Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22]

DESCRIPTION: Kate's intended husband suddenly jilts her for a rich girl. Kate obtains a cow's hide and horns, and meets her lover disguised as the devil. This "devil" threatens him if he does not return to Kate. He does; she reveals the truth as their child is born
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster); a broadside exists from c. 1690)
KEYWORDS: courting trick marriage Devil childbirth
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N22, "Kate and Her Horns"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 231-232, "Kate and her Horns" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 125, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 25, "Kate and her Horns" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 413-416, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 70, "The Clothier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 159, "Kate and the Cowhide" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 101, pp. 137-138, "Kate and the Clothier" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #51, "Kate and the Cowhide" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 184-186, "Kate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 132, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 145-147, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3130, "You that in merriment delight"
DT 452, KATEHORN* KATEHRN2*
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII Part 2 [Part 24], pp. 430-431, "Crafty Kate of Colchester" or "The False-Hearted Clothier Frighted into Good Manners" ("You that in merriment delight, pray listen now to what I write") (1 text) [(J. Butler (Worcester), no date]
Roud #555
RECORDINGS:
Carmen McCord Hicks, "Kate and the Cowhide" (Piotr-Archive #473, recorded 01/29/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(15b), "Crafty Kate of Colchester" or "The False-Hearted Clothier Frighted into Good Manners" ("You that in merriment delight") [almost entirely illegible], J. White (Newcastle), 1711-1769
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (plot)
cf. "The Lawyer and Nell" (plot)
cf. "Maurice Kelly" (gimmick)
SAME TUNE:
The Jealous Lover or The Languishing Swain [per Ebsworth's broadside]
File: LN22

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