| Share page |
|
— 203 — |
||
|
BAtson also mentions the following lines, as sung at Christmas time, about the middle of the sixteenth century.
" There comes a ship far sailing then, Saint Michel was the stieres-man;
Saint John sate in the horn. Our Lord harped, our Lady sang, And all the bells of heaven they rang,
On Christ's Sonday at morn."
A modern broadside carol, called ' The Sunny Bank,' gives these lines thus.
" O he did whistle, and she did sing, And all the bells on earth did ring, For joy that our Saviour he was born On Christmas Day in the morning."
Hone, in his Mysteries, mentions a carol printed by J. Bradford, Little Britain, 1701, having a large woodcut, representing the stable at Bethlehem; our Saviour in the crib, watched by the Virgin and Joseph; shepherds kneeling, and angels attending; a man playing on the bagpipes; a woman with a basket of fruit on her head; a sheep bleating, and an ox lowing on the ground; a raven croaking, and a crow cawing on the hay-rack; a cock crowing above them; and angels singing in the sky. The animals and birds have labels, which are thus explained. The cock croweth, Christus natus est, Christ is born. The raven asked, Quando? When? The cow replied, Hac node, this night. The ox cryeth out, Ubi? Ubi? Where? where? The sheep bleated out, Bethlehem, Bethlehem. Voice from heaven sounded, Gloria in Excelsis, Glory be on high. There is an old French mystery of the Nativity, referred to in " Noei Borguignon dc Gui Bardzai," where four animals are introduced, much in |
||