Recordings & Info 79. The Wife of Usher's Well
[See also the article attached to this page: The Revenants in 'The Wife of Usher's Well.'
R. Matteson 2012]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Child Collection Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
6) Wiki
7) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 196: The Wife of Usher's Well (250 Listings)
2) The Revenants in 'The Wife of Usher's Well'
3) Brown Collection: The Wife of Usher's Well
Alternative Titles
Lady Gay
The Dead Little Boys
The Wife of the Free
The Fine Lady Gay
The Cartin Wife
A Moravian Song
The Lady and the Children Three
The Three Pore Little Children
The Lone Widow
The Miracle of Usher's Well
Mary Hebrew
Three Little Babes
A Ballad of the Return of the Dead, Lady Grey, Moravian Song, Scots ghosts, The Lady and the Children Three, The Lone Widow, The Three Little Babes, The Three Little Babs, The Three Pore Little Children, The Wife of Ushers Well, There was a Lady, There was a Lady in Merry Scotland, Three Babes, Wife of Usher's Well
Traditional Ballad Index: Wife of Usher's Well, The [Child 79]
DESCRIPTION: A mother sends her sons away to school, where they die. She swears not to believe in God until they return to her. Later, they do return, but as ghosts. At last they convince her (perhaps by means of the roasted cock crowing) to let them rest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: ghost death mourning magic
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(West,South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Child 79, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (3 texts)
Bronson 79, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (58 versions)
Leather, pp. 198-199, "There Was a Lady in Merry Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
SharpAp 22 "The Wife of Usher's Well" (8 texts plus 9 fragments, 18 tunes){Bronson's #23, #18, #49, #20, #47, #4, #9, #50, #31, #5, #32, #43, #39, #40, #13, #14, #51, #7}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 17, "The Three Little Babes (The Wife of Usher's Well)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Reeves-Sharp 112, "Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 449-451, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts derived from Cox)
Belden, pp. 55-57, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
Randolph 19, "The Three Little Babes" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #10, #8}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 39, "The Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 19B) {Bronson's #8}
Eddy 14, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #24}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 187-194, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first version has textual but not melodic variants; the tunes are effectively the same, but the "B" text, while it starts with "Usher's Well" lyrics, is clearlly a rewrite; the boys go off to sea, return, and one marries a servant girl) {A=Bronson's #58}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 64-66, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #58}
Davis-Ballads 22, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (11 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes entitled "The Three Little Babes," "Lady Gay"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #48, #33}
Davis-More 23, pp. 161-169, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
BrownII 25, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (4 text plus 3 excerpts and mention of 2 more)
Hudson 14, pp. 93-95, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
Boswell/Wilfe 4, pp. 9-11, "Lady Gay (The Wife of Usher's Well)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 167-169, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text, locally titled "There Was a Lady, and a Lady Was She"; tune on p. 402) {Bronson's #57}
Ritchie-Southern, p. 69, "The Miracle of Usher's Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster 14, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 263-265, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 134-135, "Mary Hebrew" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 32, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 34, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (3 texts)
PBB 24, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Niles 33, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Gummere, pp. 195-196+346-347, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Fuson, pp. 59-60, "The Cruel Mother (Or Three Children)" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 91, "Lady Gay" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30, though in 4/4 where Bronson marks 3/2!}
Chase, pp. 116-118, "Lady Gay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 58, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
JHCox 14, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (5 texts plus mention of 2 more)
LPound-ABS, 7, pp. 18-19, "Children's Song"; pp. 20-21, "Three Little Babes" (2 texts)
Darling-NAS, pp. 32-33, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 80-81, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
DT 79, LADYGAY* USHERWEL USHRWEL2*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #429, "The Wif of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Roud #196
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Three Little Babes" (on LomaxCD1702); "The Three Babes" (AFS, 1941; on LC58)
Seena Helms, "Lady Bride and Three Babes" (on HandMeDown1)
Buell Kazee, "Lady Gay" (Brunswick 212, 1928) {Bronson's #30}
Jean Ritchie, "The Wife of Usher's Wells" (on JRitchie02)
Pete Seeger, "Lady Gay" (on PeteSeeger25)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22] (plot)
cf. "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dead Little Boys
The Wife of the Free
The Fine Lady Gay
The Cartin Wife
A Moravian Song
The Lady and the Children Three
The Three Pore Little Children
The Lone Widow
NOTES: Bronson makes the interesting observation that there is one Scottish tune for this song, unrelated to any other; two English tunes, related only to each other, and dozens of American collections, most of which (43 of them) have tunes related to each other but not to the Scottish or English forms.
