Henry's Songbook

    Looly looly looly looly
    The falcon is born, my maid go away

The heron flew east and the heron flew west
She bear her over the fair forest
She bear her up and she bear her down
She bear her over the heath so brown
She bear her over the meadows green
All to espy what might be seen

There she saw an orchard fair
Where groweth many an apple and pear
And in that orchard standeth a hall
Covered all over with purple pall(?)
And in that hall there standeth a bower
Clad all over with lily flowers

And in that bower there standeth a bed
With silken sheets and gold so red
And in that bed there lieth a knight
Whose wounds doth bleed by day and night
And 'neath that bed there runneth a flood
'Twas half of water and half of blood

And by the bed there standeth a maid
She doth weep by night and day
With silver needle and silken thread
Mending the wounds where they did bleed
And by that maid there standeth a stone
"Corpus Christi" was writ thereon

(as sung by Archie Fisher)

[1976:] A version of the Corpus Christi Carol, first found in a manuscript of a grocer's apprentice, Richard Hill, written about 1504. Good versions of it have survived in tradition, notably the one usually called 'Down in yon forest', collected in Derbyshire by R. Vaughan Williams. The version sung here has been re-made by Robert Graves, and the tune was passed to Archie by Robin Hall. (Arthur Argo, notes Archie Fisher, 'Will Ye Gang, Love')