Though They Cannot Palter

Though They Cannot Palter

Ecce quod natura

For Christmas

Words and melody from the MS. Ashmore 1393.f.69, Bodleian Library.
English Translation by the Rev. J. O'Connor.
Mode VI

See also: Ecce quod Natura and Ecce, novum gaudium

Source: Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #180, pp. 18-19.

Refrain:
Though they cannot palter
Nature's canons alter,
Mary doth not falter,
Bearing God's own Son.

1. Lo, a blithe and novel joy,
An unheard of wonder;
Virgin compasseth a Boy,
Far from man asunder,¹
But as cloud, the thunder.
As the rime, renewal,
Clay begets the jewel,
Mary, God's own Son.

2. When thee world was all undone,
God, its plight beholding
On the briar poured the sun
One white rose unfolding,
One white rose unfolding.
By His Queen revealing
Our eternal healing
Welfare of mankind.

3. Never could Divinity
Make itself more lowly
Neither could humanity
Wax more high and holy,
Wax more high and holy.
Than, with God made even
To be thron'd in Heaven
At the marriage feast.

Refrain:
Ecce quod natura
Mutat sua jura,
Virgo parit pura
Dei Filium.

1. Ecce novum gaudium,
Ecce novum mirum,
Virgo parit filium,
Que non novit virum;
Que non novit virum,
Sed ut pirus pirum
Gleba fert saphirum,
Dei Filium.

2. Mundum Deus flebilem
Videns in ruina,
Rosam dilectabilem
Produxit de spina,
Produxit de spina,
Que cele regina
Nostra medicina
Et salus hominum.

3. Nequivit Divinitas
Plus humilimi;
Nec nostra fragilitas
Magis exaltari,
Magis exaltari,
Quam celo locari,
Deo coequari,
Per conjugina.

Sheet Music from Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #180, pp. 18-19.

Footnote from Rev. Terry (see sheet music):

1. Here follows a bar of complete silence in the manuscript. I have omitted it.

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 #9, pp. 18-19.

Note:

To palter is to talk or act insincerely or misleadingly, or to equivocate.

Other translations include:

Here Is Joy For Every Age by the Rev. John Mason Neale in Carols for Christmas-tide, 1853, from Piæ Cantiones, 1582.
Here Is Joy For Every One, translation by Rev. Ronald Knox, from Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933).

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