[1] References to the song can be dated back to 1586, in a letter from Sir Walter Raleigh to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester saying "The Queen is in very good terms with you now, and, thanks be to God, will be pacified, and you are again her Sweet Robin.
[2] Some scholars believe that Shakespeare's choice of the song was meant to invoke phallic symbolism.
[3] As was common during the renaissance, many composers wrote variations or divisions based on the piece.
Two sets of variations can be found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, one by John Munday and the other by Giles Farnaby.
[5] More recently, the song inspired Percy Grainger's "music room rambling" (as he described it) for which he wrote three instrumentations: solo piano; violin, cello and piano; and strings, flute and English horn.