Changes Suffered by "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin"
[This article by Jansen was written in 1945 so he wasn't privy to the versions that have been published since.]
Changes Suffered by "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin"
William Hugh Jansen
Hoosier Folklore Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Sep., 1945), pp. 41-48
Volume IV- HOOSIER FOLKLORE BULLETIN- Number 3 September, 1945
CHANGES SUFFERED BY "THE WIFE WRAPPED IN WETHER'S SKIN"
Child Ballad 277, variously known as "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin," "The Cooper of Fife," and in the United States "Dandoo," presents interesting evidence for the changes suffered by a ballad transplanted from one country to another and some ground for conjecture upon the reason for those changes. The ballad, briefly, tells the story of a husband who beats his spouse because she fails to do her house chores, but who does so by beating a wether's skin which he puts, around her. In Child and Ford there are available six different versions of this ballad that are Scotch. "Two English versions, also different from the others, are presented by Sharp and Child, while there also exist Scotch and English forms which are exact parallels of Ford's Scotch form. Then there are just about forty different American versions, of the ballad, some of which have been reprinted several times. On these forty-six forms of 277 is this study based. A complete study of the changes would make a very, respectable thesis, an analysis of the interrelation of the refrains alone would be a worthwhile project. But for this paper I intend to analyze only certain textual changes in the actual narrative part of the ballad and to state some generalizations about forms.
Of the English and Scottish versions, all except Child's Suffolk variant, which is very fragmentary, and the Somerset variant of the JFSS, make it more or less evident that the wife who gets beaten in the wether's skin is of gentle birth. In Child B, Robin says "I darena pay you, for your skin" in Child B, despite the fact that his wife is "amang the warst" Robin dare not beat her for "a' " her kin; in Child C, it is specifically stated that the copper has a "gentle" wife, whom he dares not beat; because, of her "proud" kin; so it is with Child D and E, whore the wethers skin is used because of the wife's "proud" or "gentle" kin. Ford's Scotch version says both that the wife is "gentle" and that she does not card or spin because of her "gentle kin," as well as giving her kin as a reason why the cooper must use the device of a wether's skin. The Aberdenshire and Lancashire variants, since they are exact duplicates of Ford's version, of course repeat this detail. Here the Connecticut version, since it is directly traceable to Scotland, might well be mentioned, for it also states the cooper's wife won't work because of her high-bred kin and the cooper thrashes her in the wether's skin because of those same kin. This particular point of the text cannot be over emphasized, for it is one which caused the American perpetuators of the ballad no little difficulty.
Besides the fact that she is of gentle birth, many other reasons are advanced for the wife's lack of industry. Her comely hue and her gold ring are almost always mentioned. Child B, D, and E all imply she'd rather be active in high society, while E also mentions as a reason her desire to gossip, somewhat allied to these others, as a consideration in the mind of a leisure-class person.
With one exception, this general lack of industry is the reason for the wife's receiving a sound thrashing. That one exception, however, the Somersets version offers; a very interesting problem. In it the beating is administered direct; there is no wether's skin (this is also true of the fragmentary Suffolk version, the state of which makes it poor evidence) no reason is given for the wife's shiftlessness except that "she was not of the best" the husband is provoked to the beating by finding no supper, and the wife promises reform even to doing the ploughing if necessary. The motif of gentle birth has been supplanted indeed by one much the opposite- and logically enough the use of the wether's skin has also disappeared- a typo of logic not to be found in many American versions. The anger at not finding the dinner and the promise to do the ploughing are interesting. The first appears, so far as I know, in no other English or Scotch form, and the second appears but once, elsewhere, in Child A. Both I think are signs that the ballad is becoming merely a joke about the low classes, or just a good joke, whereas the earlier forms'show a more dramatic if none-the-less humorus struggle between husband, and wife of different social strata, I think this is even true when the husband is called the "laird" of Fife in Child A and D, both of which stress the standing of the wife, the former unusually clearly.
