Category Archives: Poetry

Judas

Judas, the oldest of the Child Ballads (https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/index.htm), was collected in 1882 but believed to have been written in the 13th century. Child himself didn’t have access to the original, relying instead on “the version printed in Wright & Halliwell, which contains some errors.” (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Child%27s_Ballads/23) The original ballad is as follows:

Hit wes vpon a scereþorsday þat vre louerd aros,
Ful milde were þe wordes he spec to Iudas:
‘Iudas, þou most to Iurselem oure mete for to bugge;
Þritti platen of seluer þou bere up o þi rugge.
Þou comest fer i þe brode stret, fer in þe brode strete,
Summe of þine cunesmen þer þou meist imete.’
Imette wid is soster, þe swikele wimon:
‘Iudas, þou were wrþe me stende þe wid ston, .ii.

For þe false prophete þat tou bileuest upon.’
‘Be stille, leue soster, þin herte þe tobreke!
Wiste min louerd Crist, ful wel he wolde be wreke.’
‘Iudas, go þou on þe roc, heie upon þe ston,
Lei þin heued i my barm, slep þou þe anon.’
Sone so Judas of slepe was awake,
Þritti platen of seluer from hym weren itake.
He drou hymselue bi þe top, þat al it lauede ablode.
Þe iewes out of Iurselem a wenden he were wode.
Fforet hym com þe riche ieu þat heiste Pilatus:
‘Wolte sulle þi louerd þat hette Iesus?’
‘I nul sulle my louerd for nones cunnes eiste,
Bote hit be for þe þritti platen þat he me bitaiste.’
‘Wolte sulle þi lord Crist for enes cunnes golde?’
‘Nay, bote hit be for þe platen þat he habben wolde.’
In him com ur lord gon as is postles seten at mete:
‘Wou sitte ye, postles, ant wi nule ye ete? .ii.

Ic am iboust ant isold today for oure mete.’
Vp stod him Iudas: ‘Lord, am I þat […]?
I nas neuer o þe stude þer me þe euel spec.’
Vp him stod Peter ant spec wid al is miste:
“Þau Pilatus him come wid ten hundred cnistes, .ii.

Yet ic wolde, louerd, for þi loue fiste!’
‘Stille þou be, Peter, wel I þe icnowe.
Þou wolt fursake me þrien ar þe coc him crowe.’

Neither the original nor Child’s version was intelligible to me but Richard Axton, who did have access to the original, transliterated it to more modern language in 1990 in Religion in the Poetry and Drama of the Late Middle Ages.

It was upon a Scere [Holy] Thursday that our lord arose,
Full mild were the words he spoke to Judas:
‘Judas, thou must to Jerusalem our meat for to buy,
thirty platten [coins] of silver thou bear up on thy rug [back].
Thou comest far in the broad street, far in the broad street,
 Some of thine kinsmen there thou mightest meet.’

He met with his sister, the swikele [treacherous] woman:
“Judas, thou were worthy men stoned thee with stone,
For the false prophet that thou believest upon.”
“Be still, beloved sister, thine heart thee to break!
Wist [kneweth] my lord Christ, full well he would be wreke [avenged].”
“Judas, go thou on the rock, high upon the stone,
Lay thine head in my barm [lap], sleep thou thee anon.”
Soon so Judas of sleep was awake,
Thirty platen of silver from him were taken.
He drew himself by the top, that all it laved in blood.
The Jews out of Jerusalem thought he was wode [insane].
Forth came the rich Jew that called Pilatus:
“Wouldst sell thy lord that called Jesus?”
“I would not sell my lord for no kind of eiste [thing],
But it be for the thirty platten that he me betrusted [entrusted].”
“Wouldst sell thy lord Christ for any kind of gold?”
“Nay, but it be for the platten that he have would.”

In him came our lord going [walking] as the apostles sat at meat:
“Why sit ye, apostles, and why will not ye eat?
I am bought and sold today for our meat.”
Up stood him Judas: “Lord, am I that […]?
I was never of the stude [place] there men thee evil spoke.”
Up him stood Peter and spoke with all his might:
“Though Pilatus he come with ten hundred knights,
Yet I would, lord, for thy love fight!”
“Still thou be, Peter, well I thee know.
Thou wilt forsake me thrice before the cock him crow.”

