Welcū ȝole In Good Array

For Christmas

Words: Attributed to John Audelay
Douce MS. 302, 15th Century

William Sandys, Christmas-tide, Its History, Festivities and Carols, With Their Music (London: John Russell Smith, 1852), pp. 218-9.

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.

Welcū ȝole in good array,
In worship of þ^e holiday,

Welcū be þ^u heue kyng,
Welcū þ^u born i on mornyng,
Welcū to þ^e now wil we syng,
Welcū ȝole for eur and ay,

Welcū be þ^u mare myld,
Welcū be þ^u and þⁱ child,
Welcū fro þ^e fynd þ^u as schilde,
Welcū ȝole for eu^r and ay,

Welcū be ȝe steuë and ione,
Welcū childrn eūechone,
Welcū thomas, marty^r, all on,
Welcū ȝole for eu^r and aye,

Welcū be þ^u good newyere,
Welcū þ^e xij days efere,
Welcū be ye all þt bene here,
Welcū ȝole for ew^r and aye, 

Welcū be ȝe lord and lady,
Welcū be ȝe all þis cūpane,
Ffore ȝolis love makis mere,
Welcū ȝole fore ew^r and aye.

Copies of this carol on this web site:

• Wolcum Be Thu, Hevene Kyng (Ritson, Ancient Songs, 1790)

• Wolcu zol thu mery ma (Wolcū be þu heuene kyng; William Sandys, 1833)

• Wolcum be thu, hevene kyng; Thomas Wright, 1841)

• Welcū Yole In Good Array (Welcū be þ^u heue kyng; William Sandys, 1852) (this page)

• Wolcum, Yole, Thou Mery Man (Wolcum be thou, hevene king; Chambers & Sidgwick, 1907)

• Welcome Yule (Welcome be thou, Heaven-King; Edith Rickert, 1910)

• Welcome Yule (Welcome be thou, heaven-king; Charles L. Hutchins, 1916)

• Welcum, Yole, In Glod Aray (Welcum be thou, Heven Kyng; Richard Greene, 1962)

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