Deserted Husband, The

DESCRIPTION: On the day of their wedding, the singer's young wife went on a spree and flirted with the man next door. Three months later, his wife and the other man went off in the train. He is tired of life; he has land and stock, but no one to take care of them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer has married a young woman, but she has left him. On the day of their wedding, she went on a spree and flirted with the young man next door. Three months later, the singer took her to town, but while he was having a drink his wife and the other man went off in the train, to his distraction. Now he is tired of life; he has an acre of land, and various livestock, but no one to take care of them. He advises men to keep an eye on their wives
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness infidelity marriage warning abandonment drink humorous husband lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 198, "The Deserted Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 50, "Did Your Wife Go Away" (1 text)
Roud #2130
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "Deserted Husband" (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
cf. "The Lehigh Valley" (plot)
cf. "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" (theme)
NOTES [66 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland also refers, cryptically, to a song called "The Deserted Wife," also collected from Ennis, but gives no further details. - PJS
Kennedy also claims that songs of wives deserting husbands are rare. I won't say they are common, but "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)," for instance, is very widespread; see also the songs in the cross-references. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K198

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