Devil & The Farmer's Wife: A Song History

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"The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" is one of the many names of the ballad Francis James Child catalogued as number 278, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (Roud 160)[1][2]. The story is a comic one: the Devil comes to collect the farmer's wife, the farmer raises no objection, and she causes so much mayhem among the imps that the Devil has to carry her home again[3]. Child printed just two texts. One came from Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England (Percy Society), dated 1846 by the Ballad Index; the other was taken down in 1892 from Jane Webster of Crossmichael, Kirkcudbrightshire[3][1]. Child also discussed Robert Burns's "Kellyburnbraes," printed as no. 379 in Johnson's Museum, which Burns said he made "from the old traditional version"[3]. The tale of a wife who frightens even demons is old and far-travelled: Child placed it among Oriental and European folktales, and A. L. Lloyd pointed to the sixth-century fable collection known as the Panchatantra[3][2].

Albrecht Durer engraving of an armored knight on horseback riding past Death and a horned Devil

Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death, and the Devil, engraving, 1513. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its Devil; it has no connection to the ballad.

The Ballad Index lists 87 citations and records the ballad from England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the United States[1]. Ralph Vaughan Williams noted it as "The Devil and the Ploughman" in 1903 from Henry Burstow, a shoemaker and bell-ringer of Horsham, Sussex, who whistled the refrains[2]. Most versions carry nonsense refrains, and a few are whistled[2]. The song also ran in Jean Ritchie's family: Edward Tatnall Canby's notes to her 1952 Elektra album say Cecil Sharp collected it from her uncle Jason Ritchie in 1916, and Kenneth Goldstein's notes to a 1960 Folkways album say Jean learned her version, which she recorded as "The Little Devils," from Jason[2].

Bill Reed, accompanied on guitar by Belle Reed, recorded it as "Old Lady and the Devil" at Johnson City, Tennessee, on 17 October 1928, and Columbia issued it on 15336-D[4]. Harry Smith included that recording in 1952 on his Anthology of American Folk Music[2]. The title "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" is used in, among other books, Frank Purslow's Marrow Bones and Steve Roud and Julia Bishop's New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs[1].

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Farmer's Curst Wife, The [Child 278]".
  2. Mainly Norfolk: "The Farmer's Curst Wife / The Devil and the Farmer's Wife / The Devil and the Ploughman / Kellyburn Braes / Lily Bulero".
  3. Project Gutenberg: "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume 5" (Francis James Child), no. 278, "The Farmer's Curst Wife".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Columbia matrix W147211. Old lady and the devil / Belle Reed; Bill Reed".