This carols is one of many songs that relate to the Feast Day of the Holy Innocents, December 28th. The Coventry Carol (sometimes know as the Lullaby Carol) is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. It was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew: the carol itself refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed, and takes the form of a lullaby sung by mothers of the doomed children. The oldest known text was written down by Robert Croo in 1534, and the oldest known melodic setting dates from 1591.
The text focuses on grief, lamentation, and the human cost of Herod’s decree, using simple, repetitive language to evoke emotional intensity. Lines such as Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child function as a cradle song, blending tenderness with tragedy. This juxtaposition of lullaby and lament highlights the vulnerability of the infant Jesus and the surrounding suffering, deepening the hymn’s emotional resonance and theological reflection on the contrast between human sin and divine salvation.
Refrain
Lully, lullai
The little tiny Child
By by, lully, lullay
The little tiny Child
By by, lully, lullay
O sisters too,
How may we do,
For to preserve this day?
This poor Youngling
For Whom we do sing
By by, lully, lullay? Refrain
Herod the king,
In his raging,
Chargèd he hath this day
His men of might,
In his own sight,
All young children to slay. Refrain
That woe is me,
Poor Child for Thee!
And ever morn and may,
For thy parting
Neither say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Coventry Carol - The Anúna Collective (arr. Michael McGlynn)
Coventry Carol - Voces8 U.S. Scholars (arr. by Barnaby Smith)
. . . and another version by composer Kenneth Leighton
Coventry Carol - King's College Choir
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