Old Gray Goose (I), The (Lookit Yonder)

DESCRIPTION: Concerning a man's dead wife, whose return he fears: "On Saturday night my good wife died, On Sunday she was buried, But Monday was my courting day, And Tuesday I got married. Now, lookit here, and lookit there, and look way over yonder..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: wife husband death marriage humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 147, "Lookit Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 text, which could be this or "My Wife Died on Saturday Night")
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 167, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to open with part of "I Wish They'd Do It Now," includes floating verses which sometimes are found in "Lynchburg Town," and end with the "Saturday NIght My Wife Died" of "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" or similar)
DT, LOOKYOND*
Roud #3619
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Turkey Hen" (plot, lyrics; the two may be slightly modified forms of the same song)
cf. "I Had a Wife"
cf. "John Styles and Susan Cutter" (tune)
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (words)
cf. "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (floating verse)
NOTES [121 words]: The first verse quoted here is the same as "My Wife Died on Saturday Night"; they are distinguished mostly by the chorus.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
To this compare also Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #509, p. 410, which begins "Tom married a wife on Sunday, Beat her well on Monday," but the rest almost the same as the Baring-Gould version.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FSC147

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