A Babe Is Born, To Bliss Us Bring

For Christmas

Words: "A Babe Is Born To Blis Vs Brynge," English Traditional, from the Hill Ms.
Balliol College, Oxford. MS. 354. XVI Cent.
Compare: A Babe Is Born Who Bliss Shall Bring (Weston)
A Babe Is Born To Blis Vs Brynge (Flügel)

Source: Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), pp. 72-4.

Now sing we with angelis:
Gloria in excelsis

1. A Babe is born, to bliss us bring.
I heard a maid lullay and sing;
She said: "Dear Son, leave Thy weeping,
    Thy Father is the King of bliss."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis!

2. "Lullay," she said, and sang also,
"Mine own dear Son, why art Thou woe?
Have I not done as I should do?
    Thy grievance, tell me what it is."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis! 

3. "Nay, mother, for thee weep I nought,
But for the woe that shall be wrought
To me, ere I mankind have bought.
    Was never sorry like it, ywis."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis!

4. "Peace, dear Son, tell me not so,
Thou art my child, I have no mo;
Should I see men my own son slo¹?
    Alas, my dear Son, what meaneth this?"
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis!

5. "My hands, mother, that ye may see,
Shall be nailed unto a tree;
My feet all so fast shall be;
    Men shall weep that shall see this."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis!

6. "Ah, dear Son! hard is my hap,
To see my child that sucked my pap,
His hands, His feet, that I did wrap,
    Be so nailed, that never did amis."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis!

7. "Ah, dear mother!, yet shall a spear
My heart in sunder all to-tear;
No wonder, if I careful² were,
    And weep full sore to think on this."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis! 

8. "Ah, dear Son, shall I see this?
Thou art my child, and I thy mother, ywis,
When Gabriel called me 'full of grace,'
    He told me nothing of this."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis! 

9. "Ah, dear mother! through mine hair
To thrust in thorns they will not spare;
Alas, mother! I am full of care,
    That ye shall see this heaviness."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis! 

10. "Ah, dear Son, leave thy weeping!
Thou bringest my heart in great mourning;
A careful song now may I sing;
    This tidings, hard to me it is."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis! 

11. "Ah! peace, dear mother, I thee pray,
Comfort me all that ye may,
And sing, 'by-by, lullay, lullay,'
    To pur away all heaviness."
        Now sing we with angelis:
        Gloria in excelsis! 

Notes:

1. Slay. Return

2. Sorrowful. Return

Editor's Note

This is one of several carols found in multiple manuscripts, with various versions, including:

1. Oxford, Balliol College Ms. 354. Versions include:

• A Babe Is Born To Blis Vs Brynge (Flügel)

• A Babe Is Born, To Blys Vs Brynge (Dyboski)

• A Babe Is Born, To Bliss Us Bring (Rickert)

• A Babe Is Born Who Bliss Shall Bring (Weston)

2. Bodleian Library, Oxford, Laud misc. 683 (SC 798), f. 105v, with a first Line of "A babe is born our blysse to brynge." A copy was posted by Henry Noble MacCracken in Modern Language Notes, Vol. XXIV, No. 7. (Baltimore: November, 1909), p. 225:

• A Babe Is Born, Our Blysse To Brynge.

3. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Porkington 10, ff. 201-202. According to Richard Greene (and also see DIMEV, http://www.dimev.net/record.php?recID=5), this version includes Stanzas 1, 3-8, and 11, alternating with stanzas of the Latin Hymn, "Christe qui lux es et dies," described as a hymn for Compline often sung during Lent 'A Clerk At Oxford' gives a background plus an English translation, http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2012/03/christe-qui-lux-es-et-dies.html. Greene gives a number of the differences from "A Babe is born to blis vs brynge." Richard Greene, The Early English Carols (Oxford, 1935), pp. 112-113.

4. Harvard University, Cambridge Mass., H.C.L. 25258.27.5, p. 8, with a first line: "There is a child born to our blessing shall bring." According to DIMEV (http://www.dimev.net/record.php?recID=5), it is the basis of the version found in William Sandys, ed. Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern. (London: Richard Beckley, 1833), pp. 122-3. The text differs in the first line, but other texts given at DIMEV are found in Sandys' text:

• There is a Child born of our blessed Virgin

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