It's hard to know what to do with Lena Bourne Fish's version (the "B" version in Flanders-Ancient2). The first lines are clearly part of this song; the ending is not. It belongs to the romances about a noble marrying a commoner. The tune is shared with Phyllis Burditt's version of "The Wife of Usher's Well," but Bronson finds that tune to be unique.
I'm lumping the two because there is still kinship, and I don't recognize the second half of Fish's song -- but I wouldn't be surprised if she has combined two songs.
The notion that excessive mourning (usually meaning mourning for more than a year and a day) results in the ghost being unable to rest is at least hinted at in several other songs, the most noteworthy being "The Unquiet Grave" [Child 78].
For the vexed question of the origin of the legend of the roasted cock, see the notes to "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55].
- RBW
Folk Index: The Wife of Usher's Well [Ch 79/Sh 22/Me I-A 7]
Rt - Lady Gay ; Three Little Babes ; Children's Song ; There Was a Lady and a Lady Was She
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p 34 [1803ca]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p 36 [1880s]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p 386
Lloyd, A. L. & Isabel Arete de Ramon y Rivera (eds.) / Folk Songs of the, Oak, Sof (1966), # 25
Clayre, Alasdair (ed.) / 100 Folk Songs and New Songs, Wolfe, Sof (1968), p 93
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p263
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p264
Leach, MacEdward / The Heritage Book of Ballads, Heritage, Bk (1967), p 52
Blunt, Miss. Reeves, James (ed.) / Idiom of the People, Norton, Sof (1958), p226/#112 [1912]
Deller, Alfred. Western Wind, Vanguard SRV7 3005, LP (1967/1958), trk# B.06
Fitzgerald, Napoleon. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p157/# 22M [1918/05/24]
Flannery, Mrs. L. K.. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p155/# 22I [1917/05/30]
Gentry, Jane Hicks. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p153/# 22E [1916/08/24]
Gentry, Jane Hicks. Smith, Betty N. / Jane Hicks Gentry. A Singer Among Singers, U. Ky, Sof (1998), p150/#10 [1916/08/24]
Gilison, George W.. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p157/# 22L [1917/08/21]
Ginandes, Shep. O Love Is Teasin', Elektra 60402-1-U, LP (1957), trk# 1.08
Ginandes, Shep. Sings Folk Songs, Elektra EKL 133, LP (1958), trk# 4
Hartsell, Pearl. McNeil, W. K. (ed.) / Southern Folk Ballads, Vol 2, August House, Sof (1988), p134 [1951/09] (Mary Hebrew)
Hensley, Rosie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p154/# 22G [1916/08/11]
King, Mrs.. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p160/# 22R [1917/04/19]
Landers, Linnie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p151/# 22B [1916/09/05]
Ledford, Anner; and Maggie Henson. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p181/N 33A [1936/04] (Little Dead Boys)
Loy, Bettie R.. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p 88/# 14A [1916/02/17] (Moravian Song)
Mitchell, Effie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p159/# 22O [1918/09/12]
Penland, Lucy. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p159/# 22P [1918/09/10]
Pope, Minnie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p156/# 22J [1917/05/01]
Rathbone, Sam. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p160/# 22Q [1918/10/01]
Reynolds, Virginia. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p158/# 22N [1918/08/29]
Rice, Mrs. Zippo. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p154/# 22F [1916/08/15]
Ritchie, Jean. British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains (Vol. 2), Folkways FA 2302, LP (1961), trk# A.05
Roberts, John; and Tony Barrand. Dark Ships in the Forest. Ballads of the Supernatural, Folk Legacy CD 065, CD (1977), trk# A.03
