Christëmas be went; Though that I for my primer shall be shent, And shall be beaten thriës in an hour, I will it conne, our Lady to honoúr.”
His fellow taught him homeward privily From day to day, till he coud it by rote, And then he sang it well and boldëly From word to word according with the note; Twice in a day it passed through his throat; To schoolë-ward, and homeward when he went; On Christ’s mother was set all his intent.
As I have said, throughout the Jewery, This little child, as he came to and fro, Full merrily then would he sing and cry, O Alma redemptoris , evermo’; The sweetness hath his heartë pierced so Of Christë’s mother, that to her to pray He cannot stint of singing by the way.
Our firstë foe, the serpent Satanas, That hath in Jewës’ heart his waspë’s nest, Upswell’d and said, “O Hebrew people, alas! Is this to you a thing that is honést, That such a boy shall walken as him lest In your despite, and sing of such senténce, Which is against your lawë’s reverence?”
From thencëforth the Jewës have conspired This innocent out of the world to chase; A homicidë thereto have they hired, That in an alley had a privy place, And, as the child gan forth by for to pace, This cursed Jew him hent, and held him fast, And cut his throat, and in a pit him cast.
I say that in a wardrobe they him threw, Where as the Jewës purged their entrail. O cursed folk! O Herodës all new! What may your evil intentë you avail? Murder will out, certáin it will not fail, And namely where th’ honoúr of God shall spread; The blood out crieth on your cursed deed.
O martyr souded to virginity, Now may’st thou sing, and follow ever-in-one The whitë Lamb celestial (quoth she), Of which the great Evangelist Saint John In Patmos wrote, which saith that they that gon Before this Lamb, and sing a song all new, That never fleshly woman they ne knew.