The manuscript which preserves this delightful little legend has been judged by the handwriting to be of the age of Henry VI. It was printed entire by Mr. T. Wright, in 1856, for the Warton Club, under the title, Songs and Carols, from a manuscript in the British Museum of the fifteenth century, the ballad at p. 63. Ritson gave the piece as 'A Carol for St. Stephen's Day,' in Ancient Songs, 1790, p. 83, and it has often been repeated; e. g., in Sandys' Christmas Carols, p. 4, Sylvester's, p. 1.
The story, with the Wise Men replacing Stephen, is also found in the carol, still current, of 'The Carnal and the Crane,' Sandys, p. 152, in conjunction with other legends and in this order: the Nativity, the Wise Men's passage with Herod, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt, Herod and the Sower.
The legend of Stephen and Herod occurs, and is even still living, in Scandinavian tradition, combined, as in English, with others relating to the infancy of Jesus.
Danish. 'Jesusbarnet, Stefan og Herodes:' A, Grundtvig, No 96, II, 525. First printed in Erik Pontoppidan's little book on the reliques of Paganism and Papistry among the Danish People, 1736, p. 70, as taken down from the singing of an old beggar-woman be fore the author's door.[foot-note] Syv alludes to the ballad in 1695, and cites one stanza. The first five of eleven stanzas are devoted to the beauty of the Virgin, the Annunciation, and the birth of the Saviour. The song then goes on thus:
B. A broadside of fourteen four-line stanzas, in two copies, a of the middle, b from the latter part, of the last century, b was printed "in the Dansk Kirketidende for 1862, No 43," by Professor George Stephens: a is given by Grundtvig, in, 881. The first three stanzas correspond to A 15, the next three to A 6-8: the visit of the Wise Men to Herod is then intercalated, 7-10, and the story concludes as in A 9-11.
C. 'Sankt Steffan,' Kristensen, II, 128, No 36, from recitation about 1870, eight four-line stanzas, 1-3 agreeing with A 3-6, 4-6 with A 6-9, 7, 8 with A 9, 11. The verbal resemblance with the copy sung by the old beggar-woman more than a hundred and thirty years before is often close.
A Färöe version, 'Rudisar vísa,' was communicated to the Dansk Kirketidende for 1852, p. 293, by Hammershaimb, twenty-six two-line stanzas (Grundtvig, II, 519). Stephen is in Herod's service. He goes out and sees the star in the east, whereby he knows that the Saviour of the world, "the great king," is born. He comes in and makes this announce ment. Herod orders his eyes to be put out: so, he says, it will appear whether this "king" will help him. They put out Stephen's eyes, but now he sees as well by night as before by day. At this moment a cock, roast and carved, is put on the board before Herod, who cries out:
'If this cock would stand up and crow, Then in Stephen's tale should I trow.'
Herod he stood, and Herod did wait, The cock came together that lay in the plate.
The cock flew up on the red gold chair, He clapped his wings, and he crew so fair.
Herod orders his horse and rides to Bethlehem, to find the new-born king. As he comes in, Mary greets him, and tells him there is still mead and wine. He answers that she need not be so mild with him: he will have her son and nail him on the cross. "Then you must go to heaven for him," says Mary. Herod makes an attempt on Jesus, but is seized by twelve angels and thrown into the Jordan, where the Evil One takes charge of him.
Swedish. A single stanza, corresponding to Danish A 6, B 4, C 4, is preserved in a carol, 'Staffans Visa,' which was wont to be sung all over Sweden on St. Stephen's day, in the Christmas sport, not yet given up, called Staffansskede; which consisted in young fellows riding about from house to house early in the morning of the second day of Yule, and levying refreshments.[foot-note] One of the party carried at the end of a pole a lighted lantern, made of hoops and oiled paper, which was sometimes in the shape of a six-cornered star. Much of the chant was improvised, and both the good wishes and the suggestions as to the expected treat would naturally be suited to particular cases; but the first stanza, with but slight variations, was (Afzelius, in, 208, 210):
Stephen was a stable-groom, We thank you now so kindly! He watered the five foals all and some, Ere. the morning star was shining. No daylight 's to be seen, The stars in the sky Are gleaming.
or,
Stephen was a stable-groom, Bear thee well my foal! He watered the five foals all and some, God help us and Saint Stephen! The sun is not a-shining, But the stars in the sky Are gleaming.
