Christ — First Advent

While shepherds watched their flocks by night

No. 288
Metre C. M.
Tune CHRISTMAS.
Words Tate and Brady.
Music George F. Handel.
Key D major
Singing key C major
Time 4/4
6 stanzas

Words

While shepherds watched their flocks by night,All seated on the ground,The angel of the Lord came down,And glory shone around.

"Fear not," said he,—for mighty dreadHad seized their troubled mind,—Glad tidings of great joy I bringTo you and all mankind.

"To you, in David's town this dayIs born, of David's line,The Saviour, who is Christ the Lord;And this shall be the sign:

"The heavenly babe you there shall findTo human view displayed,All humbly wrapped in swathing-bands,And in a manger laid."

Thus spake the seraph; and forthwithAppeared a shining throngOf angels, praising God on high,Who thus addressed their song:

"All glory be to God on high,And to the earth be peace;Good-will henceforth from heaven to men,Begin and never cease."

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «CHRIST—FIRST ADVENT.»; hymn number «288» (large), tune name «CHRISTMAS. C. M.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «GEORGE F. HANDEL.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves, one line per system, with «1.» before «While»; the music sings the last line twice («And glory shone around, And glo-ry shone around.»), printed out in full under the staves — the stanza below gives the four verse lines once, as a poem. Under the staves «seat - ed», «an-gel» and the second «glo-ry» are hyphenated; «shepherds», «around» and the first «glory» are set as whole words. Stanzas 2–6 are printed as text in the left column below the music, under the reference line «27, 74, 70.» in italics (= may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 27, 74 or 70). «Tate and Brady.» in italics after stanza 6. The quotation of the angel runs from stanza 2 («"Fear not,"») to the end of stanza 4 («laid."»), each stanza opening with quotation marks as printed; the angels' song is quoted in stanza 6. The print sets a thin space before «;» and «:» («Lord ;», «sign :», «seraph ;», «song :», «peace ;»); it is closed up here. The printer's curly quotation marks and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling («Saviour», «swathing-bands», «Good-will»), punctuation and capitals are the print's. Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are indented in the print.