THE DEVIL AND THE PLOUGHMAN
aka The Farmer's Curst Wife
aka The Devil and the Farmer
Lyrics as sung by Martyn Wyndham-Read on "A Wench a Whale and a Pint of Good Ale" 1966

There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell,
And he’d a bad wife who they knew very well,
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

Now, the devil he came to the old man at plough,
Saying, “One of your family I must have now,”
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

“Now it isn’t for you, nor yet for your son,
But that old wife, who lives at yer home.”
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

“Oh take her, oh take her with all of me heart,
And I hope you and she may never more part.”
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

So the devil he hoisted her up on his back,
And trudged her along like a pedlar’s pack.
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

Well, he lugged her along till he reached his front gate,
Saying, “Here, open up, take a Sussex chap’s mate.”
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

Well, thirteen young imps were dancing in chains,
She up with her pattens and smashed out their brains.
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

Well, two little devils jumped over the wall,
Saying, “Take her back, father, she’ll murder us all.”
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

So the devil he hoisted her up on his back,
And back to her old man she took him again.
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

“I’ve been a tormentor the whole of me life,
I was never tormented till I met your wife.”
To me right-full-a little ly-day.

You see that the women are worse than the men:
They go down to hell, and get kicked out again,
To me right-full-a little ly-day.