All three versions clearly had in common an AABB rhyme scheme but no discernible pattern to the meter. For example, the syllabic count of the first 8 lines of the original, upon which all three versions agree, is as follows:

Hit wes vpon a scereþorsday þat vre louerd aros,
Ful milde were þe wordes he spec to Iudas:
‘Iudas, þou most to Iurselem oure mete for to bugge;
Þritti platen of seluer þou bere up o þi rugge.
Þou comest fer i þe brode stret, fer in þe brode strete,
Summe of þine cunesmen þer þou meist imete.’
Imette wid is soster, þe swikele wimon:
‘Iudas, þou were wrþe me stende þe wid ston, .ii.

13
10
14
13
13
10
11
11

In order to turn this into a proper ballad, I needed the new interpretation to be in common meter which, in this case, meant an ABAB rhyme scheme and alternating lines of eight and six syllables. (https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/common-meter) I proceeded to do this with each line pair using Axton’s transliterated version, where I could at least understand the words, attempting to stay as true to the transliterated version as possible while still being intelligible to a modern day audience.

Axton’s                                                                                                                Mine

It was upon a Scere [Holy] Thursday that our lord arose,
Full mild were the words he spoke to Judas:
‘Judas, thou must to Jerusalem our meat for to buy,
thirty platten [coins] of silver thou bear up on thy rug [back].
our lord arose one holy day
full mild the words he spoke
Judas, thou must to town away
and bear within thy cloak

In the first four lines, Christ wakes up on a Holy Thursday and tells Judas to take thirty silver pieces to Jerusalem to buy food. The fact that it’s Thursday is not integral to the story, so I dropped it as well as the name of the town because it was equally unimportant and the syllable count was too costly. The way the money was to be carried got turned into a cloak for the sake of the rhyme and the money and point of the trip themselves got pushed to the next stanza.

Axton’s                                                                                                            Mine

Thou comest far in the broad street, far in the broad street,
 Some of thine kinsmen there thou mightest meet.’
these thirty platten silver for
to buy our bread and meat
and when thou comest four and score
thine kinsmen mightest meet

My best guess as to the meaning of “far in the broad street” is that he walks a long way so I replaced it with “four and score” to convey the idea of a goodly distance. In effect, on your long journey, you might run into some of your family.

Axton’s                                                                                                        Mine

He met with his sister, the swikele [treacherous] woman:
“Judas, thou were worthy men stoned thee with stone,
For the false prophet that thou believest upon.”
he met his sister, swikele crone
and unto him she spake
thou were worthy that men should stone
for the false prophet thoust take  

Indeed, he meets his sister, whom he doesn’t trust and who thinks he should be stoned for believing Christ is a prophet. From a rhyming perspective, there’s a weird third line here that doesn’t have a mate, but it’s the rest of the sentence from the line before it so I grouped it with that pair. I left the word “swikele” in, not because I thought anyone would understand its meaning (treacherous) directly, but because I liked the sound of it and felt that using it combined with “crone” in place of “woman” still got the point across that it was not a compliment. Although “spake” isn’t used in the source material, it is an archaic form of the past tense of “speak” and met the requirement for the rhyme. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spake) Likewise, “thoust” is an archaic contraction of “thou hast” and met the requirements for syllable count. (https://www.yourdictionary.com/thou-st)

Axton’s                                                                                                                Mine

“Be still, beloved sister, thine heart thee to break!
Wist [kneweth] my lord Christ, full well he would be wreke [avenged].”
be still, beloved sister mine
thine heart may thee to break
for wist my lord this poison thine
full well he would be wreke

Despite this, Judas still loves his sister and tells her to be quiet, hoping her heart breaks for being so cruel and that if Christ knew she called him a false prophet, he would avenge himself. From Judas’s point of view, she speaks poison. I left in the archaic words “wist” and “wreke” to maintain the period feel and used the rest of the supporting words in the phrase to get the point across.

