A Robin, Jolly Robin

DESCRIPTION: "(Ah/Hey) Robin, (jolly/gentle) Robin, Tell me how thy (lady/leman) doth And thou shalt know of mine." "My lady is unkinde, perdie, Alack why is she so?" One singer says his lady is constant; the other says women change like the wind
AUTHOR: Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy) (quoted by Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night" c. 1600, and the Devonshire Manuscript is dated c. 1530 in the British Library description)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad betrayal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 185-187, "A Robyn Jolly Robyn" (1 text)
DT, HEYROBIN*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #13.8
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #151
ADDITIONAL: Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 84-87 "A Robyn Gentil Robyn"(1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
Thomas G. Duncan, editor, _Late Medieval English Lyrics and Carols 1400-1530_, Penguin Books, 2000, #32, p. 31, "A Robyn" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Egerton 2711, folio 37
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 31922, folio 53
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 17492 (Devonshire Manuscript), folios 22, 24 (two copies on two separate pages)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 28636, folio 34 (transcript of preceding; no independent value)
ST Perc1185 (Full)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Robin, Gentle Robin
NOTES [216 words]: Often (though not universally) credited to Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542), and obviously well-known by the time Shakespeare wrote "Twelfth Night" (circa 1600; first mentioned 1602); it is quoted by the Clown in IV.ii.71f. The music is credited to Williams Cornysh(e) (died c. 1523). The Cornysh(e) music first appears in British Library MS. Add. 31922.
It's not likely that this is a traditional song, but there are strong variations in the words (the manuscript texts vary from 11 to 20 lines), and Shakespeare's version does not look original; I include it because it was recorded on the "New Golden Ring," and people might think it traditional. It is quite possible that Wyatt wrote only part of the words, or took a fragment and expanded it.
Wyatt had an incredibly complex career during the reign of Henry VIII (among other things, he was involved with Anne Boleyn before Henry noticed her), and is credited, among other things, with introducing the sonnet to England.
Duncan, Late Medieval English Lyrics and Carols 1400-1530, p. 198, calls British Library MS. Additional 31922 "Henry VIII's manuscript," and says it has the song with music by "William Cornish," for "three voices in canon." He suggests that Wyatt's version is an expansion of an older (traditional? courtly?) version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Perc1185

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