09 it was necessary for the council of
Avignon to forbid theatrical dances and secular songs in churches.
Religious dances persisted longest on Shrove Tuesday, and a castanet
dance by the choristers round the lectern is permitted three times a
year in the cathedral of Seville. The Christmas festival, which
synchronized with and superseded the Latin and Teutonic feasts of the
winter solstice, lent itself especially to gaiety. The "crib" of the
Saviour was set up in the churches or in private houses, in the
traditional setting of the stable, with earthen figures of the Holy
Family, the ox and the ass; and carols were sung and danced around it.
The "rocking of the cradle" was the occasion of dialogue between Joseph
and Mary which was not without elements of comedy, and gave rise to
lullabies such as the well-known German _Dormi fili_. The adoration of
the shepherds and the visit of the Magi also provided matter for
dramatic and choral representation. The singing of the carol has
survived in places where the institution of the "crib," said to have
been originated by St Francis of Assisi to inculcate the doctrine of the
incarnation, has been long in disuse, but in the West Riding of
Yorkshire the children who go round carol-singing still carry
"milly-boxes" (My Lady boxes) containing figures which represent the
Virgin and Child.

That carol-singing early became a pretext for the asking of alms is
obvious from an Anglo-Norman carol preserved in the British Museum (MS.
Reg. 16 E. viii.), _Seigneurs ore entendey a nus_, which is little more
than a drinking song. Carols were an important element in the mystery
plays of the Nativity, and one of these, included in the _Marguerites de
la Marguerite des princesses, tres-illustre reine de Navarre_ (Lyons,
1547), incidentally gives evidence of the connexion of dancing and
carol-singing, for the shepherds and shepherdesses open their chorus at
the manger with "_Dansons, chantons, faisons rage_." There is a long
English carol relating the chief incidents of the life of Christ, which
is a curious example of the mixture of the sacred and profane common in
this species of composition. It begins "To-morrow shall be my dancing
day," and has for refrain--

"Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love;
This have I done for my true love."

There are extant numerous carols dating from the 15th century which have
the characteristic features of folksong. The famous Cherry-tree Carol,