# English Folk-Carols/Notes on the Songs

NOTES ON THE CAROLS.
No. 1. KING HEROD AND THE COCK.
Sung by Mrs. Plumb at Armscote, Worcestershire.
HE words in the text are given exactly as Mrs. Plumb sang them. I have collected no variants. The tune is a form of the well known "Dives and Lazarus" air (see "Come all you worthy Christian Men," Folk-Songs from Somerset, No. 88).
Mrs. Plumb's lines, although they tell a complete story, are but a fragment of a very much longer carol, consisting of thirty stanzas, called "The Carnal and the Crane", printed in Sandys's Christmas Carols, Husk's Songs of the Nativity, and elsewhere. For traditional versions with tunes, see Miss Broadwood's English Traditional Songs and Carols, and The Folk-Song Society's Journal (I, 183 and IV, 22 with notes).
In this latter carol the Crane instructs the Carnal (i.e. the Crow) in the facts of the Nativity, of the truth of which the two miracles of the Cock and the Miraculous Harvest are cited as evidence.
I am unable to offer any explanation of the meaning of the word "senses," which occurs in the last two stanzas of the text. In the printed copies it is given as "fences"—evidently a confusion has somewhere arisen between the letter "s," in its old fashioned form, and "f". "Thrustened" = "crowed"; it is evidently a derivative of the Mid. Eng. thrusch which meant a chirper or twitterer.
The origin of the carol, and of the legends associated with it, is exhaustively analysed in Child's Ballads, to which the reader is referred. The conversion of King Herod to a belief in the power of the new-born Christ in the way narrated in the text is an early legend, and one that is widely distributed, traces of it being found in the Scandinavian countries and other parts of Europe. It is not, I believe, mentioned in any of the Apocryphal Gospels, although the second miracle in the carol, the Miraculous Harvest, can be traced to that source.
No. 2. THE BITTER WITHY.
Sung by Mrs. Hands of Snowshill, Gloucestershire.
Mrs. Hands could only remember the words of the final stanza. The lines in the text are from Mr. George Gibbs of Evesham, Worcestershire, who ​communicated them to the "Notes and Queries" column of The Evesham Journal, edited by Mr. E. A. B. Barnard (see Notes and Queries concerning Evesham and the Four Shires, 1911, Vol I, p. 217). Mr. Gibbs, a cobbler by trade, told me that he learned the verses from a little girl who used, from time to time, to bring him her shoes to be mended, and who, in return for the service rendered, taught him the carol.
I have collected two other variants, from Buckland (Gloucestershire) and Shipston-on-Stour (Worcestershire). Neither singer could give me more than the words of the last stanza, the Worcestershire singer telling me that that stanza was sung as a refrain after every verse of the song. Mr. Gibbs's words are printed without alteration.
The origin of the legend, upon which this curious carol is based, has attracted a great deal of attention from ballad students during the last few years, and has been exhaustively debated in the pages of The Folk-Song Society's Journal (II, pp. 205, 300–4; IV, pp. 29–47) where six traditional tunes are printed, together with several versions of the text.
The Bitter Withy has obviously been affected by the ballad Little Sir Hugh of Lincoln. The two have certain points in common. Both open with the same incident—a child asking his mother's permission to go out and play at ball—and both lead up to a tragedy. The opening stanzas of the two songs are, in some versions, nearly identical. This coincidence accounts, no doubt, for the intrusion into the text of the Bitter Withy of the line "Then up Lincull and down Lincull", and of a similar line "It was upling scorn and downling scorn" in a version quoted by Mr. Frank Sidgwick (More Ancient Carols, Stratford-on-Avon, 1906, p. 7). It is clear that both lines are merely corruptions of "Up Lincoln and down Lincoln" (cf. "American Corn" for "Merry Lincoln" in Folk-Songs from Somerset, No. 68).
The Bitter Withy is also very closely connected with another ballad, The Holy Well. The first part of the story in both ballads is identical, although their conclusions are very different. In the Holy Well, for instance, when the children, scorning His lowly birth, refuse to play with Him, Jesus returns home and tells His mother what has happened. Whereupon Mary says:—
Sweet Jesus, go down to yonder town, As far as the Holy Well,
And take away those sinful souls,
And dip them deep in hell.
Nay, nay, sweet Jesus said,
Nay, nay, that may not be,
For there are too many sinful souls
Crying out for the help of me.
The Holy Well has been a popular ballad with folk-singers; for Mr. Harris Cowper quotes a version from a chap-book printed at Birmingham, circa 1843; and I have in my possession two Birmingham broadsides by Russell, and Bloomer, from the former of which the above stanzas have been copied.
