English & Other Versions 54. The Cherry-Tree Carol
Yeats Broadside 1909
[Upcoming- this page is not completed- some versions added]
CONTENTS:
1) Joseph Was An Old Man- Sandys 1833 Child A a.
2) Joseph Was An Old Man- Sandys 1852 Child A b.
3) The Cherry-Tree Carol- Husk 1884 Child B a.
4) The Cherry-Tree Carol- Hone 1823 Child B b.
5) The Cherry-Tree Carol- Hotten 1861 Child B c.
6) The Cherry-Tree- Cowper Birmingham 1843 Child B d.
7) The Cherry-Tree Carol- Bramley 1871 Child C
8) Oh! Joseph Was An Old Man- 1841 Berkshire Child D
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9) The Cherry-Tree Carol- (Yorkshire) 1876 Chope
10) Joseph Was An Old Man- Bullen 1886
The Cherry-Tree Carol- (Surrey) 1910 Gillington
Joseph Was An Old Man- Shaw/Dearmer 1913
The Cherry-Tree Carol- Thomas (Cornwall) 1913 Sharp
Cherry, Holly and Ivy- Landers (Cornish) 1924
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336. EARLY CHRISTMAS CAROLS. Divine Mirth. Folio broadside. Title in one line. Below the title, and extending across the page are three crude and quaint wood-engravings depicting the Nativity and like scenes. At right and left, extending to the brittom of the sheet, are similar engravings of Saints, six in all. In the center of the sheet, printed in three columns containing a total of about 175 lines, are the texts of the four very ancient "Carols" which, until about a century and a half ago, were somewhat in the nature of a religious folk-lore. The first is the one beginning “God rest you, merry gentlemen.” The second begins: “The moon shines bright.” The third commences: “The first good joy our Mary had.” The fourth (a strange and curious text indeed) begins: “When Joseph was an old man, an old man was he, And he married Mary, the queen of Galilee.”
Printed and sold by T. Batchelar, Long Alley, Moorfields (London, (c. 1770)
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The Songs and Ballads of R. F. Kilvert
Neil C. Hultin
Folklore, Vol. 92, No. 2 (1981), pp. 174-189
THE diary of Robert Francis Kilvert (1840-1879), only partially available in the
editions of William Plomer, contains references to ballads and songs as well
as valuable information on Kilvert's sources, contributing to an understanding
of the folklore of Wiltshire and Radnorshire.
These ballads came to Kilvert from John Cozens, a source for much
of Kilvert's knowledge of the customs and traditions of the village of Langley
Burrell in Wiltshire. An older man, Cozens was employed by Kilvert's father
to fetch baggage, cut wood, swarm bees, and cut grass.
Kilvert took down 'word for word from... [Cozens'] mouth'[46] an 'old Christmas
Carol' which turns out to be a unique version of 'The Cherry Tree Carol,'
with variations not often, if at all, seen. The first six stanzas of Cozens' song
parallel versions given by Child:
1. Joseph was an old man,
An old man was he
When first he courted Mary
What a virgin was she. 47
2. Joseph and Mary
Walked out in Garden's Wood,
Were apples, plums and cherries
As red as they grow. 48
3. Mary spake to Joseph
So meek and so mild,
'Gather me some cherries, Joseph,
For I am with child.49
4. Then up spoke Joseph
With his words so unkind,
'Let them gather you cherries, Mary,
That got you with child.'50
5. Then up spoke Jesus
Out of His Mother's womb,
'Bow down then sweet cherry tree,
Bow down to the ground.' 51
6. The top of the bower
Bowed down to Mary's arms,
Mary gathered cherries
And Jesus had some. 52
The verbal differences between these verses and those found in Child's collection
are given in the footnotes; they are not radical, and though Child includes
stanzas not found here, the relationship between this song andthe Child versions
is apparent. The story itself was derived from apocryphal accounts of the life of
Mary53 popular in medieval literature. The medieval mystery play made much
of it as, for example, the 'N-Town' cycle play of the 'Birth of Christ' where an
analogous scene appears; Joseph and Mary are on their way to Bethlehem
when Mary asks:
Now my spowse I pray yow to be-hold
How the cheryes growyn vpon yon tre
Ffor to haue ther-of ryght ffayn I wold
And it plesyd yow to labore so mech for me.
Joseph.
Yor desyre to ffulfylle I xal Assay sekyrly
Ow to plucke yow of these cheries it is a werk wylde
Ffor the tre is so hygh it wol nat be lyghtly
Therfore lete hym pluk yow cheryes be-gatt yow with childe.
Maria.