Sawyer, Susan. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p154/# 22H [1916/09/19]
Shelton, Dora. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p153/# 22D [1916/08/15]
Shelton, Sol; and Miss Virginia Shelton. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p150/# 22A [1916/07/29]
Spicer, Joseph H.. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p 93/# 14E [1915/12/20]
Stockton, T. Jeff. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p152/# 22C [1916/09/04]
Thompson, Mrs. Vestie. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p156/# 22K [1917/06/02]
Weill, Rita. Rita Weill Sings Ballads and Folksongs, Takoma A 1022, LP (1968), trk# 9
West, Hedy. Old Times and Hard Times, Folk Legacy FSA 032, LP (1967), trk# B.07
The Lady Gay [Ch 79/Me I-A 7]
Rt - Wife of Usher's Well
Wells, Evelyn Kendrick (ed.) / The Ballad Tree, Ronald, Bk (1950), p155
Silverman, Jerry / Folk Guitar - Folk Song, Scarborough Book, Sof (1983/1977), p 60
Adkins, John B.. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p 90/# 14C [1916/02/19]
Armstrong, George and Gerry. Simple Gifts, Folkways FW 2335, LP (1961), trk# A.07 (Lady from the West Country)
Baez, Joan. Very Early Joan, Vanguard VSD7 9446/7, LP (1982), trk# B.03 [1961-63]
Baez, Joan. Siegmeister, Elie (arr.) / Joan Baez Song Book, Ryerson Music, Sof (1971/1964), p 64
Brown, Mason; and Chipper Thompson. Am I Born to Die. An Appalachian Songbook, Dorian Dor 83217, CD (1999), trk# 13
Carrigan, Myrtle. Wolfe, Charles K.(ed.) / Folk Songs of Middle Tennessee. George Boswell, Univ. Tennesse, Sof (1997), p 9/# 4 [1949/10/14]
Chase, Richard. Chase, Richard (ed.) / American Folk Tales and Songs, Dover, sof (1971/1956), p116 [1930-40's]
Conescu, Nancy; and Friends. Long Distance, Mek --, CD (1997), trk# 4
Cornett, Tillie. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p185/N 33C [1932/05] (Fine Lady Gay)
Cunningham, John. Border Bandit, Cunningham, CD (200?), trk# 16
Gitter, Dean. Ghost Ballads, Riverside RLP 12-636, LP (1957), trk# B.05
Hall, Barry. Virtuoso 5-String Banjo, Folkways FG 3533, LP (1964), trk# B.05
Hamilton, Frank. Folk Festival at Newport. Vol. 3, Vanguard VRS 9064, LP (1959), trk# A.07
Kazee, Buell. Buell Kazee, June Appal JA 009, LP (1977), trk# 3 [1969]
Kazee, Buell. Kentucky Country; Old Time Music From Kentucky, Rounder 1037, LP (1983), trk# 1 [1928/01/06]
Kazee, Buell. Seeger, Pete / How to Play the Five String Banjo, Seeger, sof (1962), p37
Kazee, Buell. Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof, 2, p12 (1960)
Kazee, Buell. Lomax, Alan / Folk Songs of North America, Doubleday Dolphin, Sof (1975/1960), p185/# 91 [1928]
Kazee, Buell. Mountain Frolic. Rare Old Timey Classics; 1924-37, JSP 77100A-D, CD (2007), trk# B.15 [1928/01/16]
Luther, Burwell. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p 89/# 14B [1916/01/28]
MacKay, Karen. West Virginia Woman, West Virginia Woman 101, LP (1983), trk# 12
Murphy, Jeanie; and Scott Marckx. Time's Been Sweet, Murphy, CD (199?), trk# 14
Riddle, Almeda. Abrahams, Roger D.(ed.) / A Singer and Her Songs. Almeda Riddle's Book o, Louisiana State U. Press, Bk (1970), p114 [1964-67] (Little Lady Gay)
Seeger, Pete; and Frank Hamilton. Nonesuch and Other Folk Tunes, Folkways FA 2439, LP (1959), trk# A.06
Seeger, Mike. Southern Banjo Sounds, Smithsonian/Folkways SFW 40107, CD (1998), trk# 17
Van Ronk, Dave. Dave Van Ronk, Fantasy 24710, LP (1970/1962), trk# 3.06
Workman, Nimrod; and Phyllis Boyens. Passing Thru the Garden, June Appal JA 001, LP (1975/1972), trk# B.06
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Three Little Babes [Ch 79/Sh 22/Me I-A 7]
Rt - Wife of Usher's Well
Dryden, Mrs. Ben. Owens, William A. (ed.) / Texas Folk Songs. 2nd edition, SMU Press, Bk (1976/1950), p 22 [1941]
