Golden Carol, The (The Three Kings)

DESCRIPTION: "Now is Christemas y-come, Father and Son together in one, Holy Ghost us be on...." The song announces Christmas, then tells the story of the "three kings" who came, visited Herod, saw Jesus, offered their gifts, and went home another way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1475 (Oxford, Bodleian ms. Eng. Poet. e. 1)
KEYWORDS: Jesus Bible Christmas carol religious MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #125, pp. 82-86, "(no title)" (3 texts plus variant readings)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 110-112, "Now is Christmas Ycome" (1 text); pp.112-115, "Reges de Saba venient/Now is the Twelfth Day ycome" (a sort of parallel/sequel to the preceding)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 107, "The Three Kings" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 173, "The Golden Carol" (1 text plus a tune by Vaughan Williams)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2333; an Epiphany version is #2339
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3763 and #3769
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeS54}, Cambridge, St. John’s College MS. S.54 (Cambridge University 259), folio 7 [IMEV #2339]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 17 [IMEV #2339]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 31 [IMEV #2339]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHarley541}, London, British Library, MS. Harley 541, folio 214 [IMEV #2333]
ST OBB107 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Three Kings (Kings of Orient)" (subject)
cf. "Be mery all that be present, Omnes de Saba venient" (lyric on Herod and the wise men, from Richard Hill's manuscript; see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #1, p. 1) (lyrics)
NOTES [1510 words]: This is essentially the story told in Matt. 2:1-12. It should be noted, however, that
1. There is no reason to believe that there were three visitors from the east. All we know is that they gave three gifts -- and although one of the gifts was gold, it certainly wasn't enough to make Jesus's family rich.
2. They may not even have been from the east (the orient); it was the *star* which was in the east if anything was (Albright/Mann, p. 12, suggest that Greek ανατολη, "anatole," should be rendered "rising" -- i.e. the reading is that the visitors saw the star "in/at the rising." Both the major Greek lexicons -- Liddell & Scott for classical Greek and Baur for Koine Greek -- agree with this interpretation, although there are some New Testament uses where "east," or the direction of dawn, clearly seems indicated. Beare, p. 77, says that the use of a plural in verse 1 and a singular in verse 2 means that the word in verse 2 must mean rising). The only real indication that the visitors were from the east is the fact that magi were mostly Babylonian.
3. The visitors were not kings and were not wise men. They were "magi" -- Babylonian mystics and perhaps astrologers. Jews would generally consider magi to be evil sorcerers (the Greek word μαγος, "magos," apart from the uses in Matt. 2:1, 7, 16, is used only in Acts 13:6, 8 of Elymias, clearly an evil magician. Simon Magus, a magician who claimed to be "the great power of God," worked μαγια, "magia," in Acts 8, although he isn't called a "Magos" explicitly in Acts; he was only called by the title "magus" in post-canonical works). Albright/Mann are among the many commentators who explicitly translate the word as "magi," not "wise men" as in the King James Version; the New English Bible's "astrologers" is better but still a little deceiving. Fenton, p. 46, demonstrates that it was understood as "magician" or "diviner" in the early church; Ignatius of Antioch, in the early second century, says that the appearance of the star signaled the fading of the power of magic.
Beare, p. 77, declares that "the magoi from the east are undoubtedly introduced in the character of astrologers, perhaps from Iran, but more likely from Arabia, the source of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, at least according to Hebrew poetic convention (Isa. 60:6; Cant. 3:6...). The early iconographic tradition represents them uniformly as Persians. 'But attempts to determine the country intended are guesses' (McNeile)."
According to James, p. xxvii, "It is not before the sixth century that [the Magi are]... described [as kings], at least commonly, though Kerhrer quotes a passage from Tertullian (adv. Marc. III.13) which is capable of being interpreted in that sense."
What's more, the Latin Vulgate -- the official Bible of the Catholic Church at the time this was written, when few in the West knew Greek -- correctly renders the word in Matthew 2:1 as "magi," not kings or wise men.
I wouldn't bet more than I can afford on their other gifts being frankincense and myrrh, either (there is no question about the meaning of the word "gold"). The word λιβανος, "libanos," "frankincense," is found in the New Testament only here and in Rev. 18:13 -- and it is also the name of the Lebanon mountain range, so it might mean "the thing from Lebanon." (Although the word tus, the word used in the Latin Vulgate translation which was "the Bible" of England at the time this was written, unquestionably means "incense.")
"Myrrh" is even more interesting. It's also a rare word (σμυρνα, "smyrna") which occurs only here and in John 19:39. And it too can be a place name, Smyrna (which also occurs a couple of times in the New Testament), so it could be "the thing from Smyrna." Also, two very important manuscripts, D and W* (both from probably the fifth century, making them two of the six oldest copies of this passage) read ζμυρνα, "zmyrna." This is probably just an orthographic variant -- Greek, like English, was a bit inconsistent in its use of "s" and "z" -- but still, there is variation in the manuscripts. Here again, though, the Vulgate is clear: it reads "myrrh." Thus the carol is unquestionably right about what the Vulgate reads; it's just that the Greek is slightly more doubtful.