Although there are several incidents in the Apocryphal Gospels of the Infancy which bear upon the story of The Bitter Withy, not one of them is identical with it. In the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, for instance, the Lord Jesus, going out into the streets to play, follows some boys who, in order to ​evade Him, hide themselves in a vault and are changed by Him into kids. In the Syriac Gospel of the Boyhood Jesus, when five years old, plays at a ford with streams of water, collecting them into a pool. One of His companions took a stick from a willow tree and destroyed the pool; whereupon, Jesus said: "Without root shall thy shoot be, and thy fruits shall dry up like a bough of the wood which is broken by the wind, and is no more. And the boy immediately withered away" (Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. 449). In the same Gospel a boy, who was running, struck Jesus with his shoulder. "Jesus saith unto him: Thou shalt not go thy way. And immediately he fell down and died." Again, Jesus was playing on the housetop when one of His companions, Zeno, accidentally fell down and was killed. Jesus, accused by the boy's kindred of casting the boy down, said to Zeno: "Did I cast thee down?" Whereat Zeno leaped up and said: "No, my Lord."
Professor Gerould also mentions a sunbeam legend—unaccompanied, however, by the drowning incident—in the Laurentian MS. of Pseudo-Matthew.
Now the main thesis of all these stories is very similar to that of The Bitter Withy; the Infant Christ goes out to play, someone offends Him and in consequence suffers death, or severe punishment, brought about by supernatural means. But this, it will be noted, is in marked contrast to the story of the Holy Well, in which Jesus refuses to punish those who have slighted Him, even when incited to do so by His Mother. From this we may, I think, conclude that The Holy Well is a comparatively modern recension of The Bitter Withy, modified so that it shall the better accord with a truer conception of the character of Jesus.
Nos. 3 & 4. THE CHERRY TREE.
(FIRST VERSION)
Sung by Mrs. Mary Anne Clayton, at Chipping Campden.
Mrs. Clayton gave me the words of the first stanza only. The remaining stanzas were sung to me by Mrs. Anne Roberts at Winchcombe (Gloucestershire) to a different tune. The words in the text have not been altered.
(SECOND VERSION)
Sung by Mrs. Plumb, at Armscote, Worcestershire.
The words are very similar to a set printed by Hone (Ancient Mysteries Described 1823, pp. 90–1), from which the last two lines of the fifth stanza, which Mrs. Plumb forgot, have been taken. Except for this interpolation, the words in the text are as Mrs. Plumb sang them.
This carol, of which I have noted eight variants, may be found in all the representative carol collections. The words, too, have always been exceedingly popular with broadside printers.
The legend upon which the story of this carol is based, is a variant of one related in one of the Apocryphal Gospels (Pseudo-Matthew, Chapter xx). Joseph and the Virgin with the Infant Jesus are fleeing to Egypt when Mary, seeing a palm tree, proposes that they shall rest awhile under its shade. Noticing that the tree was heavy with fruit she asks for some. Joseph somewhat ​testily replies: "I wonder thou sayest this, when thou seest what a height the palm is … I think more of scarcity of water, which is already failing us in the bottles." … Whereupon "the little child Jesus, sitting with a glad countenance in his mother's lap, saith to the palm, O tree, bend down thy branches, and with thy fruit refresh my mother." The palm accordingly bowed down, and they gathered its fruit; whereat, "Jesus said to it, Raise thee, O palm, and be strong, and be a partner with my trees which are in the paradise of my Father. And open from thy roots a spring of water which is hidden in the earth; and let waters flow forth from it to our satisfying. And immediately it arose, and there began to flow forth at its root a most pure fount of waters, very cool, and exceedingly clear" (see The Apocryphal Gospels, translated by B. Harris Cowper, pp. 59–60).
The Cherry Tree theme, however, is directly founded upon an incident in the Coventry Miracles (Piece xv). Joseph and Mary are on the road to "Bedlem" to be taxed when the following conversation takes place (see Hone's Mysteries, pp. 67–8):—
Maria.—A my swete husbond! wolde ye telle to me, What tre is yon, standing vpon yon hylle? Joseph.—For suthe Mary it is clepyd a chery tre; In tyme of yer, ye myght ffede yow theron yowr fylle. Maria.—Turn a geyn, husbond, & be holde yon tre, How that it blomyght, now, so swetly. Joseph.—Cum on Mary, that we wern at yon Cyte, or ellys we may be blamyd, I telle yow lythly. Maria.—Now my spowse, I pray yow to be hold How the cheryes growyn vpon yon tre; ffor to have them, of ryght, ffayn I wold, & it plesyd yow to labor' so mec'h for me. Joseph.—Yo' desyr to ffulfylle I schall assay sekyrly:— Ow! to plucke yow of these cheries it is a werk wylde! ffor the tre is so hy', it wol not be lyghtly Y' for lete hy' pluk yow cheryes, be gatt yow with childe. Maria.—Now, good lord, I pray the, graunt me this bonn, to haue of these cheries, & it be yo' wylle; now, I thank it god, yis tre bowyth to me down, I may now gader'y a nowe, & etyn my ffylle.
Joseph then humbles himself, the miracle convincing him that he has offended "god i' trinyte."
Obviously, this is the source of the popular song. The last line of Joseph's last speech is almost word for word the same as the corresponding line of Mrs. Roberts's version.
No. 5. THE MOON SHINES BRIGHT.
Sung by Mrs. Gentie Phillips, a native of Tysoe, Warwickshire, now living at Birmingham.
This carol and The Sinner's Redemption (No. 8), together with many others were sung every Christmas by the Tysoe carol singers.
With the exception of the 3rd stanza the words given in the text are those which Mrs. Phillips and her sister, Mrs. Handy, sang to me. The 3rd stanza, ​which Mrs. Phillips could only partially remember, is from a version noted several years ago at East Harptree, Somerset. In another variant which I collected in Kent this stanza runs as follows:—
In yonder garden green doth grow,
As green as any leek;
Our Lord our God He waters us
with His heavenly dew so sweet.
Other versions with tunes are printed in The Folk-Song Society's Journal, Sussex Songs, English County Songs, Shropshire Folk-Lore, Songs of the West, and Carols New and Old (Bramley and Stainer); with words only, in Sandys's Christmas Carols, etc., and on broadsides by Evans, Thompson and others.
No. 6. GOD BLESS YOU, MERRY GENTLEMEN.
Sung by Mr. Tom Ison, at Ely.
Mr. Ison told me that he used to sing this carol, in company with other singers, at Christmas time.
In Warwickshire the carol singers would sometimes sing a single stanza of this carol by way of farewell at the conclusion of their programme, as follows:—
God bless you, merry gentlemen, as you sit by the fire,
And pity us poor travellers that trudges through the mire;
God bless your friends, your kindred, that lives both far and near;
God send you a happy Christmas and a bright New Year.
Mr. Ison could only remember the words of the first stanza. The remaining lines in the text are from a version sung to me by another Ely singer, Mr. Robert Feast, and are printed without emendation.
The carol is, of course, well known. The tune, however, usually given in the carol books, is in the æolian, not dorian mode. The air is a favourite one with English folk-singers and is often used in Wassail songs (see Folk-Songs from Somerset, No. 129). A very beautiful mixolydian variant was sung to me by a Warwickshire singer.
It will be seen that the more usual "God rest you merry, gentlemen" is rendered in the Cambridgeshire version "God bless you, merry gentlemen", where "merry" is an adjective qualifying "gentlemen". The old expression "God rest you merry" has, apparently, become obsolete.
For other versions of the words see Sandys's Christmas Carols and broadsides by Russell, Bloomer, Thompson and others.
No. 7. THE HOLLY AND THE IVY.
Sung by Mrs. Mary Clayton, at Chipping Campden.
I have supplemented Mrs. Clayton's words with those of another set recited to me by the late Mrs. Wyatt of East Harptree, Somerset. The only alteration that I have made is in the second stanza, substituting in place of the ​obviously incorrect "On Christmas day in the morn" (which Mrs. Wyatt gave me) the one given in the text which is the usual broadside rendering.
Variants of "The Holly and the Ivy" are printed in Bramley and Stainer's and Chope's collections. The words are also on a broadside by Wadsworth of Birmingham.
No. 8. THE SINNER'S REDEMPTION.
Sung by Mrs. Gentie Phillips, of Tysoe, at Birmingham.
Mrs. Phillips could remember no more than the first stanza; the remaining stanzas have been copied from a broadside. Under the title "All you that are to mirth inclined" the carol is printed, words and tune, by Bramley and Stainer, R. R. Chope and Davies Gilbert; words only, by Sandys and many broadside printers. The tune, which is often used by carol singers (see Folk-Song Society's Journal, IV, pp. 15, 17 et seq.), is a variant of "Searching for Lambs" (Folk-Songs from Somerset. No. 96).
