Carol Contemplation: Coventry Carol

Lully, lullay,* Thou little tiny Child,

By, by, lully, lullay.

Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,

By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,

For to preserve this day

This poor youngling for whom we sing

By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his own sight,

All children young to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever morn and day,*

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

By, by, lully, lullay.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The "Coventry Carol" is a Christmas carol dating from the 16th Century. The carol was performed in Coventry as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from the Gospel of Matthew. This carol presents the Massacre of the Innocents in which Herod orders all male infants in Bethlehem killed. The lyrics of this haunting carol represent a mother's lament for her doomed child. It is the only carol that has survived from this play.

It is notable as a well-known example of a Picardy third. The author is unknown; the oldest known text was written down by Robert Croo in 1534, and the oldest known printing of the melody dates from 1591. There is an alternate setting of the carol by Kenneth Leighton.

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And here we have the Dark Side of Christmas. Not much is preached about Herod's slaughter of Bethlehem's children, nor do we sing about it much. Christmas is supposed to be a happy time of year, a time for joy and making-merry. We call it "the children's time," for heaven's sake. So why have a Christmas carol about the massacre of the innocents?

It is a beautiful, haunting melody, a quiet lament of a lullaby, and there are some wonderful versions of this song. I love Loreena McKennit's rendition on A Winter's Garden, and Eden's Bridge's version on Celtic Christmas. I have also heard some lovely instrumental arrangements. It definitely belongs in the canon of Allyson's Favorite Christmas Carols.

So back to why. Shouldn't we think about the dark side of Christmas? It was not without cost. It was very costly to Mary, poor thing, who lost her reputation when she suddenly became a pregnant unwed teenager. It cost Joseph some mortification too, when people discovered that his fiancee was pregnant. And what about the second person of the trinity? The Word of God, who had to fit his magnificence into a human body. And we know what it cost God the Father, who in sending His Son to earth, was condemning him to die for mankind. Christmas cost much.