Robin Adair

DESCRIPTION: "What's this dull town to me? Robin's not near." The singer laments her missing Robin Adair, who is her only source of joy and mirth, who "made this town heaven and earth."
AUTHOR: Words: Lady Caroline Keppel
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (Edinburgh Musical Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 468, "Robin Adair"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2016, p. 135, "Robin Adair" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 21, "Robin Adair" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 288, "Robin Adair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #102, "Robin Adair" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 32-38, "Robin Adair" (1 text plus a parody or extension of the song by Robert D. Jamieson)
DT, ROBADAIR (cf. EILAROO.NOT)
Roud #8918
RECORDINGS:
Inez Barbour, "Robin Adair" (Phono-Cut 5198, c. 1915)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen Aroon" (tune)
cf. "Sadly to Mine Heart Appealing" (portions of Stephen Foster's tune)
SAME TUNE:
Eileen Aroon (File: RcEilAro)
Newfoundland Love Song ("Meet me at the twilight hour, My Annie fair!") (James Murphy, compiler, _Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova_, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 72)
Hard Times/No Cash Is Here ("What's this dull down to me? No cash is here! Things that we us'd to see Now don't appear") (Foner, p. 25)
Kathleen Aroon ("Why should we parted be, Kathleen Aroon!"; words by Louisa M. Crawford; music credited to Franz Abt in Heart-Songs) (Heart-Songs, p. 31; Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #91; Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 36; Roud #V942)
Soggarth Aroon ("Am I the slave they say?") (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 113; Roud #V21055)
NOTES [112 words]: This is perhaps not a folk song in its own right. But as it uses the same melody as "Eileen Aroon," which pretty definitely does belong, I thought it best to include it.
Lady Caroline Keppel fell in love with Robin Adair (a surgeon, and so presumably below her station) in the 1750s, and wrote this song in consequence. She was eventually permitted to marry him (only to die in 1769 at the age of 32), but at the time the song was written, she thought she would not be allowed to wed Robin, since they were of different social classes. According to Ford-SongHistories, this was written at a time when her family had taken her away from him in an attempt to distract her. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTrobada

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