Twelve Days of Christmas

Day 4 - Coventry Carol (Lullaby Carol)

This carols is one of many songs and hymns that relate to the Feast Day of the Holy Innocents, December 28th. The Coventry Carol - also know as the Lullaby Carol - is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. It was traditionally performed in Coventry, England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story as described in Matthew, Chapter 2 in the Bible. The carol references 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 the mothers of the doomed children. The oldest known text of the carol was written down by Robert Croo in 1534, and the oldest known melodic setting dates from 1591.

The words of the carol focus 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 carol’s emotional resonance and theological reflection on the contrast between human sin and divine salvation. (thanks to  Hymnallibrary.com)

Refrain

Lully, lulla

Thou 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