Axton’s                                                                                                                Mine

“Judas, go thou on the rock, high upon the stone,
Lay thine head in my barm [lap], sleep thou thee anon.”
Judas, go thou upon the stone
thine head lay in my lap
come forth to sleep thou thee anon
I’ll in thy cloak thee wrap  

His sister then tells him to take a nap in her lap. Why he would be dumb enough to trust her after what we’ve heard so far is beyond me, but people do dumb things for family. Since there wasn’t really enough going on in the text here to fill the stanza, it gave me an opportunity to bring the cloak back in which, if you recall, is where Christ told Judas to carry the money in my version.

Axton’s                                                                                                                Mine

Soon so Judas of sleep was awake,
Thirty platen of silver from him were taken.
thirty platten from him were took
while slumbering he lay
that faithless shrew, that fickle crook
had spirited away  

And, wouldn’t you know it, she steals it from him while he’s sleeping. It is implied that she leaves before he wakes up. People do dumb things to family. Again, there were not enough words here to fill a stanza, so I made her exit from the story explicit, using “fickle” here as an echo of “swikele”.

Axton’s                                                                                                                Mine

He drew himself by the top, that all it laved in blood.
The Jews out of Jerusalem thought he was wode [insane].
he drew himself up by the top
that all it bathed in gore
and made men of the town to stop
who thought him mad and more  

Judas was so fraught when he woke up that he drew blood pulling his hair out and passersby thought he was crazy. I looked for ways to change “top” to “hair” to make that reference more clear but was unable to find a suitable rhyme and ultimately decided that the second part of it was enough to convey the feeling once I’d modernized it a bit. Leaving it also contributed to the period feel.

Axton’s                                                                                                                Mine

Forth came the rich Jew that called Pilatus:
“Wouldst sell thy lord that called Jesus?”
“I would not sell my lord for no kind of eiste [thing],
But it be for the thirty platten that he me betrusted [entrusted].”

forth called Pilatus, gilded Jew
oh, wouldst thou sell they lord?
I would not for no eiste, but true
for thirty platten more

And here we come to the climax of the story, with Pilatus, a powerful and rich Jew, asking Judas if he would betray Christ. Judas says no, not for anything… well, except to get back the 30 silver that Christ entrusted to him.

Axton’s                                                                                                                Mine

“Wouldst sell thy lord Christ for any kind of gold?”
“Nay, but it be for the platten that he have would.”
and Judas, wouldst thou sell thy lord
for any kind of gold?
nay, but just for the platten more
that he would want to hold

Pilatus tempts him again with gold and Judas says no, just the 30 silver that Christ would want returned.

Axton’s                                                                                                                      Mine

In him came our lord going [walking] as the apostles sat at meat:
“Why sit ye, apostles, and why will not ye eat?
I am bought and sold today for our meat.”
Up stood him Judas: “Lord, am I that […]?
I was never of the stude [place] there men thee evil spoke.”
Up him stood Peter and spoke with all his might:
“Though Pilatus he come with ten hundred knights,
Yet I would, lord, for thy love fight!”
“Still thou be, Peter, well I thee know.
Thou wilt forsake me thrice before the cock him crow.”
 (nothing)

I decided to end the story there because the part of the story of Judas taking the deal is well known and the last bit of this ballad isn’t really about Judas but about Peter.

Now that we’ve gone over it line by line, here is my version in full:

our lord arose one holy day
full mild the words he spoke
Judas, thou must to town away
and bear within thy cloak

these thirty platten silver for
to buy our bread and meat
and when thou comest four and score
thine kinsmen mightest meet

he met his sister, swikele crone
and unto him she spake
thou were worthy that men should stone
for the false prophet thoust take

be still, beloved sister mine
thine heart may thee to break
for wist my lord this poison thine
full well he would be wreke

Judas, go thou upon the stone
thine head lay in my lap
come forth to sleep thou thee anon
I’ll in thy cloak thee wrap

thirty platten from him were took
while slumbering he lay
that faithless shrew, that fickle crook
had spirited away

he drew himself up by the top
that all it bathed in gore
and made men of the town to stop
who thought him mad and more

forth called Pilatus, gilded Jew
oh, wouldst thou sell they lord?
I would not for no eiste, but true
for thirty platten more

and Judas, wouldst thou sell thy lord
for any kind of gold?
nay, but just for the platten more
that he would want to hold