SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW’S DAUGHTER
The Text is given from Jamieson’s Popular Ballads, as taken down by him from Mrs. Brown’s recitation.
The Story of the ballad is told at length in at least two ancient monastic records; in the Annals of the Monastery of Waverley, the first Cistercian house in England, near Farnham, Surrey (edited by Luard, vol. ii. p. 346, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp, A. xvi. fol. 150, etc.); more fully in the Annals of the Monastery at Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire (edited by Luard, vol. i. pp. 340, etc., from MS. Cotton Vesp. E. iii. fol. 53, etc.). Both of these give the date as 1255, the latter adding July 31. Matthew Paris also tells the tale as a contemporary event. The details may be condensed as follows.
All the principal Jews in England being collected at the end of July 1255 at Lincoln, Hugh, a schoolboy, while playing with his companions (jocis ac choreis) was by them kidnapped, tortured, and finally crucified. His body was then thrown into a stream, but the water, tantam sui Creatoris injuriam non ferens, threw the corpse back on to the land. The Jews then buried it; but it was found next morning above-ground. Finally it was thrown into a well, which at once was lit up with so brilliant a light and so sweet an odour, that word went forth of a miracle. Christians came to see, discovered the body floating on the surface, and drew it up. Finding the hands and feet to be pierced, the head ringed with bleeding scratches, and the body otherwise wounded, it was at once clear to all tanti sceleris auctores detestandos fuisse Judaeos, eighteen of whom were subsequently hanged.
Other details may be gleaned from various accounts. The name of the Jew into whose house the boy was taken is given as Copin or Jopin. Hugh was eight or nine years old. Matthew Paris adds the circumstance of Hugh’s mother (Beatrice by name) seeking and finding him.
The original story has obviously become contaminated with others (such as Chaucer’s Prioresses Tale) in the course of six hundred and fifty years. But the central theme, the murder of a child by the Jews, is itself of great antiquity; and similar charges are on record in Europe even in the nineteenth century. Further material for the study of this ballad may be found in Francisque Michel’s Hugh de Lincoln (1839), and J. O. Halliwell [-Phillipps]’s Ballads and Poems respecting Hugh of Lincoln (1849).
Percy in the Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 32, says:— ‘If we consider, on the one hand, the ignorance and superstition of the times when such stories took their rise, the virulent prejudices of the monks who record them, and the eagerness with which they would be catched up by the barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder; on the other hand, the great danger incurred by the perpetrators, and the inadequate motives they could have to excite them to a crime of so much horror, we may reasonably conclude the whole charge to be groundless and malicious.’
The tune ‘as sung by the late Mrs. Sheridan’ may be found in John Stafford Smith’s Musica Antiqua (1812), vol. i. p. 65, and Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, tune No. 7.
SIR HUGH, OR THE JEW’S DAUGHTER
1.
Four and twenty bonny boys
Were playing at the ba’,
And by it came him sweet Sir Hugh,
And he play’d o’er them a’.
2.
He kick’d the ba’ with his right foot,
And catch’d it wi’ his knee,
And throuch-and-thro’ the Jew’s window
He gard the bonny ba’ flee.
3.
He’s doen him to the Jew’s castell,
And walk’d it round about;
And there he saw the Jew’s daughter,
At the window looking out.
4.
‘Throw down the ba’, ye Jew’s daughter,
Throw down the ba’ to me!’
‘Never a bit,’ says the Jew’s daughter,
‘Till up to me come ye.’
5.
‘How will I come up? How can I come up?
How can I come to thee?
For as ye did to my auld father,
The same ye’ll do to me.’
6.
She’s gane till her father’s garden,
And pu’d an apple red and green;
‘Twas a’ to wyle him sweet Sir Hugh,
And to entice him in.
7.
She’s led him in through ae dark door,
And sae has she thro’ nine;
She’s laid him on a dressing-table,
And stickit him like a swine.
8.
And first came out the thick, thick blood,
And syne came out the thin,
And syne came out the bonny heart’s blood;
There was nae mair within.
9.
She’s row’d him in a cake o’ lead,
Bade him lie still and sleep;
She’s thrown him in Our Lady’s draw-well,
Was fifty fathom deep.
10.
