Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Corydon and Phoebe

DESCRIPTION: Corydon (Colin) asks Phoebe (Phyllis) why she flees. She is afraid for her reputation. He says they're not alone; she says she will die a virgin. He replies that he'd come to ask for her hand in marriage, but will seek another. She accepts his hand
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1755 (_The New Ballads sung by Mr Lowe and Miss Stevenson at Vauxhall_, included by Kidson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Corydon (Colin) asks Phoebe (Phyllis) why she makes haste ahead of his pursuit. She replies that she's scarcely sixteen and afraid for her reputation. He points out that they're not alone, so her reputation's safe; she replies that flattery or no, she will die a virgin. He replies that he'd come to ask for her hand in marriage, but since she has slighted him, he's giving up and will seek another. She bids him stay, accepts his hand, and promises "the girl you thought cruel will always prove kind"
KEYWORDS: age hardheartedness courting love marriage virginity dialog lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy 125, "Colin and Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-Tunes, pp. 73-77, "Colin and Phoebe" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 510-511, "Bold Escallion and Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, C&PHOEBE
Roud #512
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Bold Escallion and Phoebe" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Harry Cox, "Colin and Phoebe" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX13)
Pop Maynard, "Colin and Phoebe" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(77), "Colin and Phoebe" ("Well met, dearest Phoebe, O why in such haste"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 16(56a), Firth c.18(208), Firth c.18(209), Harding B 11(1182), Firth b.26(168), 2806 c.17(74), Harding B 15(48b), Firth b.25(75), Harding B 11(1376), Harding B 11(640), Harding B 11(639), Johnson Ballads 15, "Colin and Phoebe"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pastoral Elegy" (theme)
cf. "Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song)" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Collinet & Phebe (Revolutionary War version) (Rabson, pp. 40-41)
NOTES [281 words]: She offers the "I will never marry" ploy; he counters with the "I'll marry someone else" gambit. Check and mate.
No question that this is a piece with its origin in minstrelsy and "rural romance" broadsides. But Kennedy cites over half-a-dozen collections from folk tradition, including the indexed version by Harry Cox, and I say that more than qualifies it as a folk song. - PJS
It should be noted that the mere presence of characters with these approximate names does not make a poem this song. Nicolas Breton, for instance, published "Phillida and Coridon" in 1591 in The Honourable Entertainment given to the Queen's Majesty in Progress at Elvetham); it's the same plot, but told in the third person: "In the merry month of May, In a morn by break of day, Forth I walked by the wood side Whenas May was in his pride. There I spied all alone Phillida and Coridon."
Similarly, John Chalkhill published a "Coridon's Song" ("Oh, the sweet contentment The countryman doth find. High trolollie Lolly loe, That quiet contemplation Possesseth all my mind: Then care away, And wend along with me") around 1600.
Again, Dyer published "Corydon to his Phyllis" ("Alas, my heart! mine eye hath wronged thee, Presumptuous eye, to gaze on Phyllis' face... Poor Corydon, the nymph, whose eye doth move thee , Doth love to draw, but is not drawn to love thee") in The Phoenix Nest (1593).
In England's Helicon (1600) we have "Phyllida's Love-Call to Her Corydon, and His Replying" (A dialog: Phyllida" Corydon, arise, my Corydon! Titan shineth clear." Corydon: "Who is it that calleth Corydon? Who is it that I hear?"); this piece has no author, but has a contemporary musical setting. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: K125

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2018 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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COLIN AND PHOEBE (Digital Tradition Lyrics)

Well, well, dearest Phoebe, and why in such haste?
Through the fields and meadows all day I have chased.
In search of the fair one who doth me disdain.
And who will reward me?
And who will reward me for all my past pain.

Go, go, boldest Colin, how dare you be seen
With a burden like me and not scarcely sixteen?
To be seen with the fair one, I am so afraid
That the world will soon call me
That the world will soon call me: no longer a maid.

Never mind what the world say for it all proves a lie
We are not alone there's a couple hard by
Let them judge of our actions, be you cheerful, my dear
For no harm is intended
For no harm is intended to my Phoebe I swear.
Say, say, boldest Colin, and say what you will
You may swear, lie and flatter, and prove your best skill
And before I will be conquered, I will let you to know
That I will die a virgin
That I will die a virgin, so I pray let me go

Come, come, dearest Phoebe, such thoughts I now have
I come here to see if tomorrow you'd wed
But since you so slighted me, I will bid you adieu
And will go seek some other girl
And will go seek some other girl more kinder than you

Stay, stay, dearest Colin, just one moment stay
I will venture to wed if you mean what you say
Let tomorrow first come love, and in church you will find
that the girl you thought cruel
that the girl you thought cruel will always prove kind.

@love @courtship
filename[ C&PHOEBE
HB

The DT lyrics are very close to those in the Kennedy book and on the recording by Harry Cox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv-Q15vnF9I (may not play outside the US)