There is also a Swedish ballad which has the substance of the story of Danish A 6-8, but without any allusion to Stephen. It occurs as a broadside, in two copies, dated 1848, 1851, and was communicated by Professor Stephens to the Dansk Kirketidende, 1861, Nos 3, 4, and is reprinted by Grundtvig, in, 882 f, and in Bergström's Afzelius, II, 360 f. There are eleven four-line stanzas, of which the last six relate how Mary was saved from Herod by the miracle of the Sower (see 'The Carnal and the Crane,' stanzas 18-28). The first five cover the matter of our ballad. The first runs:
In Bethlem of Judah a star there rose, At the time of the birth of Christ Jesus: 'Now a child is born into the world That shall suffer for us death and torment.'
Herod then calls his court and council, and says to them, as he says to Stephen in the Danish ballad, "I cannot believe your story unless the cock on this table claps his wings and crows." This comes to pass, and Herod exclaims that he can never thrive till he has made that child feel the effects of his wrath. He then steeps his hands in the blood of the Innocents, and falls off his throne in a marvellous swoon. Mary is warned to fly to Egypt. It, is altogether likely that the person who speaks in the first stanza was originally the same as the one who says nearly the same thing in the three Danish ballads, that is, Stephen, and altogether unlikely that Herod's words, which are addressed to Stephen in the Danish ballads, were addressed to his court and council rather than to Stephen here.
Norwegian. Two stanzas, much corrupted, of what may have been a ballad like the foregoing, have been recovered by Professor Bugge, and are given by Grundtvig, m, 883.
St. Stephen's appearance as a stable-groom, expressly in the Swedish carol and by implication in the Danish ballads, is to be explained by his being the patron of horses among the northern nations.[foot-note] On his day, December 26, which is even called in Germany the great Horse Day, it was the custom for horses to be let blood to keep them well during the year following, or raced to protect them from witches. In Sweden they were watered "ad alienos fontes" (which, perhaps, is what Stephen is engaged in in the carol), and treated to the ale which had been left in the cups on St. Stephen's eve; etc., etc.[foot-note] This way of observing St Stephen's day is presumed to be confined to the north of Europe, or at least to be derived from that quarter. Other saints are patrons of horses in the south, as St. Eloi, St. Antony, and we must seek the explanation of St. Stephen's having that office in Scandinavia, Germany, and England in the earlier history of these regions. It was suggested as long ago as the middle of the sixteenth century by the Archbishop Olaus Magnus, that the horseracing, which was universal in Sweden on December 26, was a remnant of heathen customs. The horse was sacred to Frey, and Yule was Frey's festival. There can hardly be a doubt that the customs connected with St. Stephen's day are a continuation, under Christian auspices, of old rites and habits which, as in so many other cases, the church found it easier to consecrate than to abolish.[foot-note]
The miracle of the cock is met with in other ballads, which, for the most part, relate the wide-spread legend of the Pilgrims of St. James.
French. In three versions, Chants de Pauvres en Forez et en Velay, collected by M. Victor Smith, Romania, II, 473 ff. Three pilgrims, father, mother, and son, on their way to St. James, stop at an inn, at St. Dominic. A maid-servant, enamored of the youth (qui ressemble une image, que serablavo-z-un ange) is repelled by him, and in revenge puts a silver cup [cups] belonging to the house into his knapsack. The party is pursued and brought back, and the young pilgrim is hanged. He exhorts his father to accomplish his vow, and to come that way when he returns. When the father returns, after three [six] months, the boy is found to be alive; his feet have been supported, and he has been nourished, by God and the saints. The father tells the judge that his son is alive; the judge replies, I will believe that when this roast fowl crows. The bird crows: A, le poulet se mit a chanter sur la table; B, le poulet vole au ciel, trois fois n'a battu l'aile; C, trois fois il a chanté, trois fois l'a battu l'aile. The boy is taken down and the maid hanged.
