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Lor, I bringe thee a bell; I praie Thee save me from hell, So that I may with Thee dwell, And serve thee for aye."
The second Shepherd presents a flagon with a spoon, and the third a cap, but finishes his speech with some degree of pathos.
" This gueifte, Sonne, I bringe Thee is but small, And though I come the hyndmoste of all, When Thou shall them to Thy blesse call, Good Lorde, yet thinke on me."
Well may we say, seeing how small our gifts are, " Good Lord, yet think on me."
In the second century, Telesphorus refers to the Christians celebrating public worship, on the night of the Nativity, and then solemnly singing the angels' hymn, because in the same night, Christ was declared to the Shepherds by an angel; and in the early times of Christianity the bishops were accustomed to sing hymns on Christmas Day among their clergy. Aurelius Prudentius, towards the end of the fourth century, wrote a divine hymn or carol in Latin, which is still extant; but, besides that it consists of twenty-nine stanzas, it is not of sufficient general interest to be printed here.
The Bretons were very similar in manners and language to the inhabitants of Britain, many of them having had the same origin, and being, in fact, a colony from our island. The Cornouaille of Bretagne, however, must not be confounded with our province of that name by the well-wishers of the latter, because the romance writers do not speak in such terms of some of their knights as their friends mjght have desired. |
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