Hi,

Here are four early versions with the "No" response to the suitor's inquiries. The first is given by Bruce Olson from "a manuscript version of about 1635-40, in Bodleian MS Ashmole 38 (a collection of single sheets from various sources bound together), is so badly waterstained that most of it is unreadable. The first of seven verses goes:

Lady why doth love torment you
May not I your grief remove?
Have I nothing will content you
With the sweet delights of Love.
Oh, no, no, alas, no"

I can't find it in the Bodleian. If anyone has a link or more information about this version, please post it here.

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The second version appears in Pills to Purge Melancholy, commencing in 1700; (III, p. 82, 1719), with a tune, and it goes as follows:

Consent at Last.

Ladys, why doth Love torment you?
Cannot I your Grief remove?
Is there none that can content you
With the sweet delights of Love
O No, no, no, no, no: O, No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Beauty in a perfect Measure,
Hath the Love and wish of all:
Dear, then shall I wait the Pleasure,
That commands my Heart and all:
O No, &c.

If I grieve, and you can ease me,
With you be so fiercely bent,
Having wherewithal to please me,
Must I still be Discontent?
O No, &c.

If I am your faithful Servant,
And my Love does still remain;
Will you think it ill deserved,
To be favour'd for my pain?
O No, &c.

If I should then crave a Favour,
Which your Lips invite me to,
Will you think it ill Behaviour,
Thus to steal a Kiss or two?
O No, &c.

All Amazing Beauty's Wonder,
May I presume your Breast to touch?
Or to feel a little under,
Will you think I do too much?
O No, &c.

Once more fairest, let me try ye [.. only let me love you
Now my wish is fully sped, [For my lippes...]
If all Night, I would lye by ye,
Shall I be refus'd your Bed?
O No, &c.

In this version the suitor has quickly figured out how to have his way even with a "No" answer. The third version is a broadside in the British Library- Roxburghe 2.111 as it was printed for P. Brooksy at the Golden-Ball in Pye-Corner between 1672-84:

The Dumb Lady; Or, NO, no, not I; Ile Answer.
To the Tune of, the Doubtful Virgin, or the new Borey; or Will you be a Man of Fashion.

Underneath a little Mountain
where I us'd my self to walk,
By a pretty pleasant Fountain
there I heard two Lovers talk
Hah! said he my only Jewel,
would you have your Lover dye,
Can you be so fare and cruel
no indeed quoth she not I,

Why my dear my pretty Nancy,
will you then torment my mind?
If poor Willy you can fancy
shew your self to him more kind.
Or if you design my Ruine,
I am willing for to dye
But be short in my undoing
Still she answered no not I.

Why then pray will you torment me
and take pleasure in my smart,
When a kind look will content me
will you frown to break my Heart,
If it be my Nannys Pleasure
on my Sword Ile freely die,
Give the word my only Treasure
Still she answered no not I.

Bid me live and ile endeavour,
every way to gain your Love
If this be to great a Favor
bid me from your eyes remove
Deal with me as with a Creature
as you please shall live or die
Are you Mistress of ill Nature,
Still she answered no not I.

This indeed was more contenting,
than what ere before she gave
Tho it was not full consenting
it encouragd her Flame.
Should I tempt to kiss my fair one
would you say dispair and die,
Say my Love my only dear one
Still she answered no not I.

Then he laid his Arms, about her
she the Posture did Approve,
He resolvd no more to doubt her
and by progress of his Love
Gaind such conquest streight upon her
that at last they swain cry
Will you yield the Fort of Honour
Still she answered no not I.

But their was so little distance
and so yielding a defence
That he found all her resistance
was but only complesence,
Now said he you must surrender
if I force you will cry?
All she said so: to defend her
Was indeed my dear not I.

Hard it was at the first Sally
for to say which side would beat,
Tho poor Willey oft did Rally
he as often did retreat:
But what most deservd my wonder
Willey he for all his Art,
Tho he kept poor Nanny under
was the first desird to part.

Notice that the word "mountain" is used in the opening, where it's usually "hillside." Of the fourth and last version dated 1770s, I've only one stanza. It's titled "No! No! Sung by Mrs. Wrighten, at Vauxhall" (eighteenth-century slip, Harvard College, 25242.3, fol. 132). It begins:

That I might not be plagu'd with the nonsense of men,
I promis'd my mother again and again,
To says [sic] as she bids me wherever I go,
And to all that they ask, I should answer them no.

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The last version (see additional notes in JAF "No Sir") seems much closer to the modern versions which have a Spanish Captain instead of the mother. Anyone who has the remainder of the first or last versions please post or provide a link,

Richie