The Hymns and Carols of Christmas

Mary moder come and ~e

For Christmas

In Blackletter;  in a Middle English font: Mary moder come and se

From MS. Sloan 2593, fol. 70, r0; see Mary moder, cum and se - Thomas Wright.

A similar carol is found in the Bodleian Library. MS. Eng. Poet. e. 1. XV Century; see Mary modyr, cum and se - Version 2 - Greene, 1962

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

This carol requires the installation of the "Old Blacketter" font for best display.

Gaudeams ~unge we, I hoc ~acro tpe?

Peur nobis natus en ex Maria virgine

Mary moder come and ~e

Thy ~one is nayled on a tre

Hande and fote he may not go

His body is wrapped all in wo

 

Upon a tre nayled he is

To brynge vs all to heuen bly~~

For Adam that dyde ainy~~e

For an aple that was ~o fre

 

From his heed vnto his too

His ~kynne is torne and fle~~he al~o

His body is bothe wanne and blo

And nayled he is on a tre

 

Thy louely ~one that thou ha~t borne

Is crowned with a crowne of thorne

To ~aue mankynde that was but lorne

And brynge man but to his liberte

 

Whan Johan this tale began to tell

Mary wolde no lenger dwell

But went amonge the Jewes fell

Where ~he myght her ~one ~e

                            A.ii.

 

My ~wete ~one that arte me dere

Why hange~t thou on rode here

Thy hede is wrythen all in a brere

Louely ~one what may this be.

 

Moder to Johan I the betake

Johan kepe this woman for my ~ake

On rode I am emendes to make

For ~ynfull man as ye may ~e.

 

This game of loue I mu~t play

For mannes ~oule it is no nay

There is no man that goth by the way

But on my body he may haue pyte

 

This payne y^ men haue me wrought

For ~ynfull ~oules I haue it bought

Of all this ~merte yet rewe I nought

If man wolde be kynde to me.

 

My blode coleth my fle~he doth fall

I am athry~t after drynke I call

They gyue me ey~yll menged with gall

A wors drinke may there be none.

 

Fader my ~oule to the I betake.

My body dyeth for mannes ~ake

To hell I mu~t withouten make

Mankynde for to make fre

 

God that deyed for vs all

Borne of a mayde in an oxe ~tall

Graunt vs his realme cele~tyall

Amen, amen, for charyte.

                    Finis.

Note:

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