The Hymns and Carols of Christmas

Godes sonne for the love of mane

Words and Music: Traditional English

Source: Thomas Wright, Songs and Carols Now First Printed, From a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (London: The Percy Society, 1847), Song #15, printed verbatim from a manuscript probably owned by a professional musician, and apparently written in the latter half of the fifteenth century, circa 1471-1485.

This carol requires the installation of the "Junicode" font for best display. You can obtain a copy of this font from Old English at the University of Virginia, or right click here, and then select "Save File As" to save a copy of the zipped file to your computer. See notes in F A Q.

Compare: Make We Merry In This Feast

Make we mery in this fest,
For verbum caro factum est.

Godes sonne for the love of mane,
Flesshe and blode of Mary he nam
As in the gospell seyth sent Johan,
    Verbum caro factum est.

Of joy and myrth now mow3 we syng,
God with man is now dwellyng,
Holy wrytt makyth now shewyng,
    Deus homo natus est.

God and man hath shewyd hys chyld,
That hath us bou3t fro the develys wyld;
Hym to worshyp now be we myld,
    Congaudere mihi.

This chyldes moder ever more
Maydyn she was after and before,
And so sayd the prophett in hys lore,
    Verbo prophesye.

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