Spanish. A, Milá, Observaciones sobre la Poesia Popular, p. 106, No 7, 'El Romero;' B, Briz, Cansons de la Terra, I, 71, ' S.Jaume de Galicia,' two copies essentially agreeing. The course of the story is nearly as in the French. The son does not ask his father to come back. It is a touch of nature that the mother cannot be prevented from going back by all that her husband can say. The boy is more than well. St. James has been sustaining his feet, the Virgin his head. He directs his mother to go to the alcalde (Milá), who will be dining on a cock and a hen, and to request him politely to release her son, who is still alive. The alcalde replies: "Off with you! Your son is as much alive as this cock and hen." The cock began to crow, the hen laid an egg in the dish!
Dutch. 'Een liedeken van sint Jacob,' Antwerpener Liederbuch, 1544, No 20, Hoffmann, p. 26; Uhland, p. 803, No 303; Willems, p. 318, No 133. The pilgrims here are only father and son. The host's daughter avows her love to her father, and desires to detain the young pilgrim. The older pilgrim, hearing of this, says, My son with me and I with him. We will seek St. James, as pilgrims good and true. The girl puts the cup in the father's sack. The son offers himself in his father's place, and is hanged. The father finds that St. James and the Virgin have not been unmindful of the pious, and tells the host that his son is alive. The host, in a rage, exclaims, "That 's as true as that these roast fowls shall fly out at the door!"
But ere the host could utter the words, One by one from the spit brake the birds, And into the street went flitting; They flew on the roof of St. Dominic's house, Where all the brothers were sitting.
The brothers resolve unanimously to go to the judicial authority in procession; the innocent youth is taken down, the host hanged, and his daughter buried alive.
Wendish. Haupt und Schmaler, I, 285, No 289, 'Der gehenkte Schenkwirth.' There are two pilgrims, father and son. The host him self puts his gold key into the boy's basket. The boy is hanged: the father bids him hang a year and a day, till he returns. The Virgin has put a stool under the boy's feet, and the angels have fed him. The father announces to the host that his son is living. The host will not believe this till three dry staves which he has in the house shall put out green shoots. This comes to pass. The host will not believe till three fowls that are roasting shall recover their feathers and fly out of the window. This also comes to pass. The host is hanged.
A Breton ballad, 'Marguerite Laurent,' Luzel, I, A, p. 211, B, p. 215, inverts a principal circumstance in the story of the pilgrims: a maid is hanged on a false accusation of having stolen a piece of plate. This may be an independent tradition or a corrupt form of the other. Marguerite has, by the grace of St. Anne and of the Virgin, suffered no harm. A young clerk, her lover, having ascertained this, reports the case to the seneschal, who will not believe till the roasted capon on the dish crows. The capon crows. Marguerite goes on her bare knees to St. Anne and .to Notre-Dame du Folgoat, and dies in the church of the latter (first version).
'Notre-Dame du Folgoat,' Villemarqué, Barzaz Breiz, p. 272, No 38, 6th ed., is of a different tenor. Marie Fanchonik, wrongly condemned to be executed for child murder, though hanged, does not die. The executioner reports to the seneschal. "Burn her," says the seneschal. "Though in fire up to her breast," says the executioner, "she is laughing heartily." "Sooner shall this capon crow than I will believe you." The capon crows: a roast capon on the dish, all eaten but the feet.
