\ ///c'ot'U- ^ C G^c/**. FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY DMsioa SQ2, Section O ' // HEX the Holy Babe was born, Angels, singing, woke tbe morn, Chanting praises to our Lord, Peace on earth and sweet accord ; For He came to set us free ; He was born our Lord to be ; From sin and pain to set us free. Star-led kings their gifts unrolled, Myrrh and frankincense and gold: From the farthest East they came, From the North and South they came, That all peoples of the earth Should pay homage at His birth, Prince of Peace and Lord of Earth. Prince of Peace ! Alas, the shame That the blessedness He came Yearning to bestow on men Still no nearer seems than then ! We it is who hinder peace; Through us sin and pain increase: He would give the whole world peace Holy Babe of Bethlehem, Number us, we pray, with them In whose heart is echoed still, "Peace on earth, to men good- will:" That Thy will in us be done, Let our will with Thine be one ; Then we shall not be undone. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/christmassOOsand By WILLIAM SANDYS, F.S.A LONDON : JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, SOIIO SQUARE. London.- Print™! 1>y E. TUCKER, Terry's Place, Oxford Street. TO WYNN ELLIS, ESQUIRE, $igfj Sfjcriff of p?ertforDsf)irc, THE FOLLOWING WOEK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED, AS A SMALL TRIBUTE OF RESPECT FOR HIS PUBLIC, AND ESTEEM FOR HIS PRIVATE CHARACTER. CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ULitfjograjjfjs* PAGE Plaj r before Queen EHzabeth - frontispiece Ushering in the Boar's Head « - 30 Pageant before Henry the Eighth .... 66 Lord of Misrule, G. Ferrers -'.--- 86 Kew Year's Gifts to Queen EHzabeth 100 Temple Revels, temp. Charles the Second 130 The Wassail Bowl ...... 134 Old Christmas Festivities - 142 The Christmas Tree ------ 152 Ftgnettesu CHAP. 1 Edward the First's Offering at the Epipham 1 2 Froissart's Christmas Log - 23 3 Merry Carol . - 45 4 Archie returning his Christmas Gift 63 5 Teonge's Twelfth Night at Sea 85 6 Charles the Second gambling at Christmas 103 7 Pepys' Wassail Bowl 127 8 Modern Christmas Plays 145 9 Three Kings offering 159 10 Carol Singers of old - ... 173 11 Decorating with Evergreens - - - - - 199 Carols ........ A Mock Play - ..... Christmas Play of St. Creorge and the Dragon, as represented in the West of England ...... Index to Carols - • - - - - - - Index to principal matters ...... Index of References - - - - - - PAGE 215 292 298 303 305 306 fflwit< A Virgin most pure A Child this day is born - The Lord at first had Adam made The first NowelL - This New Christmas Carol G-od rest you, merry gentlemen St. Stephen God's dear Son To-morrow shall be my danemg-day I saw three 6hips Joseph was an old man In those twelve days 313 315 316 318 319 320 321 323 324 325 226 327 #§§a CHAPTER I. T would not be consistent with the proposed character of this work to enlarge on the Christian dispensation, as connected with the sacred feast of Christmas ; to show Christianity as old as the Creation ; that the fall of man naturally involved his punishment; and hence the vicarious sacrifice of our Saviour to redeem us from sin and death. These are sub- jects to be entered on by those who have had opportunities, if not of thinking more, at least of reading more, relative to them, than the writer of these pages, whose leisure hours are few, and whose endeavour will be to give, in as popular and interesting a manner as his abilities will enable him, some — 2 — information respecting the mode of keeping this Holy Feast, particularly in England, in the olden times, and in the middle ages. The Nativity is hailed by Christians of all denominations, as the dawn of our salvation ; the harbinger of the day-spring on high ; that promise of futurity, where care, sin, and sorrow enter not, where friends long severed shall meet to part no more; no pride, no jealousy, no self (that besetting sin of the world) intruding. Well, then, may we observe it with gratitude for the unbounded mercy vouchsafed to us ; for the fulfilment of the promise pronounced in the beginning of the world, releasing us from the dominion of Satan. A promise which even the Pagans did not lose sight of, although they confused its import, as a glimmering of it may be traced through their corrupted traditions and superstitious ceremonies. Has the early dream of youth faded away purposeless ? — the ambition of manhood proved vanity of vanities ? Have riches made themselves wings and flown away ? or, has fame, just within the grasp, burst like a bubble ? Have the friends, the companions of youth, one by one fallen off from thy converse ; or the prop of advancing age been removed, leaving thee weak and struggling with the cares of life ; or, has " the desire of thine eyes" been taken from thee at a stroke? Under these and other trials, the Christian looks to the anniversary of the Nativity (that rainbow of Christianity) as the commemoration of the birth of the Blessed Redeemer, who will give rest to the weary, and receive in his eternal kingdom all those who truly trust in him. And well may His name be called, " Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace ! " The season of Christmas, however, was not only set apart — 3 — for sacred observance, but soon became a season of feasting and revelry ; so much so, that even our sumptuary laws have recognised it, and exempted it from their operation. When Edward the Third, in his tenth year, endeavoured to restrain his subjects from over luxury in their meals, stating that the middle classes sought to imitate the great in this respect, and thus impoverished themselves, and became the less able to assist their liege lord, he forbade more than two courses, and two sorts of meat in each, to any person, except in the great feasts of the year, namely, " La veile et le jour de Noel, le jour de Saint Estiephne, le jour del an renoef (Xew Year's Day), les jours de la Tiphaynei et de la Purification de Nostre Dame/' &c. A cheerful and hospitable observance of this festival being quite consistent with the reverence due to it, let us — after having as our first duty repaired to the house of our Lord, to return humble thanks for the inestimable benefits now conferred — while preparing to enter into our own enjoyments, enable, as far as in our power, our dependants and poorer brethren, to participate in the earthly comforts, as they do in the heavenly blessings of the