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The poems of John Audelay

Edited with introduction, notes and glossary [by Ella Keats Whiting]

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36

In die sanctorum Innocencium.

With al þe reuer[en]s þat we may,
Worchip we Childermasday.
Crist crid in cradil, ‘moder baba;’
Þe childer of Iral cridyn, ‘wa wa,’
Fore here merþ hit was aga,
When Erod fersly cowþ hem fray.
Al knaue-childer with ij ȝere
Of age, in Bedlem fere or nere,
Þai chedyn here blod with swerd and spere,
Alas þer was a rewful aray.

190

An hunderd and fourte þousand þer were;
Crist ham cristynd al in-fere,
In [h]or blod, and were martere,
Al clene vergyns hit is no nay.
Þe crisum-childer to Crist con cry,
‘We beþ slayne fore gret enuy;
Lord, venge our blod fore þi mercy,
And take our soulis to þe we pray.’
An heuenle voys answerd aȝayn,
‘Abyd awyle and sofer ȝour payn
Hent þe nowmbir be e-slayn
Of ȝour breder, as I ȝou say.
‘Fore ȝe han sofird marterdom
For Cristis sake, al and sum,
He wil ȝoue crowne in his kyngdam,
And folou þe lomb in ioy for ay.’