"Matthew, Mark, Luke and John" | |
---|---|
Nursery rhyme | |
Written | Unknown |
Published | 1656 |
"Matthew, Mark, Luke and John", also known as the "Black Paternoster", is an English children's bedtime prayer and nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 1704. It may have origins in ancient Babylonian prayers and was being used in a Christian version in late Medieval Germany. The earliest extant version in English can be traced to the mid-sixteenth century. It was mentioned by English Protestant writers as a "popish" or magical charm. It is related to other prayers, including a "Green" and "White Paternoster", which can be traced to late Medieval England and with which it is often confused. It has been the inspiration for a number of literary works by figures including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and musical works by figures such as Gustav Holst. [1] It has been the subject of alternative versions and satires.
The most common modern version of the verse is as follows:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray
And two to bear my soul away. [2]
The Roud Folk Song Index, which catalogues folk songs and their variations by number, classifies the song as 1704. [3]
The verse may be one of few English nursery rhymes to have ancient origins. The Babylonian prayer "Shamash before me, behind me Sin, Nergal at my right, Ninib at my left", is echoed by the medieval Jewish prayer: "In the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, may Michael be at my right hand; Gabriel at my left; Uriel before me; Raphael behind me and the Shekhinah of God be above my head" which is used as a prayer before sleep. [4] A Christian version has been found for Germany at the end of the Medieval period. [2] However, the first known record of the lyrics in English is from Thomas Ady's witchcraft treatise A Candle in the Dark, or, a treatise concerning the nature of witches and witchcraft (1656), which tells of a woman in Essex who claimed to have lived in the reign of Mary I (r. 1553-8) and who was alive in his time and blessed herself every night with the "popish charm":
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
The Bed be blest that I lye on. [2]
George Sinclair, writing of Scotland in his Satan's Invisible World Discovered in 1685, repeated Ady's story and told of a witch who used a "Black Paternoster", at night, which seems very similar to Ady's rhyme:
A year later it was quoted again by John Aubrey, but in the form:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lye on.
And blessed Guardian-Angel keep
Me safe from danger whilst I sleep. [2]
A version similar to that quoted at the beginning of this article was first recorded by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1891, and it survived as a popular children's prayer in England into the twentieth century. [2] [5]
Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253), Bishop of Lincoln, condemned the use of a "Green Paternoster" by old women in a treatise on blasphemy, which contained reference to "Green Pater Noster, Peter's dear sister". [6] In Chaucer's "Miller's Tale" (c. 1387) he refers to a prayer known as the "White Paternoster", elements of which, particularly the blessing of four parts of a house, can be seen in the later "Black Paternoster": [2]
Therwith the nyght-spel seyde he anon-rightes [note 2]
On four halves of the hous aboute
And on the thresshfold [note 3] of the dore withoute:
Jesus Crist and Seint Benedight,
Bless this hous from every wickked wight, [note 4]
For the nyghts nerye the white pater-noster!
Where wentestow, [note 5] Seinte Petres suster?' [7]
The reference to St. Peter's sister may be a substitution for St. Peter's daughter, St. Petronilla, known in England as St. Parnell. [8] It has been suggested that the differing colours associated with these verses may have been determined by the colour of prayer beads, with different coloured beads used to prompt the recitation of aves and paternosters. [6]
After the Reformation this "White Paternoster" was among a number of prayers and devotions that were converted into magical rhymes, [9] becoming widely known charms. [5] Lancashire minister John White (1570–1615) in his The Way to the True Church (1608) recorded among many "superstitions" of the inhabitants of Lancashire, a "White Paternoster":
Sinclair in 1685 contrasted the "Black Paternoster" to be used at night with a "White Paternoster" to be used in the day.
White paternoster,
God was my Foster.
He fostered me Under the Book of Palm-Tree,
St Michael was my Dame,
He was born at Bethelem.
He was made of flesh and blood.
God send me my right food;
My right food, and dyne two,
That I may to yon Kirk go
To read upon yon sweet Book,
Which the mighty God of heaven shoop. [note 8]
Open, open Heaven's Yaits,
Steik, Steik, Hell's Yaits.
