But it ben of wythones (withies—wyllowes?) yrought.
6. Hey, how the chevaldoures woke all night.”
In the sixteenth century, the early Presbyterians continued this usage, as is evidenced by Wedderburn’s hymnal published in Edinburgh in 1560, quaintly entitled: Ane Compendius Booke of Godly and Spirituall Songs, Collected out of Sundrie Parts of the Scriptures, with Sundrie of Other Ballates Changed out of Prophaine Songs, for Avoiding of Sin and Harlotrey. Among these latter was a parody of ‘John, Come Kiss Me,’ the wide and enduring popularity of which is attested by its inclusion in Queen Elizabeth’s Virginal Book, Playford’s Introduction, Apollo’s Banquet for the Treble Violin, Walsh’s Division Violin, Playford’s Division Violin and Pills to Purge Melancholy. There are also references to it in Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness, Westminster Drollery, Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, The Scourge of Folly, Braithwaite’s Shepherd’s Tales, Tom Tiler and his Wife, and Henry Bold’s Songs and Poems. Allan Cunningham quotes the parody in The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern, as follows:
John, come kiss me now,
John, come kiss me now,
John, come kiss me by and by,
And make nae mair ado.
The Lord thy God I am,
That John does thee call:
John represents man