“Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love?” was submitted for copyright deposit on March 12, 1851, by Firth, Pond & Co. in New York. The lyrics were adapted anonymously from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5.

According to Evelyn Foster Mornweck’s The Chronicles of Stephen Foster’s Family:

In January, 1851, F. D. Benteen published two of Stephen’s songs, “Give the Stranger Happy Cheer,” and “Melinda May,” and his next composition, published in March by Firth, Pond & Company, was “Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love?” a duet arrangement of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, which Stephen dedicated to Julia N. Murray. It was Dick Cowan’s expressed belief that Stephen must have written this duet for Jessie Lightner and Mrs. Robinson, who sang it so beautifully together. This is probably true, but Stephen dedicated the lovely song to his brother’s sweetheart.

Later she writes:

We learn from Dick Cowan that Stephen’s duet, “Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love?” a melodious setting of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, was a favorite number on the steamboat trip to New Orleans. This is one of Stephen Foster’s compositions which I believe deserves a great deal more appreciation than it has received. The closing measures, with a harmonious modulation of chords from E flat to B natural, have been incorporated, probably accidentally, in a modern popular song that has been highly successful, “Just a Memory.” Jessie Lightner and Siss Robinson were the star performers of Stephen’s charming duet.