Gabriel's Message Does Away

For Advent

Version 1; Compare Version 2 from Woodward's The Cowley Carol Book, First Series

Words: Angelus Emittitur from Piae Cantiones, 1582; translated by John Mason Neale (1818-1866), in Carols for Christmas-tide (London: Novello, 1853)

Music: Angelus Emittitur
Meter: 777 with refrain

1. Gabriel's message does away
Satan's curse and Satan's sway,
out of darkness brings our Day:

Chorus:
So, behold,
All the gates of heaven unfold.

2. He that comes despised shall reign;
he that cannot die, be slain;
death by death its death shall gain: Chorus

3. Weakness shall the strong confound;
by the hands, in grave clothes wound,
Adam's chains shall be unbound. Chorus

4. By the sword that was his own,
by that sword, and that alone,
shall Goliath be o'erthrown: Chorus

5. Art by art shall be assailed;
to the cross shall Life be nailed;
from the grave shall hope be hailed: Chorus

Editor's Note:

Another translation is Gabriel From Heaven Has Flown from Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #169, pp. 20-21.

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