Gladden, Texas. Banjo Songs, Ballads and Reels from the Southern Mountains, Prestige International INT 25004, LP (196?), trk# 13 [1959/08/24]
Gladden, Texas. Southern Journey. Vol. 2: Ballads and Breakdowns, Rounder 1702, CD (1997), trk# 6 [1959/08/24]
Gladden, Texas. Ballad Legacy, Rounder 1800, CD (2001/1941), trk# 12 [1941/08] (Three Babes)
Graham, Addie. Been a Long Time Traveling, June Appal JA 020, LP (1978), trk# 2
Greer, I. G.. Anglo American Ballads, Vol. 2, Rounder 1516, CD (1999), trk# 8 [1941/11/25] (Three Babes)
Griffin, Mrs. G. A.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p277/#160A [1934-39]
Henry, Agnes McDougal. Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p 18/# 7A [1915ca] (Children's Song)
Landers, Linnie. Sharp, Cecil & Maude Karpeles (eds.) / Eighty English Folk Songs from th, MIT Press, Sof (1968), p 39 [1917ca]
Lee, Rick and Lorraine. Contrasts, Front Hall FHR 014, LP (1978), trk# A.02 (Three Babes)
McAlexander, Eunice Yeatts. Appalachia, The Old Traditions, Home Made Music LP-001, LP (1983), trk# A.10 [1979/08/07]
McCord, May Kennedy. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p123/# 19B [1941/10/21] (Woman Lived in a Fa
McDanel, Mrs. E. R.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 62/# 22B [1940s] (Knight and a Lady Bride)
Morris, Mrs. S. E.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p282/#160C [1937] (Three Babes)
Quivey Family. Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p 20/# 7B [1914]
Riley, Mrs. J. E.. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p281/#160B [1934-39]
Stephens, Mrs. Lee. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume I, British Ballads and Songs, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p122/# 19A [1928/08/30]
Toney, Decker. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p 91/# 14D [1916/01/20]
Tuggle, William S.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 61/# 22A [1930s]
There Was a Lady and a Lady Was She [Ch 79]
Rt - Wife of Usher's Well
O'Quinn, Elbert. Scarborough, Dorothy(ed.) / A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains, AMS, Bk (1966/1937), p168,402 [1930]
Excerpt from: The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
79. THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 449 (trace) / Belden, Mo J?-S, 55 / Brown Coll / Cambiaire, Ea Tenn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 121 / Child, V, 294 / Cox, F-S South, 88 / Cox, W. Va, School Journal and Educator, XLIV, 388; XLV, 1 1 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 279 / Duncan, No Hamilton Cnty, 58 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 46 / Fuson, Bids Ky Hghlds, 59 / Grapurchat, East Radford (Va.) State Teachers College, 8 25 '32 / Harper's Mgz (June 1904), 121 / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 104 / Henry, F-S So Hghlds, 71 / Hudson, F-S Miss, 93 / Hudson, F- T Miss, 17 / Hudson S/wJIfwJF-iM/Hmni 96; XLIV, 63 / McDonald, Slctd Mo F-S, 25 / McGill, F-S Ky Mts, 5 / Minish Mss. / Morris, F-S Fla, 421 / Niles, Anglo-Am Bid Stdy Bk, 14 / Niles, Bids Crls Tgc Lgds, 4 / Pound, Am Bids Sgs, 1 8 / Pound, Nebr Syllabus, io/ Randolph, OzF-S, I, 122 / Randolph, The Ozarks, 1 80 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 167 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, iig / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 150 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 9 / SFLQ, VIII, 152 / Smith and Rufty, Am Anth Old Wrld Bids, 23 / Va FLS Bull, rfcs 3-5, 9 / Wheeler, Ky Mt F-S, 14 / Wyman Mss. # 1
Local Titles: A Moravian Song, A Woman Lived in a Far Country, Children's Song, Cruel Mother, The Beautiful Bride, The Ladie Bright, The Lady and the Children Three, The Lady Gains, The (A) Lady Gay, The Lone Widow, The Three Babies, (The) Three (Little) Babes.
