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 à 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, très-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, "Joseph was an old man," is based on an old legend which is related in the Coventry mystery plays. "I saw three ships come sailing in," and "The Camel and the Crane," though of more modern date, preserve curious legends. Numerous entries in the household accounts of the Tudor sovereigns show that carol-singing was popular throughout the 16th century, and the literature of Christmas was enriched in the next century by poems which are often included in collections of carols, though they were probably written to be read rather than sung. Milton, Crashaw, Southwell, Ben Jonson, George Herbert and George Wither all produced Christmas poems, but the richest collection by any one poet is to be found in the poems of Herrick, whose "Come, bring with a noise" is a typical carol of the jovial kind, and may well have been written to a dance tune. Among 18th-century religious carols perhaps the most famous is Charles Wesley's "Hark, how all the welkin rings," better known in the variant, "Hark, the herald angels sing." The artificial modern revival of carol-singing has produced a quantity of new carols, the best of which are perhaps mostly derived from medieval Latin Christmas hymns. Among the many modern Christmas poems one of the most striking is Swinburne's "Three Damsels in the Queen's Chamber," which is, however, a ballad rather than a carol.