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.