Story Types: A: A mother sends her three children away to school in the north. They die there. Usually she grieves and prays for their return. At Christmas time they do come back. However, when she prepares a feast and a fine bed for them, they refuse her efforts to please them saying that such things are worldly pride and that the Saviour forbids such indulgence. At
dawn or on the summons of the Saviour they leave, telling the mother her tears but wet their winding sheets.
Examples: Cox (A), Davis (E), McGill.
B: The story is identical to that of Type A, but the inference is made by the children that it was the mother's "proud heart" that caused their deaths. Examples : SharpK (A, B).
Discussion: Zielonko, Some American Variants of Child Ballads , 104 ff. and Belden, Mo F-S, 55 6 discuss the American variations of this song in some detail. The latter lists six points in which the most common American texts differ from the Child A, B, C series: I. The revenants are children, often girls, and not grown boys ; 2. there is no cursing of the waters, but the mother usually prays for the children's return; 3. the ghosts refuse earthly pleasures in some cases because the Saviour stands yonder; 4. the recall of the ghosts at the crowing of the cocks is omitted or occurs when the "chickens" crow, except in Irish texts; 5. the children leave home to learn their gramarye; 6. the folk idea that tears for the dead wet the winding sheets and disturb the peace is present. In addition, the fact that the ghostly nature of the children is frequently assumed in America without being definitely stated (see Davis, Trd Bid Fa, A) is an interesting proof of the belief in the "flesh and blood" reality of spirits. See Wimberly, Folklore in English and. Scottish Popular Ballads, 226. Zielonko, op. cit., 109 notes in connection with these points that there are three narrative elements interwoven into the American texts: the Unquiet Grave theme of the corpse disturbed by the mourning of the living; the moralistic punishment of pride theme from Child C; and the theme of the transformation of one dead man into three children.
The Type B texts seem to represent a confusion of the story, so that the new end contradicts the opening stanza in a way somewhat similar to the Edward-Twa Brothers fusion noted under Child 13 and 49. Other American variations worth note can be found in Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 9 where the children are sent to America and die on shipboard; in George P.
Jackson's Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America, 28, where it is pointed out that The Romish Lady has had an influence on the SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, version; in the incremental Haun, Co eke Cnty, 104 text; in Cox, F-S South, A text where the children return at New Year's time rather than Christmas time; and in the Minish Mss. where the children tell the mother
her tears will not wet their winding-sheets.
Belden, op. cit., 56 suspects a printed source for the American texts because of their marked similarities.
Mainly Norfolk: The Wife of Usher's Well
[Roud 196; Child 79; Ballad Index C079; trad.]
Steeleye Span recorded this ghostly ballad for their album All Around My Hat. A live recording from the Rainbow Theatre between 1975 and 1977 was released on the UK version of the 2 LP collection Original Masters.
Frankie Armstrong sang The Wife of Usher's Well in 1996 on her ballads album Till the Grass O'ergrew the Corn. The sleeve notes commented:
The coldest of all the ballads and the most stark, a song in which the world seems bound tight by the glacial cold of the bereaved mother's implacable longing for her dead children. There is something very Scandinavian about her, some kinship to those fierce, enduring women from the Icelandic sagas. The ballad seems to have died out in Britain, but has been dear to the Appalachian singers in the present century. Frankie has anglicised the beautiful text published by Walter Scott “from the recitation of an old woman residing near Kirkhill, in West Lothian” and added some stanzas from other versions. Cecil Sharp collected the lovely tune from Mrs Zippo Rice, Rice Cove, Big Laurel, NC, in 1906.
