Saint Nicholas

DESCRIPTION: "Saint Nicholas was of great post (?)." Three young women are told that they must leave their father, who can no longer care for them. All three pray to Saint Nicholas to be saved from prostitution. He sends arranges for them to find husbands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Museum -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: money religious marriage gold father children whore MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #315, p. 218, "Seynt Nicholas was of gret poste" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3034
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4738
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 2
NOTES [410 words]: This occurs in only one manuscript, but it is a very important one, Sloane 2593, which includes many items which seem to be of folk origin.
Moreover, the poem as it stands appears to contain several errors of memory. The form in most of the stanzas is for all lines of a verse to rhyme, but the first stanza runs
Seynt Nicholas was of gret post [Saint Nicholas was of great post (?), i.e. "high position" ?]
For he worchipid maydenis thre [For he worshipped maidens three]
That wer sent in fer cuntre [That we sent in/to (a) far country]
Common wommen for to be [Common women, i.e. prostitutes, for to be].
Similarly, the fourth verse reads
The eldest dowter swor be bred of qwete [The eldest daughter swore by bread of wheat]
"I haue leuere beggyn myn mete [I would sooner beg my bread]
And getyn me good qwer I may get [And get good where I may get (it)]
Thann ledyn myn lyf in lecheri." [Than live my life in lechery.]
The final line of this verse occurs also in verse five, where it rhymes properly. Thus it appears the original final line of verse four has been forgotten.
These are enough hints of oral tradition that I have indexed the song.
The song is a brief retelling, with the ending almost entirely lost (another hint of oral tradition), of perhaps the most famous story of Saint Nicholas. Philip D. Noble, editor, The Watkins Dictionary of Saints, Watkins Publishing, 2007, p. 173, sums it up as foows:
"When Nicholas heard that a merchant of Patara had lost all his money, thus depriving his three daughters of any prospect of marriage, he went at night with a bag of gold coins and lobbed it through their window. This provided enough for the eldest girl's dowry and she was duly married. Nicholas repeated this action with the second daughter and, when he attempted to secretly provide for the third in the same way, his generosity was discovered by her father who overwhelmed him with grateful thanks."
Sloane 2539 has another carol on Saint Nicolas ("Make ye merie as ye may"/"In Patras, there born was he"; Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols #316; IMEV #1522; DIMEV #2564) which also refers to this incident, as well as to Nicolas raising three clerks who had been executed and "wern in salt"), but that does not have such a folk-type stanza form or show the same signs of folk transmission, so I haven't indexed it (except, indirectly, in this note).
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MsSeyNic

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography