Wee Pickle Tow, The

DESCRIPTION: John Grumely brings tow for his wife to spin. A spark from her pipe lights it. She refuses to spin (Eve wore leaves rather than spin), or churn butter. And he can sleep with his back to her. Then, he says, they'll sleep in separate beds.
AUTHOR: Alexander Ross (1699-1784) (source: Maurice Lindsay, _The Burns Encyclopedia_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage dialog husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 476, "The Wife and Her Wee Pickle Tow" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 80-81, "The Wee Pickle Tow" (1 text)
Roud #5506
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
SAME TUNE:
Mathew Macree ("Sin I furst work'd a sampleth at Biddy Forsyth's") (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, p. 212)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Spinnin O'ot
The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow
NOTES [114 words]: And, he pointed out, that he earns the money [Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry text].
From the liner notes to Margaret MacArthur, "An Almanac of New England Farm Songs," Green Linnet SIF 1039 LP (1982)} "Norman Kennedy, weaver and singer, tells me that the fine long linen fibers are separated from the flax by hackling, leaving the short coarse fibers of tow, guaranteed to give the spinner pricked fingers and short temper." - BS
I can't help but note that John Grunm[e]ly is the husband in some versions of "Father Grumble" [Laws Q1]. This almost sounds like the "prequel" to that. - RBW
Greig/Duncan3: "From his mother sixty years ago. Noted 29th April, 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HayU080

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