Carols

Southland Times, Issue 21273, 19 December 1930, Page 19

Carols

SOME OF THE OLD SONGS. In his very interesting book, “Christmas and Christmas Lore,” Mr T. G. Crippen points out the often-forgotten distinction between a hymn and a carol. A hymn is devotional; a carol is a popular, playful, and generally festive treatment of a religious subject, though, actually, a carol need not be religious at all. Mr Crippen points out that the earliest English Christmas carol, written in the Anglo-Norman dialect of the twelfth century, is “Lordings, Christmas loves good drinking,” which has no religious bearing. Many carols have been written for other seasons than Christmas, but these are neglected. Italy was the birthplace of the true carol, and Mr Crippen holds that the actual originators were St. Francis of Assisi and his followers,' who discovered that bright and homely songs went farther with the common people than sermons. The Oldest English Carol.

Mr Crippen says that the oldest English religious carol dates from about 1410, but we have only this fragment:—

“I saw a sweet, a seemly sight,. A blissful burd, a blossom bright, That mourning made and mirth among; A maiden mother meek and mild, In cradle keep a knave child, \ That softly slept; she sat and sung, Lullay, lulla balow, My bairn, sleep softly now.”

Here, of course, “knave,child” means male child. There can be no doubt that during a long period the carol conveyed to the poor and ignorant a great deal more than the Bible. It brought the Bible to them through the ear, and in their own simple speech. Thus the following carol is purely scriptural, but it is also as easily assimilated as any popular song:—

“To Bethlehem city in Jewry it was

That Joseph and Mary together did pass, AU for to be taxed with many-one mo’, Great Caesar commanded the same should be so.

But when they had entered the city so

fair, A number of people so mighty were there That Joseph and Mary, whose substance was small, Could - find in the inn there no laying at aU.

Thus they were constrained in a stable to lie, Where oxen and asses they used for to

tie; Thus laying so simple they held in no

scorn, And against the next morning our Saviour was born.”

Another old carol quoted by Mr Crippen thus describes the watching shepherds:— “About the field they piped full right Even about the midst o’ the night; They saw come down from heaven a light: Tirle, tirle, so merrily the shepherds began to blow. Of angels came a company, With merry songs and melody; The shepherds anon 'gan them espy: Tirle, tirle, so merrily the shepherds began to blow.”