“The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb)”

Description

A husband's new wife is a perfect housekeeper but is mute. The man takes her to a doctor, who is able to cure her impediment -- only to have her talk all the time. The husband again appeals for help; the doctor says that nothing can silence her

Notes

Broadsides LOCSinging as103240, LOCSinging sb10090b and Bodleian Harding B 18(146) are triplicates.

Broadside LOCSinging as103240: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS

Same tune

• Cruiskeen Lawn (tune [cited as "Cowskeen Lawn"] per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 18(146), LOCSinging as103240 and LOCSinging sb10090b)

Broadsides

• Bodleian, Harding B 39(145), "The Dumb Maid" or "The Young Gallant Trappan'd" ("All you that press along"), W. Onley (London), 1689-1709; also Harding B 28(80), "The Dumb Wife's Tongue Let Loose"; Harding B 11(2258), Harding B 16(325a), "[The] Dumb Wife"; Harding B 18(146), "The Dumb Scold"
• LOCSinging, as103240, "The Dumb Scold", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb10090b, "The Dumb Scold"

References

1. Laws Q5, "The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb)"
2. Ford-Vagabond, pp. 32-34, "Dumb, Dumb, Dumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. Randolph 394, "The Dumb Wife Cured" (1 text, 1 tune)
4. Eddy 92, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
5. FSCatskills 135, "The Wife Who Was Dumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
6. Kennedy 199, "The Dumb Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
7. BrownII 183, "The Dumb Wife" (2 texts)
8. BBI, ZN143, "All you that pass along"
9. DT 519, DUMBDUMB*
10. ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 262-263, "Dumb, Dumb, Dumb" (1 text)
11. Roud #434
12. BI, LQ05