For Mother's Day, we look at a 15th-century tale of a plowman who thinks that -- in terms of daily labor -- his wife has it too easy, and how he learns otherwise.

Today's Text

"Ballad of a Tyrannical Husband." Reliquiae Antiquae: Scraps From Ancient Manuscripts, Illustrating Chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language, edited by Thomas Wright and James Orchard Halliwell, vol. 2, John Russell Smith, 1845, pp. 196-99. Google Books. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018.

"Ballad of a Tyrannical Husband." Edited by Eve Salisbury, TEAMS Middle English Texts Series, d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/salisbury-trials-and-joys-ballad-of-a-tyrannical-husband#f4. Originally published in The trials and Joys of Marriage, 2002. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018.

Chetham's MS Mun.A.6.31. Chetham's Library, Manchester, UK, https://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/Man4MedievalVC~4~4~507616~116868:On-a-tyrannical-husband

"The Old Man Who Lived in the Woods." Traditional, transcribed by Sandy Paton, "Origins: More Work in a Day / Father Grumble," The Mudcat Cafe, 7 Dec. 2001, 9:41 p.m., mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=41847

Audio Credit: Fiddle tune, "Frosty Morning" performed by Henry Reed (1966), from the Library of Congress.