Various ways of grouping the American forms of the ballad suggest themselves, but since this study is merely of the material, perhaps a vaguely geographic arrangement from east to south and "from south to west is no more inconvenient than any other. To avoid a cumbersome apparatus of footnotes, the author presents at the close of this paper a bibliography of the various versions. For convenience, when there is more than one version from a state, those several versions will be distinguished by numbers, as Maine 1 and Maine 2.
The very first American version, Maine 1, gives a clear impression of the problem one will face in the changes brought by transplanting a ballad. In Maine 1, the wife can't card or spin, not because of her kin but because of her skin. The ballad-maker is faced with the question then of what to rime with the word brew, formerly rimed with hue, since that idea has already been expressed in the wife's concern about her skin. So the reason she won't bake or brew is concern for her shoe. Given cold johnny-bread for dinner, the husband beats his wife in an old sheepskin and tells her to tell his kin how he tanned his old sheepskin.
The motif of the wife's gentle birth has completely disappeared, and its disappearance has occasioned some riming difficulties for the ballad maker, difficulties which he has handled rather craftily except, I think, for the conclusion wherein the husband's recommendation to his wife seems unnecessary self-pride in the husband's prerogative to beat his wife. The joke definitely has been cheapened, made more elementary.
Maine--2, a short four-quatrain version, omits all but Jenny, the wife's suggestion that her husband get his own dinner, her consequent beating in the wether's skin, and her promise to tell her family. But Jenny's complaint is made on the grounds of cruelty, not on the fact that her high birth exempts her from punishment. Barry's comment that the line of the refrain:
Jenny, come gentle, Rose Marie
may have originally been, as in the Massachusetts version
Gentle Jenny cried rosemaree
adds interest, in that if the line means Jenny cried for mercy, the ballad has gone completely away from the wife's reliance upon the prerogatives of her social status.
The Vermont variant includes Billy's wife who refuses to go into the kitchen because of her lily-white skin. Whipped in a wether's skin, she threatens to call in her brothers who, would stop her husband. He, of course, repeats the customary line that, he can tan his own sheepskin. Once, again, the motif of gentle birth has disappeared.
Quite detailed is the Massachusets rendition, Jenny won't go: to the kitchen because of her white-heeled shoe won't wash or bake, because of her white apron tape, won't card or spin because of her gay gold-ring, Again there occurs the beating in a wether's skin and Jenny's threat to tell her kin --with a fair degree of pointlessness. Husband William explains he has only thrashed his wether's, skin, and Jenny reforms.
The five Kentucky versions all differ somewhat from the New England variants we have already seen in, Kentucky -1, the wife, who is "None of the best," is beaten in a wether's skin for offering her husband a cold dinner. Pleading she is being beaten on her bare skin the shiftless one cries for her kin but, the husband again asserts that he is only tanning a sheep's hide. Apparently the only cause for the wife's plea is her conviction that she is being treated cruelly, Kentucky -4 and -5 are very much the same except that in -4 the wife is going to tell the kin she was whipped with a wether's skin and in -5 she will tell how she was beaten with a hickory stick, as she was. In each case, it is cruelty that the wife objects to. Kentucky -2 and -3 differ from the others, for both have left out the wether's skin entirely. Indeed, once the gentle-birth motif disappears, there is little except the joke to keep the wether' s skin motif in the ballad. In Kentucky--3, the recalcitrant wife won't use the kitchen, for fear of spoiling her shoes. Offering her husband cold-dinners earns her a beating from a hickory stick. Here, of course, her basis for an appeal to her parents is unquestionably her husband's cruelty. Unperturbed, the husband tells her to add to her tale the fact that he'll do it again. Kentucky -2 has gone even one step farther in that it omits even the wife's plea to her kin. In return for a cold dinner, the husband beats his wife with a hickory stick; promptly she reforms. It would be interesting to conjecture about the comparative ages of the Kentucky versions from these changes in content, but I am afraid such a process would not be entirely justifiable.
