Synge We All For Tyme It Is

For Christmas

Alternate Title: Christ, The Fleur-de-lys.

Words: English Traditional from Ms. Balliol 254, folio 229a.

Compare: For His Love That Bought Us All Dear (Rickert)
Singe We All, For Time It Is (Chambers & Sidgwick), with notes.

Source: Ewald Flügel, ed., “Liedersammlungen des XVI Jahrhunderts, Besonders Aus Der Zeit Heinrichs VIII. III. 6. Die lieder des Balliol Ms. 354,” in Eugen Einenkel, ed., Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie enthaltend Beitrage zur Geschlicht der englischen Sprache und Literatur. Band XXVI. (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1903), p. 260.

XCIX

Synge we all for tyme it is,
Mary hath born ye flowre Delice!

1. ffor his love yat bowght vs all dere,
lystyn lordynges that ben here,
& I will tell you In ffere,
wher of com ye flowr Delyce.
                                        syng we &c

2. On Cristmas nyght, whan it was cold,
owr lady lay amonge bestes bolde,
& ther she bare Ihesu, Iosepffe tolde!
& ther of Com the flowr delice!
                                        syng we &c

3. Off yat berith witnesse seynt Iohan,
That it was of myche Renown,
baptized he was in flome Iordan,
& ther of Cam the flowr delice!
                                        syng &c

4. On good ffryday yat child was slayn!
Betyn with skorges & all to fflayn
That Day he suffred myche payn
& ther of Com the fflowr Delice!
                                        syng we &c

Editor's Note:

Also found in Ewald Flügel, "Englische Weihnachtslieder aus einer Handschrift des Balliol College zu Oxford." In Forschungen zur deutschen Philologie: Festgabe fur Rudolf Hildebrand, (Leipzig, 1894), #27, p. 77, who noted that the carol was found in Fol. 229a.

Also found in Roman Dyboski, ed., Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems, From the Balliol MS. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book. Issue 101, Early English Text Society, Extra Series. (London: Published for the Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1907), "The fleuyr de lys, Christ," #47, pp. 37-38.

Not found in Jessie L. Weston, ed., Old English Carols from the Hill MS. (London: David Nutt 1911). Translations by Jessie L. Weston.

Also found in Eleanor Mabel Valentine Brougham, ed., Corn From Olde Fieldes: An anthology of English Poems From The XIVth To The XVIIth Century (John Lane, 1922), pp. 8-9.

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