When bells were rung, and mass was sung,
And a’ the bairns came hame,
When every lady gat hame her son,
The Lady Maisry gat nane.
11.
She’s ta’en her mantle her about,
Her coffer by the hand,
And she’s gane out to seek her son,
And wander’d o’er the land.
12.
She’s doen her to the Jew’s castell,
Where a’ were fast asleep:
‘Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh,
I pray you to me speak.’
13.
She’s doen her to the Jew’s garden,
Thought he had been gathering fruit:
‘Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh,
I pray you to me speak.’
14.
She near’d Our Lady’s deep draw-well,
Was fifty fathom deep:
‘Whare’er ye be, my sweet Sir Hugh,
I pray you to me speak.’
15.
‘Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear.
Prepare my winding sheet,
And at the back o’ merry Lincoln
The morn I will you meet.’
16.
Now Lady Maisry is gane hame,
Made him a winding sheet,
And at the back o’ merry Lincoln
The dead corpse did her meet.
17.
And a’ the bells o’ merry Lincoln
Without men’s hands were rung,
And a’ the books o’ merry Lincoln
Were read without man’s tongue,
And ne’er was such a burial
Sin Adam’s days begun.
THE DÆMON LOVER
The Text is from Kinloch’s MSS., ‘from the recitation of T. Kinnear, Stonehaven.’ Child remarks of it that ‘probably by the fortunate accident of being a fragment’ it ‘leaves us to put our own construction upon the weird seaman; and, though it retains the homely ship-carpenter, is on the whole the most satisfactory of all the versions.’
The Story is told more elaborately in a broadside, and resembles Enoch Arden in a certain degree. James Harris, a seaman, plighted to Jane Reynolds, was captured by a press-gang, taken overseas, and, after three years, reported dead and buried in a foreign land. After a respectable interval, a ship-carpenter came to Jane Reynolds, and eventually wedded her, and the loving couple had three pretty children. One night, however, the ship-carpenter being on a three days’ journey, a spirit came to the window, and said that his name was James Harris, and that he had come to take her away as his wife. She explains that she is married, and would not have her husband know of this visit for five hundred pounds. James Harris, however, said he had seven ships upon the sea; and when she heard these ‘fair tales,’ she succumbed, went away with him, and ‘was never seen no more.’ The ship-carpenter on his return hanged himself.
Scott’s ballad in the Minstrelsy spoils its own effect by converting the spirit into the devil. An American version of 1858 tells the tale of a ‘house-carpenter’ and his wife, and alters ‘the banks of Italy’ to ‘the banks of old Tennessee.’
THE DÆMON LOVER
1.
‘O whare hae ye been, my dearest dear,
These seven lang years and more?’
‘O I am come to seek my former vows,
That ye promis’d me before.’
2.
‘Awa wi’ your former vows,’ she says,
‘Or else ye will breed strife;
Awa wi’ your former vows,’ she says,
‘For I’m become a wife.
3.
‘I am married to a ship-carpenter,
A ship-carpenter he’s bound;
I wadna he ken’d my mind this nicht
For twice five hundred pound’
*****
4.
4.4 ‘begane,’ overlaid.
She has put her foot on gude ship-board,
And on ship-board she’s gane,
And the veil that hung oure her face
Was a’ wi’ gowd begane.
5.
She had na sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely twa,
Till she did mind on the husband she left,
And her wee young son alsua.
6.
‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear,
Let all your follies abee;
I’ll show whare the white lillies grow,
On the banks of Italie.’
7.
7.4 ‘gurly,’ tempestuous, lowering.
She had na sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
Till grim, grim grew his countenance,
And gurly grew the sea.
8.
‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear,
Let all your follies abee;
I’ll show whare the white lillies grow,
In the bottom of the sea.’
9.
He’s tane her by the milk-white hand,
And he’s thrown her in the main;
And full five-and-twenty hundred ships
Perish’d all on the coast of Spain.
THE BROOMFIELD HILL
The Text is taken from Scott’s Minstrelsy (1803). It would be of great interest if we could be sure that the reference to ‘Hive Hill’ in 8.1 was from genuine Scots tradition. In Wager’s comedy The Longer thou Lived the more Fool thou art (about 1568) Moros sings a burden:—
‘Brome, brome on hill,
The gentle brome on hill, hill,
Brome, brome on Hive hill,
The gentle brome on Hive hill,
The brome stands on Hive hill a.’
