> Folk Music > Songs > On Monday Morning

A Week’s Work Well Done / On Monday Morning (I Married a Wife)

[ Roud 433 ; Master title: A Week’s Work Well Done ; Laws Q6 ; Ballad Index LQ06 ; VWML GG/1/17/1073 , SBG/3/14/23A , RoudFS/S269594 ; Wiltshire 515 ; DT HOLLYTWG ; Mudcat 19427 ; trad.]

Sabine Baring-Gould: Songs of the West Nick Dow: Southern Songster Alan Helsdon: Vaughan Williams in Norfolk Volume 2 Katie Howson: Blyth Voices Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs Roy Palmer: Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones James Reeves: The Idiom of the People Cecil J. Sharp: English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd: The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs

William Alexander of Cliddesdon, Hampshire, sang the awful On Monday Morning, a song of a man beating his scolding wife to death, to Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909. This version was printed in 1959 in Vaughan Williams’ and Lloyd’s The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, which commented:

Baring-Gould, who describes this as a song “relished by married men”, found an early set in a collection of stall balladry, West Country Garlands, date about 1760. He obtained a version from the singing of Robert Hard of South Brent, Devon [VWML RoudFS/S269594] , which he called A Week’s Work Well Done. Our version is sung to a variant of the well-known Turpin Hero tune. Frank Kidson had information that the song was sung by Grimaldi the clown, about 1820.

Texas Gladden from Salem, Virginia sang The Scolding Wife in a recording made by Alan Lomax in August 1941 (Library of Congress AFS 5232 A2) that was included in 2001 on her Rounder anthology Ballad Legacy. The album’s booklet commented:

In English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians, Cecil Sharp reports three versions of this song as The Holly Twig, all collected in Virginia, including this one:

She riz in a fit and scolded me more
Than ever I was scolded before.
Saturday, boys, I slammed her well.
I kicked her and cuffed her to the lowest pits of hell.
The ruby and the booby and two little devils came,
They carried her off in a fire of flame.

There are many old songs about “the scolding wife”, and none are pleasant. Perhaps in their time they were considered humorous, but from today’s perspective they are evidence of domestic violence. As told from the man’s point of view, they reveal a once-acceptable kind of brutality against women. Hearing such words in the voice of Gladden becomes particularly poignant.

Uncle Dave Macon once sang these words:

If I had a scolding wife,
I sure would whup her some.
Run my finger down her throat,
Gag her with my thumb.

Similarly, the Carter Brothers and Son sang:

If I had a scolding wife,
Whup her sure as you’re born,
Send her down to New Orleans,
Trade her off for corn.

In The Wife Wrapt in Wether’s Skin (Child 277), the husband finds a way to beat his wife by covering her in a sheepskin:

“I’ll tell my brothers and sisters three
How you have been treating me.”
“You can tell your brothers and all your kin
How I beat my old sheepskin.”

Peggy Seeger sang I Married Me a Wife on her 1958 Riverside album Folksongs and Ballads. She noted:

In checking back to the source from which I learned this (Randolph’s Ozark Folksongs, Volume III), I find I have made a few changes in the text since I first learned it. These were made rather unconsciously, and not with a mind to improving on the original. The tune is an interesting one, related to the melodies to which certain variants of Springfield Mountain and The Bonnie Banks of Virgie-O (Child #14) have been sung in tradition.

Ollie Gilbert sang Willow Green to Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins at Timbo, Arkansas, in October 1959. This recording was included in 1997 on the Rounder anthology Ozark Frontier (Southern Journey Volume 7).

Steve Jordan sang A Week’s Work Well Done in 1974 on the Forest Tracks album Folk Songs From Hampshire of songs collected in 1905-09 by Dr. George B. Gardiner. On the album’s 2005 CD re-issue Folk Songs From Hampshire and Dorset, this track was replaced by I Am a Brisk Young Sailor from the original album’s recording sessions. Steve Jordan felt strongly that its subject of domestic violence should not be considered entertainment in the twenty-first century and requested the song’s withdrawal from the re-issue.

