Pray for Us, Thou Prince of Peace

DESCRIPTION: "Pray for us, thou prynce of pes, Amici Christi Johannes." "To the now, Crystys der derling." John slept on Jesus's breast. He did not forsake Jesus when Jesus was before Pilate. Jesus was put into his care. So the song appeals to him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: XV century (Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e.1 and others)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious carol foreignlanguage MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #103, pp. 66-67, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3776
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6020
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #19, pp. 11, "(Pray for vs to the prince of peace, Amice Crysty, Johannes)" (1 text, with some variant readings on pp. 171-172)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #21, p. 79, "(Pray for us, thou prynce of pes)" (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #68, p. 157, "A Song to John, Christ's Friend" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 40
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, page 465
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCamTrinityO.3.58}, Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 5665, folio 37 (first copy), folio 48 (second copy, shorter)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 4294, folio 81
ST BrR3776 (Full)
NOTES [674 words]: Although I know of no traditional collections, Greene, p. 199, reports, "This carol is found in more different texts (as a carol) than any other. Stevens (p. 117) points out that it is 'the only polyphonic carol found in three different musical settings.'" Greene's version is in the third person, the other texts in the first, so it has undergone modification over time, although it is not clear whether this was oral or written change.
Davies, p. 335, says that six texts are known:
- Bodleian MS Eng. poet e. 1, XV century (the basis of Greene)
- Balliol MS. 354 (folio 222 recto; this is the famous Richard Hill manuscript, with the components written by 1537)
- British Library MS. Harley 4294. Composite, with the first half from the sixteenth century and the second half from the fifteenth. Has only two carols, although it has much other material, some poetic.
- Cambridge, Trinity College O.3.58 (1230) recto (dated to the early fifteenth century). A scroll of carols, in East Anglian dialect, which also contains one of the few copies of "The Agincourt Carol" (which see).
- British Library MS. Additional 5665 (with music). There are two copies of this song in this manuscript, which contains many musical settings of carols (in two or three parts) and processional music. The names of many of the composers are known, but they are not of much note today. Many of the texts are in French or Latin. Early sixteenth century; it contains a note from 1510. Some of the texts are in red, now badly faded. The "Ritson Manuscript," because Joseph Ritson donated it. Although there isn't much evidence that the songs in this manuscript are traditional, they are of very high quality; reading the texts in Greene, I repeatedly found myself thinking that THIS was a really good one -- and looked and found it in Additional 5665. This makes me suspect that perhaps Additional 5665 is built upon a collection of a particular author's poems. We don't know whose. But perhaps the "5665 Poet" should be considered the author of this poem.
Given this strong popularity, it seemed to me that the song belonged in the Index.
The Latin "Amici Christi Johannes" means "Friend/Beloved (of) Christ John," i.e. "John the Friend of Christ." This is a reference to "the Beloved Disciple" of the Gospel of John. Nowhere is the Beloved Disciple named in that gospel, but it is a reasonable inference that it was John son of Zebedee -- Jesus's three closest disciples were Peter, James, and John, and it's not Peter (since Peter and the Beloved Disciple are distinguished on several occasions, e.g. John 21:20), and it is unlikely to have been James since James was probably the first of the Twelve to be executed (Acts 12:2). And Peter and John are often together in Acts (e.g. Acts 3:1), and Peter and the Beloved Disciple are often together in the Gospel of John. If the Beloved Disciple is indeed one of the Twelve listed in the three synoptic gospels, he almost has to be John.
Since the Beloved Disciple is mentioned only in John, naturally all the references to him in this carol are from that gospel. He "lay on Christ's breast" in John 13:23. When Jesus was before Pilate, it was the Beloved Disciple who gained admission for Peter (John 18:15-16, although the disciple is not there called "beloved"). And Jesus consigned his mother to the hands of the Beloved Disciple in John 19:26-27.
The name "The Beloved Disciple" is the usual one in English for this person, because the Greek says "the disciple whom Jesus loved," the Greek verb being αγαπαω, "agapao," the usual New Testament word for (non-romantic) love. Interestingly, in the Latin of John 13:23, 19:26, 21:20, the verb used to describe Jesus's feelings is not "amat" (related to "amici" as well as to our word "amor") but "diligebat"; the description of John as Jesus's "amici" is reasonable but not a direct allusion to the Latin of the Fourth Gospel.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
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File: BrR3776

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