CAROL, a hymn of praise, especially such as is sung at Christmas in the open air. Diez suggests that the word is de rived from chorus. Others ally it with corolla, a garland, circle or coronet, the earliest sense of the word being apparently "a ring" or "circle," "a ring dance." Stonehenge, often called the giants' dance, was also fre quently known as the carol. The crib set up in the churches at Christmas was the centre of a dance, and some of the most fa mous of Latin Christmas hymns were written to dance tunes.
These songs were called Wiegen lieder in German, noels in French, and carols in English. Strictly speaking the word "carol" should be applied to lyrics written to dance measures; in common ac ceptation it is applied to the songs written for the Christmas festival. Carolling, i.e., the com bined exercise of dance and song, found its way from pagan ritual into the Christian church, and the clergy, however averse they might be from heathen survivals, had to content themselves in this, as in many other cases, with limiting the practice. The third council of Toledo (589) forbade dancing in the churches on the vigils of saints' days, and secular dances in church were forbidden by the council of Auxerre in the next year. Even as late as 1209 it was necessary for the councii of Avignon to forbid theatrical dances and secular songs in churches. Religious dances per sisted longest on Shrove Tuesday, and a castanet dance by the choristers round the lectern is permitted three times a year in the cathedral of Seville. The Christmas festival, which syn chronized with and superseded the Latin and Teutonic feasts of the winter solstice, lent itself especially to gaiety. The "crib" of the Saviour was set up in the churches or in private houses, in the traditional setting of the stable, with earthen figures of the Holy Family, the ox and the ass; and carols were sung and danced around it. The singing of the carol has survived in places where the institutions of the "crib," said to have been originated by St. Francis of Assisi to inculcate the doctrine of the incarnation, has been long in disuse, but in the West Riding of Yorkshire the chil dren who go round carol-singing still carry "milly-boxes" (My Lady boxes) containing figures which represent the Virgin and Child. That carol-singing early became a pretext for the asking of alms is obvious from an Anglo-Norman carol preserved in the British Museum ms. (Reg. 16 E, viii.), Seigneurs ore entendey a nus, which is little more than a drinking song.
There are extant numerous carols dating from the 15th century which have the characteristic features of folksong. The famous cherry-tree carol, "Joseph was an old man," is based on an old legend which is related in the Coventry mystery plays. "I saw three ships come sailing in," and "The Camel and the Crane," though of more modern date, preserve curious legends. Among 18th century religious carols perhaps the most famous is Charles Wesley's "Hark, how all the welkin rings," better known in the variant, "Hark, the herald angels sing." The modern revival of carol-singing has produced new carols, the best of which are per haps mostly derived from mediaeval Latin Christmas hymns.
The earliest printed collection of carols was issued by Wynkyn de Worde in 1521. It contained the famous Boar's Head carol, Caput apri de f ero, Reddens laudes Domino, which in a slightly altered form is sung at Queen's college, Oxford, on the bringing in of the boar's head. Among the numerous collections of French carols is Noei Borguignon de Gui Barozai (1720), giving the words and the music of 34 noels, many of them very free in character. The term noel passed into the English carol as a favourite refrain, "nowell," and seems to have been in common use in France as an equivalent for vivat.
In architecture, the term "carol" (also wrongly spelled "car rel" or "carrol") is used, in the sense of an enclosure, of a small chapel or oratory enclosed by screens, and also sometimes of the rails of the screens. It is particularly applied to the separate seats near the windows of a cloister (q.v.), used by the monks for pur poses of study, etc. The term "carol" has, by a mistake, been sometimes used of a scroll bearing an inscription of a text, etc. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Among the more important collections of Christ mas carols are: Songs and Carols (1847), ed. by T. Wright for the Percy Society from Sloane ms. ; W. Sandys, Christmastide, its History, Festivities and Carols (1852) ; T. Helmore and J. M. Neale, Carols for Christmastide , with music ; Christmas with the Poets (1872) ; R. R. Chope, Carols (1894) , a tune-book for church use, with an introduction by S. Baring-Gould; H. R. Bramley, Christ mas Carols, New and Old, the music by Dr. Stainer; A. H. Bullen, Carols and Poems (1885) ; J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. S. Rockstro, Thirteen Carols of the Fifteenth Century, from a Trinity college, Cam bridge, ms. (1891) ; Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols (191o). See also Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology,' s.v. "Carol"; E. Cortet, Essai sur les fêtes religieuses (1867) .