3. “In a manger laid and wrapp’d I was, So very poor this was my chance, Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass, To call my true love to my dance. Sing oh! etc.
4. “Then afterwards baptised I was, The Holy Ghost on me did glance, My Father’s voice heard from above, To call my true love to my dance. Sing oh! etc.
5. “Into the desert I was led, Where I fasted without substance: The Devil bade me make stones my bread, To have me break my true love’s dance. Sing oh! etc.
6. “The Jews on me they made great suit, And with me made great variance, Because they loved darkness rather than light, To call my true love to the dance. Sing oh! etc.
7. “For thirty pence Judas me sold, His covetousness for to advance; Mark, where I kiss, the same do hold, The same is he shall lead the dance, Sing oh! etc.
8. “Before Pilate the Jews me brought, When Barabbas had deliverance; They scourg’d me and set me at nought, Judged me to die to lead the dance. Sing oh! etc.
9. “When on the cross hanged I was; When a spear to my heart did glance, There issued forth both water and blood, To call my true love to the dance. Sing oh! etc.
10. “Then down to Hell I took my way, For my true love’s deliverance, And rose again on the third day, Up to my true love and the dance. Sing oh! etc.
11. “Then up to Heaven I did ascend, Where now I dwell in sure substance, On the right hand of God, that man May come into the general dance. Sing oh! etc.”
Mr G. R. S. Mead thinks that this carol was originally sung by the mediæval minstrels, jongleurs, and troubadours, who are said to have invented the word carol, meaning a dance in which the performers moved slowly in a circle, singing as they went. The Troubadours are responsible for the preservation of many fragments of old mystery plays, and this carol is probably one such fragment, and as such is a link between the definitely pagan folk-dance and through the Christian Church to those alive in England to-day.