Most fruitful of all the states, Virginia presents twelve versions. Virginia 2, 3, and 6 all tell the same story. The wife is "not of the best" (this is the only detail not present-in-all, -Virginia 3 not having it). For offering a cold dinner or refusing to prepare supper, she is beaten in a wether's skin and threatens to tell certain members of her family. Again, the husband evades the charge of cruelty by telling her to report that he was beating or dressing his wether's skin. Virginia -1 tells the same story fragmentarily. The husband beats his wife who will tell her family "of the wicked things you do." He returns the usual answer.
Not very far from the above pattern are Virginia -1, -4, -5 and -8. All have the cold dinner as provocation for the beating administered to the wife-, and all have the wether skin motif. However they form an interesting subgroup for each represents a degeneration of the wife' s threat to tell her family about the husband's disregard for her rights. In Virginia -1, she's going to tell his family how'he tanned his wether's skin. In -4, he is going to tell her family hm he tanned his wether's skin. In -5, he tells her to relate to her kin how he tanned her back with a wether's skin (notice how the subterfuge of the wether's skin is made absolutely pointless). And in -8 the wife is told to tell her family how her husband tanned his mutton skin.
The remaining Virginia forms depart even more from the story. Virginia -9 has the "none of the best" wife who has only bread for supper. However it tries to rationalize the wether's skin motif. The husband kills a mutton, for his supper and gives to his lazy wife nothing except the skin which he wraps around her back. A beating is implied, but the ballad goes no further. Virginia 7 omits the wether's skin element, has the wife beaten with a switch and complaining of the "terrible" whipping. Otherwise it is much like the other complete Virginia forms. Virginia 11 and 10 are very fragmentary, the former preserves only the cold provender on the shelf and a beating with a bundle of switches, while the latter presents the none-of-the-best wife, cold meat and bread for breakfast, and the wife's recommendation that the husband prepare anything else himself.
Though less numerous, the West Virginia forms present some interesting variants without any close parallels elsewhere. Closest to the norm, whatever that ephemeral form may have been, are West Virginia -6 and -1. Despite its strange refrain of Bandoo and despite the fact that its stanza does not confine the actual running text to a couplet as most of the forms do, West Virginia -6 is the closer of these two forms. It tells of a wife who is none-of-the-best and who offers bread for breakfast. She is beaten in a wether's skin, the full effect of which motif is again lost for she threatens to tell her family what a whipping she received. The humor is retained, however, since the husband replies, telling her to go ahead, "But I'm just dusting off my old wether's skin." In West Virginia -1, the wife refusing to prepare dinner, the husband starts into the kitchen but hesitates for fear of spoiling his cloth shoes. He whips his wife without using a wether's skin. When she threatens to tell her family, he is so unmoved that he asserts he will do it again and thus reforms his wife. More distinctive are West Virginia -2, -3, -4, and -5. Form -3 has the none-of-the-best wife who offers nothing but bread for a meal and is thus beaten in a wether's skin. When she threatens to tell all her family that she was beaten on her "naked skin," the husband runs away. Form -4 is, in narrative exactly the same as -3 except that the husband runs away when the wife threatens to tell all their neighbors and their two families how he has tanned his wether's skin. West Virginia --2 is further corrupted, for the husband runs away as soon as he find there is only meat and bread on the shelf for dinner. Incoherently enough the ballad ends with a recommendation not to marry a woman with lice. At least as corrupt is West Virginia -5, which presents the none-of-the-best wife who offers only cold "corn dodger" for breakfast. Again the husband promptly runs away, this time to his family where he exchanges badinage with his father about their respective wives. There is in this variant a very strange relic of the wether's skin motif. The runaway husband cuts the tail from an old sheepskin and wears that tail himself, telling his family that such is the way he tans his sheepskin. These corrupt forms are, of course, strictly local variations, yet they are important in their changes or omissions of originally essential motifs.
