Words and Music: English Traditional, 1534

Compare: About The Field They Pipëd Right

Source: Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), p. 99, which she notes is from The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, Coventry Corpus Christi Plays.

1. As I rode out this enders night,
Of three jolly shepherds I saw a sight,
And all about their fold a star shone bright:
    They sang terly terlow;
    So merrily the shepherds their pipes gan blow.

2. Down from heaven, from heaven so high,
Of angels there came a great company,
With mirth and joy and great solemnity,
    They sang terly terlow;
    So merrily the shepherds their pipes gan blow.

Note from Rickert:

"Apparently, this is only another version of the preceding." (Tyrle, tyrlow, tyrle, tyrlow - "About the field they piped right..."), p. 96.

Editor's Note:

In his discussion of "Winter's Tale," Francis Douce took notice of a lark that chanted "tirra-lirra" (Scene 2). In this connection, Mr. Douce observed:

... in one of the Coventry pageants there is the following old song sung by the shepherds at the birth of Christ, which is further remarkable for its use of the very uncommon word endenes, from the Saxon endenehes, the last.

"As I out rode this endenes night,
Of three joli shepherds I saw a syght,
And all aboute there fold a stare shone bright:
They sang terli terlow,
So mereli the sheppards there pipes can blow."

Francis Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manners. A New Edition. (London: Thomas Tegg, 1839), p. 217. Please note that Douce's reproduction of the Saxon word "endenehes" used characters that are not included in this font.