Traditional

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day:
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance:
Sing O my love, O my love, my love, my love;
This have I done for my true love.

Then was I born of a virgin pure,
Of here I took fleshly substance;
Thus was I knit to man’s nature,
To call my true love to my dance:
Sing O my love, O my love, my love, my love;
This have I done for my true love.

In a manger laid and wrapp’d I was,
So very poor, this was my chance,
Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass,
To call my true love to my dance:
Sing O my love, O my love, my love, my love;
This have I done for my true love.

On the cross hangéd I was,
Where a spear to my heart did glance,
There issued forth both water and blood,
To call my true love to my dance:
Sing O my love, O my love, my love, my love;
This have I done for my true love.

Then down to hell I took my way
For my true love’s deliverance,
And rose again on the third day
Up to my true love and the dance.
Sing O my love, O my love, my love, my love;
This have I done for my true love.

Then up to heav’n I did ascend,
Where now I dwell in sure substance,
On the right hand of God, that man
May come unto the gen’ral dance.
Sing O my love, O my love, my love, my love;
This have I done for my true love.

© Oxford University Press 1966