballad in Virginia, two of the texts being without tunes, and two of the tunes without words. Virginia A is Child A, Virginia B Child B, both with variations. Virginia C, D, and E are closer to Child A than to B, but show numerous divergences. Virginia B is the rarest version here given, as most of the texts so far recovered in
America have belonged to Child A. As an appendix is printed "A Jacobite Song," which though it comes from a Virginia collector is of West Virginia, Canadian, and British navy ancestry. It seems to correspond to the piece printed in Smith's Scottish Minstrel, where the goodwife is found to be concealing her cousin McIntosh, a Tory. None of the more or less ribald stanza's sometimes added to or superimposed upon this ballad have found access to the Virginia files; hence the problem of their publication does not arise. The Virginia titles are "Our Goodman," "Hobble and Bobble," "Home Comes the Good Old Man," "Down Came the Old Man," "The Old Man," and "Cairo Gal," which the singer also called, "A Blackguard Song."
For American texts, see Barry, No. 17; Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-5; Campbell and Sharp, No. 32 (North Carolina); Cox, No. 28; Finger, p. 161; Hudson, No. 20 (Mississippi); Jones, P. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 295 (Barry, Massachusetts); XXX, 199 (Parsons, North Carolina); Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 14; C. A. Smith, p. 17 (Virginia, fragment and two melodies, British melody); Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 14. For additional references, see Journal, XXXIX, 166; XXXV 328; XXXV, 348.
E. "Cairo Gal." collected by Miss Juliet Fauntleroy. Sung by Mrs. James Sprouse, at Lawyers, Va., Campbell County. September 4, 1915. "Cairo Gal" is 'A Blackguard Song' Mrs. Sprouse says." (Miss Fauntleroy).
1 "Wife, Oh wife,
How is this to be?
Another man's horse
Where mine ought to be."
2 "You fool, Oh blind fool,
Blind and cannot see,
'T ain't nothing but a milk cow
My mammy sent to me."
3 "I've been all round this wide, wide world,
A thousand miles or more,
I never seen a milk cow
With a saddle on before."
4 "Wife, oh wife,
How is this to be?
Another man's boots
Where mine ought to be."
5 "You fool, Oh blind fool,
Blind and cannot see,
'T ain't nothing but a churn
My mammy sent to me."
6 "I've been all round this wide, wide world,
A thousand miles or more,
But I never seen a churn
With heels on before."