And Martin Carthy sang The Wife of Usher's Well on his 1998 album Signs of Life. He played guitar and Eliza Carthy played fiddle. This track was also included in 2001 on the English folk anthology And We'll All Have Tea. Martin Carthy commented in his album's sleeve notes:
… A huge tragedy told in such matter-of-fact terms as to make you ache all over. The matter-of-fact is a cloak donned by many songs the better to carry such ideas. Similarly, certain conventions are there in song, the better to help the subject of the song to cope with things like dead. Such as the notion fuelling The Wife of Usher's Well, that one should mourn the dead for one year and one day and then let go, or else the dead will return—but then, sometimes such things make not a scrap of difference to the plummeting, consuming grief that the wife feels. The tune is Basque and bent slightly from that taught to me by Ruper Ordorika and Bixente Martínez of Hiru Truku and it's called Bakarrik Aurkitzen Naz [which can be found on the CD Hiru Truku II, and Martin Carthy is playing on this track, too; -Ed.]
Lyrics
Martin Carthy sings The Wife of Usher's Well
There lived a wife in Usher's Well
And a wealthy wife was she
She'd three fine and stalwart sons
And sent them o'er the sea
They'd not been gone a week
And a week but barely one
When death sweeping over the land
Took 'em one by one
And they'd not been gone a week
A week but barely three
When word come to that young girl
Her babes she'd never see
I wish the wind would never blow
No fish swim in the flood
Till my darling babes are home
They're home in flesh and blood
And there about the Martinmas
Nights are long and dark
Her three kids come to her door
Their hats were made of bark
And the tree never grew in any ditch
Nor down by any wall
But at the gates of Paradise
Grew strong grew tall
So she has laid the table
With bread and with wine
Come eat and drink my darling babes
Eat and drink of mine
We may not eat your bread mother
Nor may we drink your wine
For cold death is lord of all
To him we must resign
The green grass is at our head
And the clay is at our feet
And your tears come tumbling down
And wet our winding sheet
So she has made the bed for them
Spread the milk-white sheet
She's laid it all with cloth of gold
To see if they could sleep
And up and crew the red cock
Up and crew the grey
And the youngest to the eldest says
Brother we must away
And the cock had not crowed once
And clapped his wings for day
When the eldest to the youngest says
Brother we must away
For the cock crow the day dawn
The chunnering worm chide
And if we're missed out of our place
Then pain we must bide
Farewell farewell my mother dear
Farewell to barn and byre
And farewell the sweet young girl
Kindling my mother's fire
------------------------
Article - Brian Lee
It fell about the Martinmas
When nights are lang and mirk,
The carline wife's three sons came hame,
And their hats were o' the birk.
"The Wife of Ushers Well" juxtaposes the everyday with the nightmarish other so closely that it is hard to tell which is which.
This "other" is presumably the reason for the poem, this "everyday" the reason for our present interest in it.
Everyday life, like the moor in Browning's poem "Memorabilia", is that major portion of life which we easily forget. We only bother to remember what seems rare or significant to us:
I crossed a moor, with a name of its own
And a certain use in the world no doubt,
Yet a hand's-breadth of it shines alone
'Mid the blank miles round about:
For there I picked up on the heather
And there I put inside my breast
A moulted feather, an eagle-feather!
Well, I forget the rest.
(stanzas 3-4)
Human intelligence is designed to lose interest in what has grown familiar, in order to free attention for what is novel and still-to-be-learnt. But the mundane makes up most of our lives, which are rarely exciting enough not to need art to expand their capacity for experience. If literature exists to atone for the limits of individual experience, it does so by distilling what May be
significant in other lives, other times, other places, and has neither room nor time (for neither have we) to multiply examples of
the everyday.
Why then would we want to recover from the Middle Ages what they
themselves did not care to preserve? We do want to, of course: as
historians, and also as students of literature, our interest in the
everyday of those times depends on our recognizing it as different
(or at least as potentially different) from our own everyday. But it
is difficult to assess, for we are trying to look directly at
evidence seen, as it were, out of the corner of the eyes of
contemporaries who recorded it only incidentally, if at all.
They hadna been a week from her
A week but barely ane
When word came to the carline wife
That her three sons were gane.