Albright/Mann, p. 13, make the interesting comment that "Myrrh was certainly suitable for a king, and was used at his anointing (cf. Ps[alm] xlv 8). But the gifts were also part of the common stock-in-trade of magi, and magical charms were written with myrrh-ink..... Regarded as the tools of a trade, offerings of the magi would not be gifts of homage, but a declaration of dissociation from former practice."
Greene-Earliest, p. 377, says that only one of the four copies of this appears as "a true carol with a burden," and that the burden does not metrically match the text, although he also notes a discontinuity in another copy, meaning it might have had a (more suitable) burden. But the "probability is that the original form of the piece was that of a song without a burden, particularly as the 'bob-and-wheel' type of stanza is not frequently combined with a burden." All this is true and argues against this song being traditional. But we can certainly say that it was popular.
The Oxford Book of Carols cites this as from Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), a famous anthology of about 75 poems (Chambers, p. 96, says 75, 63 of them in English, 28 four elsewhere), Notably, if I count correctly, 17 of the 75 pieces in the Bodleian manuscript are also found in Oxford, Balliol Library 354, the Richard Hill manuscript (although Greene-Selection, p. 179, says there are only thirteen -- either way, a very high number; that's almost a quarter of the total!) I don't have an explanation for this link, but it strikes me as probably significant.
There are also, according to Greene-Selection, eight pieces shared with Sloane 2593 (Chambers, p. 96, says just six), the famous Sloane Lyrics; for more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
Greene-Selection, p. 169, dates the Bodleian manuscript to the late fifteenth century, and is of the opinion that it is from the Beverly Minster in Yorkshire (a suggestion tentatively accepted also by Julia Boffey on p. 224 of FeinEtAl); Boffey considers it a choir songbook (Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 207). Greene suspects an interest in St. John the Evangelist, based on the presence of two carols to St. John. Greene-Selection declares that "No other MS. except Balliol 354 has correspondences with so many of the known carol manuscripts." On p. 180 he concludes that it was used both before and after the Reformation, because it includes pieces on Thomas Becket which were defaced. A few pieces have music, although most do not.
Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 includes the following songs which are in the Index:
• Assay Thy Friend Ere Thou Hast Need {Brown/Robbins #3820; also in Balliol 354}
• Bring Us Good Ale (Brown/Robbins #549)
• The First Day of Yule (Brown/Robbins #3343; also in Sloane 2593)
• Gabriel of High Degree (Brown/Robbins #889; also in Balliol 354)
• Gabriel That Angel Bright (Brown/Robbins #890; also in Balliol 354)
• The Golden Carol (The Three Kings) (Brown/Robbins #2333)
• The Gossips' Meeting (Brown/Robbins #1362; also in Balliol 354)
• In Bethlehem, that Fair City (Brown/Robbins #1471; also in Balliol 354)
• Mary for the Love of Thee (Brown/Robbins #2098; also in Balliol 354)
• O Mary Mother (Brown/Robbins #1219/2211; also in Balliol 354 and Sloane 2593)
• Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose (Brown/Robbins #1914; also in Balliol 354)
• Pray for Us, Thou Prince of Peace (Brown/Robbins #3776; also in Balliol 354)
• Some Be Merry and Some Be Sad (Women, Women, Love of Women) (Brown/Robbins #3171; also in Balliol 354)
• The Salutation Carol (Brown/Robbins #3736; also in Balliol 354)
• This Endris Night (Brown/Robbins #3627; also in Balliol 354 and Sloane 2593)
• Tyrle, Tyrlo (Tyrley, Tyrlow) (Brown/Robbins #112; also in Balliol 354)
The manuscript also shares with Balliol 354 something very similar to "Things Impossible"; see the notes to that song. It also has "Holly and Ivy Made a Great Party" (Brown/Robbins #1225; for this see the notes on "The Holly and the Ivy"), "Timor Mortis Conturbat Me" (Brown/Robbins #375), a boar's head song (although not the usual "Boar's Head Carol"; it begins "At the begynning of the mete"; Brown/Robbins #436), another Gabriel song, "Gabriel that angell bryght," shared with the Hill manuscript (Brown/Robbins #890); and other secular poems on religious themes.
However, the Index of Middle English Verse says that the version with the Oxford Book's first line is from British Library MS Harley 541, folio 214a. One may suspect the Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols version of being conflated.
The text is also found in the small booklet Cambridge, St. John's College MS. S.54, which has been suspected of being a traveling musician's notebook. For more about this manuscript, see the notes to "Mary for the Love of Thee (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay)." - RBW
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