THE ANGEL GABRIEL FROM GOD. [THE birth of our Saviour was a mystery upon which the old divines and carolists were ever fond of dwelling. The familiar expressions used towards the Virgin, the angel Gabriel, and the other distinguished personages of the event, served to enlist the sympathies of rustics, and rendered the outlines of the narrative easier to their understanding. In most of the Carols of this kind the plainness of the language employed prevents their being reprinted in any other than in a purely antiquarian work. The following Carol, however, although exhibiting the most indifferent poetry, shadows forth the spirit of its class, and is more free from the objections alluded to than any other I have fallen in with.] HE Angel Gabriel from God Was sent to Galilee, Unto a Virgin fair and free, Whose name was called Mary. And when the Angel thither came, He fell down on his knee, THE HOLY WELL. [THIS popular Carol preserves in quaint and simple verse the outlines of an old legend of the dark ages. The people were anxious to learn more about the first years of the life of Jesus than the Scriptures supplied, and the priests and monks invented various pleasing stories to amuse and instruct them. The Apocryphal Books of the New Testament, also, afforded a great many religious tales. Some of these were put into A specimen may be seen in the following. On the broad-sheet (printed at Gravesend in the last century), it is stated to be " A very Ancient Carol."] verse. S it fell out one May morning,1 And on a bright holiday, Sweet Jesus asked of his dear mother, If he might go to play. 'I might mention, as an indication of the probable date of this simple composition, that several ballads of the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth began in this style— "As it fell out on a holiday, As it fell out on a Whitsunday," &c. The whole piece has a strong ballad flavour. "To play, to play, sweet Jesus shall go, And to play now get you gone, And let me hear of no complaint, At night when you come home." Sweet Jesus went down to yonder town, As far as the Holy Well, And there did see as fine children As any tongue can tell, He said, "God bless you every one, Little children, shall I play with you? But they made answer to him, "No," They were lords' and ladies' sons; And he, the meanest of them all, Was born in an ox's stall. Sweet Jesus turned him around, And he neither laugh'd nor smil'd, But the tears came trickling from his Like water from the skies. D eyes Sweet Jesus turned him about, To his mother's dear home went he, And said, "I have been in yonder town, As after you may see. "I have been in yonder town, As far as the Holy Well; There did I meet as fine children As any tongue can tell. "I bid God bless them every one, And Christ their bodies see; Little children, shall I play with you? “But then they answered me, 'No,' They were lords' and ladies' sons; And I, the meanest of them all, Was born in an ox's stall.” 66 Though you are but a maiden's child, Born in an ox's stall, Thou art the Christ, the King of heaven, And the Saviour of them all. |