No. 9. COME ALL YOU TRUE GOOD CHRISTIANS.
Sung by the late Mr. Henry Thomas at Chipping Sodbury.
Mr. Thomas could only remember the words of the first stanza, which are given in the text exactly as he sang them to me. As I have been unable to trace the carol to which these lines belong I have added two stanzas from another and very similar set of words, consisting of three verses, entitled "The Lamb", which I found on a broadside by Pitts. Except for a general likeness I have no reason to connect this carol with that which Mr. Thomas gave me.
No. 10. ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT.
Sung by Mr. William Bayliss of Buckland (Gloucestershire).
No alteration has been made in the words. The carol, set to a modern tune, is published in Bramley and Stainer's collection; while three traditional versions are printed in The Folk-Song Society's Journal (II, pp. 126–7). The words are on a broadside by Batchelar.
No. 11. COME ALL YOU WORTHY GENTLEMEN.
Sung by Mr. Rapsey, of Bridgwater.
This carol has been already printed in Folk-Songs from Somerset (No. 126). The only alteration that has been made in Mr. Rapsey's words is the substitution of the word "pray" for "say" in the penultimate lines of the first two stanzas. Mr. Rapsey told me that the carol was taught to him by his mother and that, in company with other children, he used to sing it in the streets of Bridgwater at Christmas time. I do not know of another printed version of the carol.
Nos. 12 & 13. AS I SAT ON A SUNNY BANK.
(THREE VERSIONS)
The first version was sung to me by a whilom resident of Wootton-under-Edge (Gloucestershire) as it was performed by the children of that village many years ago. The words are given without alteration.
The second and third versions were sung, respectively, by Mrs. Beachy and Mr. Grimmet at Shipston-on-Stour (Worcestershire). Mr. Grimmet's words are printed exactly as he sang them; one small change has been made in Mrs. Beechy's words—"were" for "was" in the third stanza.
The tune of the second version will be recognised as a variant of the well known "Nancy Dawson" air. Mr. Grimmet, having presumably forgotten the proper air, sang his words to the hymn tune "Sun of my Soul".
The words of the second version are almost exactly the same as those printed on a broadside by Wadsworth of Birmingham. The text of the third version is different from all the published versions that I have seen.
The carol is very widely known. Traditional versions with tunes may be seen in Sandys, Bramley and Stainer, English County Songs and elsewhere.
Ritson in his Scotch Songs (I, p. civ) quotes the following lines, and says that they were sung during the Christmas holidays about the middle of the sixteenth century:—
There comes a ship far sailing then, Saint Michel was the stieres-man; Saint John sat in the horn: Our Lord harped, our Lady sang, And all the bells of heaven they rang, On Christ's sonday at morn.
No. 14. THE TEN JOYS OF MARY.
Sung by Mrs. Jane Duddridge at Mark, Somerset.
This carol has already been printed in Folk-Songs from Somerset (No. 125).
The words given in the text are those which Mrs. Duddridge sang to me. She learned them from her grandfather. Of several variants that I have collected all, with one exception, conclude with the seventh Joy. One version, however, noted in Gloucestershire, gives twelve Joys, the fourth lines of the last two stanzas running "To have the keys of heaven" and "To have the keys of hell."
The "ten gentlemen" in the Somerset variant may possibly refer to the cleansing of the ten lepers. The Gloucestershire singer sang "To write with a golden pen," which is probably a fanciful rendering invented for the sake of the rhyme.
Sandys prints two versions of the words, the first of which, "Joyis five", is from the Sloane MS. The scheme of this is similar to that of the Somerset carol but the wording is different. The other is almost identical with the first stanzas of Mrs. Duddridge's version.
The carol with a traditional air is in Bramley and Stainer's collection. The words are on broadsides by Evans and Thompson.
No. 15. THE VIRGIN UNSPOTTED.
Sung by the late Mr. Henry Thomas of Chipping Sodbury.
The first and second stanzas are exactly as Mr. Thomas sang them to me. The third lines of the second and fourth stanzas, being obviously corrupt, have been amended; while the last word of the concluding stanza, "Son", has been altered to "King".
The words in the text are almost identical with those printed on broadsides by Wood of Birmingham and Cotton of Tamworth. In making the above mentioned alterations I have been guided by these broadsides, from one of which, in all probability, Mr. Thomas originally learned his words.
Traditional versions of this carol, with tunes, are printed in Davies Gilbert's and Sandys's collections.
No. 16. SONS OF LEVI.
