The Prioress' Tale

"Call up him who left half toldThe story of Cambuscan bold."

I "O Lord, our Lord! how wondrously," (quoth she)"Thy name in this large world is spread abroad!For not alone by men of dignityThy worship is performed and precious laud;But by the mouths of children, gracious God!Thy goodness is set forth; they when they lieUpon the breast thy name do glorify.

II "Wherefore in praise, the worthiest that I may,Jesu! of thee, and the white Lily-flowerWhich did thee bear, and is a Maid for aye,To tell a story I will use my power;Not that I may increase her honour's dower,For she herself is honour, and the rootOf goodness, next her Son, our soul's best boot.

III "O Mother Maid! O Maid and Mother free!O bush unburnt! burning in Moses' sight!That down didst ravish from the Deity,Through humbleness, the spirit that did alightUpon thy heart, whence, through that glory's might,Conceived was the Father's sapience,Help me to tell it in thy reverence!

IV "Lady! thy goodness, thy magnificence,Thy virtue, and thy great humility,Surpass all science and all utterance;For sometimes, Lady! ere men pray to theeThou goest before in thy benignity,The light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer,To be our guide unto thy Son so dear.

V "My knowledge is so weak, O blissful Queen!To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness,That I the weight of it may not sustain;But as a child of twelvemonths old or less,That laboureth his language to express,Even so fare I; and therefore, I thee pray,Guide thou my song which I of thee shall say.

VI "There was in Asia, in a mighty town,'Mong Christian folk, a street where Jews might be,Assigned to them and given them for their ownBy a great Lord, for gain and usury,Hateful to Christ and to his company;And through this street who list might ride and wend;Free was it, and unbarred at either end.

VII "A little school of Christian people stoodDown at the farther end, in which there wereA nest of children come of Christian blood,That learnèd in that school from year to yearSuch sort of doctrine as men used there,That is to say, to sing and read also,As little children in their childhood do.

VIII "Among these children was a Widow's son,A little scholar, scarcely seven years old,Who day by day unto this school hath gone,And eke, when he the image did beholdOf Jesu's Mother, as he had been told,This Child was wont to kneel adown and sayAve Marie, as he goeth by the way.

IX "This Widow thus her little Son hath taughtOur blissful Lady, Jesu's Mother dear,To worship aye, and he forgat it not;For simple infant hath a ready ear.Sweet is the holiness of youth: and hence,Calling to mind this matter when I may,Saint Nicholas in my presence standeth aye,For he so young to Christ did reverence.

X "This little Child, while in the school he sateHis Primer conning with an earnest cheer,The whilst the rest their anthem-book repeatThe Alma Redemptoris did he hear;And as he durst he drew him near and near,And hearkened to the words and to the note,Till the first verse he learned it all by rote.

XI "This Latin knew he nothing what it said,For he too tender was of age to know;But to his comrade he repaired, and prayedThat he the meaning of this song would show,And unto him declare why men sing so;This oftentimes, that he might be at ease,This child did him beseech on his bare knees.

XII "His Schoolfellow, who elder was than he,Answered him thus:--'This song, I have heard say,Was fashioned for our blissful Lady free;Her to salute, and also her to prayTo be our help upon our dying day:If there is more in this, I know it not:Song do I learn,--small grammar I have got.'

XIII "'And is this song fashioned in reverenceOf Jesu's Mother?' said this Innocent;'Now, certès, I will use my diligenceTo con it all ere Christmas-tide be spent;Although I for my Primer shall be shent,And shall be beaten three times in an hour,Our Lady I will praise with all my power.'

XIV "His Schoolfellow, whom he had so besought,As they went homeward taught him privilyAnd then he sang it well and fearlessly,From word to word according to the note:Twice in a day it passèd through his throat;Homeward and schoolward whensoe'er he went,On Jesu's Mother fixed was his intent.

XV "Through all the Jewry (this before said I)This little Child, as he came to and fro,Full merrily then would he sing and cry,O Alma Redemptoris! high and low:The sweetness of Christ's Mother piercèd soHis heart, that her to praise, to her to pray,He cannot stop his singing by the way.

XVI "The Serpent, Satan, our first foe, that hathHis wasp's nest in Jew's heart, upswelled--'O woe,O Hebrew people!' said he in his wrath,'Is it an honest thing? Shall this be so?That such a Boy where'er he lists shall goIn your despite, and sing his hymns and saws,Which is against the reverence of our laws!'

XVII "From that day forward have the Jews conspiredOut of the world this Innocent to chase;And to this end a Homicide they hired,That in an alley had a privy place,And, as the Child 'gan to the school to pace,This cruel Jew him seized, and held him fastAnd cut his throat, and in a pit him cast.

