Holy Innocents

Here's some history on the Coventry Carol as well as this version reprinted from 1826. We should never forget this terrible slaughter, Herod's ordering all the male infants under the age of two to be killed. It is said that the lyrics of this haunting carol represent a mother's lament for her doomed child:

Lully, lulla, thow littell tiné child;
By, by, lully, lullay thow littell tyné child:
By, by, lully, lullay.

O. sisters too how may we do
For to preserve this day
This pore yongling for whom we do singe
By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod the king in his raging
Chargid he hath this day
His men of might in his owne sight,
All yonge children to slay.

That wo is me pore child for thee,
And ever morne and say
For thi parting nether say nor singe
By, by lully, lullay.