The Cherry-Tree Carol
No: 54; variant: 54B
- JOSEPH was an old man,
and an old man was he,
And he married Mary,
the Queen of Galilee.
- When Joseph was married,
and Mary home had brought,
Mary proved with child,
and Joseph knew it not.
- Joseph and Mary walked
through a garden gay,
Where the cherries they grew
upon every tree.
- O then bespoke Mary,
with words both meek and mild:
'O gather me cherries, Joseph,
they run so in my mind.'
- And then replied Joseph,
with words so unkind:
'Let him gather thee cherries
that got thee with child.'
- O then bespoke our Saviour,
all in his mother's womb:
'Bow down, good cherry-tree,
to my mother's hand.'
- The uppermost sprig
bowed down to Mary's knee:
'Thus you may see, Joseph,
these cherries are for me.'
- 'O eat your cherries, Mary,
O eat your cherries now;
O eat your cherries, Mary,
that grow upon the bough.'
- As Joseph was a walking,
he heard an angel sing:
'This night shall be born
our heavenly king.
- 'He neither shall be born
in housen nor in hall,
Nor in the place of Paradise,
but in an ox's stall.
- 'He neither shall be clothed
in purple nor in pall,
But all in fair linen,
as were babies all.
- 'He neither shall be rocked
in silver nor in gold,
But in a wooden cradle,
that rocks on the mould.
- 'He neither shall be christened
in white wine nor red,
But with fair spring water,
with which we were christened.'
- Then Mary took her young son,
and set him on her knee:
'I pray thee now, dear child,
tell how this world shall be.'
- 'O I shall be as dead, mother,
as the stones in the wall;
O the stones in the street, mother,
shall mourn for me all.
- 'And upon a Wednesday
my vow I will make,
And upon Good Friday
my death I will take.
- 'Upon Easter-day, mother,
my rising shall be;
O the sun and the moon
shall uprise with me.
- ' The people shall rejoice,
and the birds they shall sing,
To see the uprising
of the heavenly king.'