The Boris Hed In Hondes I Brynge

For Christmas

Words and Music: English Traditional
Balliol College, Oxford. MS. 354. XVI Century.

In Blackletter: The bores heed in hande bring I

See generally: The Boar's Head Carols

Source: Richard Greene, ed., A Selection of English Carols (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1962), #32, p. 91.

Caput apri refero,
Resonens laudes Domino.

The boris hed in hondes I brynge,
With garlondes gay and byrdes syngynge;
I pray you all, helpe me to synge,
    Qui estis in convivio.

The boris hede, I understond,
Ys cheff servyce in all this londe;
Whersoever it may be fonde,
    Servitur cum sinapio.

The boris hede, I dare well say,
Anon after the [Twelfth] Day
He taketh his leve and goth away,
    Exivit tunc de patria.

Also found in Edward Bliss Reed, ed., Christmas Carols Printed in the 16th Century Including Kele's Christmas Carolles Newly Inprynted. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932).

See notes in The Boris Hed In Hondis I Brynge-Hill.

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