Now Is Well And All Things Aright
Words: English Traditional, Fifteenth Century
Source: Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), pp. 172-3.
1. Now is well1
and all things aright,
And Christ is come as a true knight;
For our Brother is King of might,
The fiend to fleme2
and all his.
Thus the fiend is put to flight,
And all his boast abated is.
2. Sithen it is, well (must) we do,
For there is none but one of two,
Heaven to get or heaven forego,
Other mean none there is;
I counsel you, since it is so,
That you well do to win you bliss.
3. Now is well and all is well,
And right well, so have I bliss;
And sithen all things are so well,
I rede3 we do no more
amiss.
Notes:
1. A pun upon Nowell. Return
2. To put to flight. Return
3. Counsel. Return
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