Before this date ‘Brume, brume on hil’ is mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotlande, 1549; and a similar song was among Captain Cox’s ‘ballets and songs, all auncient.’
The Story , of a youth challenging a maid, and losing his wager by being laid asleep with witchcraft, is popular and widespread. In the Gesta Romanorum is a story of which this theme is one main incident, the other being the well-known forfeit of a pound of flesh, as in the Merchant of Venice. Ser Giovanni (Pecorone, IV. 1) tells a similar tale, and other variations are found in narrative or ballad form in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Germany.
Grimm notes the German superstition that the rosenschwamm (gall on the wild rose), if laid beneath a man’s pillow, causes him to sleep until it be taken away.
THE BROOMFIELD HILL
1.
There was a knight and a lady bright,
Had a true tryste at the broom;
The ane gaed early in the morning,
The other in the afternoon.
2.
And ay she sat in her mother’s bower door,
And ay she made her mane:
‘O whether should I gang to the Broomfield Hill,
Or should I stay at hame?
3.
3.4 ‘mansworn,’ perjured.
‘For if I gang to the Broomfield Hill,
My maidenhead is gone;
And if I chance to stay at hame,
My love will ca’ me mansworn.’
4.
Up then spake a witch-woman,
Ay from the room aboon:
‘O ye may gang to the Broomfield Hill,
And yet come maiden hame.
5.
5.4 ‘broom-cow,’ twig of broom.
‘For when ye gang to the Broomfield Hill,
Ye’ll find your love asleep,
With a silver belt about his head,
And a broom-cow at his feet.
6.
‘Take ye the blossom of the broom,
The blossom it smells sweet,
And strew it at your true-love’s head,
And likewise at his feet.
7.
‘Take ye the rings off your fingers,
Put them on his right hand,
To let him know, when he doth awake,
His love was at his command.’
8.
8.2 ‘hals-bane,’ neck-bone. See The Twa Corbies (p. 82), 4.1.
8.3 ‘wittering,’ witness.
She pu’d the broom flower on Hive Hill,
And strew’d on’s white hals-bane,
And that was to be wittering true
That maiden she had gane.
9.
9.2 ‘coft,’ bought.
‘O where were ye, my milk-white steed,
That I hae coft sae dear,
That wadna watch and waken me
When there was maiden here?’
10.
10.3 ‘kin,’ kind of. Cp. Lady Maisry, 2.2 (First Series, p. 70).
‘I stamped wi’ my foot, master,
And gard my bridle ring,
But na kin thing wald waken ye,
Till she was past and gane.’
11.
‘And wae betide ye, my gay goss-hawk,
That I did love sae dear,
That wadna watch and waken me
When there was maiden here.’
12.
‘I clapped wi’ my wings, master,
And aye my bells I rang,
And aye cry’d, Waken, waken, master,
Before the lady gang.’
13.
‘But haste and haste, my gude white steed.
To come the maiden till,
Or a’ the birds of gude green wood
Of your flesh shall have their fill.’
14.
14.2 ‘howm’ = holme, the level low ground on the banks of a river or stream. —Jamieson.
‘Ye need na burst your gude white steed
Wi’ racing o’er the howm;
Nae bird flies faster through the wood,
Than she fled through the broom.’
WILLIE’S FATAL VISIT
The Text is taken from Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland. It consists largely of familiar fragments. Stanzas 9-11 can be found in The Grey Cock.
The Story is a trivial piece in Buchan’s usual style; but the smiling ghost, which is female (17.1), is a delightful novelty. She assumes the position of guardian of Willie’s morals, then tears him in pieces, and hangs a piece on every seat in the church, and his head over Meggie’s pew!
WILLIE’S FATAL VISIT
1.
‘Twas on an evening fair I went to take the air,
I heard a maid making her moan;
Said, ‘Saw ye my father? Or saw ye my mother?
Or saw ye my brother John?
Or saw ye the lad that I love best,
And his name it is Sweet William?’
2.
