Eya martyr Stephane
For Christmas
Words and melody
from a parchment roll in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.
(Date, Fifteenth Century.)
Mode IX
See: Cambridge UK, Trinity College O.3.58 (1230)
Compare: Eia, Martyr Stephane (From Rickert with sheet music by J. A. Fuller Maitland, English Carols of the Fifteenth Century.
Source: Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #192, p. 41.
Refrain
Eya martyr Stephane,
Pray for us we pray to thee.
1.
Of this martyr make we mend1
Quix
triumpharit hodie.
And to heaven
bliss gan wende.
Dono
celestis gracie.
2. Stoned He was
with stones great,
Fervore gentis impie.
Then he saw Christ sit
in (His) seat,
Innixum Patris dextere.
3. Thou prayedst
Christ for thine enemies,
O martyr invictissime.
Thou pray for
us that high justice
Ut nos purget a crimine.2
Footnotes from Rev. Terry:
1. The MS. Gives 'make we mende.' As the obvious sense of the line is 'make we mind,' i.e., 'make we mention,' I have given that reading. 'Mende' is so unusual a form in the dialect in which the poem is writen that I have assumed it to be a scribe's error for 'minde.' Return
2. 'Amen' occurs here in the MS. But there is no indication of how it is to be fitted to the music. (Only verse 1 is written under the notes.) Return
Sheet Music from Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #192, p. 41.
Sheet Music from Sir Richard Runciman Terry, A Medieval Carol Book: The Melodies Chiefly from MMS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., 1932), Carol #29, p. 54.
Editor's Note:
One of many hymns and carols dedicated to St. Stephen. See: Hymns to St Stephen.
Another collection containing carols from a roll in the Library of Trinity College is J. A. Fuller Maitland, ed., English Carols of the Fifteenth Century From A MS Roll in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. (London: The Leadenhall Press, et al., 1891), with added vocal parts by W. S. Rockstro.
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