| Share page |
|
— 191 — |
||
|
" Leto leta concio Cinoel resonat tripudio, Cinocl hoc in natalitio,
Cinoel, cinoel,
Noel, noel, noel,
Noel, noel, noel, noel, &c."
In Normandy it is called nuel. In Burgundy the people pronounce noe for noel. A priest at Dijon, wishing to avoid this error, fell into the opposite extreme, and in one of his discourses repeated three or four times, "PArche de noel, et le patriarche Noe." The Poitevins write nau; and in la vielle Bible des noels, is found "chanter no." Rabelais talks of <fles beaulx et joyeulx noelz, en langaige poitevin," and quotes the two last lines of the following commencement of one sung in Poitou, within the last twenty years, if not still. " An sainct nau, Chanteray sans point m'y feindre, Je n'en daignerois rien craindre, Car le jour est ferian, Nau, nau, nau."
Many early instances occur of its use as a cry of joy; as at the baptism of Charles the Sixth, of France, in December, 1368; the entry of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, with his sister, into Paris, in 1429; and the entry into Paris of Charles the Seventh, in 1437, where the people proclaimed their delight with loud shouts of noel.
" Ce jour vint le Roy a Verneuil,
Ou il hit receu a grand joye
Du peuple joyeux a merveil,
En criant Noel par la voye."
On the entry of Henry the Fifth into Rouen, in January, |
||