The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 2 (of 5)

Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts

3
    Joseph and Mary walked
      through an orchard green,
    Where was berries and cherries,
      as thick as might be seen.

    4
    O then bespoke Mary,
      so meek and so mild:
    'Pluck me one cherry, Joseph,
      for I am with child.'

    5
    O then bespoke Joseph,
      with words most unkind:
    'Let him pluck thee a cherry
      that brought thee with child.'

    6
    O then bespoke the babe,
      within his mother's womb:
    'Bow down then the tallest tree,
      for my mother to have some.'

    7
    Then bowed down the highest tree
      unto his mother's hand;
    Then she cried, See, Joseph,
      I have cherries at command.

    8
    O then bespake Joseph:
      'I have done Mary wrong;
    But cheer up, my dearest,
      and be not cast down.'

    9
    Then Mary plucked a cherry,
      as red as the blood,
    Then Mary went home
      with her heavy load.

    10
    Then Mary took her babe,
      and sat him on her knee,
    Saying, My dear son, tell me
      what this world will be.

    11
    'O I shall be as dead, mother,
      as the stones in the wall;
    O the stones in the streets, mother,
      shall mourn for me all.

    12
    'Upon Easter-day, mother,
      my uprising shall be;
    O the sun and the moon, mother,
      shall both rise with me.'


B

        #a.# Husk, Songs of the Nativity, p. 59, from a Worcester
        broadside of the last century. #b.# Hone's Ancient
        Mysteries, p. 90, from various copies, #c.# Sylvester,
        A Garland of Christmas Carols, p. 45. #d.# Birmingham
        chap-book, of about 1843, in B. Harris Cowper's
        Apocryphal Gospels, p. xxxviii.

    1
    Joseph was an old man,
      and an old man was he,
    And he married Mary,
      the Queen of Galilee.

    2
    When Joseph was married,
      and Mary home had brought,
    Mary proved with child,
      and Joseph knew it not.

    3
    Joseph and Mary walked
      through a garden gay,
    Where the cherries they grew
      upon every tree.

    4
    O then bespoke Mary,
      with words both meek and mild:
    'O gather me cherries, Joseph,
      they run so in my mind.'

    5
    And then replied Joseph,
      with words so unkind:
    'Let him gather thee cherries
      that got thee with child.'

    6
    O then bespoke our Saviour,
      all in his mother's womb:
    'Bow down, good cherry-tree,
      to my mother's hand.'

    7
    The uppermost sprig
      bowed down to Mary's knee:
    'Thus you may see, Joseph,
      these cherries are for me.'

    8
    'O eat your cherries, Mary,
      O eat your cherries now;
    O eat your cherries, Mary,
      that grow upon the bough.'

    9
    As Joseph was a walking,
      he heard an angel sing:
    'This night shall be born
      our heavenly king.

    10
    'He neither shall be born
      in housen nor in hall,
    Nor in the place of Paradise,
      but in an ox's stall.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 2 (of 5)

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