All the saints be better,
That hear the white prayer Pater Noster. [11]
Anthropologist Margaret Murray suggested in her controversial 1933 book The God of the Witches [12] that the names of the two companion verses could be interpreted as "a confused version of a Christian prayer or hymn": [13]
John Rutter set the lyrics of the nursery rhyme for choir a cappella in the collection Five Childhood Lyrics , first performed in 1973.
The "White Paternoster" was used by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) as a mockery of the mass by Lucifer, described as the "Black Paternoster" in his narrative poem The Golden Legend (1851). [14] It was also the title of a short story by Theodore Francis Powys (1875–1953) published in 1930. [15] A four-part choir setting of the Black Paternoster text was produced by Gustav Holst (1874–1934) in early 20th-Century Britain, [16] while contemporary countryman Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941) composed an equivalent setting of the White Paternoster. [17]
The rhyme has often been the source of satire. [2] One of the most common was recorded in Scotland in the 1840s as a hobby horse game among boys, with the lyrics:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Hold the horse till I get on;
When I got on I could not ride,
I fell off and broke my side. [2]
A version from the United States recorded in 1900 began:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Saddle the horse till I get on... [2]
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father, is a central Christian prayer which, according to the New Testament, Jesus taught as the way to pray:
The impenitent thief is a man described in the New Testament account of the Crucifixion of Jesus. In the Gospel narrative, two criminal bandits are crucified alongside Jesus. In the first two Gospels, they both join the crowd in mocking him. In the version of the Gospel of Luke, however, one taunts Jesus about not saving himself and them, and the other asks for mercy.
"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man", "Pat-a-cake", "patty-cake" or "pattycake" is one of the oldest and most widely known surviving English nursery rhymes. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6486.
"Christmas Is Coming" is a nursery rhyme and Christmas song frequently sung as a round. It is listed as number 12817 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
"Rain Rain Go Away" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19096.
"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme and counting-out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 11284.
"Pease Porridge Hot" or "Pease Pudding Hot" is a children's singing game and nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19631.
Now I lay me down to sleep is a classic children's bedtime prayer from the 18th century.
"As I was going by Charing Cross", is an English language nursery rhyme. The rhyme was first recorded in the 1840s, but it may have older origins in street cries and verse of the seventeenth century. It refers to the equestrian statue of King Charles I in Charing Cross, London, and may allude to his death or be a puritan satire on royalist reactions to his execution. It was not recorded in its modern form until the mid-nineteenth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20564.
"Goosey Goosey Gander" is an English-language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6488.
"Monday's Child" is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children. It is supposed to tell a child's character or future from his or her day of birth and to help young children remember the seven days of the week. As with all nursery rhymes, there are many versions. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19526.
A Christian child's prayer is Christian prayer recited primarily by children that is typically short, rhyming, or has a memorable tune. It is usually said before bedtime, to give thanks for a meal, or as a nursery rhyme. Many of these prayers are either quotes from the Bible, or set traditional texts.
Luke 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer and several parables and teachings told by Jesus Christ. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed this Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles.
Cockle bread was an inferior type of British corn or wheat bread mixed with "cockle weed". In the 17th century a practice known as "moulding" cockle-bread had a sexual connotation. Cockle bread is also mentioned in a 19th-century nursery rhyme.
"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem "Christmas Bells" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The song tells of the narrator hearing Christmas bells during the American Civil War, but despairing that "hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men". After much anguish and despondency the carol concludes with the bells ringing out with resolution that "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep" and that there will ultimately be "...peace on earth, good will to men".
Thomas Ady was an English physician and humanist who was the author of two sceptical books on witchcraft and witch-hunting.
Vesting prayers are prayers which are spoken while a cleric puts on vestments as part of a liturgy, in both the Eastern and Western churches. They feature as part of the liturgy in question itself, and take place either before or after a liturgical procession or entrance to the sanctuary, as depends on the particular liturgical rite or use which is being observed.
Rosary-based prayers are Christian prayers said on a set of rosary beads, among other cords. These prayers recite specific word sequences on different parts of the rosary beads. They may be directed to Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary or God the Father.
"Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling, My Son John" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19709.
Five Childhood Lyrics is a choral composition by John Rutter, who set five texts, poems and nursery rhymes, for four vocal parts a cappella. Rutter composed the work for the London Concord Singers who first performed them in 1973.