Phyllis and the Shepherd

DESCRIPTION: A shepherd looking for a lost lamb falls in love with Phyllis, who he finds apparently sleeping in the shade with her flock. She reveals that she was not asleep and had been watching him. "He wooed her and won her, I can't tell you how" and they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage sex sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 38, "Phyllis and the Shepherd" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 363)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix ... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, Appendix p. 41 [2-44], ("Her sheep had in clusters kept close by the grove") (1 text)
Roud #1225
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 21(1), "Damon & Phillis" ("A shepherd in clusters crept close by a grove") , C. Sheppard (London), 1786; also Harding B 41(3v) , ("A shepherd in clusters crept close by a grove"); Harding B 25(1496)[many illegible lines], "Phillis and the Butterfly"
File: WT038

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography