"Begone, begone, my Willie, my Billy, Begone, my love and my dear. O the weather it is warm And it cannot do thee harm, And thou canst not have a lodging here." Then the lover called, and the husband asked what that was. She said it was the hooting of an owl; and then she sang-- "Begone, begone, my Willie, my Billy, Begone my love and my dear. O the wind and the rain Have brought him back again, But thou canst not have a lodging here." Again the lover rapped; then she sprang out of bed, threw abroad the casement, and sang-- "Begone, begone, my Willy, you silly, Begone, my Fool and my Dear. O the Devil's in the man, And he cannot understan', That to-night he cannot have a lodging here." This is almost certainly the original framework to which these snatches of song belong. But there was another version of the story in a ballad entitled "The Secret Lover, or the Jealous Father beguil'd, to a West Country tune, or Alack! for my love and I must dye," printed by P. Brooksby, between 1672 and 1682, given by Mr. Ebsworth in the "Roxburgh Ballads," vi. p. 205. This begins-- "A dainty spruce young Gallant, that lived in the West, He courted a young Lady, and real love professt, And coming one night to her, his mind he thus exprest-- And sing, Go from my window, love, go! "'What, is my love a sleeping? or is my love awake?' 'Who knocketh at the window, who knocketh there so late?' 'It is your true love, Lady, that for your sake doth wait.' And sing, Go from my window, love, go!" Here the father, and not the husband, is the person who is troublesome to the lovers. That this is an adaptation, and not the original form of the story, is obvious from the line-- "And the cuckoo's in his nest," a play on the word cuckold. A still later version, _circ._ 1770, is given by Ebsworth, "Roxburgh Ballads," vi. p. 205. Messrs. Moffat and Kidson have given the song in the "Minstrelsy of England," N.D., but 1903, p. 24. So also Dr. Barrett in his "English Folk-Songs," No. 26. I have recast the words. The song may derive from a tale used by Boccaccio in his "Decameron," vii. 1. 42. TOMMY A LYNN. This song is alluded to in the "Complaynt of Scotland," 1549; it is probably the "Ballett of Tomalin," licensed to be printed in 1557-8. A snatch of it occurs in Wager's play: "The longer thou livest the more fool thou art," _circ._ 1560-- "Tom a Lin and his wife and his wife's mother They got over the bridge all three together. The bridge was broken, and they fell in, The Devill go with you all, quoth Tom a Lin."