Religious writers of the 13th century have their version of the story of the pilgrims, but without the prodigy of the cock. Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, 1. 26, c. 33, who bases his narrative on a collection of the miracles of St. James incorrectly attributed to Pope Callixtus II,[foot-note] has but two pilgrims, Germans, father and son. On their way to Compostella they pass a night in an inn at Toulouse. The host, having an eye to the forfeiture of their effects, makes them drunk and hides a silver cup in their wallet. Son wishes to die for father, and father for son. The son is hanged, and St. James interposes to preserve his life.[foot-note] With Vincent agree the author of the Golden Legend, following Callixtus, Graesse, 2d ed., p. 426, c. 99 (94), 5,[foot-note] and Csesarius Heisterbacensis, Dialogus Miraculorum, c. 58, II, 130, ed. Strange, who, however, does not profess to remember every particular, and omits to specify Toulouse as the place. Nicolas Bertrand, who published in 1515 a history of Toulouse, places the miracle there. He has three pilgrims, like the French and Spanish ballads, and the roast fowl flying from the spit to convince a doubt ing official, like the Dutch and Wendish ballads.
But, much earlier than the last date, this miracle of St. James had become connected with the town of San Domingo de la Calzada, one of the stations on the way to Compostella,[foot-note] some hours east of Burgos. Roig, the Valencian poet, on arriving there in the course of his pilgrimage, tells the tale briefly, with two roasted fowls, cock and hen: Lo Libre de les Dones e de Cone, ells, 1460,) as printed by Briz from the edition of 1735, p. 42, Book 2, vv. 135-183. Lucio Marineo, whose work, De las cosas memorables de España, appeared in 1530, had been at San Domingo, and is able to make some addition to the miracle of the cock. Up to the revivification, his account agrees very well with the Spanish ballad. A roast cock and hen are lying before the mayor, and when he expresses his incredulity, they jump from the dish on to the table, in feathers whiter than snow. After the pilgrims had set out a second time on their way to Compostella, to return thanks to St. James, the mayor returned to his house with the priests and all the people, and took the cock and hen to the church, where they lived seven years, and then died, leaving behind them a pair of the same snowy whiteness, who in turn, after seven years, left their successors, and so on to Marineo's day; and though of the infinite number of pilgrims who resorted to the tomb each took away a feather, the plumage was always full, and Marineo speaks as an eye-witness. (Edition of 1539, fol. xliii.) Dr. Andrew Borde gives nearly the same account as Marineo, in the First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge, 1544, p. 202 ff, ed. Furnivall.[foot-note]
Early in the sixteenth century the subject was treated in at least two miracle-plays, for which it is very well adapted: Un miracolo di tre Pellegrini, printed at Florence early in the sixteenth century, D'Ancona, Sacre Rappresentazioni, in, 465; Ludus Sancti Jacobi, fragment de mystere provencale, Camille Arnaud, 1858.[foot-note]
Nicolas Bertrand, before referred to, speaks of the miracle as depicted in churches and chapels of St. James. It was, for example, painted by Pietro Antonio of Foligno, in the fifteenth century, in SS. Antonio e Jacopo at Assisi, and by Pisanello in the old church of the Tempio at Florence, and, in the next cen tury, by Palmezzano in S. Biagio di S. Girolamo at Forli, and by Lo Spagna in a small chapel or tribune dedicated to St. James, about four miles from Spoleto, on the way to Foligno. The same legend is painted on one of the lower windows of St. Ouen, and again on a window of St. Vincent, at Rouen. Many more cases might, no doubt, be easily collected.[foot-note]
It is not at all surprising that a miracle performed at San Domingo de la Calzada should, in the course of time, be at that place attributed to the patron of the locality; and we actually find Luis de la Vega, in a life of this San Domingo published at Burgos in 1606, repeating Marineo's story, very nearly, with a substitution of Dominic for James.[foot-note] More than this, this author claims for this saint, who, saving reverence, is decidedly minorum gentium, the merit and glory of delivering a captive from the Moors, wherein he, or tradition, makes free again with St. James's rightful honors. The Moor, when told that the captive will some day be missing, rejoins, If you keep him as close as when I last saw him, he will as soon escape as this roast cock will fly and crow. It is obvious that this anecdote is a simple jumble of two miracles of St. James, the freeing of the captives, recounted in Acta Sanctorum, vi Julii, p. 47, 190 f, and the saving the life of the young pilgrim.[foot-note]
The restoration of a roasted fowl to life is also narrated in Acta Sanctorum, I Septembris, p. 529, 289, as occurring early in the eleventh century (the date assigned to the story of the pilgrims), at the table of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary. St. Gunther was sitting with the king while he was dining. The king pressed Gunther to partake of a roast peacock, but Gunther, as he was bound by his rule to do, declined. The king then ordered him to eat. Gunther bent his head and implored the divine mercy; the bird flew up from the dish; the king no longer persisted. The author of the article, without questioning the reality of the miracle, well remarks that there seems to be something wrong in the story, since it is impossible that the holy king should have commanded the saint to break his vow.