Now good lord I pray thee graunt me this boun
To haue of these cheries and it be your wylle
Now I thank it god this tre bowyth to me down
I may now gaderyn A-nowe and etyn my ffylle.54
This episode is a self-contained unit in the play. Joseph's unpleasant remark
about the father of Mary's child is completely out of context if one considers the
story-line. It comes long after the angel has assured Joseph that Mary 'is a ful
clene may' and he has openly recognized the divine origin of the child.55ssT he
episode is traditionala nd, even thougho ut of place, appearsi n the play for that
reason, as well as for its dramatic quality and its visual assertion of Christ's
power over nature. The episode also recalls the scene in Eden in which Eve
plucked fruit much to mankind's hurt. Then Nature groaned in pain but in this
second enactment She bends in obedience to the second Eve.
With the seventh stanza Cozens' carol diverges radically from those collected
by Child, or from any other printing of the carol which I have examined:
7. Joseph and Mary
Their substance was small,
They could get no lodging
In the City at all.
8. Joseph and Mary
In the stable did lie
Where oxen and asses
They used for to lie.
9. Joseph and Mary
They thought it no harm
And before the next morning
Our Saviour was born.
10. Small store of fine linen
From heaven was sent
Small store of fine linen
To wrap it up in.
11. Mary she dressed her baby,
And she dressed it so neat,
And 'twere in an old manger
Where she laid it to sleep.
12. Joseph and Mary
In the heavens so high
They saw the poor shepherds
In the fields where they lie.
The difference between these last six stanzas and the preceding six is apparent
both in form and content. Stanza 6 effectively ends the plot of 'The Cherry
Tree Carol;' stanza 7 begins a new story altogether, marked, in one way, by a
repeated first line in stanzas 7, 8, 9, and 12. Stanzas 10 and 11 are more akin to
the stanza of 'The Cherry Tree Carol,' and consequently it comes as no surprise
that these two are very similar to stanzas found in versions mentioned by Child.
Child's B version comes close to the song sung by Cozens, but is still considerably
different:
11. 'He neither shall be clothed
in purple nor in pall,
But all in fair linen,
as were babies all.'56
Cozens' stanza 11 is, however, almost identical with Child's C version:
13. Mary took her baby,
she dressed him so sweet;
She laid him in a manger,
all there for to sleep.
The carol as Cozens sang it appears to be a conflation of two carols, and not
simply the patching together of two separate stories. It brings together three
miracles associated with the birth of Christ: the cherry tree, the celestial linen
and the angel's appearance to the shepherds. This last miracle is obscured, for
stanza 12, which clearly referred to that event, has lost the reference to the
angels in its striving for uniformity in its opening line, and with this it has lost
much of its sense.
Footnotes:
46. Diary II, 312.
47. The Child versions are to be found in F. J. Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads
(1890; New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1965), II, 1-6. Some of the variations in this stanza are:
(A) version: 'when he wedded Mary,/ in the land of Galilee'; (B) '. . .married . . . the Queen of
Galilee;' (C) '. . .married sweet Mary/ the Queen of Galilee;' (D) '. .. from the land of Galilee.'
A version from Saskatchewan (1929) is recorded in The Journal of the Folk-Song Society, VIII
(1927-1931), pp. 229-230 where the last two lines of stanza 1 read 'when he and his wife Mary/came to
the Land of Galilee.' Another version quoted in The Journal of the Folk-Song Society, III (1908-1909),
p. 260 is a variation of Child A, reading 'Joseph was an old man/ and an old man was he./ He
married his cousin/ the Queen of Galilee.' Another version is quoted by R. Vaughan-Williams
[J.F.S.S.V. (1914-16), p. 14] where Mary is 'the Queen of [Glory]?'
48. Child (A) '. . .through an orchard good,/ where was cherries and berries/ so red as any
blood;' (B) '.. .through a garden gay/ where the cherries they grew/ upon every tree;' (C) 'As they
went a walking/ in the garden so gay,/ Maid Mary spied cherries,/ hanging over yon tree;' (D) 'Then
Mary and Joseph/ walked down to the gardens cool;/ Then Mary spied a cherry so red as any blood.'
The version in J.F.S.S. V, p. 11 reads 'As red as any rose' with a virtual repeat of the stanza: 'When
Joseph and Mary/ Was in the garden green,/ They saw cherries and berries/ that was fit to be seen'
(p. 12).
49. Child (A) 'Then bespoke Mary ... Pluck me one cherry .. .;' (B) '. . .with words both meek
and mild;/O gather me cherries, Joseph,/They run so in my mind;' (C) '. . .said. ../with her sweet
lips so mild,/ Pluck those .../ for to give to my child.'
