The gloomy night embraced the place. R. Crashaw. [Christmas.] This, in the Arundel Hymns, 1902, is a cento from a carol in Crashaw's Steps to the Temple. In the ed. of 1646, p. 28, it is entitled "A Hymne of the Nativity, sung by the Shepheards," and begins "Come wee Shepheards who have seene"; in the ed. of 1648, p. 43, and in his Carmen Deo Nostro, 1652, p. 13, it begins "Come we shepheards whose blest Sight." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)