Nick Dow sang A Week’s Work Well Done in 1978 on his Dingle’s album Burd Margaret. He noted:

A song of marital discord, rumoured to have been sung in 1820 by the clown Grimaldi.

Mick Ryan sang On Monday Morning in 1978 on his and Jon Burge’s The Leader Tradition album Fair Was the City.

Dave Lowry sang A Week’s Work Well Done on his 2024 WildGoose album Songs of a Devon Man. Bill Crawford noted:

From Sabine Baring-Gould, Songs of the West. The notes in that book state that it was collected from Richard Hard just before he died, but the fair copy manuscript attributes it to Robert Hard, stonebreaker of South Brent [VWML RoudFS/S269594] .

Lyrics

William Alexander sings On Monday Morning

On Monday morning I married a wife,
Thinking to live a sober life;
But as she turned out, I’d better be dead,
The remarkable day that I was wed,
To me rite fol-lol-liddle-lol-le-day.

On Tuesday morning I goes to the wood,
I cut a stick both fine and good.
The finest stick that ever you did see,
I cut him out of a holly, holly tree,
To me rite fol-lol-liddle-lol-le-day.

On Wednesday morning then home I goes,
Thinking a battle I must try.
I beat her about her back and her wig
Until I’d a-broke my holly, holly twig,
To me rite fol-lol-liddle-lol-le-day.

O Thursday morning my poor wife,
She was sick and like to die.
If she isn’t better tomorrow to be
The devil may have her tomorrow for me,
To me rite fol-lol-liddle-lol-le-day.

On Friday morning the sun did shine
And I walked out in the midst of my prime.
O the devil he’s come in, in the midst of the game
And he took her away, both blind and lame,
To me rite fol-lol-liddle-lol-le-day.

On Saturday morning it’s five days past,
My poor wife is dead at last.
The big bell shall ring and the little one shall toll
Ad I’ll go home as a jolly old soul,
To me rite fol-lol-liddle-lol-le-day.

On Sunday morning I dined without,
I had ne’er a wife to scold me about.
Here’s good luck to my pipe, to my bottle and my friend,
And here’s good luck to a week’s work end,
To me rite fol-lol-liddle-lol-le-day.

Texas Gladden sings The Scolding Wife

On Monday morning I m arried a wife,
Hoping to make her the joy of my life.
On Tuesday morning I carried her home,
Instead of a wife, a scolding drone.

On Wednesday morning I went to the wood,
Hoping that I might do her some good.
I cut me some switches so sharp and keen,
The keenest of things that I’ve ever seen.

Thursday morning I waled her well,
The truth, young man, to you I will tell,
And if she is not better tomorrow,
I ’ll wale her some more to her great sorrow.

On Friday morning, just before day,
On her bed she scolding lay,
When in came two of the devil’s train
And carried her off in a dust of wind.

On Saturday morning, all alone,
I had no wife nor scolding drone,
And my week’s work was at an end,
And my whiskey bottle was my best friend.

Dave Lowry sings A Week’s Work Well Done

On Monday morning I married a wife,
I thought to live a sober life.
As it fell out I was better dead,
Than marks the day when I was wed.

Chorus (after each verse):
Laddy-heigh-ho! Laddy-heigh-ho!
Fal-de-ral-li-do! Laddy-heigh-ho!

On Tuesday morning to my surprise,
A little before the sun did rise,
She rattled her clapper, and scolded more
Than ever I heard in my life before.

On Wednesday morning I went to the wood,
I thought to do my wife some good.
I cuts me a twig of the holly green,
I trust the toughest I’d ever seen.

I hung the stick up well to dry,
I thought on Thursday it to try,
I laid it about her head and her back,
Before my twig began to crack.

On Friday morning to my surprise,
A little before the sun did rise,
She rattled her clapper in scolding tone,
I turn’d my back and I left her alone.

On Saturday morning, as I may say,
As she on her pillow consulting lay,
A Bogie arrived in fume and flame
And carried her off both blind and lame.

On Sunday, neighbours, I dines without
A scolding wife and a brawling rout;
Enjoys my bottle, and my best friend,
Surely this is a brave week’s end.