2938 Steevens (ed. 1773): “This is part of an old song, mentioned likewise by B. and Fletcher. TNK [4.1.108 (2277)]. ‘—I can sing the broom, And Bonny Robin.’ Steevens.”

2938 Steevens (ed. 1778): “In the books of the Stationers’ Company, 26th April, 1594, is entered ‘A balled, intituled, A doleful adewe to the last Erle of Darbie, to the turn of Bonny sweet Robin.’ Steevens.”

2938 bonny sweet Robin] Ritson (apud ed. 1793): “The ‘Courtly new ballad of the princely wooing of the faire maid of London, by King Edward,’ is also ‘to the tune of Bonny sweet Robin.’ Ritson.”

2938 Anonymous (ms. notes in Collier, ed. 1843): “*In the Stat. Reg 26 April 1594 is this entry “John Danter entred for his Copie of a Ballad intitled a doleful a device to the last Erl of Darby to the tune of Bonny sweete Robin —”

2938 Dyce (ed. 1866): “Appears to be a line of a ballad entitled My Robin is to the Greenwood gone, or, Bonny sweet Robin; to the tune fo which several other ballads were sung: see Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c. vol. I. p. 233, sec. ed.”

2938 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Steevens führt aus Beaum & Fletcher’s Two Noble Kinsmen IV. 1. ein ähnliches Citat an: I can sing the broom and Bonny Robin.” [Steevens produces a similar quotation from Beaum & Fletcher’s TNK [4.1.108 (2277)]: I can sing the broom and Bonny Robin.]

2938 Hudson (ed. 1872): “Poor Ophelia in her madness remembers fragments of many old popular ballads. Bonny Robin appears to have been a favourite, for there were many others written to that tune.”

2938 Bonny sweet Robin] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “a well-known ballad, of which Ophelia sings a line. It is mentioned by Beaumont and Fletcher, in the TNK [4.1.108 (2277)]: ‘I can sing the Broom, And Bonny Robin.’ This tune is given in Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 234.”

2938 Robin] Mercade (1875, p. 101): “In the words—[quotes line]—we might venture to suggest many ideas it give rise to; but we prefer to leave it as it stands. We will only remark as a hint that the robin is a bird connected by vulgar superstition with the Crucifixion, where a drop of blood is supposed to have stained its chest. Hence its general immunity, in comparison with the safety of other small birds.”

2938 Sings] Furness (ed. 1877): “Chappell (Popular Music of the ‘Olden Time.’ vol. i, p. 233): This song is contained in Anthony Holborne’s Citharn Schoole, 1597; in Queen Elizabeth’s Virginal Book; in William Ballet’s Lute Book, and in many other manuscripts and printed books. There are two copies in William Ballet’s Lute Book, and the second is entitled ‘Robin Hood is to the greenwood gone’; it is, therefore, probably the tune of a ballad of Robin Hood, now lost. In Fletcher’s tnk [4.1.108 (2277)], the jailer’s daughter, being mad, says, ‘I can sing twenty mroe. . . . I can sing The Broom and Bonny Robin.’ In Robinson’s Schoole of Musicke (1603), and in one of Dowland’s Lute Manuscripts (D.d., 2. 11, Cambridge), it is entitled ‘Robin is to the greenwood gone’; in Addit MSS. 17,786 (Brit. Mus.), ‘My Robin,’ &c. [Score for song is included].”

2938 bonny sweet Robin] Neil (ed. 1877): “In the books of the Stationers’ company, 26th April 1594, there is an entry of ‘A Ballad, entituled A Doleful Adewe to the last Erle of Darbie, to the tune of “Bonny sweet Robin.’” “Sweet Robin” was the pet name by which the mother of Essex addressed him in her letters’ – Gerald Massey’s Shakespeare’s Sonnets [1872], p. 480.”

2938 bonny sweet Robin] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “The song is found in Anthony Holborne’s Cittharn Schoole, 1597, in William Ballet’s Lute Book, and in many other books and manuscripts of the time. In Fletcher’s TNK [4.1.108 (2277)] the jailer’s daughter, when mad, says: "I can sing The Broom and Bonny Robin" (Chappell).”

2938 Symons (Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “This was a well-known song, the music of which is given by Chappell in his Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. i. p. 334, and by Furness, Variorum Ed. vol. i. p. 349. The song is alluded to by the Gaoler’s Daughter in TNK [4.1.108 (2277)]: ‘I can sing The Broome And Bonny Robin.’”

2938 bonny sweet Robin] Dowden (ed. 1899): “TNK [4.1.108 (2277)] ‘I can sing the Broom, and Bonny Robin.’ Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times) identifies the song with one given in Holborne’s Citharn Schoole, 1597, and elsewhere.”

2938 Robin] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “Halliwell quotes an entry in the ‘Stationers’ Registers’ (26 April, 1594) of ‘A ballad intituled A dolefull Adewe to the last Erle of Darbie, to the tune of Bonny sweet Robin,’ showing it to be well known then. It is given in Holborne’s ‘Cittharn Schoole’ (1597) and in Queen Elizabeth’s ‘Virginal Book’.”

2938 Craig (ed. 1931): “probably a line from a Robin Hood ballad.”

2938 For bonny sweet Robin etc.] Wilson (ed. 1934): “From a well-known ballad, mentioned again as sung by the mad girl in TNK [4.1.108 (2277)].”