‘I saw not your father, I saw not your mother,
Nor saw I your brother John;
But I saw the lad that ye love best,
And his name it is Sweet William.’
3.
‘O was my love riding? or was he running?
Or was he walking alone?
Or says he that he will be here this night?
O dear, but he tarries long!’
4.
‘Your love was not riding, nor yet was he running,
But fast was he walking alone;
He says that he will be here this night to thee,
And forbids you to think long.’
5.
Then Willie he has gane to his love’s door,
And gently tirled the pin:
‘O sleep ye, wake ye, my bonny Meggie,
Ye’ll rise, lat your true-love in.’
6.
6.1 ‘swack,’ nimble; ‘snack,’ quick.
The lassie being swack ran to the door fu’ snack,
And gently she lifted the pin,
Then into her arms sae large and sae lang
She embraced her bonny love in.
7.
‘O will ye gang to the cards or the dice,
Or to a table o’ wine?
Or will ye gang to a well-made bed,
Well cover’d wi’ blankets fine?’
8.
‘O I winna gang to the cards nor the dice,
Nor yet to a table o’ wine;
But I’ll rather gang to a well-made bed,
Well-cover’d wi’ blankets fine.’
9.
‘My braw little cock, sits on the house tap,
Ye’ll craw not till it be day,
And your kame shall be o’ the gude red gowd,
And your wings o’ the siller grey.’
10.
The cock being fause untrue he was,
And he crew an hour ower seen;
They thought it was the gude day-light,
But it was but the light of the meen.
11.
‘Ohon, alas!’ says bonny Meggie then,
‘This night we hae sleeped ower lang!’
‘O what is the matter?’ then Willie replied,
‘The faster then I must gang.’
12.
Then Sweet Willie raise, and put on his claise,
And drew till him stockings and sheen,
And took by his side his berry-brown sword,
And ower yon lang hill he’s gane.
13.
13.4 ‘fear,’ frighten.
As he gaed ower yon high, high hill,
And down yon dowie den,
Great and grievous was the ghost he saw,
Would fear ten thousand men.
14.
As he gaed in by Mary kirk,
And in by Mary stile,
Wan and weary was the ghost
Upon sweet Willie did smile.
15.
‘Aft hae ye travell’d this road, Willie,
Aft hae ye travell’d in sin;
Ye ne’er said sae muckle for your saul
As, My Maker bring me hame!
16.
‘Aft hae ye travell’d this road, Willie,
Your bonny love to see;
But ye’ll never travel this road again
Till ye leave a token wi’ me.’
17.
17.2 ‘frae gair to gair,’ from side to side.
17.5 ‘dice,’ pew.
Then she has ta’en him Sweet Willie,
Riven him frae gair to gair,
And on ilka seat o’ Mary’s kirk
O’ Willie she hang a share;
Even abeen his love Meggie’s dice,
Hang’s head and yellow hair.
18.
18.4 ‘reave,’ tore.
His father made moan, his mother made moan,
But Meggie made muckle mair;
His father made moan, his mother made moan,
But Meggie reave her yellow hair.
ADAM
The Text of this half-carol, half-ballad is taken from the Sloane MS. 2593, whence we get Saint Stephen and King Herod and other charming pieces like the well-known carol, ‘I syng of a mayden.’ It is written in eight long lines in the MS.
The Story .—Wright, who printed the above MS. for the Warton Club in 1856, remarks that Adam was supposed to have remained bound in the limbus patrum from the time of his death until the Crucifixion. In the romance of Owain Miles (Cotton MS. Calig. A. ii.) the bishops told Owain that Adam was ‘yn helle with Lucyfere’ for four thousand six hundred and four years. On account of this tradition incorporated in the carol, I have ventured to include it as a ballad, although it does not find a place in Professor Child’s collection.
ADAM
1.
Adam lay i-bowndyn,
bowndyn in a bond,
Fowre thowsand wynter
thowt he not to long;
2.
2.4 ‘here,’ their. The ‘book’ is, of course, the Bible.
And al was for an appil,
an appil that he tok,
As clerkes fyndyn wretyn
in here book.
3.
3.4 ‘hevene’ is the old genitive = of heaven.
Ne hadde the appil take ben,
the appil taken ben,
Ne hadde never our lady
a ben hevene qwen.
