> Martin Carthy > Songs > The Devil and the Feathery Wife
The Devil and the Feathery Wife
[ Roud 12551 ; Mudcat 123801 ; trad.]
According to Ian Spring: The Devil and the Feathery Wife, in: Folklore, Vol. 99 No. 2 (1988), pp. 139-145, an early version of this song of the devil being set aghast by a wife disguised as a tarred and feathered “beast” was collected by the Aberdeenshire ballad collector Peter Buchan in the early 1800's and added to his Secret Songs of Silence. This manuscript was bought by F.J. Child and is now at the Houghton Library, Harvard.
A.L. Lloyd slightly altered The Devil and the Feathery Wife to more mundane wording and fixed it up with a tune. Martin Carthy sang and played this version on his 1982 album Out of the Cut, accompanied by John Kirkpatrick on accordion. It was re-released in 1993 on Rigs of the Time: The Best of Martin Carthy. Martin Carthy performed a solo live version of this at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1999 which can be found on the CD Cambridge Folk Festival 1998-99. He also sang it live at Ruskin Mill in December 2004 and recorded it live in studio in July 2006 for the DVD Guitar Maestros. Martin Carthy commented in the first album's sleeve notes:
Secret Songs of Silence is the title of an unpublished manuscript dated 1832 and deposited in the Harvard Library, containing songs of the North East of Scotland collected together by Peter Buchan, many of them from a blind itinerant fiddle player called Rankin.
Incurable romantics among us whose imaginations work overtime on hearing such a title might be disappointed on discovering that the songs were considered unsuitable for publication—because many of them were too blunt and would not be cheered up by the thought that The Devil and the Feathery Wife is surely about the demonstration of true love. Indeed, if it is not, it might be hard to find a song that is. Learned from A. L. Lloyd, who brushed it up and fitted a tune.
Nick Dow sang The Devil and the Feathery Wife in 1978 on his Dingle's album Burd Margaret. He noted:
A.L. Lloyd supplied me with this little ditty, which I think is very amusing.
Compare to this the loosely related The Devil and the Farmer (Roud 160; Child 278) as sung by Waterson:Carthy on their album A Dark Light. Both feature the farmer, his wife and the devil but the stories turn into quite different ways.
Lyrics
The Devil and the Feathery Wife in Secret Songs of Silence | Martin Carthy sings The Devil and the Feathery Wife |
---|---|
By a' the plagues that's on the earth, |
Now there was an old farmer lived over the hill, |
As he was in the forest once, |
And as he cut wood in the forest one day, “O, what's the matter?” the devil he cried, |
Deed, kind sir, ye read me right, | |
What will ye gie, the diel he said, |
“What would you give me?” the devil he cried, “But I've nothing to give you,” the old man cried, |
I'll make a bargain with you then, |
“Right then I'll make you a bargain,” the devil he cried, “But if that beast I name aright, |
The poor man then went home again, |
So the old man prospered and prospered well, |
0 what's the matter? his wife did say, |
“Oh, what is the matter?” his wife she cried, |
I've made a bargain with him then, |
“No, I've made a bargain with the devil,” he cried, “But if that beast he names aright |
Never mind it husband now, she says, |
“Oh, never you worry,” his wife, she cries, “Go and fetch me the droppings from all of our chickens |
Then get to me a tub of feathers, |
“And fetch me the basket of feathers,” she cries So she rolled and she rolled in feathers and droppings |
Then tie a string about me neck, |
Then the devil himself come in, |
How many more hae ye o' them? |
He started to shake and he started to quake, “If you've got seven more of these beasts |
Acknowledgements
Transcribed from the singing of Martin Carthy by Garry Gillard.