The four Indiana versions are not particularly exciting. Indiana 3, which is another one of the few forms not reducible to a couplet per stanza, presents a wife whipped in a wether's skin because she had proffered cold bread for supper. After the whipping, her husband says,
Go tell your daddy and all your kin
I never whipped nothing but the old sheepskin
Again the question is only that of cruelty. The other three are very similar to each other Indiana 1 has the none-of-the-best type of wife, the cold bread for dinner and a beating in a ram's skin. It goes no further. Indiana 2 is exactly like -1 except that after the beating, the husband throws the whip on the shelf and the auditor is advised that if he wants any more he can sing it himself. This ending I suppose to: be a relic of the stanza in other American versions in which the husband is told if he's not satisfied with what's on the shelf he can cook more himself. Indiana 4 substitutes meat for the bread of 1, but is otherwise the" same except for the stanza corruption that the wife is beaten is a wether.
Both Missouri forms are remarkably complete. Missouri --1 preserves the series of reasons for the wife's behavior. Sweet William's wife won't go to the kitchen because of her white-heeled shoes, won't wash or bake because of her white apron tape, of all things, and won't card or spin because of her delicate skin. When she tells him to get his own dinner, Sweet William beats her in a wether's skin; and when she threatens to tell her father that he began the quarrel, he retorts to tell also, how he beat his wether's skin. And so his wife reforms. Missouri -2 is practically an epitome of the "Dandoo" forms. It includes the none-of-the-best wife, cold corn bread for dinner, the beating in a sheep's skin. It also has a confusion in the wife's threat, for she will tell how she was whipped with an old sheep skin. The husband uses the classic retort:
I's only a-dressin' the old sheepskin.
The Mississippi version is also a good "Dandoo"- type. Told to prepare his own breakfast if he doesn't like-the bread on the-shelf, an old man beats his wife in a wether's skin. She is going to report exactly what he did, but he says he'll do what he pleases with his wether's skin an excellent pointing up of the humor that remains in the ballad after the dropping
out of the gentle-birth motif.
There remain two "Dandoo" forms. One is Miss Pound's colorless Nebraska variant which includes only the none-of-the best wife, the cold bread for breakfast, and the beating in the wether's skin. The other is R. W. Jordan' s rather complete version, the origin of which is pot mentioned. Offering only dry bread for breakfast, the wife is beaten in a mutton skin. She will tell her family that she has been, beaten, but her husband says to tell that he was tanning his mutton skin.
It seems evident that the ballad originally presented the situation of a husband confronted by a wife whose high birth made the chores of a housewife distasteful to her, yet whose high birth also prevented him from chastising her. So he wrapped her in a wether's skin, which he proceeded to beat. Upon her threat to tell her parents or family of the indignity, the husband assured her that he vras only tanning his Wether's Skin that she happened to be inside was unfortunate. Perhaps it is naive to believe that the Americans who preserved the balld knew no social distinctions that exempted one from work; still something of the sort must have been true some place. All the American versions omit the motif of gentle birth. With its omission, the point for the use of the wether's skin becomes hazy and the wife's threat of appealing to her family acquires either a very simple mean ing or some more or less strange corruption. An occasional attempt was made to give meaning to the motifs that had lost their greater significance with the dropping of the gentle birth.
Although I think this democratization, if one may call it that, the most important single point "in the study of texts "of this ballad, there are others that bring up interesting considerations. For instance, eight of the eleven (eleven, if one counts the Scotch version found in Connecticut) English and Scottish forms Include a specific statement that the wife reforms. The two Child "laird of Fife" versions and his fragmentary Suffolk version are alone lacking this statement. All the refrains known are present in the various ballads that have the point. But in America there are seven (Maine -1, Vermont, Massachusetts, Kentucky -2, and -5, West Virginia -1, and Missouri -1) ballads which state the wife reformed and each one of these has the same refrain. It is the "Gentle Jennie" refrain. Of course Maine -2, which is rather fragmentary, and Kentucky -3, which is not also have this refrain and do not mention the wife's reform. In this connection, it is interesting to note that Kentucky -2, -3, and -5, all with the "Gentle Jenny" refrains, are the only versions which mention a hickory stick. So I should think it safe to say that the "Gentle Jenny" type is perhaps characterized by an assertion that the remiss wife reforms, while the Kentucky subtype of the same form has as the implement for the beating a hickory stick.
