From Once a Week.
A BUNDLE OF CHRISTMAS CAROLS.
Carols, as the name implies, are joyous songs for festive occasions, at one period accompanied with dancing. In an old vocabulary of A.D. 1440, Caral is defined as A Songe; in John Palsgrave's work of A.D. 1530, as Chanson de Noël; whilst in Anglo-Saxon times the word appears to have been rendered Kyrriole, a chanting at the Nativity. The earliest carol in English, known under that name, is the production of Dame Berners, prioress of St Alban's in the fourteenth century, entitled A Carolle of Huntynge. This is printed on the last leaf of Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Christmas carols, A.D. 1521, and the first verse modernized runs thus:
"As I came by a green forest side,
I met with a forester that bade me abide,
Whey go bet, hey go bet, hey go how.
We shall have sport and game enow."
Milton uses the word carol to express a devotional hymn:
"A quire
Of squadron'd angels hear his carol sang."
And that distinguished light of the English Church, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, speaks of the angels' song on the morning of the Nativity as the first Christmas carol: "As soon as these blessed choristers had sung their Christmas carol, and taught the Church a hymn to put into her offices for ever," etc.
According to Durandus, it was customary in early days for bishops to sing with their clergy in the episcopal houses on the feast of the Nativity. "In Natali praelati cum suis clericis ludant, vel in domibus episcopalibus." These merry ecclesiastics sung undoubtedly Christmas carols.
But carols, like everything else, must be divided into two sorts, religious and secular—the carols "in prayse of Christe" and the merry songs for the festive board or fireside. These may be broken up into further varieties, thus: