In Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, written around 1602, the character Mistress Ford refers twice without any explanation to "the tune of 'Green Sleeves'", implying that the song was well known at that time.

"Greensleeves" has a number of derivative works. The British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) composed a Fantasia on "Greensleeves." The Christmas carol "What Child is This?" by William Chatterton Dix used the melody of "Greensleeves."

The traditional "Greensleeves" as a lover's lament has many versions, often varying simply in the syllabic density. One polysyllabic version, with the original archair grammar, includes the initial verse and chorus as follows:

Alas, my love, thou wilt do me wrong

To cast me out so discourteously,

For I have loved thee for so very long,

And delighting in your winning company.

Greensleeves, thou wert all my joy,

And thou knowest, Greensleeves, thou wert my delight.

Greensleeves, thou'rt my heart of gold,

No one else but my dear lady Greensleeves.