4.
4.3 ‘mown’ = can or may.
Blyssid be the tyme
that appil take was!
Therfore we mown syngyn
Deo gracias.
SAINT STEPHEN AND KING HEROD
The Text is taken from the same manuscript as the last. This manuscript is ascribed, from the style of handwriting, to the reign of Henry VI. The ballad is there written without division into stanzas in twenty-four long lines.
The Story .—The miraculous resuscitation of a roast fowl (generally a cock, as here), in confirmation of an incredible prophecy, is a tale found in nearly all European countries. Originally, we find, the miracle is connected with the Passion, not the Nativity. See the Carnal and the Crane.
An interpolation in a late Greek MS. of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus relates that Judas, having failed to induce the Jews to take back the thirty pieces of silver, went home to hang himself, and found his wife roasting a cock. On his demand for a rope to hang himself, she asked why he intended to do so; and he told her he had betrayed his master Jesus to evil men, who would kill him; yet he would rise again on the third day. His wife was incredulous, and said, ‘Sooner shall this cock, roasting over the coals, crow again’; whereat the cock napped his wings and crew thrice. And Judas, confirmed in the truth, straightway made a noose in the rope, and hanged himself.
Thence the miracle-tale spread over Europe. In a Spanish version not only the cock crows, but his partner the hen lays an egg, in asseveration of the truth. The tale is generally connected with the legend of the Pilgrims of St. James; so in French, Spanish, Dutch, Wendish, and Breton ballads.
In 1701 there was printed in London a broadside sheet of carols, headed with a woodcut of the Nativity, by the side of which is printed: ‘A religious man, inventing the conceits of both birds and beasts drawn in the picture of our Saviour’s birth, doth thus express them:— The cock croweth Christus natus est, Christ is born. The raven asked Quando? When? The crow replied Hac nocte, This night. The ox cryeth out Ubi? Ubi? Where? where? The sheep bleated out Bethlehem’ (Hone’s Every-day Book).
SAINT STEPHEN AND KING HEROD
1.
Seynt Stevene was a clerk
in kyng Herowdes halle,
And servyd him of bred and cloth,
as every kyng befalle.
2.
Stevyn out of kechoun cam
wyth boris hed on honde,
He saw a sterre was fayr and brycht
over Bedlem stonde.
3.
He kyst adoun the bores hed,
and went in to the halle;
‘I forsak the, kyng Herowdes,
and thi werkes alle.
4.
‘I forsak the, kyng Herowdes,
and thi werkes alle,
Ther is a chyld in Bedlem born
is beter than we alle.’
5.
5.1 What aileth thee?
5.3, etc. ‘Lakkyt the,’ Dost thou lack.
‘Quat eylyt the, Stevene?
quat is the befalle?
Lakkyt the eyther mete or drynk
in kyng Herodwes halle?’
6.
‘Lakit me neyther mete ne drynk
in king Herowdes halle;
There is a chyld in Bedlem born,
is beter than we alle.’
7.
7.1 ‘wod,’ mad.
7.2 ‘brede,’ rouse, i.e. become angry (?).
‘Quat eylyt the, Stevyn? art thou wod?
or thou gynnyst to brede?
Lakkyt the eyther gold or fe,
or ony ryche wede?’
8.
‘Lakyt me neyther gold ne fe,
ne non ryche wede;
Ther is a chyld in Bedlem born,
schal helpyn us at our nede.’
9.
‘That is al so soth, Stevyn,
al so soth i-wys,
As this capoun crowe schal
that lyth here in myn dysh.’
10.
That word was not so sone seyd,
that word in that halle,
The capoun crew Cristus natus est!
among the lordes alle.
11.
11.1, etc. ‘Rysyt,’ ‘ledit,’ ‘stonit’: these are all imperatives.
11.2 ‘be to,’ etc., by twos and all one by one (?). Cp. Fair Margaret and Sweet William, 10.2 (First Series, p. 65).
‘Rysyt up, myn turmentowres,
be to and al be on,
And ledit Stevyn out of this town
and stonit him with ston.’
12.
Tokyn he Stevene,
and stonyd hym in the way;
And therfore is his evyn
on Crystes owyn day.
