Beschrijving
The Wrong Song (previously The Bribed Boy Sings the Wrong Song). A clergyman is so miserly that he will not give the farmers any parts of the hogs he has slaughtered (cf. Type 1792). The sexton (teacher, poor farmers) steals one of his hogs (cow, sheep, ham). The clergyman overhears the young son (daughter) of the sexton singing, “My father stole the clergyman’s hog.” The clergyman praises the child for the song and promises to give him money and clothes (shoes, a picture) if he will sing it on Sunday in church.
The child tells his father (the father becomes suspicious), who teaches him another song. On Sunday, the clergyman announces from the pulpit, “What this child sings is true.” The child sings, “The clergyman has slept with my mother (all the women in the village).” [K1631]. (Or, “All the children with red hair belong to the clergyman” – cf. Type 1805*). The clergyman tries to deny this, but the farmers mock him and he has to leave the church (loses his position, dies from shame).
The child tells his father (the father becomes suspicious), who teaches him another song. On Sunday, the clergyman announces from the pulpit, “What this child sings is true.” The child sings, “The clergyman has slept with my mother (all the women in the village).” [K1631]. (Or, “All the children with red hair belong to the clergyman” – cf. Type 1805*). The clergyman tries to deny this, but the farmers mock him and he has to leave the church (loses his position, dies from shame).
Motief
K1631
Commentaar
Documented in an English song in an 18th-century manuscript of David Herd (Hecht 1904, 176).
Combinaties
1536A, 1642A, and 1792.
Oorspronkelijk Verhaaltype
1735A
Subgenre
mop