50. Child (A) 'O then bespoke .. ./ with words most . . ./ Let him pluck thee a cherry/ that
brought thee with child;' (B) 'And then replied Joseph,/ with words . . ./ "Let him gather thee
cherries/ that got thee with child";' (C) 'O then replied . . ./ with words . . ./ "I will pluck no
cherries/ for to give to thy child";' (D) 'Brother Joseph, pluck the cherry,/ for I am with child;/
Let him pluck the cherry, Mary,/ as is father to the child.'
51. Child (A) 'O then bespoken the babe,/ within his . . ./ . . .the tallest tree,/ for my mother
to have some;' (B) 'O then bespoke our Saviour,/ all in. .. . ... ,good cherry-tree,/ to my mother's
hand;' (C) 'Mary said to cherry-tree,/ Bow down to my knee,/ that I may pluck cherries/ by one,
two, and three;' (D) 'Then our blessed Saviour spoke,/ from .. ./ Mary shall have cherries,/ and
Joseph shall have none.'
52. Child (A) 'Then bowed down the highest tree/ into his mother's hand;/ Then she cried, see
Joseph,/ I have cherries at command;' (B) 'The uppermost sprig/ bowed down to Mary's knee/
"Thus you may see, Joseph,/ these cherries are for me";' (C) 'The uppermost sprig then/ bowed
down to her knee:/ "Thus you may see, Joseph/ these cherries are for me";' (D) 'from the high
bough the cherry tree/ bow'd down to Mary's knee;/ then Mary pluckt the cherry,/ by one, two,
and three.' Child' versions (B) and (D) insert a stanza after Kilvert's stanza 1 and Child (A) and
(B) add a stanza after Kilvert's stanza 2.
53. The story appears in the apocryphal book of Pseudo-Matthew.
54. Ludus Coventriae or the Plaie Called Corpus Christi, ed. K. S. Block (London: Oxford U. P.,
1922), pp. 136-137. A similar episode appears in the Middle English Cursor Mundi, ed. R. Morris
(London: Oxford University Press, 1875), II, 668-671. It occurs during the flight into Egypt to escape
Herod. It is, however, a palm tree and when Mary desires its fruit Joseph laments that it is too high
a tree and that their water is gone. The infant Jesus causes the tree to bow down and under its
root is a spring. Jesus promises 'I will thou fra nu forward/ Be planted in min orcherd,/ A-mang
mi tres o paradise' (p. 670). There is, of course, no mention of Joseph's doubt in this story.
55. Ibid. p. 113.
56. See also Child (C) which is very similar. Also J.F.S.S. VIII, 230 mentions linen but in quite
different contexts. In most accounts the garments are far from heavenly. Thus the Middle English
Cursor Mundi: 'Thus bare she that barniten/That blisfull birth in bedlam/Suche clothis as she had
to hond/ with suche she swathid hym ...' (II, 644).
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Notes and Queries, 1873
The Carol "Joseph Was An Old Man."— The above is certainly not peculiar to, nor, I think, derived from, the Gipsies. The first verse has been known to me as long as I have known anything, and I think I got it from my nurse, a Somersetshire woman, as follows:—
"Joseph was an old man, And an old man was he, When he wedded Mary The Queen of Galilee." The late Mr. Edmund Sedding, a diligent collector of carols, gave me, some years since, the rest of the verses known to him, as follows :— "Joseph and Mary walked Through an orchard good, Where were cherries and berries
As red as any blood.
Joseph and Mary walked
Through an orchard green,
Where were berries and cherries
As thick as might be seen.
0 then bespoke Mary,
So meek and so mild,
'Pluck me one cherry, Joseph,
For I am with child.'
0 then bespoke Joseph,
With words most unkind,
'Let him pluck thee a cherry
That brought thee with child.'
0 then bespoke Jesus,
Within his mother's womb,
'Bow down thee, thou tallest tree,
For my mother to have some.'
Then bow'd down the tallest tree,
Unto his mother's hand;
Then she cried,' See, Joseph,
1 have cherries at command.*
0 then bespoke Joseph,
'I have done Mary wrong; But cheer up, my dearest, And be not cast down.'
Then Mary plucked a cherry,
As red as the blood;
Then Mary went home
With her heavy load.
* * * *
Then Mary took the Babe,
And set him on her knee,
Saying, * My dear son, tell me,
What this word will be.'
# « * *
• Oh I shall be as dead, mother,
As the stones in the wall;
Oh, the stones in the streets, mother,
Shall mourn for me all.
1 Upon Easter Day, mother,
My uprising shall be; 0 the sun and the moon, mother, Shall both rise with me.'" I, however, am inclined to think that we have here portions of two distinct carols.
C. Kegan Pacl.
Bailie, near Wimborne.
The above Christmas carol is a modem version of a scene from one of the "English Miracle Plays.''
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Hone quotes it in extenso, and gives as his authority the Cotton MS. Pageant xv. H. Fishwick.
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