THE CHERRY-TREE CAROL
The Text.—As this carol consists of two parts, the first containing the actual story of the cherry-tree, and the second consisting of the angel’s song to Joseph, I have taken the first part (stt. 1-12 inclusive) from the version of Sandys (Christmas Carols), and the second (stt. 13-17) from W. H. Husk’s Songs of the Nativity.
The Story of the cherry-tree is derived from the Pseudo-Matthew’s gospel, and is also to be found in the fifteenth of the Coventry Mysteries. In other languages the fruit chosen is naturally adapted to the country: thus in Provençal it is an apple; elsewhere (as in the original), dates from the palm-tree; and again, a fig-tree.
The second part is often printed as a separate carol, and might well stand alone. Readers of Westward Ho! will remember how Amyas Leigh trolls it forth on Christmas Day. Traditional versions are still to be heard in Somerset and Devon.
THE CHERRY-TREE CAROL
1.
Joseph was an old man,
And an old man was he,
When he wedded Mary,
In the land of Galilee.
2.
Joseph and Mary walked
Through an orchard good,
Where was cherries and berries,
So red as any blood.
3.
Joseph and Mary walked
Through an orchard green,
Where was berries and cherries,
As thick as might be seen.
4.
O then bespoke Mary,
So meek and so mild:
‘Pluck me one cherry, Joseph,
For I am with child.’
5.
O then bespoke Joseph,
With words most unkind:
‘Let him pluck thee a cherry
That got thee with child.’
6.
O then bespoke the babe,
Within his mother’s womb:
‘Bow down then the tallest tree,
For my mother to have some.’
7.
Then bowed down the highest tree
Unto his mother’s hand;
Then she cried, ‘See, Joseph,
I have cherries at command.’
8.
O then bespake Joseph:
‘I have done Mary wrong;
But cheer up, my dearest,
And be not cast down.’
9.
Then Mary plucked a cherry
As red as the blood;
Then Mary went home
With her heavy load.
10.
Then Mary took her babe,
And sat him on her knee,
Saying, ‘My dear son, tell me
What this world will be.’
11.
‘O I shall be as dead, mother,
As the stones in the wall;
O the stones in the streets, mother,
Shall mourn for me all.
12.
‘Upon Easter-day, mother,
My uprising shall be;
O the sun and the moon, mother,
Shall both rise with me.’
13.
As Joseph was a walking,
He heard an angel sing:
‘This night shall be born
Our heavenly king.
14.
‘He neither shall be born
In housen nor in hall,
Nor in the place of Paradise,
But in an ox’s stall.
15.
‘He neither shall be clothed
In purple nor in pall,
But all in fair linen,
As wear babies all.
16.
‘He neither shall be rocked
In silver nor in gold,
But in a wooden cradle,
That rocks on the mould.
17.
‘He neither shall be christened
In white wine nor red,
But with fair spring water,
With which we were christened.’
THE CARNAL AND THE CRANE
The Text is taken from Sandys’ Christmas Carols, where it is printed from a broadside. The only alterations, in which I have followed Professor Child, are the obvious correction of ‘east’ for ‘west’ (8.1), and the insertion of one word in 16.2, where Child says ‘perhaps a preposition has been dropped.’
The Story is compounded of popular legends connected with the life and miracles of Christ. For the miracle of the cock, see Saint Stephen and King Herod. The adoration of the beasts is derived from the Historia de Nativitate Mariæ, and is repeated in many legends of the infancy of Christ, but is not sufficiently remarkable in itself to be popular in carols. The origin of the miracle of the harvest is unknown, though in a Breton ballad it forms one of the class known as the miracles of the Virgin (cp. Brown Robyn’s Confession). Swedish, Provençal, Catalan, Wendish, and Belgian folk-tales record similar legends.
It is much to be regretted that this ballad, which from internal evidence (e.g. the use of the word ‘renne,’ 1.2) is to be attributed to an early age, should have become so incoherent and corrupted by oral tradition. No manuscript or printed copy is known earlier than about 1750, when it occurs in broadside form. The very word ‘Carnal’ has lapsed from the dictionaries, though somewhere it may survive in speech. Stanza 17 is obviously out of place; one may suspect gaps on either side, for surely more beasts than the ‘lovely lion’ were enumerated, and a new section begins at stanza 18.