XVIII "I say that him into a pit they threw,A loathsome pit, whence noisome scents exhale;O cursèd folk! away, ye Herods new!What may your ill intentions you avail?Murder will out; certès it will not fail;Know, that the honour of high God may spread,The blood cries out on your accursèd deed.

XIX "O Martyr 'stablished in virginity!Now may'st thou sing for aye before the throne,Following the Lamb celestial," quoth she,"Of which the great Evangelist, Saint John,In Patmos wrote, who saith of them that goBefore the Lamb singing continually,That never fleshly woman they did know.

XX "Now this poor widow waiteth all that nightAfter her little Child, and he came not;For which, by earliest glimpse of morning light,With face all pale with dread and busy thought,She at the School and elsewhere him hath sought,Until thus far she learned, that he had beenIn the Jews' street, and there he last was seen.

XXI "With Mother's pity in her breast enclosedShe goeth, as she were half out of her mind,To every place wherein she hath supposedBy likelihood her little Son to find;And ever on Christ's Mother meek and kindShe cried, till to the Jewry she was brought,And him among the accursèd Jews she sought.

XXII "She asketh, and she piteously doth prayTo every Jew that dwelleth in that placeTo tell her if her child had passed that way;They all said--Nay; but Jesu of his graceGave to her thought, that in a little spaceShe for her Son in that same spot did cryWhere he was cast into a pit hard by.

XXIII "O thou great God that dost perform thy laudBy mouths of Innocents, lo! here thy might;This gem of chastity, this emerald,And eke of martyrdom this ruby bright,There, where with mangled throat he lay upright,The Alma Redemptoris 'gan to singSo loud, that with his voice the place did ring.

XXIV "The Christian folk that through the Jewry wentCome to the spot in wonder at the thing;And hastily they for the Provost sent;Immediately he came, not tarrying,And praiseth Christ that is our heavenly King,And eke his Mother, honour of Mankind:Which done, he bade that they the Jews should bind.

XXV "This Child with piteous lamentation thenWas taken up, singing his song alwày;And with procession great and pomp of menTo the next Abbey him they bare away;His Mother swooning by the body lay:And scarcely could the people that were nearRemove this second Rachel from the bier.

XXVI "Torment and shameful death to every oneThis Provost doth for those bad Jews prepareThat of this murder wist, and that anon:Such wickedness his judgments cannot spare;Who will do evil, evil shall he bear;Them therefore with wild horses did he draw,And after that he hung them by the law.

XXVII "Upon his bier this Innocent doth lieBefore the altar while the Mass doth last:The Abbot with his convent's companyThen sped themselves to bury him full fast;And, when they holy water on him cast,Yet spake this Child when sprinkled was the water;And sang, O Alma Redemptoris Mater!

XXVIII "This Abbot, for he was a holy man,As all Monks are, or surely ought to be,In supplication to the Child beganThus saying, 'O dear Child! I summon theeIn virtue of the holy TrinityTell me the cause why thou dost sing this hymn,Since that thy throat is cut, as it doth seem.'

XXIX "'My throat is cut unto the bone, I trow,'Said this young Child, 'and by the law of kindI should have died, yea many hours ago;But Jesus Christ, as in the books ye find,Will that his glory last, and be in mind;And, for the worship of his Mother dear,Yet may I sing, O Alma! loud and clear.

XXX "'This well of mercy, Jesu's Mother sweet,After my knowledge I have loved alwày;And in the hour when I my death did meetTo me she came, and thus to me did say,"Thou in thy dying sing this holy lay,"As ye have heard; and soon as I had sungMethought she laid a grain upon my tongue.

XXXI "'Wherefore I sing, nor can from song refrain,In honour of that blissful Maiden free,Till from my tongue off-taken is the grain;And after that thus said she unto me;"My little Child, then will I come for theeSoon as the grain from off thy tongue they take:Be not dismayed, I will not thee forsake!"'

XXXII "This holy Monk, this Abbot--him mean I,Touched then his tongue, and took away the grain;And he gave up the ghost full peacefully;And, when the Abbot had this wonder seen,His salt tears trickled down like showers of rain;And on his face he dropped upon the ground,And still he lay as if he had been bound.

XXXIII "Eke the whole Convent on the pavement lay,Weeping and praising Jesu's Mother dear;And after that they rose, and took their way,And lifted up this Martyr from the bier,And in a tomb of precious marble clearEnclosed his uncorrupted body sweet.--Where'er he be, God grant us him to meet!

XXXIV "Young Hew of Lincoln! in like sort laid lowBy cursèd Jews--thing well and widely known,For it was done a little while ago--Pray also thou for us, while here we tarryWeak sinful folk, that God, with pitying eye,In mercy would his mercy multiplyOn us, for reverence of his Mother Mary!"