Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu (AU1998-1075-002)

Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu (AU1998-1075-002)

Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu

Excerpt from interview of Alberta Gagné (TC1998-1075-002) by Martha Pellerin. Part of a project (VFC1998-0007) on Franco-American song in New England funded by the Vermont Folklife Center and undertaken by Pellerin. Interview is one in a series of six conducted between 1995-01-09 and 1995-12-06 as an effort to document the French language song repertoire of Gagné.

“Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu” (“My father, he married me to a hunchback”) is a song which has been sung since at least the early 1600s and probably dates back to medieval France where is was used to accompany dancing. It has been widely documented in France and in eastern French-speaking Canada; this is the first documented version from the United States.

“Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu” is one of a number of songs in French-language tradition about a young woman married off by her father to a husband who she did not choose. The husband is frequently ill-suited: he is old, impotent, decrepit or otherwise physically unfit (in this song, a hunchback. In addition, these husbands are also mentally or physically neglectful or abusive—in this song, the hunchback groom beats his bride on their wedding night.

These ancient French dance songs about ill-sorted unions tend to make a mockery of the whole business of marriage, unsparingly skewering the father’s greed, the bride’s naivety, and the groom’s unfitness, stupidity, and/or brutality. In many cases, the bride attempts, and sometimes succeeds, in leaving the husband. In other cases, she is thwarted by her recalcitrant parents, but takes her revenge by cuckolding the husband. In this song, however, the young bride prays for deliverance (in some cases, to Venus, but in this version, to Jesus) and her wish is fulfilled: the husband dies. Alberta Gagné’s version goes on to describe the ensuing funeral, which, in keeping with the satirical nature of the song, unfolds as an absurdist fantasy in which everyone, from the pallbearers, to the priest, congregants, and, ultimately, the widow herself, are all hunchbacks.
My father married me to a hunchback; on our wedding night, he beat me; he sent me to church to pray to Jesus; my prayers were answered: he died; I had him borne to his grave by four hunchbacks; the priest who officiated was a hunchback; the congregants at the service were all hunchbacks; and I am a hunchback.

VFC1998-0007 Martha Pellerin Collection. TC1998-1075 interview with Alberta Gagné. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

Copyright (c) Vermont Folklife Center

Full Interview: vfc1998-0005_tc1998-1075

fra

vfc1998-0007_tc1998-1075-001a-002

Mon père y me mari avec un bossu (first line)

Le mari bossu, I, D-11

La mort du mari bossu, 05610

Mon père y me mari avec un bossu

[BEGIN SINGING]

 

Mon père, il m’y marie avec un bossu, avec un bossu,

Le premier soir de mes noces, il m’a battu,

            [Refrain] :

            Ah ! i on la, mon p’tit bossu, tu m’battras plus.

           

Le premier soir de mes noces, il m'a battu, il m'a battu,

Il m'envoyait à l'église prier Jésus,

            Refrain

 

Il m'envoyait à l'église prier Jésus, prier Jésus,

Me prière fut exaucée, qu'il en mourut,

            Refrain

 

Me prière fut exaucée, qu'il en mourut, qu’il en mourut,

Je le fit porter en terr’ par quatr’ bossus,

            Refrain

 

Je le fit porter en terr’ par quatr’ bossus, par quatr’ bossus,

Le prêtr’ qui chantait l’servic’, c'était un bossu,

            Refrain

 

Le prêtr’ qui chantait l’servic’, c'était un bossu, c'était un bossu,

Tout l'monde qui assistait au servic’, c'était des bossus,  

            Refrain

 

Ceux qui étaient au servic’, c'était des bossus, c'était des bossus,

Tous ceux qui m'écout’ chanter, c'est tous des bossus,

            Refrain

 

Tout ceux qui m'écoute chanter, sont des bossus, sont des bossus,

Et moi qui chant’ la chanson, je suis bossue,

            Refrain

 

[END SINGING]

 

sound cassette (analog)