Sung by Mr. James Beale and Mrs. Harding at Ham Street.
The words are obviously very corrupt. The first and the last two stanzas in the text are substantially as they were sung to me, but it has been necessary to make some small alterations in the other two stanzas. In making these changes I have been guided by a broadside version of the song printed by J. Nicholson of Belfast, which however, in some places is almost as unintelligible as the Ham Street version. The Irish broadside is a Masonic song in nine stanzas beginning thus:
Come all you Craftsmen that do wish To propagate the grand design, Come, enter into our high temple And learn the art that is divine.
The last two stanzas given me at Ham Street are not in the broadside.
This carol is, and has been for many years, annually sung at Christmas in Ham Street and the neighbouring villages by a party of male carol singers. I have not found or heard of it elsewhere; nor can I connect the air, which is a strong one, with any other English folk-tune.
No. 17. THE LITTLE ROOM.
Sung by Mr. Samson Bates of Lilleshall, and Mr. Felton of Hadley, Salop.
This curious carol is very popular in this part of Shropshire where, despite its great length, it is frequently sung at Christmas time by small parties of two or more men. Miss K. Sorby, who very kindly noted the tune for me, tells me that Mr. Felton sang the first line of each stanza by himself, the remaining three lines being chanted in unison by both singers. Mr. Bates afterwards sang the carol, or part of it, to me by himself and this enabled me to note many interesting variants of the music phrases, which were not, of course, sung ​the two men performed together. I have not, however, embodied any of these variants in the air printed in this book. The singers had with them a chap-book (from which the words in the text have been copied), called A Good Christmas Box (Dudley, 1847), consisting of 125 pages and containing the words of 48 carols, several of which are still sung in that neighbourhood.
The tune is a very fine variant of one that is constantly used by carol-singers (see "The Sinner's Redemption", No. 8; Folk-Songs from Somerset, No. 96; and The Folk-Song Society's Journal, IV, pp. 15–22).
No. 18. THE TRUTH SENT FROM ABOVE
Sung by Mr. Seth Vandrell and Mr. Samuel Bradley of Donnington Wood, Shropshire.
This carol was sung to me by the two singers in unison, Mr. Vandrell refreshing his memory by referring to a small book of carols, printed locally, from which the words in the text have been transcribed. I have, however, omitted seven stanzas between the eighth and the last. "The Truth" is printed in A Good Christmas Box, and is included in Hone's list.
A version of this carol to a different tune and with four stanzas only of the words, noted by Dr. Vaughan Williams at King's Pyon, is printed in The Folk-Song Society's Journal (IV, p. 17). For a variant of the tune see "There is a Fountain" in the same publication (IV, p. 21).
No. 19. THE TWELVE APOSTLES.
Sung by Mr. Samson Bates of Lilleshall, Shropshire.
Mr. Bates sang from a copy of A Good Christmas Box, from which the words in the text have been copied. The carol is mentioned in Hone's list.
No. 20. NEW YEAR'S CAROL.
Sung by Mr. Seth Vandrell and Mr. Samuel Bradley of Donnington Wood, Shropshire.
The two singers, who sang in unison, could only remember the words of the first and the last stanzas. I also noted a variant from Mr. Samson Bates. The carol is printed in A Good Christmas Box, but, as unfortunately this particular page was missing from his copy, Mr. Bates was compelled to sing from memory. Nearly all the lines in the text have been taken from another chap-book (undated, printed by J. Bates, New Town, Bilston), but, in a few cases, I have adhered to the words that Mr. Bates sang. I do not know what the word "pearly" in the second stanza may mean. Mr. Bates could not explain it.
The tune is in the dorian mode and has affinities with the airs of "The Moon shines bright" (No. 5), and "God bless you, merry gentlemen" (No. 6).
No. 21. WASSAIL SONG.
Sung by Mr. William Bayliss at Buckland (Gloucestershire).
The first six stanzas in the text are those that Mr. Bayliss gave me; they are printed without any alteration. The last three stanzas are from a variant sung to me by Mr. Isaac Bennett of Little Sodbury (Gloucestershire). The words are very similar to, but not identical with, those of "The Gloucestershire Wassailer's Song" quoted by Bell (Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, p. 183).
Three Somerset variants of the Wassail Song are published in Folk-Songs from Somerset (Nos. 128–30) with explanatory notes, to which the reader is referred. The Gloucestershire Wassail song, of which Mr. Bayliss's version is I think a typical example, materially differs from that of Somerset and, I believe, from that of other counties as well.