The Catholic World Volume Ii Part 54

'O, peace, mother, O, peace, mother, Your weeping doth me grieve, I must suffer this, he said.

For Adam and for Eve.

'O mother, take you John Evangelist To be your favorite son, And he will comfort you sometimes.

Mother, as I have done.'

"Then he laid his head on his right shoulder.

Seeing death it struck him nigh, 'The Holy Ghost be with your soul, I die, mother. I die.'"

Many of my readers will recollect the famous carol of "The Seven Joys," still croaked out in the streets of London and elsewhere about Christmas time. Very similar carols to this exist of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, one of which I select from Mr. Wright's ma.n.u.script. I have, as in all other cases, modernized the orthography:

OF THE FIVE JOYS OF OUR LADY.

"The first Joy that came to thee Was when the angel greeted thee.

And said, 'Mary, full of charity, Ave, plena gratia.'

The second joy that was full good When G.o.d's Son took flesh and blood.

Without sorrow and changing of mood, 'Enixa es puerpera.'

The third joy was full of might, When G.o.d's Son on rood was put.

Dead and buried, and laid in sight, 'Surrexit die tertia.'

The fourth joy was on Holy Thursday, When G.o.d to heaven took his way, G.o.d and man withouten nay.

'Ascendit supra sidera.'

The fifth joy is for to come.

At the dreadful day of doom, When he shall deem us all and some 'Ad coeli palatia.'"

The following carol for St. Stephen's day is from a ma.n.u.script of the time of King Henry VI. The reader will be amused to find the great proto-martyr here introduced as a servant of King Herod, and intrusted with the task of bringing in the boar's head, a famous dish, and "the first mess" at Christmas and other high festivals. There was evidently some honor attached to this office, for Holinshed tells us that King Henry II., in 1170, on the day of his son's coronation, served him as sewer, bringing up the boar's head, _according to the manner_; and in 1607, at St. John's College, Oxford, the "first mess was carried by the tallest and l.u.s.tiest of all the guard."

"Saint Stephen was a clerk in King Herod's hall.

And served him of bread and doth as ever king befall.

"Stephen out of kitchen came, with boar's head in hand.

He saw a star was fair and bright, over Bethlem stand.

"He cast adown the boar's head, and went into the hall, _S. Stephen._ I forsake thee, King Herod, and thy works all,

"I forsake thee, King Herod, and thy works all, There is a child in Bethlehem born, is better than we all.

"_Herod._ What aileth thee, Stephen? What is thee befall?

Lacketh thee either meat or drink in King Herod's hall?

"_S. Stephen_. Lacketh me neither meat nor drink in King Herod's hall.

There is a child in Bethlehem born, is better than we all.

"_Herod_. That is all so sooth, Stephen, all so sooth, I wit, As this capon crow shall lyeth here in my dish.

"That word was no soon said, that word in that hall.

The capon crew _Christus natus est_ among the lords all."

This brings us to the more modern legendary carol of "The Carnal [a bird] and the Crane," in which the same incident occurs of the bird crowing in the dish:

"As I pa.s.sed by a river side.

And there as I did rein [run], In argument I chanced to near A carnal and a crane.

"The carnal said unto the crane, 'If all the world should turn, Before we had the Father, But now we have the Son.'

"'From whence does the Son come?

From where and from what place?

He said, 'In a manger, Between an ox and a.s.s.'

"'Where is the golden cradle That Christ was rocked in?

Where are the silken sheets That Jesus was wrapt in?'

"'A manger was the cradle That Christ was rocked in; The provender the a.s.ses left So sweetly he slept on.'

{353}

"There was a star in the west land, SO bright it did appear Into King Herod's chamber.

And where King Herod were.

"The wise men soon espied it, And told the king on high, 'A princely babe was born that night, No king could e'er destroy.'

"'If this be true,' King Herod said, 'As thou tellest unto me.

This roasted c.o.c.k that lies in the dish, Shall crow full fences three.'

"The c.o.c.k soon freshly feathered was, By the work of G.o.d's own hand, And then three fences crowed he In the dish where he did stand."

Herod then gives orders for the general ma.s.sacre of the young children, and the Saviour, with Joseph and his mother, travel into Egypt amongst the "fierce wild beasts." The blessed Virgin being weary, "must needs sit down to rest," and her son desires her to "see how the wild beasts come and worship him:"

"First came the lovely lion, Which Jesu's grace did spring.

And of the wild beasts in the field The lion shall be the king."

The Holy Family continuing their flight, pa.s.s by a husbandman "just while his seed was sown:"

"The husbandman fell on his knees, Even before his face; 'Long time thou hast been look'd for, But now thou'rt come at last.'