The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin

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The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin is Child ballad 277.

[edit] Synopsis

A man has married a woman of higher birth than him. She scorns the household labor. The man kills a wether, skins it, and wraps her in it. He declares that he can not beat her, but he can certainly beat a wether's skin. She recants her refusal and works.

In other variants, such as Ruggleton's Daughter of Iero, he does not have a pretext for his beating her not really being beating her.