The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #47143   Message #702005
Posted By: masato sakurai
01-May-02 - 10:13 AM
Thread Name: Help: info on easter carol
Subject: Lyr Add: MARY MOTHER, COME AND SEE
There're five versions (157A-E) of "Mary mother, come and see" in Richard Leighton Greene's The Early English Carols, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1997; texts only). The following is version C (British Museum. MS. Sloane 2593; XV century). Notes with asterisks are mine.

Nowel, el, el, el, el, el, el, el,
el, el, el, el, el, el, el, el!

[1]
'Mary moder, cum and se:
Thi Sone is naylyd on a tre,
Hand and fot; he may not go;
His body is woundyn al in woo*. [*woe]

[2]
'Thi swete Sone that thou hast born
To saue mankynde, that was forlorn,
His bed is wrethin* in a thorn; [*wreathed]
His blysful body is all to-torn.'

[3]
Quan* he this tale began to telle, [*When]
Mary wold non lenger* dwelle, [*longer]
But hyid* here faste to that hylle [*hied]
Ther Jhesu his blod began to spyll.

[4]
'Myn swete Sone, that art me dere,
Qwy* han men hangyd the* here? [*Why, *thee]
Thi hed is wrethin in a brere*; [*briar]
Myn louly Sone, qwer is thin chere*? [*cheer]

[5]
'Thin swete body that in me rest,
Thin comely mowth that I haue kest!
Now on rode is mad thi nest;
Leue chyld, quat is me best?'

[6] 'Womman, to Jon I the betake;
Jon, kyp* this womman for myn sake. [*keep?]
For synful sowlys* my deth I take [*souls]
On rode I hange for manys sake.

[7]
'This game alone me muste play;
For synful sowle I deye today;
Ther is non wyght that goth be the way
Of myn peynys can wel say.'

This carol is not contained in John Steven's two carol books (Mediaeval Carols and Early Tudor Songs and Carols, Musica Britsannica series), so there seems to be no music left.

~Masato