Go From My Window

DESCRIPTION: Characterized by the line "Go (away) from my window, my love, (go/do)." Rain or other difficulties may trouble the swain, but he usually gains admittance in the end: "Come up to my window, love... The wind nor rain shall not trouble thee again...."

AUTHOR: unknown

EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (The Knight of the Burning Pestle)

KEYWORDS: courting rejection nightvisit nightvisit

FOUND IN: Britain(England)

REFERENCES (2 citations):

Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 146-147, "Go From My Window" (3 fragments of text, 1 tune)

DT, GOWINDOW*

CROSS-REFERENCES:

cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4]

cf. "One Night As I Lay on My Bed"

Notes: This piece was obviously very popular in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (Chappell reports eight sources from that period, though presumably most of these are the tune). The earliest dated text (partial, of course) appears to be that in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act III, scene v:

Go from my window, love, go;

Go from my wimdow, my dear;

The wind and rain

Will drive you back again:

You cannot be lodged here. - RBW

File: ChWI146

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2003 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.