season. Remember the days of darkness will come, and who can say how soon, how suddenly? and if long and late to some, yet will they surely come, when the daughters of music are laid low, then the remem- brance of a kindly act of charity to our neighbour will soothe the careworn brow, and smooth the restless pillow of disease. " Go," then, " your way ; eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared : for this day is holy unto our Lord." A great similarity exists in the observances of the return of the seasons, and of other general festivals throughout the — 4 — world; and indeed the rites and ceremonies of the various pagan religions have, to a great extent, the marks of a com- mon origin; and the study of popular antiquities involves researches into the early history of mankind, and their reli- gious ceremonies. Immediately after the deluge, the religion of Noah and his family was pure; but a century had scarcely elapsed before it became perverted among some of his descendants. That stupendous pagan temple, the Tower of Babel, was built, and the confusion of tongues, and dispersion of mankind, followed. As the waves of population receded farther from the centre, the systems of religion — except with the chosen people — got more and more debased, and mingled with allegories and symbols. But still, even the most corrupt preserved many allusions to the fall of man, and his redemption; to the deluge, and the deliverance by the ark; and to a future state. Thus, whether in China, Egypt, India, Africa, Scandinavia, in the rites of Vitzliputzli in Mexico, and of Pacha Camac, in Peru, among the Magi, the Brahmins, the Chaldseans, the Gymnosophists, and the Druids, the same leading features may be traced. It has even been supposed, that amongst a chosen race of the priests, some traditionary knowledge of the true religion prevailed, which they kept carefully concealed from the uninitiated. One of the greatest festivals was that in celebration of the return of the sun ; which, at the winter solstice, began gra- dually to regain power, the year commenced anew, and the season was hailed with rejoicings and thanksgivings. The Saxons, and other northern nations, kept a feast on the 25th of December, in honour of Thor, and called it the Mother- Night, as the parent of other nights; also Mid-Winter. It was likewise called Gule, Gwyl, Yule, or Iul, and half a dozen similar names, respecting the meaning of which learned anti- quaries differ : Gebelin and others stating they convey the idea of revolution or wheel; while others, equally learned, consider the meaning to be festival, or holy-day. Gwyl in Welsh, and Geol in Saxon, both signify a holy-day; and as Yule, or I-ol, also signifies ale, an indispensable accom- paniment of Saxon and British feasts, they were probably convertible terms. The word Yule may be found in many of our ancient metrical romances, and some of the old mysteries, as applied to Christmas, and is still so used in Scotland, and parts of England. The word Gala would seem to have a similar derivation. The curious in these matters may, however, refer to the learned Hickes's two folios, GebehVs nine quartos, and Du Cange's ten folios, and other smaller works, and satisfy their cravings after knowledge. The feast of the birth of Mithras was held by the Romans on the 25th of December, in commemoration of the return of the sun; but the most important heathen festival, at this period of the year, was the Saturnalia, a word which has since become proverbial for high -jinks, and all manner of wild revelry. The origin seems to be unknown, but to have been previous to the foundation of Rome, and to have had some reference to the happy state of freedom and equality in the golden age of Saturn, whenever that era of dreams existed ; for, when we go back to the olden times, no matter how far, we find the archaeologists of that age still looking back on their older times : and so we are handed back, not knowing where to stop, until we stumble against the Tower of Babel, or are stopped by the prow of the Ark, and then decline going any farther. — 6 — The Greeks, Mexicans, Persians, and other great nations of antiquity, including of course the Chinese, who always sur- passed any other country, had similar festivals. During the Saturnalia among the Romans, which lasted for about a week from the 17th of December, not only were masters and slaves on an equality, but the former had to attend on the latter, who were allowed to ridicule them. Towards the end of the feast a king or ruler was chosen, who was invested with considerable powers, and may be supposed to be intimately connected with our Lord of Misrule, or Twelfth Night King, — presents also were mutually given, and public places decked with shrubs and flowers. The birth of our Saviour thus took place at that time of the year, already marked by some of the most distinguished feasts. And why should it not have been so? We know that, at whatever period of the year it took place, it would have been, for Christians, "The Feast of Feasts ;" and it is surely no derogation to imagine, that it was appointed at this time as the fulfilment of all feasts, and the culmination of festivals. The rising of the Christian Sun absorbed in its rays the lesser lights of early traditions, and it has continued to illuminate us with its blended brilliancy. Abercrombie, in his work on the Intellectual Powers, has some able remarks on the value of an unbroken series of traditional testimony or rites, especially as applicable to Christianity. " If the events, particularly, are of a very uncommon character, these rites remove any feeling of uncer- tainty which attaches to traditional testimony, when it has been transmitted through a long period of time, and, conse- quently, through a great number of individuals. They carry us back, in one unbroken series, to the period of the events themselves, and to the individuals who were witnesses of them. The most important application of the principle, in the manner now referred to, is in those observances of religion which are intended to commemorate the events connected with the revelation of the Christian faith. The importance of this mode of transmission has not been sufficiently attended to by those who have urged the insuffi- ciency of human testimony, to establish the course of events which are at variance with the common course of nature." During the Commonwealth, some of the Puritan party endeavoured