Week's Matrimony, A (A Week's Work)

DESCRIPTION: Monday the singer marries; Tuesday his wife sees a girl frying his "sausage"; Wednesday he finds a man in bed with her; Thursday they fight; Friday they part and she hangs herself in sorrow; Saturday he buries her and finds another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 289)
KEYWORDS: adultery marriage fight suicide drink bawdy wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "WEEK'S MATRIMONY, A"
Peacock, pp. 322-323, "A Week's Work" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 120, "Days of the Week" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 665, "One Sunday Morn" (1 text)
Roud #1692
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Hulan, "A Week's Work" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Stan McGrath, "The Days Of The Week" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 289, "A Week's Matrimony"("On Sunday I went out on a spree"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.20(135), Harding B 20(185), Harding B 11(4082), Harding B 11(4083), Harding B 11(4084), 2806 c.16(23)[some words illegible], Firth c.20(136)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(4081), 2806 b.9(271), Firth c.20(134), "[A] Week's Matrimony[!]"
Murray, Mu23-y1:088, "The Week's Matrimony," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6] (theme)
cf. "In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame" (imagery)
cf. "Charming Sally Ann" (imagery)
SAME TUNE:
The Devil in Search of a Wife (per broadsides Bodleian Johnson Ballads 289, Bodleian Harding B 11(4084), Bodleian Harding B 11(4081))
NOTES [29 words]: Peacock makes A Week's Work the same ballad as The Holly Twig although the only similarity is that they both account for the days of the week and both start with a marriage. - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Pea322

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