“The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)”
Description
Concerning a man's dead wife, whose return he fears: "On Saturday night my good wife died, On Sunday she was buried, But Monday was my courting day, And Tuesday I got married. Now, lookit here, and lookit there, and look way over yonder..."
Notes
The first verse quoted here is the same as "My Wife Died on Saturday Night"; they are distinguished mostly by the chorus.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "The Old Turkey Hen" (plot, lyrics; the two may be slightly modified forms of the same song)
- cf. "I Had a Wife"
- cf. "John Styles and Susan Cutter" (tune)
- cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (words)
- cf. "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (floating verse)
References
- FSCatskills 147, "Lookit Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Eddy 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 text, which could be this or "My Wife Died on Saturday Night")
- DT, LOOKYOND*
- Roud #3619
- BI, FSC147