to show that the 25th of December was not really the Birth of our Saviour, but that it took place at a different time of the year. Thomas Mockett, in ' Christmas, the Christian's Grand Feast/ has collected the principal statements corroborative of this view — arguments they cannot be called ; and after all, his conclusion is nothing more than, be the 25th of December the right day or not, Christians were not bound to keep it as a feast, because the supreme authority of the land, and ordinances of both Houses of Par- liament, had directed otherwise. Parliament, however, can- not control the day of the Nativity, though it can do a great deal; having, on one occasion, according to tradition, nearly passed an act against the growth of poetry (an enactment perhaps not much wanted at present), though this was said to have been a clerical error; and, at another time, after inflicting a punishment of fourteen years' transportation, gave half to the king and half to the informer ; this, as may be supposed, was subsequently repealed. If, however, it is safe to say anything against Parliament, even of two hundred years since, without fear of the pains and penalties of con- tempt, it might be presumed that, like the patient in the ' Diary of a Physician/ they had " turned heads." Dr. Thomas — 8 — Warmstry, in 'The Yiudication of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ/ published three years previous to Mockett's tract, gives satisfactory replies to the objections made by the Puritans, and seems to have embodied the arguments against them, considering it sufficient for us that the Church has appointed the 25th of December for our great feast. Whether the Apostles celebrated this day, although pro- bable, is not capable of proof; but Clemens Romanus, about the year 70, when some of them were still living, directs the Nativity to be observed on the 25th of December. From his time to that of Bernard, the last of the Fathers, a.d. 1120, the feast is mentioned in an unbroken series ; a tract, called 1 Festorum Metropolis/ 1652, naming thirty-nine Fathers, who have referred to it, including Ignatius, Cyprian, Athan- asius, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrosius, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Bede; besides historians and more modern divines. ' The Feast of Feasts/ 1644, also contains many particulars of the celebration during the earlier centuries of Christianity. About the middle of the fourth century, the feasting was carried to excess, as may have been the case occasionally in later times ; and Gregory Nazianzen wars against such feast- ing, and dancing, and crowning the doors, so that the tem- poral rejoicing seems to have taken the place of the spiritual thanksgiving. In the same age there occurred one of those acts of brutality, which throughout all ages have disgraced humanity. The Christians having assembled in the Tem- ple at Nicomedia, in Bithynia, to celebrate the Nativity, Dioclcsian, the tyrant, had it inclosed, and set on fire, when about 20,000 persons arc said to have perished ; the number, however, appears large. The early Christians, of the eastern and western Churches, — 9 — slightly differed in the day on which they celebrated this feast : the Easterns keeping it, together with the Baptism, on the 6th of January, calling it the Epiphany; while the Westerns, from the first, kept it on the 25th of December; but in the fourth century the Easterns changed their festival of the Nativity to the same day, thus agreeing with the Westerns. The Christian epoch was, it is said, first intro- duced into chronology about the year 523, and was first established in this country by Bede. New Year's Day was not observed by the early Christians as the Feast of the Circumcision, but (excepting by some more zealous persons, who kept it as a fast) with feasting, songs, dances, interchange of presents, &c, in honour of the new year; though the bishops and elders tried to check these proceedings, which were pro- bably founded in some measure on the Roman feast of the double-faced Janus, held by them on this day. According to Brady, the first mention of it, as a Christian festival, was in 487; and it is only to be traced from the end of the eleventh century, under the title of the Circumcision; and was not generally so kept until included in our liturgy, in 1550; although, from early times, Christmas Day, the Nativity, and Twelfth Day, were the three great days of Christmas-tide. Referring to the probability, that the feasting on New Year's Day might have been derived from the feast of Janus, it must be observed, that some of the early Christians, finding the heathens strongly attached to their ancient rites and cus- toms, which made it difficult to abolish them (at least until after a considerable lapse of time), took advantage of this feeling, and engrafted the Christian feasts on those of the heathen, first modifying and purifying them. The practice may have been wrong, but the fact was so. Thus, Gregory — 10 — Thaumaturgus, bishop of Neocaesarea, who died in 265, insti- tuted festivals in honour of certain Saints and Martyrs, in substitution of those of the heathens, and directed Christ- mas to be kept with joy and feasting, and sports, to replace the Bacchanalia and Saturnalia. Pagan temples were con- verted into Christian churches; the statues of the heathen deities were converted into Christian saints ; and papal Rome preserved, under other names, many relics of heathen Rome. The Pantheon was converted into a Romish church, and Jupiter changed to St. Peter. When Pope Gregory sent over St. Augustin to convert Saxon England, he directed him to accommodate the cere- monies of the Christian worship as much as possible to those of the heathen, that the people might not be too much startled at the change ; and, in particular, he advised him to allow the Christian converts, on certain festivals, to kill and eat a great number of oxen, to the glory of God, as they had formerly done to the honour of the devil. St. Augustin, it appears, baptized no fewer than 10,000 persons on the Christ- mas day next after his landing in 596, and permitted, in pursuance of his instructions, the usual feasting of the inha- bitants, allowing them to erect booths for their own refresh- ment, instead of sacrificing to their idols, — objecting only to their joining in their dances with their pagan neighbours. Thus several of the pagan observances became incorporated