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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  Robin and Nan

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Robin and Nan

By B. J. Alcock, Jr.
 
(A Broadside Song with music; c. 1705)

NAN was Robin’s fellow servant,
  She could milk, and he could plow;
Robin’s love for Nan was fervent,
  But the damsel would not trow.
In the field or in the meadow,        5
  Where so e’er she daily went,
Robin follow’d like her shadow,
  All to give his passion vent.
 
See fair maid each living creature,
  (Only stubborn-hearted thou);        10
Do as all are taught by nature,
  And to love’s dominion bow,
Long his passion Nan resisted,
  And had always kept her hold,
Had not fortune once assisted;        15
  Fortune often helps the bold.
 
Nan would go to bed as usual,
  Just as Robin went that way;
When her door made stout refusal,
  Dame forgot and took the key;        20
Robin, proud of this occasion,
  All his former hopes to crown,
Brought the maid, by fair persuasion,
  On his threshold to sit down.
 
Now, said he, my charming blowsy,        25
  Let us love and banish fear;
Dame, you know, is always drowsy,
  We may talk and she not hear.
Thus one lucky minute doing
  All the mighty work of love,        30
Ever after, without wooing,
  Bob and Nan went hand and glove.