“Four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head, One to read and one to write, Two to guard my bed at night;” or— “One to watch and two to pray, One to keep all fears away.” A much fuller form of the prayer comes from an old woman of near ninety years at Tavistock:— “Monday morning—a new week begin, Christ deliver our souls from sin. Tuesday morning—nor curse nor swear, Christ’s body for it will tear. Wednesday morning—midst of the week, Woe to the soul Christ does not seek. Thursday morning—Saint Peter wrote, ‘Joy to the soul that heaven hath bote.’ Friday—Christ died on the Holy Tree, To save other men as well as me. Saturday—six—the evening dead. Sunday—the books are all outspread. God is the Branch. I am the flower. Pray God send me that blessed hour. Whether I be by sea or by land, The Lord, sweet Jesus, on my right hand. I go to bed, my sleep to take, The Lord doth know if I shall wake. Sleep I ever, sleep I never, God receive my soul for ever. Four corners to my bed, Four angels lie outspread, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on.” This is very curious. One may well ask where St. Peter wrote the quotation given in the eighth line. “That heaven hath bote” signifies “that hath bid or prayed for heaven.” The prayer, or formula, is very old. In the “Towneley Mysteries,” belonging to the beginning of the sixteenth century at the very latest date that can be given, for they are sacred Mysteries which ceased to be performed after the Reformation, in the scene where the shepherds keep their watch by night on the eve of the Nativity, the third shepherd says— “For ferd we be fryght a crosse let us kest Cryst crosse, benedyght, east and west, For dreede Jesus of Nazorous Crucyefix us, Marcus, Andreas, God be our spede.” In the second scene of the _Shepherds_ the second pastor says— “I wylle lyg downe by For I must slepe truly.” The third says:— “As good a man’s son was I As any of you, Bot Mark, come heder, between shalle gin lyg downe.” Mark says— “Then myght I lett you bedene; if that you wold rowne. No drede Fro my top to my too, Manus tuas commendo Poncio Pilato Cryst cross me spede.” Certainly a very odd form of commendation of the soul, and a variant on that of the third shepherd. Launcelot Sharpe, in his remarks on the “Towneley Mysteries” (_Archæol._, 1838), gives “the rural charm which, when a boy, I have often heard in Kent:— ‘Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Guard the bed that I lie on. Four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Guard the bed that I lie on.’”