with the early Christian festivals; and to such an extent, that frequent endeavours were made, by different Councils, to suppress or modify them ; as, in 589, the songs and dances, at the festivals of Saints, were prohibited by the Council of Toledo, and by that of Chalon, on the Saone, in 650. In after times, the clergy still found it frequently requisite to — 11 — connect the remnants of pagan idolatry with Christianity, in consequence of the difficulty they found in suppressing it. So, likewise, on the introduction of the Protestant religion, some of the Roman Catholic ceremonies, in a modified state, were preserved ; and thus were continued some of the pagan observances. In this manner may many superstitious cus- toms, still remaining at our great feasts, and in our games and amusements, be accounted for. The practice of decorating churches and houses with ever- greens, branches, and flowers, is of very early date. The Jews used them at their Feast of Tabernacles, and the heathens in several of their ceremonies, and they were adopted by the Christians. Our Saviour Himself permitted branches to be used as a token of rejoicing, upon His triumphal entry to Jerusalem. It was natural, therefore, that at Christmas time, when His Birth, and the fulfilment of the promise to fallen man, were celebrated, that this symbol of rejoicing should be resorted to. Some of the early Councils, however, considering the practice somewhat savoured of paganism, endeavoured to abolish it; and, in 610, it was enacted, that it was not lawful to begirt or adorn houses with laurel, or green boughs, for all this practice savours of pa- ganism. In the earlier carols the holly and the ivy are men- tioned, where the ivy, however, is generally treated as a foil to the holly, and not considered appropriate to festive purposes. " Holly and Ivy made a great party, Who should have the mastery In lands where they go. Then spake Holly, I am friske and jolly, I will have the mastery In lands where they go." — 12 — But in after times it was one of the plants in regular use. Stowe mentions holme, ivy, and bays, and gives an account of a great storm on Candlemas Day, 1444, which rooted up a standard tree, in Cornhill, nailed full of holme and ivy for Christmas, an accident that by some was attributed to the evil spirit. Old Tusser's direction is " Get ivye and hull (holly) woman deck up thine house. " The misletoe — how could Shakespeare call it the " baleful misletoe ?" — was an object of veneration among our pagan ancestors in very early times, and as it is probable it was the golden branch referred to by Virgil, in his description of the descent to the lower regions, it may be assumed to have been used in the religious ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans. His branch appears to have been the misletoe of the oak, now of great rarity, though it is found on many other trees. It was held sacred by the Druids and Celtic nations, who attribute to it valuable medicinal qualities, calling it allheal and guidhel, and they preferred, if not selected exclusively, the misletoe of the oak. Vallancey says it was held sacred because the berries as well as the leaves grow in clusters of three united to one stalk, and they had a veneration for the number three ; his obser- vation, however, is incorrect as to the leaves, which are in pairs only. The Gothic nations also attached extraordinary qualities to it, and it was the cause of the death of their deity Balder. For Friga, when she adjured all the other plants, and the animals, birds, metals, earth, fire, water, reptiles, diseases, and poison, not to do him any hurt, unfortunately neglected to exact any pledge from the misletoe, considering it too weak and feeble to hurt him, and despising it perhaps because it had no establishment of its own, but lived upon other plants. When the gods, then, in their great assembly, — 13 — amused themselves by throwing darts and other missiles at him, which all fell harmless, Loke, moved with envy, joined them in the shape of an old woman, and persuaded Hoder, who was blind, to throw a branch of misletoe, and guided his hand for the purpose ; when Balder, being pierced through by it, fell dead. The Druids celebrated a grand festival on the annual cutting of the misletoe, which was held on the sixth day of the moon nearest their new year. Many ceremonies were observed, the officiating Druid being clad in white, with a golden sickle, and received the plant in a white cloth. These ceremonies kept alive the superstitious feelings of the people, to whom no doubt the Druids were in the habit of dispensing the plant at a high price; and as late as the seventeenth century, peculiar efficacy was attached to it, and a piece hung round the neck was considered as a safeguard against witches. In modern times it has a tendency to lead us towards witches of a more attractive nature ; for, as is well known, if one can by favour or cunning induce a fair one to come under the misletoe he is entitled to a salute, at the same time he should wish her a happy new year, and present her with one of the berries for good luck; each bough, therefore, is only laden with a limited number of kisses, which should be well considered in selecting one. In some places people try lots by the crackling of the leaves and berries in the fire. From the pagan Saturnalia and Lupercalia probably were derived those extraordinary but gross, and as we should now consider them, profane observances, the Feast of Asses and the Feast of Fools, with other similar burlesque festivals. In the early ages of Christianity, there were practices at the beginning of the year of men going about dressed in female attire or in — 14 — skins of beasts, causing occasionally much vice and de- bauchery ; but the regular Feast of Asses and Feast of Fools were not apparently fully established until the ninth or tenth century ; a period when it was considered a sufficient qualifi- cation for a priest, if he could read the Gospels and under- stand the Lord's Prayer. All sorts of buffooneries and abominations were permitted at these representations ; mock anthems and services were sung; an ass, covered with rich priestly robes, was gravely conducted to the choir, and pro- vided from time to time with drink and provender, the inferior clergy, choristers, and people dancing round him and imitating his braying; while all sorts of impurities were committed, even at the holy altar. A hymn was sung, commencing — Orientis partibus Adventavit asinus ; Pulcher et fortissimus, Sarcinis aptissimus. Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez ; Belle bouche rechignez ; Vous aurez du foin assez. Et de l'avoine a planter. Lentus erat pedibus, Nisi foret baculus, Et cum in clunibus Pungeret aeuleus. and after several verses in this strain, finishing with — Hez va ! hez va ! hez va, hez ! Bialx Sire Asnes car allez ; Belle bouche car chantez. On the mock mass being completed, the officiating priest — 15 — turned to the people and said, " Ite missa est," and brayed three times, to which they responded by crying or braying out, Hinham, Hinham, Hinham. This festival is said to have been in commemoration of the flight to Egypt; but there was one kept at Rouen in honour of Balaam's ass, where the performers, if they may be so called, walked in procession on Christmas Day, representing the prophets and others, as David, Moses, Balaam, Virgil, &c, just as General Wolfe may now be seen as a party in the Christmas play of St. George and the Dragon. Many attempts were made from the twelfth to the end of the sixteenth century to suppress these licentious abuses of sacred things ; and although by that time they were abolished in the churches, yet they were continued by the laity, and our modern mum- mers probably have their origin from them. A pupil of Gassandi, writing to him as late as 1645, mentions having seen in the church at Aix, the Feast of Innocents (which was of a similar nature) kept by the lay brethren and servants in the church, dressed in ragged sacerdotal orna- ments, with books reversed, having large spectacles, with rinds of scooped oranges instead of glasses. Louis the Twelfth, in the early part of the sixteenth century, ordered the representation of the gambol of the f Prince des Sots ' and the ' Mere sotte/ in which, according to a note to Rabelais, liv. i, c 2, ed. 1823, Julius the Second and the Court of Rome were represented. This was about the time probably when the principality of Chauny wishing to have some swans (cignes) for the waters ornamenting their town, un- luckily wrote to Paris for some tinges (singe being then written with a c), and in due time received a wagonful of apes. They could, therefore, have readily proffered their — 16 — scribe as the prince des sots, excepting that it takes a wise man to make a good fool. At Angers, there was an old custom called Aquilanneuf, or Guilanleu, where young per- sons went round to churches and houses on the first of the year, to collect contributions, nominally to purchase wax in honour of the Virgin, or the patron of the church, crying out, Au gut menez Rollet Follet, tiri liri mainte du blanc et point du bis ; they had a chief called Roi Follet, and spent their money in feasting and debauchery. An order was made by the synod there, in 1595, which stopped the prac- tice in the churches, but another, in 1668, was necessary to modify and restrain it altogether. Feasts of this description were not much in vogue in England, though they were introduced, as we find them pro- hibited at Lincoln, by Bishop Grosthead, in the time of Henry the Third ; but towards the end of the following cen- tury they were probably abolished. There are traces of the fool's dance, where the dancers were clad in fool's habits, in the reign of Edward the Third. A full account of these strange observances may be found in Ducange, and in Du Tilliot's Memoires de la Fete des Foux. Christianity was introduced among the Britons at a very early period, but there arc no records, that can be considered authentic, of their mode of keeping the feast of the Nativity, though it was doubtless observed as one of their highest festivals. Some of the druidical ceremonies might have been embodied, and even the use of the mysterious misletoe then adopted, the aid of the bards called in, and ale and mead quaffed in abundance. The great and veritable King Arthur, according to the ballad of the "Marriage of Sir Gawainc," — — 17 — " a royale Christmasse kept, A\ itli mirth and princelye cheare ; To him repaired many a knighte, That came both fane and neare." This, though ancient, is certainly of a date long subsequent to the far-famed hero ; but it ought to be taken as authority, for, according to the modern progress of antiquarianism, the farther off we live from any given time or history, the more we know about it ; the old Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and Mediaevals, knowing nothing respecting themselves and their next door neighbours, while we are as familiar as if we had been born and bred with them. By the same rule of remoteness, the modern chronicler, Whistlecraft (Frere), should be taken as authority, for the particulars of the ancient Christmas feast, on which he humorously thus dilates : — " They served up salmon, venison, and wild boars, By hundreds, and by dozens, and by scores, Hogsheads of honey, kilderkins of mustard, Muttons, and fatted beeves, and bacon swine, Herons and bitterns, peacocks, swan, and bustard, Teal, mallard, pigeons, widgeons, and, in fine, Plum-puddings, pancakes, apple-pies, and custard, And therewithal they drank good Gascon wine, With mead, and ale, and cider of our own, For porter, punch, and negus were not known." After the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, were kept as solemn festivals ; the kings living at those times in great state, wear- ing their crowns, receiving company on a large scale, and — 18 — treating them with great hospitality. The Wittenagemots were also then held, and important affairs of church and state discussed. Knowing the affection of the early Saxons for their ale and mead, and that quaffing these from the skulls of their enemies, while feasting from the great boar Scrymer, was — notwithstanding the apparent sameness of the amuse- ment — one of their anticipated joys in a future state, we can readily imagine that excesses frequently took place at these festivals. The wassail bowl, of which the skull of an enemy would thus appear to have formed their beau ideal, is said to have been introduced by them. Rowena, the fair daughter of Hengist, presenting the British king, Vortigern, with a bowl of wane, and saluting him with " Lord King Wass-heil;" to which he answered, as he was directed, " Drinc heile," and saluted her then after his fashion, being much smitten with her charms. The purpose of father and daughter was obtained; the king married the fair cup-bearer, and the Saxons obtained what they required of him. This is said to have been the first wassail in this land ; but, as it is evident that the form of salutation was previously known, the custom must have been much older among the Saxons j and, indeed, in one of the histories, a knight, who acts as a sort of inter- preter between Rowena and the king, explains it to be an old custom among them. By some accounts, however, the Britons are said themselves to have had their wassail bowl, or lamb's wool — La Mas Ubhal, or day of apple fruit — as far back as the third century, made of ale, sugar (whatever their sugar was), toast and roasted crabbs, hissing in the bowl ; to which, in later times, nutmeg was added. The followers of Odin and Thor drank Largely in honour of their pagan deities; and, when converted, still continued their — 19 — potations, but in honour of the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and Saints ; and the early missionaries were obliged to sub- mit to this substitution, being unable to abolish the practice, which afterwards degenerated into drinking healths of other people, to the great detriment of our own. Strange ! that even from the earliest ages, the cup-bearer should be one of the principal officers in the royal presence, and that some of the high families take their name from a similar office. The feast of Christmas was kept in the same state on the Continent, and the bishops were accustomed to send their eulogies — Visitationis Scripta — on the Nativity, to kings, queens, and others of the blood royal. But it is foreign to the purpose of this work to refer to the customs abroad, unless it may be necessary to do so slightly, for the purpose of illustration. It may be mentioned, however, that at this festival, in 800, Charlemagne received from the pope, Leo the Third, the crown of Emperor, and was hailed as the pious Augustus the Great, and pacific Emperor of the Romans. Alfred, as might be expected from his fine character, rever- ently observed the festival. On one occasion he gave to the celebrated Asser, by way of gift, an abbey, in Wiltshire, supposed to have been Amesbury; another, at Barnwell, in Somersetshire; a rich silk pall, and as much incense as a strong man could carry on his shoulder, — a truly princely New Year's gift. He directed Christmas to be kept for twelve days ; so that now, if not at an earlier date, the length of the feast was defined, and the name, probably, of Twelfth-day given to the last day of it ; though, in the old Runic festivals, among the ancient Danes, it appears to have been more cor- rectly called the thirteenth dav, a name which would sound — 20 — uncouth to our modern ears : Who would eat any thirteenth cake? Alfred was commemorating this festival, with his army, at Chippenham, in 878, when he was surprised by Guthrum, and his Danes, and compelled to fly and conceal himself in the Isle of Athelney, his power fading away for a time, even like that of a twelfth-night king. Something similar happened a century before, when Offa, king of Mercia, about the year 790, was completing OflVs dyke. The Welsh, despising the solemnity of the time, broke through, and slew many of Offa's soldiers, who were enjoying their Christmas. The Danish kings kept the feast much in the same manner as the Saxons; and there is a story told of Canute, who had many good qualities about him, which shows the rudeness of the times, even in the royal eircle, though such a scene may even now be realized in Oriental courts. While this monarch was celebrating his Christmas in London, A.n. 1017, Edric, earl of Mercia, who had treacherously betrayed and deserted Ethclrcd and Edmund Ironside, boasted of his sendees to Canute, who turned to Eric, earl of Northumberland, exclaim- ing, " Then let him receive his deserts, that he may not betray us, as he betrayed Ethelred and Edmund." The Norwegian immediately cut him down with his battle-axe, and his body was thrown from a window into the Thames. Such speedy justice would rather astonish a drawing-room now-a-days. Dancing seems then, even as at present, to have been a favourite Christmas amusement, and certainly in one instance was carried to an extreme. Several young persons were dancing and singing together on Christmas Kve, 1012, in a churchyard, and disturbed one Robert, a priest, who was performing inas> in the church. lie entreated them in vain — 21 — to desist : the more he begged the more they danced, and, we may conclude, showed him some of their best entrechats and capers. What would, in modern times, have been a case for the police, was then a subject for the solemn interference of the powers of the church. Robert, as they would not cease dancing, as the next best thing, prayed that they might dance without ceasing. So they continued without inter- mission, for a whole year, feeling neither heat nor cold, hunger nor thirst, weariness nor decay of apparel ; but the ground on which they performed not having the same miraculous sup- port, gradually wore away under them, till at last they were sunk in it up to the middle, still dancing as vehemently as ever. Sir Roger de Coverley, danced down the whole length of the Crystal Palace, would have been nothing to this. A brother of one of the girls took her by the arm, endeavouring to bring her away; the limb, however, came off in his hand, like Dr. Faustus's leg, in the hand of the countryman, but the girl never stopped her dancing, or missed a single step in consequence. At the end of the year Bishop Hubert came to the place, when the dancing ceased, and he gave the party absolution. Some of them died immediately after, and the remainder, after a profound sleep of three days and three nights, went about the country to publish the miracle. It was at Christmas, 1065, that Westminster Abbey was consecrated, in the presence of Queen Edgitha, and a great number of nobles and priests, Edward the Confessor being himself too ill to attend; and indeed he died on the 5th of January, 10G6, and was buried in the Abbey on the following day; his tomb there, and his name of the Confessor, given him by the priests, haA^ing caused him probably to be better known than any particular merits of his own deserve. — 22 — A great change was now abont to take place in the government of our country : William of Normandy claimed it as his of right against Harold; and, having power to support his claim, in the space of a few months became