A young woman is singing her baby to sleep, crooning words of tenderness: “Lullay mine liking, my dear son, my sweeting; lullay my dear heart, mine own dear darling.” It’s a scene familiar from a thousand Christmas cards, but this lullaby comes from a 15th-century English carol, I saw a Fair Maiden, which imagines the Virgin Mary singing to her baby, surrounded by the music of angels.
Many mediaeval carols offer similar visions, but this one is especially exquisite because of Mary’s list of adoring names for her baby, her “liking” (“delight”).
