The copy in Ritson's Scotish Song, I, 231, is from Herd, 1776; that in the Musical Museum, No 454, p. 466, is the same, with change of a few words. In Smith's Scotish Minstrel, IV, 66, the piece is turned into a Jacobite ballad. The good wife says she is hiding her cousin Mclntosh; 'Tories,' says the goodman.
B was reprinted by Dixon in Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 211, Percy Society, vol. xvii, 'Old Wichet and his Wife,' from a copy "obtained in Yorkshire" and "collated" with the Aldermary broadside. The fifth adventure (in the closet) is lacking. Two or three staves, with variations for the better, are given from memory in Notes and Queries, First Series, VI, 118, as communicated by Mr. R.O. Warde, of Kidderminster. (See the notes.)
Percy made B over in two shapes, whether for simple amusement or for the projected extension of the Reliques: 'Old Wichet's Discoveries,' 'Old Wichard's Mistakes,' among Percy's papers.
A. Our goodman, coming home, sees successively a saddle-horse, pair of jack-boots, sword, powdered wig, muckle coat, finally a man, where none such should be. He asks the goodwife how this came about without his leave. She responds contemptuously that the things he has supposed himself to see are, respectively, a sow (milch-cow), a pair of water-stoups, a porridge-spurtle, a clocken-hen, a pair of blankets, a milking-maid, which her mother has sent her. Far has he ridden, but a saddle on a sow's (cow's) back, siller spurs on water-stoups, etc., long-bearded maidens, has he never seen.
B. In B Old Wichet comes upon three horses, swords, cloaks, pairs of boots, pairs of breeches, hats, and in the end three men in bed. Blind cuckold, says the wife, they are three milking-cows, roasting-spits, mantuas, pudding-bags, petticoats, skimming-dishes, milking-maids, all presents from her mother. The like was never known, exclaims Old Wichet; cows with bridles and saddles, roasting-spits with scabbards, etc., milking-maids with beards!
A song founded on this ballad was introduced into the play of "Auld Robin Gray," produced, according to Guest's History of the Stage, at the Haymarket, July 29, 1794. This song is a neat résumé of the ballad, with a satisfactory catastrophe.[foot-note] See an appendix.
A Gaelic copy, taken down by Rev. Alexander Stewart, of Ballachulish, from the recitation of an old man in his parish whose father had been in the way of singing it sixty years before, is plainly based upon A. The goodman, coming home unexpectedly, finds a boat on the beach, a horse at the door, etc. These and other things are explained by his wife as gifts from her mother. Far has he wandered, but never saw a saddle on a cow, etc. Alexander Stewart, 'Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe, 1885, p. 76 ff.
A ballad known and sung throughout Flemish Belgium, 'Mijn man komt thuis,' is formed upon the pattern of A, and must have been derived from A, unless the two have a common source. Two copies are given in Volkskunde (Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Folklore), II, 49-58, by the editors, Messrs A. Gittée and Pol de Mont, a third by Pol de Mont, V, 20. A man comes home late, and sees in his bedroom a strange hat, overcoat, and other articles of clothing, and asks whose they are. His wife answers that they are a water-pot, a straw mattress, etc., which her mother has sent her. Travel the world round, he has never seen a water-pot with a band about it, a straw mattress with two sleeves, etc. In the last adventure of the first copy, the husband finds a man in the room, and his wife flatly answers, it is a lover my mother has sent me. The second copy ends a little better, but not well. The man is explained to be a foster-child sent by his wife's mother, and so in the third. The husband has travelled the world round, but a foster-child with whiskers has he never seen. The wife packs out of the house. He has travelled the world round, but a wife like his he wishes never to see again.
Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer, in 1789, turned B into German in very happy style, furnishing a denoûment in which the man gives his wife a beating and explains his cuffs as caresses which her mother has sent her. Meyer's ballad was printed in 1790, in the Göttingen Musenalmanach, p. 61 ff., and the same year in Lieder für fröhliche Gesellschaften, p. 37 (Hamburg). It had great and immediate success, was circulated as a broadside, and was taken up by the people, in whose mouth it underwent the usual treatment of ballads traditionally propagated.[foot-note] From Germany it spread into Scandinavia and Hungary, and perhaps elsewhere. German varieties are: 'Des Mannes Heimkehr,' Hoffmann u. Richter, p. 225, No 195; 'Wind über Wind,' Simrock, p. 375, No 241; 'Des Ehemannes Heimkehr,' Ditfurth, Fränkische Volkslieder, IIr Theil, p. 61, No 61; Firmenich, Germaniens Völkerstimmen, III, 66; 'Der Bauer u. sein Weib,' Erlach, IV, 90; 'Der betrogene Ehemann,' Pröhle, p. 143; Walter, p. 97; 'O Wind, O Wind, O Wind!' Zurmühlen (Dülkener Fiedler), p. 101. (The last four lack the beating.)
The only Scandinavian, copy that I have seen is the Swedish 'Husarerna,' in Bergström och Nordlander, Sagor, Sägner och Visor, 1885, p. 93. For indication of others, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish (including a broadside as early as 1799), see, particularly, Olrik, Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, V, II, 211 f., and note***; also, Dybeck's Runa, 1a Samlingen, 1865, I, 89 (where the beginnings of two stanzas are cited); Afzelius, ed. 1880, II, 285.
Magyar (Szekler), Kríza, Vadrózsák, p. 242, No 483; Aigner, p. 149.
French. A similar ballad is common in France, especially in the south.
Poésies pop. de la France, Manuscripts: II, fol. 54, 'Marion;' III, 60 (printed in Revue des Traditions pop., II, 66), 62, 64, Puy-de-Dôme; 68, Auvergne; 69, 'Zjean et Mariou,' Bourbonnais; 71, Pays de Caux; 72, 'Le jaloux,' environs de Toulouse; 74, Gascogne (Rolland, II, 211); 75, Languedoc; 76, 'Lo surprero,' Limousin (Rolland, II, 212); 78, 'Le mari de Marion,' Normandie; 80, 66, 'Le mari jaloux,' Bouches-du-Rhône; 82, 'Marion,' Provence; 83, Loiret; 84, 'La rusade,' Limousin; ' 87, 'Lou jolous' (Rolland, II, 213, Revue des Trad, pop., I, 71), Limoges; VI, 381 vo, 'Jeannetoun' (Rolland, II, 214), Quercy. 'Lou jalous,' Arbaud, Chants pop. de la Provence, II, 152. 'Lou galant,' Atger, Revue des Langues romanes, VI, 261, and Poésies pop. en Langue d'oc, p. 53. 'Las finesses de la Marioun,' Moncaut, Littérature pop. de la Gascogne, p. 316 = Bladé, Poésies pop. de la Gascogne, II, 116 f. Revue des Traditions pop., II, 64, Cévennes. Daudet, Numa Roumestan, ed. 1881, p. 178, Provence = Revue des Tr. pop., II, 65, Quest de la France. 'Lou Tsalous, Daymard, Bulletin de la Société des Études,' etc., du Lot, IV, 100, 1878, Vieux chants pop. rec. en Quercy, 1889, p. 92. 'Las rebirados de Marioun,' Soleville, Chants pop. du Bas-Quercy, p. 22; partly, in Pouvillon, Nouvelles réalistes, ed. 1878, p. 151. Victor Smith in Romania, IX, 566-68, three copies, Forez, Velay, bas-limousin. 'Le mari soupçonneux,' Tarbé, Romancero de Champagne, II, 98, Ardennes. 'La chanson de la bergère,' Puymaigre, Chants pop. rec. dans le Pays messin, 1865, p. 215, 1881, 1, 263. 'Les répliques de Marioun,' Almanach des Traditions pop., 1882, p. 86, in Rolland, II, 208, No 162 a, environs de Lorient. 'Las respounsos de Marioun,' Laroche, Folklore du Lauraguais, p. 211. "Le Chroniqueur du Périgord et du Limousin, Périgueux, 1853, p. 109." "Le Pélerinage de Mireille, p. 173." (The last two I have not seen.)