All the rest of the American versions seem to be interrelated. There are sixteen variants which characterize the wife as being "none-of-the-best." These sixteen are Kentucky-1; Virginia -2, -5, -6, -7, -9, and -10; West Virginia -3, -4, -5, and -6; Indiana -1, -2, -4; Missouri -2; and Nebraska. It might be recalled here that the Somerset form also includes this "none of the best" phrase. All of the sixteen American forms are of the "Dandoo" refrain. Indiana-1 and Virginia-2 do not happen to include the actual word "Dandoo," but the "klishomo klingo" of one and "Clang-clish-a-ma-clingo" of the other make it obvious that they are of the same genre.
Eight of the other American versions have what is definitely a "Dandoo" refrain, while the remaining versions (Virginia -8, Indiana -4, -3, and Virginia -12) all seem fragmentary. The first two have refrains which are definitely reminiscent of "Dandoo" refrains while the third has no refrain at all.
So it seems rather safe to assert that, besides the "Gentle Jenny" type, the only other native American form of Child 277 is the "Dandoo"' version. This latter type is much the more frequent in occurrence. From more than half of the forms there is evidence that this type originally attributed the wife's shiftlessness to her being "none of the best." It tells a less moral, or more realistic, story than does the "Gentle Jenny" group. The "Dandoo"" ballad never assumes the reform of the wife. Also this type seems to have suffered the most from oral transcription, for it has many corrupt forms. The very existence and survival of such corruptions, hovrever, also bespeak the form's great popularity.
Bibliography
Scotch Forms:
Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, A, B, C, D, and E, vol. V, 105-6.
Robert Ford, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland (Paisley, 1899), I, 233-6.
Greg and Keith, Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs (Aberdeen, 1925), 218-9.
Suffolk:
Child, on. cit., vol. V, 303-4.
Somerset:
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. V, 260-1.
Lancashire:
Journal of the Folk-Song; Society, vol. II, 223.
Maine 1:
Barry, Eckstrom, Smyth, British Ballads from Maine (New Haven, 1929), 322-3.
Maine 2:
Ibid., 325-5.
Vermont:
Flanders and Brown, Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads (Brattleboro, 1932), 224-5.
Massachusetts:
Child, op. cit., vol. V, 304.
Connecticut (of Scotch origin):
Flanders and Brown, op. cit., 222-3.
Kentucky -1, -2, -3, and -4:
Sharp, Karpeles, English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians (Oxford, 1932), vol. I, 271-4.
Kentucky -5:
Cox, Traditional Ballads, Mainly from West Virginia, (New York, 1939) 46-7.
Virginias-1:
Sharp, Karpeles, ojd. cit., vol. I, 271.
Virginia -2 to -12, inclusive:
Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Harvard, 1929), 497-504, forms A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, and L.
West Virginia -1:
Cox, Folk-Songs of the South (Harvard, 1925), 162-3, form E.
West Virginia -2:
Cox, Traditional Ballads, 48, form-B.
West Virginia -3, -4, -5, and -6:
Cox, Folk-Songs, 159-62, forms A, B, C, and D.
Indiana -1:
Cox, Traditional Ballads, 49, form C.
Indiana -2, -3, and -4;
Brewster, Ballads and Songs of Indiana (Bloomington, Ind., 1940), 151-4, forms A, B, and C.
Missouri -1:
Belden, Ballads and Songs (University of Missouri Studies, 1940), 93-4, form B.
Missouri -2:
Ibid., 92-3., form A.
Mississippi:
Hudson, Folk-Songs of Mississippi (Chapel Hill, 1926), 123.
Nebraska:
Pound, American Ballads and Songs (New York 1922), 17-18, form B.
State not given:
Gordon, Folk-Songs of America (New York, 1938), 89-90.
Indiana University, William Hugh Jansen