Farmer's Curst Wife- Blake (VT) 1870 Flanders K
Flanders' Ancient Ballads- 1965; Notes by Coffin
The Farmer's Curst Wife
(Child 278)
Coffin's notes: There is an old proverb that says there are but two places where a man wants to have his wife- in bed and in the grave. Certainly, the scolding wife, one who can rout the devil himself, has left her mark on folklore from India and Russia to the western countries. This particular anecdote concerning her is a favorite of the American informant with a similar song, "The Devil in search of a wife," it was also popular among the printers of nineteenth-century London broadsides. ["The Sussex Farmer" being close to, or the origin of, Child A. "The Devil in search of a wife" is quite different- see English & Other versions- except for the last few stanzas.]
Originally, it must have concerned a contract in which a farmer hired the devil to do some plowing in exchange for a member of the family. The farmer, in many texts, worries that he may lose his eldest son and is relieved when his wife is taken. The American versions follow Child A as a rule, it being rare that the wife come back to her cooking as in Child B. However, the yoking of the dogs and hogs to the plow and the proverbial sayings at the close of the song are frequently added to the Child A base in the New world.
The Flanders material needs little comment. Texts A and B, in which the farmer seems to be rather proud of his wife's triumph over the forces of hell are not common, though Phillips Barry, British Ballad's from Maine, 330-1, prints an example from Northeast Harbor. Nor are the C-I "Anthony Rowley" texts with the "right leg, left leg," refrains. But C in which the wife is the farmer, harnesses the cattle herself, and goes to the gates of hell, is the only text that introduces a really radical story variation. C is a noteworthy find.
American references for Child 278 may be found in Coffin, 148-50. see also Dean-Smith, 66, and Belden, 94-95, for English citations. Barry, op. cit., 332, cites local uses of the motif in New England.
The tunes for child 278 all belong to one tune family. A large proportion of them are especially closely related; the following tunes are slightly divergent: Ordway, Davis, Weeks, Brackett. The Underhill, Farnham, and Lorette tunes are very similar, as are the Moses and Blake tunes.
For general relationship to the larger group of tunes, see FCBa, 116, 117, 119; DV, 598 No. 46 (c), 599 No. 46 (E) and (F), 601 No. 46 (L); GCM, 373; Sharp I, 215, 278.
Version K. Mrs. A. R. Blake of White River Junction, Vermont, furnished, this song as recalled by Mrs. Tryphena A. B. Estabrooks of North Orange, Massachusetts, who lived most of her life at Hardwich, Vermont. Mrs. Estabrooks wrote on
her copy, "It's more than 50 years since grandma used to sing it- nearer 65." Grandma was Mrs. Olive Edgerly Sulham of New Hampshire, a descendent of Governor Benning Wentworth. Olive Edgerly's mother was a Wentworth. Mrs. Estabrooks' copy was written about 1925. H. H. F., Collector July 31, 1935
The Farmer's Curst Wife
There was an old man, he bought him a farm,
Fli lilla fli lee fli down
There was an old man, he bought him a farm,
And he hadn't any oxen to carry it on.
To my trice fli lilla fli lee fli down.
(Follow pattern of first stanza 1 or all stanzas,)
He yoked up his hogs in order to plough;
The hogs they went, the devil knows how.
The old man cries, "I am undone,
For the devil is after my oldest son."
" 'Tis not your oldest son I crave,
But'tis your scolding wife I'll have."
"Well, you may take her if you please,
And with her you make take her cheese."
The old devil shouldered her on to his back,
And like a pedlar went hugging his pack.
He carried her down to Tophet's door,
And there he thrashed her on the floor.
He called a little devil to brand him a chain;
She up with her foot and kicked out his brains.
Another little devil that wore a blue cap,
She up with her foot and brained at that.
Another little devil peeked over the wall,
Saying, "Carry her back, or she'll brain us all."
The old devil shouldered her onto his back,
And like a darned fool went carrying her back.
He carried her home to her own door,
And there he thrashed her on the floor.
Saying, "Here's your wife, she's born for a curse,
She has been through hell and she is ten times worse.