Another version gives the following reply of S. Joseph:
"O then bespake Joseph.
'I have done Mary wrong.
But cheer up, my dearest.
And be not cast down.'"
I give a portion of the rest of the carol, some of the verses being remarkably touching and beautiful:
"As Joseph was a-walking,
He heard an angel sing,
'This night shall be born
Our Heavenly King.
"He neither shall be born
In honsen 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 in red.
But with the spring water
With which we were christened.'"
In the fifteenth pageant of the Coventry Mysteries the following lines occur:
"Mary, Ah, my sweet husband, would you tell to me
What tree is yon, standing on yon hill?
"Joseph, Forsooth. Mary, it is yclept a cherry tree.
In time of year you might feed you thereon your fill.
"Mar. Turn again, husband, and behold yon tree.
How that it bloometh now so sweetly.
"Jos. Come on, Mary, that we were a yon city.
Or else we may be blamed, I tell you lightly.
"Mar. Now, my spouse, I pray you to behold
How the cherries (are) grown upon yon tree;
For to have thereof right fain I would.
And it please you to labor so much for me.
"Jos. Your desire to fulfil I shall assay sekerly,
How to pluck you of these cherries, it is a work wild.
For the tree is so high, It would not be lightly (easy).
* * * * *
"Mar. Now, good Lord, I pray thee, grant me this boon,
To have of these cherries, and it be your will;
Now I thank God this tree boweiht to me down,
I may now gather enow, and eat my fill.
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"Jos. Now I know well, I have offended my God in trinity.
Speaking to my spouse these unkind words.
For now I believe well it may none other be,
But that my spouse beareth the King's Son of Bliss."
It is interesting to note the way in which the more modern composition retains all the incidents and traditions of the mediaeval mystery. Our popular carol speaks of St. Joseph as an old man, and an old man was he, while the mystery represents him as saying (p. x.), I am an old man, and I am so aged and so old.The tree is the same, there is the same desire of the Virgin Mother to taste the fruit, the same refusal and bitter retort of her husband, the bowing-down of the tree, and the regret of St. Joseph for his unkindness. Mr. Hone was not ashamed to say of the "Cherry-Tree Carol:" "The admiration of my earliest days for some lines in it still remains, nor can I help thinking that the reader will see somewhat of cause for it."
The following example is still given on almost every broadside annually printed: it is called "The Three Ships." I ought perhaps first to state that the Three Ships are supposed to signify the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation being, as the Speculum Vitae Christi hath it, "the high work of all the Holy Trinity, though it be that only the Person of the Son was incarnate and became man:"
"I saw three ships come sailing in,
On Christmas day, on Christmas day:
I saw three ships come sailing in
On Christmas day in the morning.
"And what was in those ships all three,
On Christmas day? etc.,
And what was in, etc.,
On Christmas day in the morning?
"Our Saviour Christ and our Lady, etc..
On Christmas day in the morning.
Pray whither sailed those ships all three? etc.,
On Christmas day in the morning.
"O, they sailed into Bethlehem, etc..
On Christmas day in the morning;
And all the bells on earth shall ring, etc.,
On Christmas day in the morning.
"And all the angels in heaven shall sing, etc,
On Christmas day In the morning.
And all the souls on earth shall sing, etc.,
On Christmas day in the morning.
"Then let us all rejoice amain, etc..
On Christmas day in the morning."
Another rude and rather amusing version is sometimes given of this carol, called "The Sunny Bank:"