The Song of the Nuns of Chester

This song comes from a fifteenth-century manuscript containing the Processional of St Mary's, Chester, not the churches which bear that name today but a medieval nunnery of which nothing now survives. This site provides a useful history, although please don't trust the final paragraph, which seems to have been taken from this book and gives an oddly misleading picture of pre-Reformation English carols. The Chester Nuns' Song is not "one of the typical carols of late medieval England"; the idea that secular carols and carols in English belong only to the post-Reformation period, while typical medieval carols were Latin and religious, is patently absurd. Also, although I would have to be more familiar with the manuscript to say for sure, I'm assuming that a song in a Processional has some kind of liturgical context; hence the atypical Latin, I would think.

And don't believe statements you will find elsewhere on the internet which claim this is the earliest English carol; not by a long way! Latin does not automatically equal ancient. Or typically medieval. Sigh.

However, this is a pretty little song, though the editors of The Oxford Book of Carols are right to say it "only loses by translation"; but if you're curious you can find a good translation here. There's not much to say about the poetry, which doesn't seem particularly inspired to me. However, fortunately, and unusually for a medieval carol, the music was preserved along with the words. I could only find this version on youtube, but it's a nice one.

Qui creavit coelum,
Lully, lully, lu,
Nascitur in stabulo
By, by, by, by, by,
Rex qui regit seculum
Lully, lully, lu.

Joseph emit paniculum
Lully, lully, lu,
Mater involvit puerum
By, by, by, by, by,
Et ponit in praesepio
Lully, lully, lu.

Inter animalia
Lully, lully, lu,
Jacent mundi gaudia
By, by, by, by, by,
Dulcis super omnia
Lully, lully, lu.

Lactat mater Domini
Lully, lully, lu,
Osculatur parvulum
By, by, by, by, by,
Et adorat Dominum
Lully, lully, lu.

Roga mater filium
Lully, lully, lu,
Ut det nobis gaudium
By, by, by, by, by,
In perenni gloria
Lully, lully, lu.

In sempiterna saecula
Lully, lully, lu,
In eternum et ultra
By, by, by, by, by,
Det nobis sua gaudia
Lully, lully, lu.