2nd s. X. July 28. '60.J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



71 



" Let fill downe thy ne, and lift up thy hart, 

 Behold thy maker on yond cros al to torn, 

 Eemember his wondis that for the did smart, 

 Got3'n without syn and on a virgin born." 



in Campsall church, Yorkshire (Astle, p. 156.). 

 "When Lydgate was a lad of fifteen : — 



" Mid of a cloistre depict upon a wal, 

 (He) sauhe a crucifix, whos wound.vs were not smal. 

 With this woord Vidk writen ther besj'de, 

 ' Behold my meeknesse, child, and lefe thy pride.' " 

 Minor Poems, p. 259. 



A remembrance of this, in after years, led him 

 to write several beautiful stanzas, any one of 

 which will show how strongly the image had left 

 its teachings about the Atonement on the mind 

 (ib. 259., &c.). Even in those books which were 

 drawn up for the lower classes, the workman is 

 told : — 



" To the churche dore when thou dost come, 

 Of that holy water ther sum thow nome. 



But furst thou most do down thy hode, 

 For hyse love that dyed on the rode. 

 Into the churche when thou dost gon, 

 Pulle uppe thy herte to Crist, anon ! 

 Uppon the rode thou loke uppe then. 

 And knele down fayre on bothe thj' knen," &c. 

 Hist, of Freemasonry, ed. Halliwell, p. 32. 



Our forefathers were the men who got for this 

 land the name of "merry" England, and they 

 loved to serve God with gladsome no less than 

 pious heart ; and thus was it, that among the fes- 

 tivities at the Nativity, the holy song, or Christ- 

 mas carol, found much favour with them. But in 

 this kind of composition, the purpose for which 

 our Lord took flesh, is strikingly set forth, as we 

 may see in the specimens of old Christmass Carols 

 printed by the Percy Society : — 



" In a manjour of an as, 

 Ihesu lay and lullyd was, 

 Harde peynis for to pas, 



pro peccante homine." — p. 5. 



" Ihesu deyid and schad his blod. 

 For al mankynde, upon the rod ; 

 He graunt us grace of happis good, 



I be-seke the, swete Ihesu ! " — p. 7. 



" Mary moder, cum and se, 

 Tlii sone is naylyd on a tre," &c. 



" Thi swete sone that thou h;ist born. 

 To save mankynde that was for-lorn. 

 His hed is wrethin in a thorn, 



His blysful body is al a-torn." — p. 10, 



" As said the prophet Abacuc, 

 Betwixt too bestes shulde lye our buk. 



That mankind shuld redenie; 

 The oxe betokenithe mekenes here. 

 The asse our gilte that he shulde here. 

 And wash away our cryme." — p. 36. 



Even while going through the good old cere- 

 mony of setting the boar's head upon tlie festive 

 board, in many a lordly hall, it was not forgotten 

 that — 



" The borys hede that we bryng here, 

 Betokeneth a prince withowte pere, 

 Ys borne this day to bye us dere, 

 nowell. 



" This borys hede we bryng with song,' 

 In Avorchyp of hym that thus sprang 

 Of a virgine, to redress alle wrong ; 

 nowell." — p. 50. 



Thus, with all their merrymakings, our fathers 

 always managed to mix up such important reli- 

 gious instruction. As the year went round, cus- 

 tom brought them one sort of serious and solemn 

 recreation in which they took much delight, and 

 that was the sight of a "mystery" or pious play. 

 Here again the same leading truth we find put 

 conspicuously forward. In a Palm Sunday piece, 

 given in ReliquicB Ant. (ii. 244.), it is said how — ■ 

 " Cryst com as mocklyche as a lorn, 

 To habbe for you dethes dom, 



to dethe a wolde hym pulte. 

 gyf he ne deyde, ne blod ne bledde, 

 Evere jn helle ye hadde ba wedde 



for Adames gulte. 

 Nou yee that bereth to-day your palm. 

 Well aught je queme such a qualm 

 to Crist your herte al gj've," &c. 



The centurion, in the " Burial of Christ," says, 

 speaking of God the Father : — 



" Yitt out of alle synne to brynge us owt of daungere, 

 He soferyth his dere sone for us all to dye." 



Coventry Mysteries, ed. Halliwell, p. 331., Adam 

 thus addresses our Saviour : — 



" 1 thanke the Lord, of thi grett grace. 

 That now is forgovj'n my grett trespace. 



Thorwe my synne man was fforlorn, 



And man to save thou wore alle torn, 



And of a maj'd in Bedlem born," &c. — p. 314.- 



In " Doomsday," Omnes salvati cry out : — 

 " On kne we crepe, we gon, we glj'de. 

 To wurchepp oure Lorde that mercyful is ; 

 Ffor thorwe his woundys that be so wyde. 

 He hath brought us to his bl3's." — p. 403. 



The 4tli vol. of the Camden Miscellany gives us 

 the Skryvener's Play, and there our Lord, appear- 

 ing to the Apostles, says : — 



" ffor I ame cryst, ne dred you noglit ; 

 here may j'ou see 

 the same bodA- that haj's yow bowght 

 uppon a tree 



thus was I dyght your balis to beyt 

 and bryn to blys." — p. 9. 



Go we now to our old national literature of a 

 lighter kind. Whenever our young folks, at that 

 period, took up a book of poetry or romance, they 

 were sure to find mixed up wltli the doings of 

 doughty knights and high-born ladies many ex- 

 pressions in reference to their Christian belief. In 

 the " Anturs of Arther " among the Three Me- 

 trical Romances printed by the Camden Society, 

 " Thenne coniurt the knj-gt, and on Cryst callus. 

 As thou was claryfiet on crosse, and clanser of synne," 

 &c„ p. 6,, 



