COLIN AND PHOEBE

Well, well, dearest Phoebe, and why in such haste?
Through fields and through meadows all day have I 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'll 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.

Singer: Harry Cox, Catfield, Norfolk
Recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1954

Source Folksongs of Britain & Ireland, edited by Peter Kennedy (Schirmer Books, 1976). Song #125, page 301


Notes from Kennedy:
The most dangerous moment in the act of courtship always seems to be when one of the couple appears to have made the irrevocable decision never to marry. This is the cruel test which leads to a happy result. In this case it is Phoebe who tells Colin that she wishes to opt out of their friendship:

That I will die a virgin
So I pray let me go

Fair enough. Colin had only come to ask Phoebe to marry him the very next day. He has been slighted so he is not going to waste any more time on Phoebe. That does the trick. Phoebe is not so heartless after all:

That the girl you thought cruel
Will always prove kind

Kidson mentions that he came across the ‘original’ in a twenty-four page folio The New Ballads sung by Mr Lowe and Miss Stevenson at Vauxhail London 1755. The song is called Corydon and Phoebe: A Dialogue. In the third verse of the version given here there is ‘a couple hard by’, in Kidson’s traditional version there is ‘a cottage’ and in the published ‘original’ it is ‘chaste Cythia’ who is near by. Harry Cox, from whom this song was recorded, sings ‘Colin’ as ‘Col-yeen’, pronouncing it rather like the Irish word ‘colleen’; in the Kidson versions the name is Corydon.

Printed versions

KIDSON: 1891, p. 73: two traditional variants of the tune published ‘original’, dated 1755
GARDINER MS: 1906—9, no. 323 (Hampshire) and no. 1366 (Sussex)
SHARP MS: 1909, vol. V: two variants (Somerset)
GILL: 1917, p. 2
KIDSON AND MOFFAT: 1926, p. 106: another tune
HAMMOND MS: 1906: one variant (Dorset)
PEACOCK 1965, p. 510: Bold Escallion and Phoebe (Canada)

Harry Cox recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv-Q15vnF9I (may not play outside US)

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Click to play (joeweb)