val of Christmas, and one of the earliest of German Christmas
carols, "Es komt ein schif geladen," is the work of Eckhart's disciple,
John Tauler (d. 1361). It is perhaps an adaptation of a secular song:--

"A ship comes sailing onwards
With a precious freight on board;
It bears the only Son of God,
It bears the Eternal Word."

The doctrine of the mystics, "Die in order to live," fills the last
verses:--

"Whoe'er would hope in gladness
To kiss this Holy Child,
Must suffer many a pain and woe,
Patient like Him and mild;

Must die with Him to evil
And rise to righteousness,
That so with Christ he too may share
Eternal life and bliss."{19}

To the fourteenth century may perhaps belong an allegorical carol still
sung in both Catholic and Protestant Germany:--

"Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Aus einer Wurzel zart, |44|
Als uns die Alten sungen,
Von Jesse kam die Art,
Und hat ein Bluemlein bracht,
Mitten im kalten Winter,
Wohl zu der halben Nacht.
Das Roeslein, das ich meine,
Davon Jesajas sagt,
Hat uns gebracht alleine
Marie, die reine Magd.
Aus Gottes ew'gem Rat
Hat sie ein Kind geboren
Wohl zu der halben Nacht."[18]{20}

In a fourteenth-century Life of the mystic Heinrich Suso it is told how
one day angels came to him to comfort him in his sufferings, how they
took him by the hand and led him to dance, while one began a glad song of
the child Jesus, "In dulci jubilo." To the fourteenth century, then,
dates back that most delightful of German carols, with its interwoven
lines of Latin. I may quote the fine Scots translation in the "Godlie and
Spirituall Sangis" of 1567:--

"_In dulci Jubilo_, Now lat us sing with myrth and jo
Our hartis consolatioun lyis _in praesepio_,
And schynis as the Sone, _Matris in gremio_,
_Alpha es et O, Alpha es et O._
_O Jesu parvule!_ I thrist sore efter the, |45|
Confort my hart and mynde, _O puer optime_,
God of all grace sa kynde, _et princeps gloriae_
_Trahe me post te, Trahe me post te_.
_Ubi sunt gaudia_, in ony place bot thair,
Quhair that the Angellis sing _Nova cantica_,
Bot and the bellis ring _in regis curia_,
God gif I war thair, God gif I war thair."{21}

The music of "In dulci jubilo"[19] has, with all its religious feeling,
something of the nature of a dance, and unites in a strange fashion
solemnity