Eggs and Marrowbone

"Eggs and Marrowbone" (Laws Q2, Roud 183])[1] is a traditional folk song of a wife's attempted murder of her husband. Of unknown origins, there are multiple variations.[2]

The most well known variations are "The Old Woman From Boston"[3] and "The Rich Old Lady".[4] Other versions include "The Aul' Man and the Churnstaff", and "Woman from Yorkshire." In Scotland it is known as "The Wily Auld Carle" or "The Wife of Kelso." In Ireland there are variations called "The Old Woman of Wexford" and "Tigaree Torum Orum." A more recent version originating in America without the "marrowbones" is known as "Johnny Sands."[2] Herbert Hughes writes that the song is English in origin.[5]

Subject

The song concerns an old woman who, in one popular version, loves "her husband dearly, but another man twice as well." She resolves to kill him, and is advised by a local doctor that feeding him eggs and marrowbone will make him blind. Thus

She fed him eggs and marrowbone
And made him sup them all
And it wasn't too long before
He couldn't see her at all

She then arranges to push him into the river. He steps aside and she falls in. Subsequently,

She cried for help, she screamed for help
And loudly she did bawl
The old man said "I'm so blind
I can't see you at all!"

Despite his blindness, the old man manages to keep her from climbing out of the river by pushing her back in with a pole. The moral of the song is:

Now the old woman is dead and gone
And the Devil's got her soul
Wasn't she a gosh-darn fool
That she didn't grab that pole?

Eating eggs and marrowbone
Won't make your old man blind
So if you want to do him in
You must sneak up from behind

Notable versions

Richard Dyer-Bennet

References

  1. ↑ Roud Folk Song Index. "Marrowbones". English Folk Song and Dance Society. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Folkinfo - Marrowbones".
  3. ↑ Norman Cazden; Herbert Haufrecht; Norman Studer (1982). Folk Songs of the Catskills. SUNY Press. pp. 519–. ISBN 978-0-87395-580-5. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  4. ↑ Peter Hugh Reed (1958). American Record Guide. 25. Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. p. 157. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  5. ↑ Herbert Hughes (1995). Irish country songs: highlights edition. Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  6. ↑ George Berkowitz (10 May 1947). D-B has new song. Billboard. p. 42. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  7. ↑ George Berkowitz (22 February 1947). Village Vanguard. Billboard. p. 37. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 12 August 2012.

See also

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