Babe Is Born To Bliss Us Bring, A

DESCRIPTION: "A babe is born to bliss us bring, A heard a maid lullay and sing." She tells her baby that he is the King of Bliss. They discuss the crucifixion and what will happen to him in future. He asks again for comfort. Chorus may be English or Latin or mixed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious mother MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #152, pp. 112-113, "(A babe is born to blis vs brynge)" (1 text with variants)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 72-74, "(A babe is born, to bliss us bring") (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #22
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5
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), #33, pp. 21-23, "(Now synge we with angelis: Gloria in excelcis!)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #42, pp. 101-103, "(A babe is born to blis us brynge)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #1, p. 1, "Dear Son, Leave Thy Weeping" (1 text, from the Porkington manuscript)
Thomas G. Duncan, editor, _Late Medieval English Lyrics and Carols 1400-1530_, Penguin Books, 2000, #67, p. 78, "A baby ys borne us blys to bryng" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 202 (conflate version)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Laud misc. 683 (Bodleian 798), folio 105
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 225
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Harvard University MS. H.C.L. 25258.27.5, page 8
NOTES [118 words]: Although no longer traditional, this seems to have been very popular in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354), in Bodleain MS. Laud misc. 683 (Bodleian 798), in National Library W. MS. Porkington 10 (in a conflate version, which combines the English with a Latin hymn "Criste qui lux est et dies"), and in two copies in the Harvard Library, simply labelled "Carol Book A" and "Carol Book B." Also, Sandys thought he found it in Cornwall, according to Greene. This seems to me to be enough reason to index it.
Little of what happens in the song (other than the crucifixion, of course) is Biblical, but Gabriel's visit to Mary is in Luke 1:26-38. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Gree042

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