But the prime circumstances in the legend, the resuscitation of the cock, does not belong in the eleventh century, where Vincent and others have put it, but in the first, where it is put by the English and Scandinavian ballads. A French romance somewhat older than Vincent, Ogier le Danois, agrees with the later English ballad in making the occasion to be the visit of the Wise Men to Herod. Herod will not believe what they say,
'Se cis capon que ci m'est en présant N'en est plumeus com il estoit devant, Et se redrece a la perche en cantant.' vv 11621-23.
And what he exacts is performed for his conviction,[foot-note] Nevertheless, as we shall now see, the true epoch of the event is not the Nativity, but the Passion.
The ultimate source of the miracle of the reanimated cock is an interpolation in two late Greek manuscripts of the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus: Thilo, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, p. cxxix f; Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 269, note 3. After Judas had tried to induce the Jews to take back the thirty pieces, he went to his house to hang himself, and found his wife sitting there, and a cock roasting on a spit before the coals. He said to his wife, Get me a rope, for I mean to hang myself, as I deserve. His wife said to him, Why do you say such things? And Judas said to her, Know in truth that I have betrayed my master Jesus to evil-doers, who will put him to death. But he will rise on the third day, and woe to us. His wife said, Do not talk so nor believe it; for this cock that is roasting before the coals will as soon crow as Jesus rise again as you say. And even while she was speaking the words, the cock flapped his wings and crew thrice. Then Judas was still more persuaded, and straight way made a noose of the rope and hanged himself.[foot-note]
The Cursor Mundi gives its own turn to this relation, with the intent to blacken Judas a little more.[foot-note] When Judas had betrayed Jesus, he went to his mother with his pence, boasting of the act. "Hast thou sold thy master?" said she. "Shame shall be thy lot, for they will put him to death; but he shall rise again." "Rise, mother?" said Judas, "sooner shall this cock rise up that was scalded yesternight."
Hardly had he said the word, The cock leapt up and flew, Feathered fairer than before, And by God's grace he crew; The traitor false began to fear, His peril well he knew. This cock it was the self-same cock Which Peter made to rue, When he had thrice denied bis lord And proved to him untrue.
A still different version existed among the Copts, who had their copies of the apocryphal writings, and among them the gospel of Nicodemus.
The Copts say, according to Thévenot, "that on the day of the Supper a roasted cock was served to our Lord, and that when Judas went out to sell Jesus to the Jews, the Saviour commanded the cock to get up and follow him; which the cock did, and brought back his report to our Lord that Judas had sold him, for which service this cock shall be admitted to paradise."[foot-note]
The herald of the morn is described in other carols as making known the birth of the Saviour to the animal creation, or the more familiar members of it.
