Time is supposed to have elapsed, and the scene has changed.

As Joseph was a walking

He heard an angel sing :

"This night shall be born
Our Heavenly King;

"He neither shall be born
In housen, nor in hall,

Nor in the place of Paradise,
But in an ox's stall;

"He neither shall be clothed,

In purple nor in pall

But all in fair linen,

As were babies all;

"He neither shall be rocked
In silver nor in gold,

But in a wooden cradle,

That rocks on the mould;

"He neither shall be christened
In white wine nor red,

But with fair spring water

With which we were christened."

More time has elapsed, and the scene again changes.

Then Mary took her young Son,

I

And set him on her knee :

pray thee now, dear child,

Tell how this world shall be?"

66 O, I shall be as dead, Mother,
As the stones in the wall;

O, the stones in the street, Mother,
Shall mourn for me all.4

"And upon a Wednesday
My vow I will make,
And upon Good Friday

My death I will take;

Upon Easter-day, Mother,

My uprising shall be;

O, the sun and the moon, Mother,

Shall both rise with me."

The Warwickshire broadside copy in my possession gives

this stanza :

"This world shall be like

The stones in the street,

For the sun and the moon
Shall bow down at my feet."

E

DIVES AND LAZARUS.

[THIS Carol, I believe, has not been given in any previous collection. It is reprinted here from an old Birmingham broadside. Hone appears to have met with it, and alludes to a quaint rendering of the thirteenth verse which occurred in his copy. The lines are—

"Rise up, rise up, brother Dives,

And come along with me,

For you've a place provided in hell
To sit upon a serpent's knee."

The idea of sitting on the serpent's knee was, perhaps, conveyed to the poet's mind by old woodcut representations of Lazarus seated in Abraham's lap. More anciently, Abraham was frequently drawn holding him up by the sides that he might be the better seen by Dives in the fiery pit.]

S it fell out upon a day,

Rich Dives he made a feast,

And he invited all his friends,

And gentry of the best.

Then Lazarus laid him down and down,

And down at Dives' door,

"Some meat, some drink, brother Dives,

Bestow upon the poor."

"Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus, That lies begging at my door,

No meat nor drink will I give thee,

Nor bestow upon the

poor."

Then Lazarus laid him down and down, And down at Dives's wall,

"Some meat, some drink, brother Dives, Or with hunger starve I shall."

"Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus, That lies begging at my wall,

No meat nor drink will I give thee,
But with hunger starve you shall."

Then Lazarus laid him down and down, And down at Dives's gate,

"Some meat, some drink, brother Dives, For Jesus Christ his sake."

"Thou art none of my brother, Lazarus,

That lies begging at my gate,

No meat nor drink will I give thee,
For Jesus Christ his sake."

Then Dives sent out his merry men,
To whip poor Lazarus away,

They had no power to strike a stroke,
But flung their whips away.

Then Dives sent out his hungry dogs,
To bite him as he lay,

They had no power to bite at all,

But licked his sores away.

As it fell out upon a day,

Poor Lazarus sickened and died,

There came two angels out of heaven,
His soul therein to guide.

"Rise up, rise up, brother Lazarus,

And go along with me,

For you've a place prepared in heaven,
To sit on an angel's knee."