Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-25

Jhesu, fii VirgtniS,
MlNerel-e nobiN.
Jhesu of maybe We woldest be born,
To save mankYnde that was forlorne, ct

1TSIeraDle Is lts OTlSlu, HOpu JueHCS HOuCtUto.
or news noarelIS, the old English form Of the
word noure the Romance. and noel, the
modern French, terms. In short, noel, right
" understood, is nothing but ne1Cs, a name
for the thing, the good news Of God, the glad
tidings Of good will, the birth of the Savior
of the world. The Oldest carols confirm the
use of the word in such q sense and so, In
an indirect manner, do many fifteenth century
books. 1t was, for example, the custom to
cry novels for any king or hero in tri-
umphal procession. . Item--to the boys
who cried novels before the Kings males
ty " appears in the municipal expenditure of
an English town during a royal visit. "To
ride and cry novels on high days is not the
only business of true knight" hints Guti-
ere de Gamez. in his great Spanish chronicle
called the 9 Victorial" And so on, for it
would be easy to multiply examples for this
custom but the carols speak for themselves
Take this one, for example:
child this day is born,
child of high renown
Most worthy of a seepter,
A scepter and crown.
Novels, novels novels,
Sing all We may,
Because the King of all ngs
Was born this blessed day.
Also, Of older date, the following:
HSE SANG OF TIE BIRTH CHRIST.
with the tune Of BGwEutGIGW.)
come from hevin to tell
The best no velles that ever befell
To you these tidngs true bring,
Ana viii of them say and sing, etc.
The many collections OF authentic English
carols are excellent and curious. Wright's is
perhaps the finest, but Ssndy's book will be
found full of interest, and he has admitted
some TRANSACTIONS of French noels with their
notes. As regards Ms. collections, one of
the rsrest is at Oxford, in the commonplace
book CT one Richard HILL servant to an Al
derrnan Whynger, afterward Lord Mayor Of
London il 1905.
OF FRENCH EoELs
There is no lack, either, the best being the
"Noels Bourgignon," collected by NJ. la
Monnaye 1.-THE ingenious author Of Nj. de la
Palisse y. and volume dating from the reign
of Louis Kill, the work of Michael Saboly,
q priest of Avignon. Yet of carols both
French and English it must be admitted, as
a rule, that the authors are long since forgot
ten, and that they, in their turn, probably
drew from older sources. What, for exam
pie, has become of all the airs Saboly loved
Of the tune of "PE 20" to which one of the
quaintest of his poems is set? Or of the tune
aud words of Dams q Beau jour-" or of the
Dis-moi, Grisel?" Or who was the COM
poser of that tune of ''Bawlulalaw, which
we have seen was of fifteenth century repu-
tation in England? They are all past recov-
| cry, and any classification of the carols can
only be MADE by guessing their date from
their spelling, aud by noticing some peculiar
tiles which are found alike in the carols of
France and of England.
The first place we shall assign to those
which are written partly in Latin and partly
in the vulgar tongue. and which we can
| imagine TO have been composed by clerks,
| and persons cOnversant with the ritual and
| phraseology of the church. The chorus, or
cborollO, OF these pieces is in Latin; some
times the last line Of each verse is In Latin,
and the rhyme is thus carried on In what may
really be called tags of verse.
An example Of the first method is taken
from HIPS MSS; of the second, from rare
| French tract of the sixteenth century:
A1lelujia Alleluia
Beo patTia, sit gloria
Their vs. blossom sprung of a thorn,
To save MANKIND that was forlorne,
AS the Profittis sayd beforne,
Dec patria, sit gloria.
Their shon star out of hevyn bright,
That men of earth should deme Alright,
That this was Jhesus fulle Of might:
Dec patria, sit gloria
SoEL SouvEAU, SUR LAIR DE- " OR DITEs-Nous MARIE
Celebrons la Nuisance,
NoStri Sdlpdtoris,
Qui fait Ia complalsance,
De- sui PGtris.
Get enfan tout aimable,
In N0cte media,
Es5 dams une etable
De CGSt1 Mario.
a second class is the historical ballad. OF
such are the carols: "When God at first
| .CG a. -, -
morning y IS Augustus Cesar having brought
the world to quiet peace ;" "'When Jesus
Christ was twelve years old = '' Joseph being
| an aged man truly aud "a virgin most
pure, as prophets do tell; )" all carols still 10
use in the West of England, and familiar &c
many of us In this country, especially among
Episcopalians. These are simply passages Of
gospel history done into rough verse; and
besides the songs intended for Christmas,
there are similar carols suited TO Inn0cents1,
St. John the Baptist's and st. Stephens DAYS
and indeed also for the Feast OF the Epiphany
and pieces which commemorate the Later
events in the Savior's life, as connected with
His Advent into the world.
A THIRD KIND OF CAROL
Is founded on a legend. Take, for example
the well known one:
! Joseph was an old man, and old man was he,
When he welded Mary, the Maid OF Saliiee, etc
This carol tells how a cherry tree was made
to bend and yield its fruit TO the Virgin
Mother at the command of her divine but
vet unborn Son. It is tradition familiar
in one shape OF other, to the whole Of
Europe, though in Spain the tall and beauti
full date-palm replaces the cherry tree of the
Northern nations. 1t is probably therefore g
fragment out of that vast mass of unwritten.
fanciful and semi-pagan tradition which oc
cupies the mouths and memories OF men ever
IN the earliest Christian centuries which as
sumed shape and consistency in the so-callec
apocryphal Gospels OF Nicodemus and others
and which went, at a later period, to fill the
pages of the LegeadG Aured of Jacopo ds
Vorragine. Two of Saboly's carols beal
marks of such an origin, viz: A dialogue be
tween Lucifer and Archangel on the subject
of the Nativity, and the alteration between
st. Joseph and the landlord of the inn OF Beth
lehem. OF the same kind is q thirteenth
century hymn for St. Stephens Day, where
it is set forth that st. Stephen :" was clerk,
kyg Heronde halle !" and more modern
one, which has been arranged to 8 pleasing
air:
King Wenceslsus looked out,
On thy Feast Of Stephen,
When the stars we're shining bright
Aud the snow lay even, etc