The first stanza is said to have this variation in Worcestershire:
Joseph was a hoary man,
and a hoary man was he.
Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, III, 75.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A copy of the Cherry-Tree carol in The Guardian, Dec. 27, 1871, is partly compiled "from several ancient sources," and partly composed by the contributor: see Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, X, 73.
[2] Cf. the very naive D 5: 'Mary shall have cherries, and Joseph shall have none.'
[3] Liber de Infantia Mariæ et Christi Salvatoris, O. Schade, 1869, p. 38 f, follows almost word for word the Pseudo-Matthew. In note 234 the editor points out passages where the story occurs in Hróthsvítha, and other mediæval poetry. See, also, Schade, Narrationes de vita et conversatione beatæ Mariæ Virginis, 1870, pp 16, 24.
[4] The same in Christmas and Christmas Carols [by J. F. Russell], p. 26, with an additional modern-sounding stanza.