2938 Kittredge (ed. 1939): “From an old song known to the mad Jailer’s Daughter in TNK [4.1.107, 108 (2276-77)]]: ‘I can sing “The Broom” and “Bonny Robin” ‘See Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, I, 233, 234.”

2938 Munro (ed. 1958): “On this song and the music to it, see Furness, i 349; also Sh. Music, 13.”

2938 Spencer (ed. 1980): “The words of this song, probably relating to Robin Hood, are lost; but the tune, which was exceptionally popular, survives.”

2938 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “A line from a popular song. ln. That the song to which this line belonged and more especially its tune where very popular is attested by Sternfeld’s catalogue of instance of instrumental music for it in no fewer than 6 books and 24 manuscripts (Music in Shakepearean Tragedy, pp.68-78). The tune is also specified in connection fwith a number of other ballads from 1594 on. ‘Bonny Robin’ is one of the songs that the Jailer’s daughter in TNK [4.1.108 (2277)] (an imitation of Ophelia) says that she can sing. The words of the song, however, have not survived. Chappell notes that the tune is variously called ‘Bonny sweet Robin’ and ‘Now Robin is to the greenwood gone’ and he supposes that the latter is the song’s first line and that what Ophelia sings is the refrain (i.233-4; Roxbughe Ballads, i.181). It is pointed out that her words could fit either the first or the last strain of the melody. Robin is of course one of the commonest of all names, but Chappell’s alternative title seems to identify the Robin of the song with Robin Hood, which gives ground for the supposition that the song is one for Maid Marian; and since Marian sometimes distributed flowers in the May Games, it is possible to see Ophelia as projecting herself into Marian’s role. Since Marian moreover had become associated with lewd jests and gestures, it is sometimes supposed that the song was an improper one and that Ophelia in singing it is continuing the vein of her Valentine song (Seng, p. 153). Yet the surrounding dialogue does nothing to compel this view, and the ready use of the tune in a variety of contexts is perhaps against it. We may accept that Robin was a familiar name not merely for a lover but for a man’s penis (PMLA, lxxiii, 601-3). But because it sometimes had lewd connotations, it does not follow that it could not be used without them. On the contrary, Sidney, writing affectionately to his brother in 1580, calls him ‘sweet Robin’ (Works, ed. Feuillerat, iii.130); and Raleigh wrote to Leicester in 1586, ‘The Queen is on very good terms with you . . . and you are again her sweet Robin’ (Works, Oxford 1829, viii.655). No doubt Ophelia’s singing of this line would remind the Elizabethan audience of the rest of so popular a song; but what this would suggest to them is, in the absence of the words, pure speculation. What we can say of the single line is that it appears to express exultant love. If the song is indeed the same as the one beginning ‘Now Robin is to the greenwood gone’, we may add that the singer’s confidence in her lover seems unimpaired by his departure. After the dirge and the pathos of the flower passage, this sudden burst of apparently joyous song is dramatically striking, and the abrupt return to despair in the next song the more poignant.”

2938 Wilkes (ed. 1984): “a line from a popular song: Robin is a name for a sweetheart, and also for the penis.”

2938 bonny sweet Robin] Edwards (ed. 1985): “Sternfield gives the music (pp. 68-78) and says ‘Bonny Robin songs deal with lovers, unfaithfulness and extra-marital affairs’ (58); ‘the popularity of this simple ditty excelled by far that of “Greensleeves.”’ ‘Bonny Robin’ is one of the songs which the mad Gaoler’s Daughter in TNK [4.1.108 (2277)] says she can sing. Harry Morris (PMLA 73 (1958), 601-3) believes Robin to be a name for the male sex-organ. His best evidence is that one of the common names for arum maculatum (lords-and-ladies, cuckoo-pint) is wake-robin.”

2938 Hibbard (ed. 1987): “According to Sternfeld, the music for this very popular song survives ‘in thirty contemporary sources, six of which were printed between 1579 and 1621’ (p. 68). Unfortunately, no text is extant, but in general ‘”Bonny Robin” songs deal with lovers, unfaithfulness and extra-marital affairs’ (p. 58). As Robin is a component part in the names of a number of wild flowers, the switch in Ophelia’s interest may not be so abrupt as it appears on first sight.”

2938 bonny sweet Robin] Andrews (ed. 1993): “The song Ophelia quotes here is likely to have been a bawdy one (similar to the Valentine song she sang in [4.5.48-66 (2790-2803)], with Robin referring to both a lover and a male organ. But, as Laertes points out in the next speech, Ophelia’s pitiful innocence in madness can turn ’Hell it self’ to ‘Favour and to Prettiness’. Because there is not any ‘Method’ in Ophelia’s ‘Madness’ [2.2.205-206 (1243-45)] what would otherwise sound like ’documents’ of wantonness come across instead as indications of unfulfilled hopes for ‘Joy’ (erotic fulfillment, [4.5.187 (2938)].”

2938 For. . . joy] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “A line from a popular song which does not survive, though it is much alluded to elsewhere, including in TNK 4.1.107-8, where the jailer’s Daughter, whose madness is clearly influenced by Ophelia’s, says, ’I can sing "The Broom" / And "Bonny Robin"’.”