The Farmer's Curst Wife- Pace (KY) 1917 Sharp F
[I've kept Sharp's generic title.]
From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, 1932
Notes from 1917 edition:
No. 34. The Farmer's Curst Wife.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 278.
Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii., 184; iii., 131. Dick's Songs of Robert Burns, No. 331. American variants:—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix., 298; xxvii., 68.
Lomax's Cowboy Songs, p. 110.
"Bell, blubs," stanza 10, version A, may be a corruption of "Beelzebubs." Most of the published versions of this song have whistling refrains.
F. The Farmer's Curst Wife- Sung by Mrs. ELIZA PACE at Hyden, Leslie Co., Ky., Oct. 1, 1917
(No 6th or 7th.)
1. There was an old fellow lived under the hill,
There was an old fellow lived under the hill,
If he hain't moved away he's living there still,
Sing ti ro ratteling day.
2 One day the old man went out to plough,
The devil flew over his old grey mare.
3 He dragged his plough, it broke and he ran,
The devil's come after my oldest son.
4 It's not your oldest son I pray,
It's your old scolding wife I'll have.
5 He took her down to the gates of hell,
He gave her a kick, saying: Go there.
6 Nine little devils come rattling their chains,
She up with the poker and knocked out their brains.
7 One little devil peeped over the wall,
Saying: Take her back, daddy, or she'll kill us all.
8 He humped her up all on his poor back,
And away the old fool went walking her back.
9 Her husband lying sick on the bed,
She took her old pewter pot, battered his head.
10 She's six months going and nine coming back;
Called for the mush she left in the pot.
11 What I can do I never can tell;
I ain't fit for heaven and they won't have me in hell.