"The Wife of Ushers Well" portrays the very unusual (and only therefore worth portraying) return of three ghosts to the everyday world. The ordinariness of their former home is emphasized to
heighten the extraordinariness of the presence of the very earthly
and palpable but nevertheless otherworldly ghosts. Since we cannot
take them as seriously as probably the poet and certainly the Wife
did, our interest is likely to be fixed rather on the world they
returned to. Even then what we want is to see how it compares with
our own familiar world.
The Wife appears to be the matriarch of a farm whose men-servants are
either absent or not worth mentioning; her property includes barn and
byre, her wealth deriving, evidently, from corn and cows, and she is
rich enough to send her sons over the sea: for what purpose we can
only guess, but she calls all the shots. It is a world of syke and
sheugh (marsh and ditch, or seed-furrow), and certainly not Paradise,
where the ghosts' birch hats come from. It is a world where people
sleep three to a bed, where time is measured by cocks, not clocks,
where water is fetched by women from a well, not turned on and off at
a pipe, where cooking is done not in a microwave oven but by maidens
blowing up a fire. It is a world of sooty or muddy maidservants
subservient to their mistress, but one where class distinctions do
not prevent the bonny ones attracting her sons.
The fact that much of the poem is taken up with showing that people
ate and slept in those days probably does not much interest us, for
so do we; but we would like to be told what the feast specially
prepared to celebrate the return of the lost sons consisted of, and
what was entailed in making a large wide bed for the three of them.
How high was it, when their mother sat down and later slept beside
it, wrapped in her mantle against the cold of murky November?
But the strangest (and therefore to us most interesting) aspect of
the everyday is surely the folk religion that made so little of the
separation between dead and living which seems so fundamental
nowadays. We know the dead do not come back. The Wife not only
didn't, but somehow had the power to bring them back, if only, and
tragically, for a short time.
I wish the wind May never cease,
Nor fashes in the flood,
Till my three sons come hame to me,
In earthly flesh and blood!
And about Martinmas they did. Just as well, or the weather would
have remained intolerable. Was her wish a prayer? Was her prayer a
curse? To whom did she offer it: to the spirit of Ushers Well?
Then what idea did the name of the feast of St Martin convey to her?
We May wonder how faithfully the poem represents not only
contemporary social conditions, but also popular belief. It does not
seem unreasonable to infer that everyday, carline (rural) belief in
the supernatural was sub-Christian, related to seasons and weather,
and absurdly inconsistent. If the sons drowned, why do they fear the
channerin' worm? If they have qualified for hats from beside the
gates of Paradise, why would they be punished with a sair pain for
staying out after cockcrow? Nobody seems to recognize them as
ghosts: there is nothing ethereal about such everyday mortals as they
appear to be. Does this mean that everyday religion made little of
the body-soul dichotomy familiar from contemporary preaching and
debates?
Perhaps we prefer our own everyday explanation. We note that the
Wife was no infidel. She believed until she saw, and then refused to
believe that what she saw was not the everyday that she had always
seen before her sons departed. To us this will appear a case of mind
over matter, which we can explain psychologically; denial of reality
to the point of hallucination under the pressure of bereavement.
Gin my mother should miss us when she wakes
She'll go mad ere it be day.
Recognition of the new everyday reality would tip her over. But we
conclude that she was mad already, or she could not have seen them.
***
(Having written this, I read the account of the poem in Brooks and
Warren's _Understanding Poetry_. Oh dear! Why _did_ they choose
what they could not understand? The same goes for me too, no doubt,
but theoretically at least, one can avoid the a-historicism that
limited the old New Criticism. The present interest in the everyday
is helpful here. New Critics disliked the everyday, exercising much
ingenuity, when they had to confront it, to prove it was actually
extraordinary, for explicating the extraordinary was what interested
them, and what they excelled at. Hence Great Traditions, and Great
Authors courses, and the consignment to oblivion of writers they
considered minor. And hence their interest in demonstrating how a
poem, of any date, _should_ [which was only how it _might_] affect a
_modern_ reader.)
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BSLEE@Beattie.uct.ac.za
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Brian S. Lee
Department of English
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch, 7700
South Africa