"There is a sheet of carols headed thus: 'CHRISTUS NATUS EST, Christ is born,' with a wood-cut ten inches high by eight and one half inches wide, representing the stable at Bethlehem; Christ in the crib, watched by the Virgin and Joseph; shepherds kneeling; angels attending; a man playing on the bag pipes; a woman with a basket of fruit on her head; a sheep bleating and an ox lowing on the ground; a raven croaking and a crow cawing on the hay-rack; a cock crowing above them; and angels singing in the sky. The animals have labels from their mouths, bearing Latin inscriptions. Down the side of the wood cut is the following account and explanation: 'A religious man, inventing the conceits of both birds and beasts, drawn in the picture of our Saviour's birth, doth thus express them. The cock croweth Christus natus est, Christ is born. The raven asked Quando, When? The crow replied, Hac nocte, This night. The ox cryeth out, Ubi, ubi? Where, where? The sheep bleated out, Bethlehem, Bethlehem. A voice from heaven sounded, Gloria in excelsis, Glory be on high!'" London, 1701. Hone's Every-Day Book, I, col. 1600 f.
So in Vieux Noels français, in Les Noels Bressans, etc., par Philibert Le Due, p. 145.
Joie des Bestes
à la nouvelle de la naissance du Sauveur.
Comme les Bestes autrefois Parloient mieux latin que françois, Le Coq, de loin voyant le faict, S'écria: Christus natus est; Le Boeaf, d'un air tout ébaubi, Demande: Ubi, ubi, ubi? La Chèvre, se torchant le groin, Respond que c'est à Bethleem; Maistre Baudet, curiosus De Taller voir, dit: Eamus; Et, droit sur ses pattes, le Veau Beugle deux fois: Volo, volo[foot-note]
And again, in Italian, Bolza, Canzoni popolari comasche, p. 654, No 30:
Il Gallo. È nato Gesù! Il Bue. In dôva? La Pecora. Betlèm ! Betlèm! L'Asino. Andèm! Andèm! Andèm!
A little Greek ballad, 'The Taking of Constantinople,' only seven lines long, relates a miracle entirely like that of the cock, which was operated for the conviction of incredulity. A nun, frying fish, hears a voice from above, saying, Cease your frying, the city will fall into the hands of the Turks. "When the fish fly out of the pan alive," she says, "then shall the Turks take the city." The fish fly out of the pan alive, and the Turkish admiraud comes riding into the city. Zambelios, p. 600, No 2; Passow, p. 147, No 197. (Liebrecht, Volkskunde, p. 179.)
With Herod's questions and Stephen's answers in stanzas 5-8, we may compare a passage in some of the Greek ballads cited under No 17, p. 199.
Σκλάβε, πανᾷς; σκλάβε, δυψᾷς; μὴ τὀ ψωμὶ σοῦ λείπει; Σκλάβε, πανᾷς; σκλάβε, δυψᾷς; σκλάβε, κρασὶν σοῦ λείπει; Lakkyt þe eyþer mete or drynk? Μήτε πεινῶ, μήτε διψῶ, μήτε ψωμὶ [κρασὶν] μοῦ λείπει. Lakit me neyþer mete ne drynk. Jeannaraki, p. 203, No 265: Sakellarios, p. 37, No 13. Σκλάβε, πεινᾷς; σκλάβε, διψᾷς; σκλάβε, ῥόγα σοῦ λείπει; Σκλάβε, πεινᾷς; σκλάβε, διψᾷς; σκλάβε, μου ῥοῦχα θέλεις; Lakkyt þe eyþer gold or fe, Or ony ryche wede. Οὔτε πεινῶ, οὔτε διψῶ, οὔτε ῥόγα μοῦ λείπει. Μήτε πεινῶ, μήτε διψῶ, μήτε και ῥούχα θέλω. Lakkyt me neyþer gold ne fe, Ne non ryche wede. Tommaseo, III, 154; Passow, p. 330, No 449: Tommaseo, III, 152; Zambelios, p. 678, No 103; Passow, No 448.
A Danish translation of the English ballad is printed in Dansk Kirketidende for 1852, p. 254 (Grundtvig). Danish A is translated by Dr. Prior, I, 398.
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