For the most part, the colloquy runs in this wise: 'Where were you last evening, Marion?' 'In the garden, picking a salad.' 'Who was it you were talking with?' 'A gossip of mine' (camarade, voisine, cousine, sœur, servante, etc.). 'Do women wear a sword?' 'It was no sword, but a distaff.' 'Do women wear breeches?' 'She was kilted up.' 'Have women a moustache?' 'She had been eating mulberries.' 'It is too late for mulberries.' 'They were last year's' (an autumn branch, etc.). 'I will cut off your head.' 'And what will you do with the rest?' 'Throw it out of the window.' 'Les corbeaux (cochons, chiens, chats, mouches, couteliers, capucins, anges, etc.) en feront fête.' In a few instances, to end the more smartly, the husband is made to promise (or the wife to ask) forgiveness for this time, and the wife adds, aside, 'and many more.' 'You will play off no more tricks on me.' 'Forgive this, and I will, a good many.' (Rolland.) 'Pardon this fault; to-morrow I will commit another.' (Victor Smith.) 'Get up: I pardon you.' 'What dolts men are! What can't we make them believe!' (Manuscripts, III, 78.) Etc.
In some half dozen copies, Marion has been at the spring (not in the garden), and has stayed suspiciously long, which she accounts for by her having found the water muddied. After this, and in a few copies which have no garden or spring, the matter is much the same as in the English ballad; there is a sword on the mantel-shelf (a gun on the table), boots (cane) behind the door, a man where nae man should be. Nearest of all to the English is one of Victor Smith's ballads, Romania, IX, 566: 'Whose horse was that in the stable last night?' 'No horse, but our black cow.' 'A cow with a saddle?' 'No saddle; it was the shadow of her horns.' 'Whose breeches, boots, sabre, hat?' 'qui était couché à ma place?' The mulberries are nearly a constant feature in the French ballad.
There is an approach to a serious termination in Manuscripts, III, 87: 'Say your prayers, without so much noise.' 'At least put my bones in the ground.' And in Puymaigre: 'I will take you to Flanders and have you hanged.' 'Leave the gallows for the great robbers of France.' The copies, Manuscripts, III, 62, 71, end, prosaically, 'Jamais je n'ai vu ni fille ni femme qui sent la putain comme toi;' 'Femme qui m'a trompé la mort a méritée!'
The lace-makers of Vorey are wont to recite or sing this ballad winter evenings as a little drama: V. Smith, Romania, IX, 568, note. So the young girls in Lorraine during carnival, Puymaigre, I, 263; and the young fellows in Provence, Arbaud, II, 155 f.
Italian. 'Le repliche di Marion,' Nigra, Canti popolari del Piemonte, p. 422, No 85, A, B, C. The Piedmontese copies follow the French closely, beginning with picking salad in the garden, and ending with 'your peace is made,' as in Poésies p. de la France, Manuscripts, III, 64. 'Il marito geloso' (incomplete), Ferraro, Canti p. moriferrini, p. 93, No 70. 'La sposa colta in fallo,' Bernoni, Canti p. veneziani, puntata ix, No 8, p. 12. (Mariù goes on her knees and asks pardon, and is told to get up, for pardoned she is.) 'Bombarion,' Ferrari, first in Giornale di Filologia romanza, III, No 7, p. 74, 1880, and then in Archivio per le Tradizioni popolari, Canti p. in San Pietro Capofiume, VII, 398, 1888 (peace is made). All the Italian versions keep near to the French, having nothing original but an unimportant insertion, 'Chi ti fara la minestra?' etc., just before the end.[foot-note]
Catalan. 'La Trapassera,' Briz y Saltó, Cants pop. Catalans, II, 69. Father hears daughter talking with lover in the garden; the usual questions and replies; improved, or corrupted, at the end.
For serious ballads, Scandinavian, Spanish, etc., exhibiting similar questions and evasions, see 'Clerk Saunders,' No 69 P, and the remarks at II, 157 f., 512 a, III, 509 a, IV, 468 a. The romance 'De Blanca-Niña' occurs in the Cancionero de Romances of 1550. The oldest Scandinavian ballad of the class is one of Syv's, printed in 1695.
Herd, 1776, is translated by Wolff, Halle der Völker, I, 96, Hausschatz, p. 230; by Fiedler, Geschichte der schottischen Liederdichtung, I, 32; by Knortz, Schottische Balladen, p. 82.
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