How Happy's the Mortal

DESCRIPTION: The miller is happy because his life depends only on his own mill wheel and "not on fortune's wheel." If his wife is a scold his mill "drowns all the discord" with its "clack, clack, clack" He prevails over wife and daughter by physical abuse and rape
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (Pills to Purge Melancholy, according to Farmer)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The miller is happy because his life depends only on his own mill wheel and "not on fortune's wheel." If his wife is a scold his mill "drowns all the discord" with its "clack, clack, clack." He prevails over wife and daughter by "sticking a Cog, of [or?] a foot in their tails" and if his wife annoys "he lays upon her back; And all the while he sticks it in."
KEYWORDS: shrewishness rape sex violence abuse work ordeal bawdy children husband wife miller
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol III, pp. 157-158, "How Happy's the Mortal" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jolly Miller" (first verse, more or less)
NOTES [70 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame points out the similarity between the first verse of "How Happy's the Mortal" ("How Happy's the Mortal, That lives by his Mill; That depends on his own, Not on Fortune's Wheel; By the slight of his hand, And the strength of his Back; How merrily, how merrily, His Mill goes Clack, clack, clack, How merrily, how merrily, His Mill goes Clack") and the usual first verse of "The Jolly Miller." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: AdHHtMo

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography