Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/223

 s. iv. SEPT. 2,1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 181 LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER t. 1905. CONTENTS.—No. 88. NOTES :—A Chrl»tms» Carol, 181—Magdalen College School, 182—Thomas Pounrte, S.J., 184—Saghalien : its Pronun- ciation, 185—Parish Records Neglected—Hobert Perreau's Trial — " Motontlitles " — Testator's Full Description — Relson Poems, 188—Sea Walls—Czechs and Germany, 187. CURRIES :—Eton School Lists—'The Highwayman's Pint Ing Song.'187—'VIDIMUS and his Dinah'—Harold II. and Boyal Houses — Lady Stannus — Index of Probates — Bacon's Cipher—St. Brelade — Right to Arms—" Sacrop Paglnse Professor," 188 —Pearse Family — Gallows 'of Alabaster— J. H. Christie — Dumas: Its Pronunciation —" Correct"—" Bear Bible," Spanish—Penteus or Puuteus —Sanderson Family of Edmonton, 189. RBPLIES :-Charles Reade's Grandmother—Yorkshire Dia- lect, 190 —"The fate of the Tracys," 192—" Knlaz"— Brudenell: Bougbton—Norden's * Speculum Britannia!'— Berenice, Wife of Ptolemy III., 193-"The Screaming Skull," 194—' Corvate's Crudities'—Easter Day and the Full Moon. 195—Polish Royal Genealogy—Swedish Koyal Family, 196—Authors Quotations Wanted—Romanoff and Stuart Pedigre* —Jane Wenham, the Wltcb of Wai- kern—" Man of Notes," 197. NOTES ON BOOKS :—'The Native Races of South:Africa'.' —Aphra Behn'l Novels—Oscar Browning on Napoleon— Tait's ' Mri i i., v.ii Manchester'—Routledge's " Miniature Reference Library" — Latoucbe'a 'La Roulotte'— 'The Scottish Historical Review.' Obituary:—Mr. Joseph Foster. Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondent*. "gaiti. A CHRISTMAS CAROL. RECENTLY I had occasion in these columns fante, p. 84) to reply to a query propounded thirty-seven years previously, concerning the carol of ' The Bitter Withy.' I am now able to answer a query of forty-three years ago, affording at the same time a remarkable instance of tradition. _ In 1862 (3rd S. ii. 103) a correspondent signing himself c. r. *c. contributed a beau- tiful Christmas carol, taken down "some years ago" from the singing of a boy in North Staffordshire. For the sake of comparison •with the parallel text, I make no apology for reproducing it here, only suppressing the burden, except in the first verse:— i. Over vender's a park, which is newly begun, AUoelh in Paradise I heard them a-ring ; Which is silver on the ontside, and gold within, And lime, sweet Jesuit above all things. II. And in that park there stands a hall, Which is covered all over with purple and pall. in. And in that hall there stands a bed, Which is hung all round with silk curtains so red. IV. And in that bed there lies a knight, Whose wounds they do bleed by day and by night. v. At that bed side there lies a stone, Which is our blessed Virgin Mary then kneeling on. VI. At that bed's foot there lies a hound, Which is licking the blood as it daily runs down. VII. At that bed's head there grows a thorn. Which was never so blossomed since Christ was born. This nineteenth-century version should be compared with the following carol, which is to be found in the Balliol MS. 354 (of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries), which contains much excellent verse. I copy it from Anfflia, vol. xxvi. (1903), as printed by Prof. Ewald Fliigel, who describes it as "eine geistliche Allegorie" (No. xxix. p. 175), [Fol. 165b.] Lully, lulley, hilly, lulley, ye fawcon hath born my make* away. 1. He bare hym vp, he bare hyni down, he bare hyni in to an orchard browne. Lully, lulley, lully, lulley, ye fawcon hath born my make away ! 2. In yat orchard yere was an halle, yat. was hangid with purpill At pall. Lully, lulley, &c. 3. And in yat hall yere was a bede, hit was hangid with Lully, lulley, Ate. hangid with gold so rede. 4. And yn yat bed vere lythe a knyght, his wowndis bledyng day and nyght. Lully, lulley, &c. 5. By yat bede side kneleth a may, & she wepeth both nyght & day. Lully, lulley, Ate. 6. & by yat bedde side yere stondith a ston, Corpus Xristi wretyn yer on. Lully, lulley, &c. Here, then, we have two versions of the same carol separated by at least 350 years, showing very little difference except in the burden. There is small likelihood of the gap being filled by the discovery, say, of a seventeenth-century version, and still less chance of a contemporary variant of the Balliol MS. carol being now found. But I hope this note may still elicit some modern version ; and it is impossible to insist too emphatically on the urgent necessity of coin mitting these traditional songs, carols, and ballads to print before they perish. The only case parallel to the above that I can recall is that of the riddle-ballad of 'The Four Presents,' which occurs in the fifteenth- century Sloane MS. 2593, and in several Make=mate.