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The Seven Joys of Mary

[ Roud 278 ; Ballad Index FO211 ; JoysMary at Old Songs ; VWML CJS2/10/2706A , CJS2/9/1648 ; DT SEVNJOYS , SEVNJOY2 ; Mudcat 54434 ; trad.]

Teresa Maguire of Belfast sang the traditional carol The Joys of Mary in August 1955 to Seán O’Boyle (BBC recording 24842). This recording was included a few years later on the anthology Songs of Christmas / Songs of Ceremony (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 9; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970).

The Valley Folk sang The Joys of Mary in 1968 on their Topic album of carols for all seasons, All Bells in Paradise. A.L. Lloyd noted:

Here’s another carol of which we know a version written down by Richard Hill, that remarkable pioneer folk song collector, about 1504. An even earlier (14^th century) version is known, with only five joys. It seems to have been popular all over Western Europe, and there are splendid French and Catalan versions. In England, the broadside printers issued it year after year and seem to have found a ready sale for the stall-ballads of it. Some versions take the catalogue of Mary’s joys up to twelve, but seven seems to have been the commonest number in all countries where the song turns up. The version here was printed by Bramley & Stainer in 1871. They don’t say where they found the traditional tune, but the same melody was also used for the Victorian children’s song Three Little Kittens They Lost Their Mittens.

George Dunn sang The Seven Joys of Mary On 21 June 1971 to Roy Palmer. This recording was included in 2002 on his Musical Traditions anthology Chainmaker. Roy Palmer commented in the accompanying booklet:

When George first sang this to me, on 14 June 1971, he remembered only two verses (two: a-reading the bible through; and seven: a-pointing the way to heaven), with the interjection of ‘good Lord’ in the chorus, rather than ‘my boys’. At his request I sent him a local text from Wednesbury (in F.W. Hackwood, Staffordshire Customs, Superstitions & Folklore, Lichfield, 1924, pp.52-3), which by a week later he had adopted. The enumeration of Mary’s joys goes back perhaps to the fourteenth century with the Joyes Fyve of the Sloane MSS. The catalogue sometimes extends to twelve, as in one version noted by Sharp in 1907.

As with many songs of a religious nature, this was fairly popular, with 80 Roud entries—almost all from England or the USA—though there are only two other sound recordings. Seán O’ Boyle recorded a Mrs Maguire somewhere in the north of Ireland for the BBC in 1955, and Mrs Olive Coberly sang it for Max Hunter in Missouri in 1958.

Martyn Wyndham-Read and Geoff and Penny Harris sang The Seven Joys of Mary in 1975 on the Trailer album Maypoles to Mistletoe. Martyn Wyndham-Read and Iris Bishop sang it on the CD accompanying his 2008 book with the same name, Maypoles to Mistletoe.

June Tabor and Maddy Prior sang The Seven Joys of Mary in 1976 on their album Silly Sisters. They noted::

Learned from Vic Legg of Bodmin. Arrangement by John Gillaspie, folklorist of this parish, who informs us that verse six is an interpolation from the Seven Do lours of Mary.

The York Waits sang The Seven Joys of Mary in 1992 on their Saydisc album Old Christmas Return’d.

Coope Boyes & Simpson, Fie Fraser, Jo Freya, and Georgina Boyes sang The First Good Joy Our Mary Had in 2006 on their No Masters CD Voices at the Door.

Tim van Eyken sang a Cornish Twelve Joys of Mary in 2006 on his Topic CD Stiffs Lovers Holymen Thieves.

Magpie Lane sang The Nine Joys of Mary in 2006 on their Beautiful Jo CD of carols, songs and tunes for the Christmas season Knock at the Knocker, Ring at the Bell. Their singer Andy Turner returned to The Seven Joys of Mary in 2013 and sang it as the 1 December 2013 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

The Albion Christmas Band sang The Seven Joys of Mary in 2008 on their CD Snow on Snow and a year later on their CD Traditional.

The New Scorpion Band sang The Seven Joys of Mary in 2011 on their CD Nowell Sing We. They noted:

A very popular carol in the late eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth centuries, frequently reprinted on broadside sheets. The earliest known copy dates from the fifteenth century. In traditional versions Mary sometimes has Twelve Joys. This version is from Sandys, Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern, 1833.

Kate Rusby sang this song as Seven Good Joys on her 2011 Christmas album, While Mortals Sleep, and on her 2013 Christmas DVD Live at Christmas.

GreenMatthews sang The Seven Joys of Mary on their 2015 CD A Brief History of Christmas.

John Kirkpatrick sang The Joys of Mary in 2022 on his Fledg’ling album Joy & Jubilation. He noted:

Here’s a relic of the devotions to the Virgin Mary that we naturally undertook when we were all good medieval Roman Catholics. The theme of the piece has obviously been around for many centuries, and similar songs can be found all across Europe. As a folk song in English it’s found in Britain and in North America, where the number of Joys can be five, seven, ten, twelve, or fifteen. This version is based on what ElizaJane Duddridge sang to Cecil Sharp in Mark, Somerset, in 1908 [VWML CJS2/9/1648] .

Jackie Oates and John Spiers sang Twelve Joys of Mary on their 2024 album A Midwinter’s Night. They noted:

John and Jackie both associate the Twelve Joys of Mary as appearing in the middle of the mummers play, as performed by Headington Quarry Morris Men every Boxing day, at various pubs in Headington Quarry, Oxford. Upon the call “then we’ll dance a merry dance” all the characters perform a 6 person morris dance.

Lyrics

George Dunn sings The Seven Joys of Mary

The first good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of one,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
A-sucking at her breast-bone.

Chorus (after each verse repeating its last line):
A-sucking at her breast-bone, my boys,
And happy may we be.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost
To all eternity.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of two,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
A-making the lame to go.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of three,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
A-making the blind to see.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of four,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
A-preaching to the poor.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of five,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
A-making the dead alive.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of six,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
Raised on the crucifix.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of seven,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
Ascending up to heaven.

June Tabor and Maddy Prior sing The Seven Joys of Mary

The first good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of one,
To see the blessed Jesus Christ
When he was first her son.

Chorus (after each verse repeating its last line):
When he was first her son, good man,
And blessed may he be,
Both Father, Son and Holy Ghost
Through all eternity.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of two,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
To make the lame to go.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of three,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
To make the blind to see.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of four,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
To read the bible o’er.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of five,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
To bring the dead alive.

The next good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of six,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
Upon the crucifix.

The last good joy that Mary had,
It was the joy of seven,
To see her own son, Jesus Christ,
To wear the crown of heaven.