The Farmer's Curst Wife is a traditional English language folk song listed as Child ballad number 278 and number 160 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The lyrics of the ballad are sometimes sung to the melody of the song '' Lillibullero''. Robert Burns based his 1792 poem "Carle of Killyburn Braes" on the ballad.

Synopsis

A farmer has a wife who causes him stress. One day, the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

takes her away to Hell. In Hell, the wife commits violent acts. She makes life in hell so bad that the Devil brings her back to her husband.

Traditional Versions

Ritchie Family

When

Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...

visited the Ritchie family of

Viper The Viperidae (vipers) are a family of snakes found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipers), hinged fangs tha ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

in 1917 on his journey to collect traditional songs, he was excited to hear their version of the ballad (which they called "The Little Devils"), because it included a whistled refrain that Sharp had read about having once existed in Britain.

Jean Ritchie Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally ...

recalled the tale of her sisters Una and Sabrina learning the lyrics of the song from their uncle Jason in order to sing it to Cecil Sharp, whose transcription of their performance can be viewed via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Alan Lomax recorded

singing the song in 1949, and the recording is freely available online courtesy of the Alan Lomax archive. She then recorded the song in 1952 on her album ''

Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family ''Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family'' is the first studio album of American folk singer Jean Ritchie. It was released in 1952 by Elektra Records. The album consists of renditions of traditional Appalachian folk songs, s ...

''. The Ritchie family version ends with the humorous verse:

''Oh the women they are so much better than men,'' ''When they go to hell they get sent back again.''

United States

Lots of other version were collected in the United States. The Appalachian musicians Nimrod Workman, Horton Barker,

Texas Gladden Texas Anna Gladden (' Smith, March 14, 1895 – May 23, 1966)

and Aunt Molly Jackson all recorded their own traditional versions of the song around the middle of the twentieth century. Elsewhere in the US, James "Iron Head" Baker and

Ollie Gilbert Ollie Gilbert (1892–1980) was a folk musician from the Ozarks in Arkansas. She sometimes performed as "Auntie Ollie". Max Hunter recorded her singing more than 300 folk songs. She was from the Mountain View area. In 1964, she and Jimmie Driftw ...

had their versions recorded. Texas Gladden's 1932 recording can be heard online via the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Library website.

British Isles

A recording made by

James Madison Carpenter James Madison Carpenter, born in 1888 in Blacklands, Mississippi, near Booneville, in Prentiss County, was a Methodist minister and scholar of American and British folklore. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the ...

of a male singer in Bampton, Oxfordshire in the 1930s can be heard on the

Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodic ...

website. Jimmy White of Whittingham,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

was recorded singing the ballad in 1954, as was Alan Rogerson of nearby

Wooler Wooler ( ) is a small town in Northumberland, England. It lies on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, near the Cheviot Hills. It is a popular base for walkers and is referred to as the "Gateway to the Cheviots". As well as many shops ...

in 1958. Walter Pardon of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

also recorded his traditional version. English versions such as that of George "Pop" Maynard which can be heard on the

British Library Sound Archive The British Library Sound Archive, formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound; also known as the National Sound Archive (NSA), in London, England is among the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word a ...

website, include the whistling refrain that Cecil Sharp thought had been lost in Britain, albeit a different tune to the Ritchie version. A few Irish traditional singers were also recorded singing the song including

Thomas Moran Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth too ...

as well as a handful of Scottish singers.

Lyrics

The following lyrics were recorded in James Henry Dixon's ''Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England'' (1857): 1 ''There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell,'' ''(chorus of whistlers)'' ''There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell,'' ''And he had a bad wife, as many knew well.'' ''(chorus of whistlers)'' 2 ''Then Satan came to the old man at the plough:'' '''One of your family I must have now.'' 3 '''It is not your eldest son that I crave,'' ''But it is your old wife, and she I will have. 4 '''O welcome, good Satan, with all my heart!'' ''I hope you and she will never more part.'' ''5 Now Satan has got the old wife on his back,'' ''And he lugged her along, like a pedlar's pack.'' 6 ''He trudged away till they came to his hall-gate;'' ''Says he, Here, take in an old Sussex chap's mate.'' 7 ''O then she did kick the young imps about;'' ''Says one to the other, Let's try turn her out.'' ''8 She spied thirteen imps all dancing in chains,'' ''She up with her pattens and beat out their brains.'' 9 ''She knocked the old Satan against the wall!'' '''Let's turn her out, or she'll murder us all. ''10 Now he's bundled her up on his back amain,'' ''And to her old husband he took her again.'' 11 '''I have been a tormentor the whole of my life,'' ''But I neer was tormented so as with your wife.

Popular Recordings

Patrick Sky Patrick Sky (born Patrick Linch; October 2, 1940May 26, 2021) was an American musician, folk singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was noted for his album ''Songs That Made America Famous'' (1973). He was of Irish and Native American anc ...

on his 1966 album

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* Bellowhead *

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References

External links

mudcat
with notes. (In most browsers, this site will play a

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

file when you navigate to it). Child Ballads Jean Ritchie songs Year of song unknown Songwriter unknown {{Folk-song-stub