The Cherry-Tree Carol- Hone 1823 Child B b.
Child give four versions of B:
a. Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 59, from a Worcester broadside of the last century.
b. Hone's Ancient Mysteries, p. 90, from various copies.
c. Sylvester, A Garland of Christmas Carols, p. 45.
d. Birmingham chap-book, of about 1843, in B. Harris Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. xxxviii.
He provides the text to B a. and gives the changes from that. Here's the text from Ancient Mysteries Described: Especially the English Miracle Plays... by William Hone (London: William Hone, 1823), page 90:
Mary's longing for the fruit on the cherry tree, and Joseph's refusal to gather it for her on the return of his jealousy, a remarkable scene in one of the Coventry Plays,* is the subject of a Christmas Carol still sung in London, and many parts of England.
From various copies of it printed at different places I am enabled to present the following version:
Joseph was an old man,
And an old man was he;
And he married Mary,
Queen of Galilee.
When Joseph was married,
And his cousin Mary got,
Mary proved big with child,
By whom Joseph knew not.
As Joseph and Mary
Walk'd through the garden gay,
Where the cherries they grew
Upon every tree;
O! then bespoke Mary,
With words both meek and mild,
"Gather me some cherries, Joseph,
They run so in my mind;
Gather me some cherries,
For I am with child."
O! then bespoke Joseph,
With words most unkind,
"Let him gather thee cherries,
That got thee with child."
O! then bespoke Jesus,
All in his mother's womb,
"Go to the tree, Mary,
And it shall bow down;
"Go to the tree, Mary,
And it shall bow to thee,
And the highest branch of all
Shall bow down to Mary's knee,
"And she shall gather cherries
By one, by two, by three."
"Now you may see, Joseph,
Those cherries were for me."
O eat your cherries, Mary;
O! eat your cherries now;
O! eat your cherries, Mary,
That grow on the bough.
As Joseph was a walking,
He heard an angel sing—
"This night shall be born
Our heavenly king;
"He neither shall be born
In housen, 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 rock'd
In silver nor in gold,
But in a wooden cradle,
That rocks on the mould;
"He neither shall be christen'd
In white wine nor in red,
But with the spring water
With which we were christened."
Then Mary took her young Son,
And set him on her knee—
"I pray thee now, dear Child,
Tell how this world shall be?"
"This world shall be like
The stones in the street,
For the sun and the moon
Shall bow down at thy feet;
"And upon a Wednesday,
My vow I will make,
And upon Good Friday
My death I will take;
"And upon the third day
My uprising shall be,
And the sun and the moon
Shall rise up with me."
Footnote:
* Mystery VIII. p. 67, ante.