Doune from heave from heave so hie

For Christmas

A Song of the Angels in the Shearmen’s and Taylors’ Pageant at Coventry

Words: A Variant of About the Field They Piped Full / Terly Terlow
See: Abowt the fyld thei pyped full right (Wright)

Music: Not Stated

Source: Thomas Sharp, A Dissertation on the Pageants…performed at Coventry. (Coventry: Merridew, 1825), p. 114 (Songs of the Angels in Shearmen’s and Taylors’ Pageant).

        SONG III.

Doune from heavẽ from heavẽ so hie
Of angeles þ^er came a great companie
Wt mirthe and ioy and great solenmitye
Thé sange terly terlow
So mereli the sheppards þ^er pipes cã blow

Source: Hardin Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays. EETS e.s. 87 (London: 1902; 2nd ed. 1957; repr. 1967), p. 32.

                    Song III.

Doune from heaven, from heaven so hie,
Of angeles ther came a great companie,
With mirthe and ioy and great solemnitye,
        The sange terly terlow ;
 So merelī the sheppards ther pipes can blow.

Source: Alfred William Pollard, ed., Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse. A Volume of Arber’s ‘English Garner' (Westminster and New York: Dutton, 1903), p. 273.

        SONG 3.

Down from heaven, from heaven so high,
Of angels there came a great company,
With mirth and joy and great solemnity,
        They sang terli, terlow,
So merrily the shepherds their pipes can blow.

Editor's Note:

Versions of this carol occur in three known manuscripts, one of which has been lost. Some versions are composites from two or three manuscripts, such as Terly Terlow, Terly Terlow (Chambers & Sidgwick). Other versions on this website include:

I. Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. poet. e.1

• Abowt the fyld thei pyped full right (Wright)

• About The Field They Pipëd Right (Rickert)

II. Oxford, Balliol College 354

• A bowt the felde they pypyd ryght (Flügel)

• About The Field They Piped Full Right (Weston)

III. Coventry, MS formerly owned by Thomas Sharp (burned in 1879 according to DIMEV). Versions from Thomas Sharp, Hardin Craig, and Alfred William Pollard.

• Doune from heave from heave so hie

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