Traditional

The "Coventry Carol" is a Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was 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 (Chapter 2). The carol refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. The lyrics of this haunting carol represent a mother's lament for her doomed child. It is the only carol that has survived from this play.

The oldest known text was written down by Robert Croo in 1534, and the oldest known printing of the melody dates from 1591 however, the author is unknown. As a town?s plays and songs were once valuable commodities, the original copy of the play was kept by the town council for safe keeping, but, disappeared. Fortunately, the Coventry antiquarian Thomas Sharp saved copies in two volumes dating from the 1800s.

While it?s a little too dark to land on everyone?s Christmas carol A-list, it is tempered in this arrangement with Flute & Concert (Pedal) Harp.