Iury came to Ierusalem

For Christmas

Words: English Traditional

Source: the Roxburghe Ballad Collection
In the British Library

From the English Broadside Ballad Archive, EBBA ID: 30269 - Roxburghe 1.394-395

To the tune of Dulcina.

Printed by the Assignes of Thomas Symcocke, circa 1619-1629.

This is Part One of a Two Part Ballad. Part II is "Of The Passion of Christ."

Part I. Of the Birth.

1. Iury came to Jerusalem,
(all the world was taxed then)
Blessed Mary brought to Bethelem,
more then all the world agen:
A gift so blest,
So good, the best
that ere was seene, was heard or done,
A King, a Christ,
Prophet, and Priest:
a Jesus, God, a Man, a Sonne.

2. Happie night, a day was never,
halfe so happie sweet and faire:
Singing Soldiers (blessed ever)
fill the skie with sweetest ayre.
Amazd men feare,
They see, they heare.
yet doubt and aske how this was done:
Twas bid, be bold,It was foretold,
this night hath God himselfe a Son,

3. There appeares a golden Usher,
Kings attending in their traine:
The bright Sun could not out blush her,
such a Star nere shone againe.
See now it staies,
Seeming it sayes,
Goe in and see, what there is done,
A Child whose birth,
Leagues heaven and earth,
Jesus to us, to God a Sonne.

4. Subtill Herod sought to find him,
with a purpose blacke as hell:
But a greater power confind him,
and his purpose did repell:
Who should betray,
Doe al obey,
as fitting was it should be done:
They al adore,
And kneele before,
this God and Man, to God a Sonne.

5. Twas upon a Commets blazing,
Cuma to Augustus said,
This fore-shewes an act amazing:
for a Mother still a maid,
A Babe shall beare,
That al must feare,
and suddenly it must be done:
Nay Caesar thou,
To him must bow,
hees God, a Man, to God a Sonne.

6. Is not this a blessed wonder,
God is Man, and Man is God:
Foolish Jewes mistooke the thunder,
should proclaime this King abroad.
Angels they sing,
Behold the King,
in Bethelem where this was done:
Then we as they,
Rejoyce and say,
We have a Saviour, God a Sonne.

Finis.

Broadside from From the English Broadside Ballad Archive, EBBA ID: 30269 - Roxburghe 1.394-395

Broadside "Jury Came to Jerusalem," Pepys Collection, 2.28, from English Broadside Ballads Online, University of California at Santa Clara, etc.

Sheet Music "Dulcina" (before 1615) from Vincent Jackson, ed., English Melodies from the 13th to the 18th Century: One Hundred Songs (J.M. Dent & Sons, 1910), p. 56; five verses with the first line "Jurie came to jebusalem". [sic]

Jackson noted: "The old air Dulcina, on the authority of Giles Earle (Add. MSS. 24665, fol. 35b) is that we quote beneath. Issued first perhaps as a "penny godliness',' the secular tune, in its pious disguise, figured in Psalms and Songs of Sion (1642) and Forbes' Cantus. Our copy is from the last-named work (ed. 1682 Song xxxviii)."

Sheet Music "Dulcina" from John Forbes, ed., Cantus, songs and fancies, to three, four, or five parts, both apt for voices and viols with a brief introduction to musick, as is taught by Thomas Davidson, in the Musick-School of Aberdene. Second Edition. (1662), The XXXVIII Song, pp. 85-87; 12 verses, with the first verse begins "IUrie came to Iebus-Salem".

Sheet Music "The Birth of Christ" (Happy Night!) from Arthur H. Brown, ed., In Excelsis Gloria-Carols for Christmastide (London: Thomas Bosworth & Co., 1885), Carol #11, pp. 22-23.

Sheet Music "The Birth of Christ" (Happy Night!)  by Arthur Henry Brown from The Penny Post, Vol. 31, p. 321 (1881)

Sheet music from J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire, eds., Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.  Vol 2 of 2. (London & Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1899), "Daunce" (Anon.), Number CCVI, p. 268.

Editor's Note:

Also found in the following collections:

• "Jury came to Jerusalem,"  EBBA 20651, English Broadside Ballad Archive, UC-Santa Barbara, Broadside from the Pepys Collection, Pepys 2.28, Magdalene College, "An Excellent Ballad of the Birth and Passion of our Saviour Christ. Tune is, Dulcina." <https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/20651/xml>

• "Iurie came to Iebus-Salem" in John Forbes, ed., Cantus, songs and fancies, to three, four, or five parts, both apt for voices and viols with a brief introduction to musick, as is taught by Thomas Davidson, in the Musick-School of Aberdene. (1662).

• "Jewry came to Jerusalem," in Andrew Clark, ed., The Shirburn Ballads, 1585-1616, Volume 1. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1907), No. XI, "Jewry came to Jerusalem," pp. 59-61. Part Two follows immediately as No. XII, "Turn Your Eyes, That Are Affixed," "Of The Passion of Christ," (To The Same Tune), pp. 62-63. With Introductory note and footnotes to the text.

Mr. Clark notes: "Fol. 123: begins imperfectly, the preceding leaf having been cut out. The text is completed from a Black-letter copy, in 4to Rawl. 566, fol. 156 (olim 353). The obscure stanza 6 seems to mean :— the Jews held a mistaken belief that the advent of the Messiah was to be proclaimed abroad by thunder ; whereas, in fact, it was made known by angelic song. This, with its companion-piece (No. XII), is, in one way, the most singular ballad in the set."

• "Jurie came to Jerusalem," in Vincent Jackson, ed., English Melodies from the 13th to the 18th Century: One Hundred Songs. (J.M. Dent & Sons, 1910), p. 56. Text: 5 verses with Music: Dulcina, an old air.

A separate carol is an excerpt from this one: Happy Night! A Day Was Never.

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