King of England, placing his Norman followers in the high places of the land. CHAPTER II. H E Anglo-Norman kings introduced in- creased splendour at this festival, as they did on all other occasions ; the king wearing his crown and robes of state, and the prelates and nobles attending, with great pomp and ceremony, to partake of the feast provided by their monarch, and to receive from him presents, as marks of his royal favour ; returning, probably, more than an equivalent. William the Concpieror, was crowned on Christmas day, 1066. " On Christmas day in solcmnc sort, Then was he crowned here, By Albert, Archbishop of Yorke, With many a noble peere." — 24 — There was some disturbance during the ceremony, owing to the turbulence or misconception of his Norman followers, who, as well as their master, were disposed to rule with a rod of iron. William gave a striking proof of how little his nature was capable of understanding "good will towards men," when he kept his Christmas at York, in 1069, with the usual festivities, and afterwards gave directions to devastate the country between York and Durham; thus consigning 100,000 people to death, by cold, hunger, fire, and sword. Well, perhaps some of us are William the Conquerors in heart; what else is a bully at school, or a bully in society, or, yet more, a bully in domestic life? Who can count the misery caused by one selfish, one imperious tyrant, whose victims dare not, or will not, complain ; the crouching child, the trembling, submissive, broken-hearted, yet even still the loving wife ? Oh ! woman, — woman, how few amongst us are able to appreciate you ! We see you fair and accomplished ; we find you loving and affectionate ; we know you virtuous and faithful; but, can we estimate your truthfulness, your negation of self, your purity of thought? Partakers of our joys, but partners indeed in our sorrows; how many a weary heart of man, crushed by the pressure of worldly cares and trials, have you not saved, and brought to the contemplation of better things ! " She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; and in her tongue is the law of kindness." 1 1 would be easy to give a list of the different places where our monarchs kept their Christmasscs, from the time of the Conquest, in nearly, if not quite, an unbroken scries ; but as this would be scarcely as amusing as a few pages in a well conducted dictionary, it will no doubt be considered to have been wisely omitted. It may be stated, in general terms, — 25 — that the earlier kings occasionally passed Christmas in Normandy, and that some of the principal towns favoured, besides London and Westminster, appear to have been, Windsor, York, Winchester, Norwich, Worcester, Gloucester, Oxford, Eltham, and Canterbury; and in the time of the Tudors, Greenwich. Some examples of marked or distin- guished Christmasses will be given in the following pages. In 1085, William, who was fond of magnificence, kept his Christmas with great state at Gloucester, which was a favourite place with him and his son William. He was either in a particular good humour, or wished to perform what he might think an act of grace, and compensate the severity with which he treated his conquered, or rather semi-conquered new subjects, by showing favour to his own countrymen; — a sort of liberal disposition of public gifts to family friends, that may be seen occasionally even in modern times — so he gave bishoprics to three of his chaplains, namely, that of London to Maurice, of Thetford to William, and of Chester to Robert. There is a somewhat strange regulation among the constitutions of Archbishop Lanfranc for the government of the monks of his cathedral, which contain numerous injunctions respecting washing and combing, and other matters that would now surprise even a well-regulated boys' school. On Christmas Eve they are directed to comb their heads before they washed their hands, while at other times they were to wash first, and comb afterwards. We do not see the philosophy of this curious distinction. William Rufus, the weak and profligate successor of the Conqueror, kept the Christmas in state, like his father, and Henry the First followed their example; even in 1105, which was " annus valdc calamitosus," wherein he raised — 26 — many tributes, he still kept his Christmas in state, at Windsor. In 1116, he kept it at St. Albans, when the cele- brated monastery there was consecrated. In the Christmas 1126-7, which was held at Windsor, anticipating the struggle for the crown that would take place after his death, he assembled all the principal clergy and nobles (David, king of Scots, being also present), and caused them to swear that they would maintain England and Normandy for his daughter, the Empress Matilda, after his death. In these early times, however, a few oaths, more or less, were of little consequence ; the " time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary " was of very short date j a week sometimes making a man to forget utterly what he might previously have sworn to ; and the vicar of Bray would have been by no means a reprehensible character. King Stephen, after his accession, wore his crown and robes of state like the former kings, and kept his Christmas at London j but about the fifth year of his reign, the internal wars and tumults became and continued of such magnitude, that during the remainder of this troubled reign, the cele- bration of festivals was laid aside. Henry the Second renewed the celebration of Christmas with great splendour, and with plays and masques ; and the lord of Misrule appears to have been known at this time, if not at a much earlier date. In 1171, he celebrated the feast at Dublin, in a large wooden house erected for the purpose, and entertained several of the Irish chieftains, as well as the principal men of his own court and army; tlu* Irish were much surprised at the great plenty and variety of provisions, and were especially amused at the English eating cranes ; however, after a very short hesitation they joined readily in — 27 — the feasting themselves, and history does not say that any ill effects followed. Cranes continued to be favourites at Christmas and aristocratic feasts for some time ; at the celebrated and often quoted enthronisation banquet of Arch- bishop Nevil, in the time of Edward the Fourth, there were no less than 204 of these birds. There were some strange dishes, however, in vogue in the time of Henry the Second, as