“Joseph he led the ass,
The bridle held he;
What found they by the way,
But a date tree?
Oh! ass’s foal, thou must stand still,
To gather dates it is our will,
So weary are we.
The date tree bowed to the earth,
To Mary’s knee;
Mary would fill her lap
From the date tree.
Joseph was an old man,
And wearied was he.
Mary, let the date tree bide,
We have yet forty miles to ride,
And late it will be.
Let us pray this Blessed Child
Grant us mercie.”
The tradition is also introduced in the early mysteries, and the following is the manner in which it is treated in the fifteenth of the Coventry plays, that may serve as a specimen of these performances, somewhat quaint and rude to our modern ears; and it would puzzle a practised Shakesperian reader, even a well-skilled relation of my own in this art, to give one of these ancient dramas with any effect.—Mary says,
A my swete husbond, wolde ye telle to me
What tre is yon standynge upon yon hylle?
Joseph. Forsoothe, Mary, it is clepyd a chery tre,
In tyme of yer ye myght fede yow yon yō fylle.
Maria. Turne ageyn, husbond, and beholde yon tre,
How yt it blomyght now so swetly.
Joseph. Cum on, Mary, yt we worn at yon cyte,
Or ellys we may be blamyd I telle yow lythty.
Maria. Now, my spouse, I pray yow to be hold
How ye cheryes growyn upon yon tre,
For to have yr of ryght fayn I wold,
And it plesyd yow to labor so mech for me.
Joseph. Yor desyr to fulfylle I shall assay sekyrly,
Ow to plucke yow of these cherries it is a werk wylde,
For ye tre is so hyg’ it wol not be lyghtly,
Yr for lete hy pluk yow cheryes begatt yow wt childe.
Maria. Now, good Lord, I pray the, graunt me yis boun,
To have of yese cheries, and it be yor wylle,
Now I thank it God, yis tre bowyth to me down,
I may now gadery anowe and etyn my fylle.
Joseph. Ow, I know weyl I have offendyd my God ī trinyte,
Spekyn to my spowse these unkynde wordys.
For now I beleve wel it may non other be,
But yt my spowse beryght ye kyngys son of blys,
He help us now at oure nede!“
In the French mystery, or Pastoral, as it is called, of the Naissance, on the first appearance of Joseph and Mary, in their humble condition, the host resists all the entreaties of his wife to let them in—she, with the compassion of a woman (found, as Mungo Park relates, even in the uncivilised interior of Africa) being moved with the apparent helpless condition of the Virgin—the surly host, however, says,
“Fermez, fermez la porte,
Nous ne logerons point des gens de cette sorte.”
Thus repulsed, they then take shelter in the stable.
The legend of the roasted cock coming to life, in proof of our Saviour’s birth, which is mentioned in the carol of the ‘Carnal and the Crane,’ may also be found in an old carol for St. Stephen’s Day, of the time of Henry the Sixth; but in this, instead of crowing three times, as in the more modern carol, the bird, which in the older version is called a capon, crows, “Christus natus est.” The legend of the husbandman, in the same carol, whose seed sprang up before Herod and his train arrived, has been already referred to, as forming part of one of the old mysteries.
The curious fancy, in the carol of ‘I saw three ships,’ is old; one of the ancient Dutch carols given by Hoffman, beginning
“There comes a vessel laden,
And on its highest gunwale,
Mary holds the rudder,
The angel steers it on.”
And in an after verse,