The author of this song was DR. HENRY HUGHES. Henry Lawes gives the music to it, in his “_Ayres_,” 1669, Bk. iii. p. 10. It is also in J. P.’s _Sportive Wit_, 1656, p. 15; the _Loyal Garland_ (Percy Soc. Reprint of 1686 edit, xxix. 67); _Pills to p. Mel._, 1719, iii. 331. Sometimes attributed to Sir R[obert] A[ytoun]. In _Sportive Wit_ there are variations as well as an Answer, which we here give. The different title seems consequent on the Answer presupposing that _Amintas_ has not died, merely disappeared. It is “A Shepherd fallen in Love: A Pastoral.” The readings are: _Lambkins follow_; _They’re gone, they’re_; Dog _howling_ lyes, _While_ he _laments with woful_ cryes; Oh _Cloris, Cloris, I decay_, And _forced am to cry well_, _&c._ Sixth verse there omitted. It has, however, on p. 16:— _The Answer._ [1656.] _~Cloris~, since thou art gone astray,_ _~Amyntas~ Shepherd’s fled away;_ _And all the joys he wont to spye_ _I’ th’ pretty babies of thine eye,_ _Are gone; and she hath none to say_ _But who can help what ~will away, will away~?_ _The Green on which it was her [? his] chance_ _To have her hand first in a dance,_ _Among the merry Maiden-crue,_ _Now making her nought but sigh and rue_ _The time she ere had cause to say_ [p. 17.] _Ah, who can help what ~will away, will away~?_ _The Lawn with which she wont to deck_ _And circle in her whiter neck;_ _Her Apron lies behinde the door;_ _The strings won’t reach now as before:_ _Which makes her oft cry ~well-a-day~:_ _But who can help what ~will away~?_ _He often swore that he would leave me,_ _Ere of my heart he could bereave me:_ _But when the Signe was in the tail,_ _He knew poor Maiden-flesh was frail;_ _And laughs now I have nought to say,_ _But who can help what ~will away~._ _But let the blame upon me lie,_ _I had no heart him to denie:_ _Had I another Maidenhead,_ _I’d lose it ere I went to bed:_ _For what can all the world more say,_ _Than who can help what ~will away~?_ (_Sportive Wit_; or, _The Muses’ Merriment_.) Page 68. _I tell you all, both great and small._ Also in Captain William Hickes’ _London Drollery_, 1673, p. 179, where it is entitled “Queen Elizabeth’s Song.” The dance tune _Sallanger’s_ (or more commonly _Sellenger’s_) _Round_ is given in Chappell’s Pop. Music, O. T., p. 69. The name is corrupted from _St. Leger’s Round_; as in Yorkshire the Doncaster race is called the Sillinger, or Sellenger, to this day. Page 70. _When ~James~ in ~Scotland~ first began._ Not yet found elsewhere, in MS. or print. The sixth verse refers to King James the First making so many Knights, on insufficient ground, that he incurred ridicule. Allusions are not infrequent in dramas and ballads. Here is the most noteworthy of the latter. It is in Additional MS. No. 5,832, fol. 205, British Museum.