And clothes have I none.

* * * * *

'Adam's gilt this man had spilt;
That sin greveth me sore.
Man, for thee here shall I be
Thirty winter and more.

* * * * *

'Here shall I be hanged on a tree,
And die as it is skill.
That I have bought lesse will I nought;
It is my fader's will.'"{35}

The lullabies are quite the most delightful, as they are the most human,
of the carols. Here is an exquisitely musical verse from one of 1530:--

"In a dream late as I lay,
Methought I heard a maiden say
And speak these words so mild:
'My little son, with thee I play,
And come,' she sang, 'by, lullaby.'
Thus rocked she her child.

_By-by, lullaby, by-by, lullaby,_
_Rocked I my child._
_By-by, by-by, by-by, lullaby,_
_Rocked I my child._"{36}

|52| |53| |54| |55|

CHAPTER III

CHRISTMAS POETRY (II)

The French _Noel_--Latin Hymnody in Eighteenth-century
France--Spanish Christmas Verse--Traditional Carols of Many
Countries--Christmas Poetry in Protestant Germany--Post-Reformation
Verse in England--Modern English Carols.

[Illustration:

THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

_By Fouquet._

(Musee Conde, Chantilly.)]

The Reformation marks a change in the character of Christmas poetry in
England and the larger part of Germany, and, instead of following its
development under Protestantism, it will be well to break off and turn
awhile to countries where Catholic tradition remained unbroken. We shall
come back later to Post-Reformation England and Protestant Germany.

In French{1} there is little or no Christmas poetry, religious in
character, before the fifteenth century; the earlier carols that have
come down to us are songs rather of feasting and worldly rejoicing than
of sacred things. The true _Noel_ begins to appear in fifteenth-century
manuscripts, but it was not till the following century that it attained
its fullest vogue and was spread all over the country by the printing
presses. Such _Noels_ seem to have been written by clerks or recognized
poets, either for old airs or for specially composed music. "To a great
extent," says Mr. Gregory Smith, "they anticipate the spirit which
stimulated the Reformers to turn the popular and often obscene songs into
good and godly ballads."{2}

Some of the early _Noels_ are not unlike the English caro