THE CARNAL AND THE CRANE
1.
1.2 ‘reign’ = renne, the old form of run.
1.4 ‘Carnal,’ jackdaw (? der. cornicula, corneille).
As I pass’d by a river side,
And there as I did reign,
In argument I chanced to hear
A Carnal and a Crane.
2.
The Carnal said unto the Crane,
‘If all the world should turn,
Before we had the Father,
But now we have the Son!
3.
‘From whence does the Son come,
From where and from what place?’
He said, ‘In a manger,
Between an ox and ass.’
4.
‘I pray thee,’ said the Carnal,
‘Tell me before thou go,
Was not the mother of Jesus
Conceiv’d by the Holy Ghost?’
5.
‘She was the purest virgin,
And the cleanest from sin;
She was the handmaid of our Lord,
And mother of our King.’
6.
‘Where is the golden cradle
That Christ was rocked in?
Where are the silken sheets
That Jesus was wrapt in?’
7.
‘A manger was the cradle
That Christ was rocked in:
The provender the asses left
So sweetly he slept on.’
8.
There was a star in the east land
So bright it did appear,
Into King Herod’s chamber,
And where King Herod were.
9.
The Wise Men soon espied it,
And told the king on high
A princely babe was born that night
No king could e’er destroy.
10.
10.4 ‘fences,’ times.
‘If this be true,’ King Herod said,
‘As thou tellest unto me,
This roasted cock that lies in the dish
Shall crow full fences three.’
11.
The cock soon freshly feather’d was,
By the work of God’s own hand,
And then three fences crowed he,
In the dish where he did stand.
12.
‘Rise up, rise up, you merry men all,
See that you ready be;
All children under two years old
Now slain they all shall be.’
13.
Then Jesus, ah, and Joseph,
And Mary, that was so pure,
They travell’d into Egypt,
As you shall find it sure.
14.
And when they came to Egypt’s land,
Amongst those fierce wild beasts,
Mary, she being weary,
Must needs sit down to rest.
15.
‘Come sit thee down,’ says Jesus,
‘Come sit thee down by me,
And thou shalt see how these wild beasts
Do come and worship me.’
16.
First came the lovely lion,
Which [to] Jesus’ grace did spring,
And of the wild beasts in the field
The Lion shall be king.
17.
We’ll choose our virtuous princes
Of birth and high degree,
In every sundry nation,
Where’er we come and see.
18.
Then Jesus, ah, and Joseph,
And Mary, that was unknown,
They travelled by a husbandman,
Just while his seed was sown.
19.
‘God speed thee, man,’ said Jesus,
‘Go fetch thy ox and wain,
And carry home thy corn again
Which thou this day hast sown.’
20.
The husbandman fell on his knees
Even upon his face:
‘Long time hast thou been looked for,
But now thou art come at last.
21.
21.4 i.e. though all (mankind) be undeserving.
‘And I myself do now believe
Thy name is Jesus called;
Redeemer of mankind thou art,
Though undeserving all.’
22.
‘The truth, man, thou hast spoken,
Of it thou mayst be sure,
For I must lose my precious blood
For thee and thousands more.
23.
‘If any one should come this way,
And enquire for me alone,
Tell them that Jesus passed by
As thou thy seed didst sow.’
24.
After that there came King Herod,
With his train so furiously,
Enquiring of the husbandman
Whether Jesus passed by.
25.
‘Why, the truth it must be spoke,
And the truth it must be known;
For Jesus passed by this way
When my seed was sown.
26.
‘But now I have it reapen,
And some laid on my wain,
Ready to fetch and carry
Into my barn again.’
27.
‘Turn back,’ said the captain,
‘Your labour and mine’s in vain;
It’s full three quarters of a year
Since he his seed hath sown.’
28.
So Herod was deceived,
By the work of God’s own hand,
And further he proceeded
Into the Holy Land.
29.
There’s thousands of children young
Which for his sake did die;
Do not forbid those little ones,
And do not them deny.
30.
The truth now I have spoken,
And the truth now I have shown;
Even the Blessed Virgin
She’s now brought forth a son.