Stephen Stableboy

Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 10:19:44 CST
From: Jim Marchand <marchand@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Reply to: Medieval Texts - Philology Codicology and Technology
<MEDTEXTL@POSTOFFICE.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list MEDTEXTL <MEDTEXTL@POSTOFFICE.CSO.UIUC.EDU>

Subject: Stephen stableboy

Since I do not own an original Childs, I took the next best thing, the 1 vol. _English and Scottish Popular Ballads_, ed. Helen Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932), no. 22:

ST STEPHEN AND HEROD

The manusoript which preserves this delightful little legend has been judged by the handwriting to be of the age of Henry VI. The manuscript was printed entire by Thomas Wright, in 1856, for the Warton Club, under the title, Songs and Carols, from a manuscript in the British Museum of the fifteenth century. The story, with the Wise Men replacing Stephen, is also found in the carol, still current, of 'The Carnal and the Crane' (No. 55). The legend of Stephen and Herod, with the miracle of the roasted cock, occurs in a number of Scandinavian ballads. The same miracle is found in other ballads, which, for the most part, relate to the wide-spread legend of the Pilgrims of St James. The miracle occurs as an interpolation in two late Greek manuscripts of the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus (Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, p. 269, note 3), and seems to have originated in the East. {Note that `The Carnal and the Crane' also contains the miracle of the harvest, as does also the ceiling at Daedesjoe, JWM}. I changed the thorns to th; easy to change back, since this is biunique.
 

Sloane MS., 2593, fol. 22 b, British Museum

1 SEYNT Steuene was a clerk in kyng
Herowdes halle,

And seruyd him of bred and cloth, as
euery kyng befalle.

2 Steuyn out of kechone cam, wyth boris
hed on honde;

He saw a sterre was fayr and bry3t ouer
Bedlem stonde.

3 He kyst adoun pe boris hed and went in
to the halle:

"I forsak the, kyng Herowdes, and thi
werkes alle.

4 "I forsak pe, kyng Herowdes, and thi
werkes alle;

ther is a chyld in Bedlem born is beter
than we alle."

6 "Quat eylyt the, Steuene? quat is the be-
falle"?

Lakkyt the eyther mete or drynk in kyug
Herowdes halle?"

6 "Lakit me neyther mete ne drynk in kyng
Herowdes halle;

ther is a chyld in Bedlem born is beter
than we alle."

7 "Quat eylyt the, Steuyn? art thu wod, or
thu gynnyst to brede?

Lakkyt the eyther gold or fe, or ony ryche
wede?

8 "Lakyt me neyper gold ne fe, ne non
ryche wede

ther is a ohyld in Bedlem born xal hel-
pyn vs at our nede."

9"that is al so soth, Steuyn, al so soth,
iwys,

As this capoun crovve xal that lyth here in
myn dysh."

10 That word was not so sone seyd, that word
in that halle,

The capoun crew Cristus natus est! among
the lordes alle.

11 "Rysyt vp, myn turmentowres, be to and
al be on,

And ledyt Steuyn out of this town, and
stonyt hym wyth ston!"

12 Tokyn he Steuene, and stonyd hym in
the way,

And therfore is his euyn on Crystes
owyn day.