Scolding Wife (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I married me a scolding wife Some forty years ago And ever since I've led a life Of misery and woe." The abused husband details the various ways his wife chastises, injures, and neglects him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: husband wife abuse injury shrewishness
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,NE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 397, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 214, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 80, "My Scolding Wife" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 103, "My Scolding Wife" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 179, "A Scolding Wife" (1 short text plus mention of 1 more)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 325-327, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2132
RECORDINGS:
Caroline Brennan, "The Scolding Wife" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Jack Knight, "The Scolding Wife" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Margaret MacArthur, "The Scolding Wife" (on MMacArthur01)
Bill Westaway, "The Scolding Wife" (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Scolding Wife (IV)" (subject)
NOTES [71 words]: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann observe that this has the same subject and metrical pattern as "The Scolding Wife (IV)." But there seem to be no common lyrics at all; I (hesitantly) declare them separate. The chorus of this song runs something like
For she worries (or "hurries") me, she flurries me,
It is her heart's delight
To warm me with the fire-shovel
Round the room at night (or "in the middle of the night"). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R397

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