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Introduction
The Tilers and Thatchers of fourteenth-century York bring their Nativity play to a close, back in the Bethlehem stable where Mary and her guardian Joseph have been forced to find shelter. Mary has given birth to a son and laid him in a manger, while her guardian Joseph was out looking for candles. Now he has returned, to find that his candles are superfluous for another Light is shining in the darkness.
Joseph
I MARVEL greatly at this light
that such-wise shineth in this place
For truth it is a wondrous sight!
MARYThis
hath he ordained of his grace,
My son so young,
A star to be shining a space
At his bearing.*
For Balaam told full long before
How that a star should rise full high
And of a maiden should be born
As Son that shall our saving be
From cares keen.*
Of a truth it is my Son so free
Whom Balaam did mean.
JosephNow,
welcome, flower fairest of hue,
I shall worship thy with main and might.
Hail, my Maker, hail Christ Jesu,
Hail royal King, root of all right;
Hail Saviour,
Hail my Lord, giver of light,
Hail blessed flower.
MaryNow
Lord, that all this world shall win,
To thee my Son is that I say,
Here is no bed to lay thee in;
Therefore my dear Son, I thee pray,
Since it is so,
Here in this crib I might thee lay
Between these beasts two.
And I shall wrap thee, mine own dear child,
In such clothes as we have here.
JosephO Mary,
behold these beasts mild,
They make praises* in their manner
As they were men.
Forsooth it seems well by their cheer
Their Lord they ken.*
* Balaam was a pagan prophet-for-hire who was paid to prophesy against the God of Israel, but found himself testifying irresistibly to God’s universal lordship: see Balaam and His Ass. For Balaam’s prophecy, see Numbers 24:17.
* The Star of Bethlehem, which has guided the Three Kings or Magi to Judaea, has descended into the stable and is flooding the place with a light not of this world. Despite many ingenious but ultimately unsatisfactory attempts to link the star to a comet or a conjunction of planets, tradition says that the star was an angel. See Isaiah 60:3. On worldly versus unworldly light, see also ‘To the Heights!’.
* Altered from ‘loving’, which in Middle English meant ‘praise, praising’.
* Unlike the unbelieving generation of Isaiah’s day. See Isaiah 1:3: “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider”.
Précis
Joseph was still wondering at the brightness within the stable, and Mary reminded him of the prophecy of Balaam that foretold it. Joseph sang her miraculous child’s praises, and then noticed another wonder: even the ox and ass sharing the stable with them appeared to recognise something special in the baby lying in their manger. (55 / 60 words)
Joseph was still wondering at the brightness within the stable, and Mary reminded him of the prophecy of Balaam that foretold it. Joseph sang her miraculous child’s praises, and then noticed another wonder: even the ox and ass sharing the stable with them appeared to recognise something special in the baby lying in their manger.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, just, must, or, ought, unless, who.