mary is a lady bryzt

For Christmas

Words: English Traditional from the Sloane Ms. 2593, British Library, London

Music: Not Stated

Source: Bernhard Fehr, "Die Lieder der Hs. Sloane 2593," in Alois Brandl and Adolf Tobler, eds., Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen. Band CIX. (Braunschweig: George Westermann, 1902), "mary is a lady bryzt," #XIX, p. 48.

A, a, a, a,
nunc gaudet maria.

mary is a lady bryzt,
sche hazt a sone of meche myzt,
ouer al þis word che is lyzt
    bona natalicia.    6

mary is so fayr of face and fote,
and here sone so ful of (p)ote,
ouer al þis word he is bote
    bona voluntaria.

mary is so fayr of face,
and here sone so ful of grace. 12
in heuene he make us a place
    cum sua potencia.

mary is boþe goode and kynde,
euer on vs che hazt mende
þat þe fend xal vs not schende
    cum sua malicia. 18

mary is qwen of alle þinge,
and here sone a louely kynge.
God graunt vs alle good endynge!
    regnat dei gracia.

Editor's Note:

Copies of this carol on this site include:

• Mary Is A Lady Bry3t (Wright, 1856)

• mary is a lady bryzt (Fehr, 1902) (this page)

• Mary Is A Lady Bright (Chambers & Sidgwick, 1907)

• Mary Is A Lady Bright (Rickert, 1914)

Chambers and Sidgwick noted:

7. Fehr, in Archiv as above, prints :—

‘Mary is so fayr of face and fote,'

The words ‘of face’, however, are deleted in the MS. and ‘fote’ is Fehr's error for ‘sote'.

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