The Scolding Wife- Burditt (VT) 1931 Flanders C
Flander's 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 miny 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 In 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.
Flanders C. Collected from Elwin Burditt of Springfield, Vermont, heard, in Shrewsbury, Vermont, sung by a boy of lrish descent. H. H. F., Collector 1931
The Scolding Wife
There was an old woman who hired a farm,
Come riddle, come riddle, come rally.
There was an old woman who hired a small farm
And she had no oxen to carry it on.
With a right leg, left leg, upper leg, under leg,
over mo-rally.
(Follow pattern of first stanza for all stanzas.)
So she bridled her pig and she saddled her sow;
Then said the old woman, "I have them now."
And she drove cross-lots till she came to hell's gate
And she up with her leg and she kicked them straight.
Then said the old devil, "Let's put her up higher,"
She up with her right leg and kicked nine in the fire.
Then said the old devil, "Let's put her down lower,"
She up with her left leg and kicked nine more.
There was a little devil peeking over hell's wall,
And he said, "Put her out or she'll kill us all."
Then said the old woman, "Wasn't I brave?
I've been to hell and I've come back safe."