December 14: "This Endris Night"

My sweetest bird, 'tis thus betid

Though thou be king verray,

But nevertheless I will not cease 

To sing "By, by, lullay"

I'm getting this faint feeling like I might be overdoing it with the late-medieval English carols, but there's seems to be just a never ending supply of really good, largely forgotten ones from that period. Even half of the ones known by heart in modern America can trace their roots back to that era. Tomorrow I think I'll take a break from them, and I can promise that they won't all be English poems from the 14th-17th century, but it's hard to turn down a lyrical gem like "This Endris Night." And if  the above video gives you memories back to the scene in "Animal House" where John Belushi smashes the guitar on the wall, I'd have to agree with you that out of context it is a little much. But for my purposes here, and in general, I really like hearing songs played in the style and on the instruments of their period. So please, don't smash my proverbial guitar.

"Sorry."

Beyond the lyrics, which I'll get to later, I'm really taken with the history of this one because it's origins are probably the most unknown of any song I've done so far, despite being relatively popular as a carol worldwide, though drowned-out for most laymen by the "old favorites." Even though it sometimes goes under an additional name--"The Virgin and Child"-- and two other middle-English spellings ("Thys Endris Night" and "Thys Ender Night") the lyrics we have are predominantly taken from a single  late 15th century manuscript and prepared for the Percy Society of London-- a short-lived English literary historical society-- in 1847. We're taking it on the editor  of that publication, Thomas Wright's, word that this comes from when he said it comes from in the first place. There's not even a hint of evidence as to an original author, and any music to which the poem from the manuscript is set originates after Wright's publication. Since then there have been multiple versions and arrangements of the poem as a song, to the point where we still don't have anything close to a consensus on the tune of the thing. My personal favorite tune is the one to which the poem is sang in ye olde video above; in a choral setting it sounds like this:

That doesn't mean that this is the most popular way of singing it. If you go on YouTube and search "This Endris Night" you'll find as many different arrangements as their are first page videos. So, as much as I'd love to say more for the history of this one, I'm afraid that's where the trail dead ends. Which leaves us with the lyrical content of the piece, the main work of art. The Wright-version lyrics are in their semi-medieval form, so many of the words' meanings differ drastically from their modern definition. First and foremost, endris means "previously," so the title can be read as "A few days ago tonight." The basic gist of the story within the song is that Mary, observed from the third person, is sitting and singing a lullaby ("by, by, lullay") to baby Jesus. Their dialogue, in which the infant speaks, centers around the idea that though Jesus is the son of God, he is still Mary's son, and so as long as he's good and keeps quiet she'll still cuddle him and sing to him. It's got a surprisingly human feel to it, especially coming out of such a hyper-religious period. The closing stanzas read:

Now sweet son, since it is come so,

That all is at Thy will,

I pray Thee grant to me a boon (favor)

If it be right and skill (reasonable, fair)

That child or man, who will or can

Be merry on my day,

To bliss Though bring- and I shall sing

Lullay, by, by, lullay

Today the poem, turned carol, is today, "praised for the unusual delicacy and lyrical flourish for a poem of the period." It's a real bummer and a half that we have no one on which to heap all that praise, but maybe the mystery of the hymn adds to the wholesomeness of it.