far as the names, whatever the actual merits of the com- pounds might have been. Dillegrout, karumpie, and mau- pigyrnun, may have far surpassed some of our grand sounding modern dishes, where the reality sadly disappoints the ear. This dillegrout also was rather an important dish, as the tenant of the manor of Addington, in Surrey, held it by service of making a mess of dillegrout on the day of the coronation. Fancy the anxiety on this ceremony, not only for the excellence of the dish, but that it shall not be pro- claimed a failure, and thus risk the possession of the manor, and some more favoured tenant being put in possession, on the tenure of providing a plum-pudding every Christmas, or something similar, like the celebrated King George's pudding, still tendered to visitors at the Isle of Portland. This dille- grout, too, required some little skill to make it well, being compounded of almond milk, the brawn of capons, sugar and spices, chicken parboiled and chopped, and was called, also, ' le mess de gyron/ or, if there was fat with it, it was termed maupigyrnun. At Christmas, 11 76, Roderick, king of Connaught, kept court with Henry at Windsor, and in 1183, Henry kept the feast at Caen, in Normandy, and there wished his son Henry (who died not long afterwards) to receive homage from his brothers ; but the impetuous Richard would not consent, the — 28 — "merry" Christmas was, therefore, sadly interrupted, and fresh family feuds arose ; they had previously been but too frequent, Henry's life having been much embittered by the conduct of his sons. When Richard himself came to the throne, he gave a splendid entertainment during Christmas, 1190, at Sicily, when on his way to the Crusades, inviting every one in the united English and French armies of the degree of a gen- tleman, and giving each a suitable present, according to his rank. Notwithstanding, however, the romance of Richard Cceur de Lion affirms that — " Christmas is a time full honest, Kyng Richard it honoured with gret feste ;" and an antiquary of course ought to consider these romances of equal authenticity with the old chronicles ; yet one cannot help thinking that during Richard's short reign, his captivity and his absence from his kingdom must have interfered with his Christmas celebrations; in fact, he, of the lion-heart, seems to have been more ornamental than useful in the pages of history. John celebrated the feast pretty regularly, but seems occa- sionally to have selected a city or town for the purpose, where some great personage was allowed to provide for the entertainment; as, for instance, the celebrated Hubert de Burgh, at Canterbury, in 1203. In 1213, he kept his Christmas at Windsor with great festivity, and gave many presents. He was accustomed to make a present to his chancellor, every Christmas, of two marks of gold, according to ancient custom, no doubt by way of New Year's gift, and gave him half that value at Easter and Whitsuntide. In — 29 — 1214, he was keeping his Christmas at Worcester, when he was informed of the resolution of the barons to withdraw their allegiance, unless their claims were attended to. This information being ill-suited for the festivities then in pro- gress, the king departed suddenly and shut himself up in the Temple ; but the barons went to him on the Epiphany of 1215 with their demands, to which he promised a satisfactory answer at the ensuing Easter. The dissensions between himself and his barons, ending in Magna Charta, are well- known matters of history. In the following year the chief barons of the realm were under sentence of excommunication, and the city of London was under an interdict; but the citizens disregarded this, kept open their churches, rang their bells, enjoyed their turtle and whitebait (whatever the turtle and whitebait of that time might have been), drank their hippocras, ale, mead, and claret or clarre, and celebrated their Christmas with unusual festivity. The English had long been celebrated for their pre-eminence in drinking ; as Iago says, "your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander, are nothing to your English." They probably inherited the talent from the Saxons, for their kings had their wine, mead, cyder, ale, pigment, and morat, to which their Norman suc- cessors added claret or clarre, garhiofilac, and hippocras. Morat was made from honey and mulberries; claret, pig- ment, hippocras, and garhiofilac (so called from the girofle or cloves contained in it), were different preparations of wine mixed with honey and spices, no doubt very palatable ; and hippocras particularly was indispensable at all the great feasts. Garhiofilac was probably made of white wine, and claret of red wine, as there is an order of Henry the Third in existence, directing the keepers of his wines at York, to deliver to — 30 — Robert de Monte Pessulano two tuns of white wine to make garhiofilac, and one tun of red wine to make claret for him at the ensuing Christmas, as he used to do in former years. These sheriffs were very useful persons in those times, and performed many offices for our olden monarchs that would somewhat surprise a modern high sheriff to perform now, when he is only called upon to attend to the higher duties of his office, and becomes officially one of the first men in his county. Henry the Third, in his twenty-sixth year, directed the sheriff of Gloucester, to cause twenty salmons to be bought for the king, and put into pies against Christmas; and the sheriff of Sussex to buy ten brawns with the heads, ten peacocks, and other provisions for the same feast. In his thirty-ninth year, the French king, having sent over as a present to Henry (whether as a New Year's gift or not does not exactly appear) an elephant — " a beast most strange and wonderfull to the English people, sith most seldome or never any of that kind had beene seene before that time," — the sheriffs of London were commanded to build a house for the same, forty feet long and twenty feet broad, and to find necessaries for himself and keeper. The boar's head just referred to was the most distinguished of the Christmas dishes, and there are several old carols remaining in honour of it. " At the bcgynnyng of the mete, Of a borys hed ye schal hete, And in the mustard ye shal wete ; And ye shal syngyn or ye gon." The dish itself, though the "chief service in this land," and of very ancient dignity — probably as old as the Saxons, — — 31 — was not confined to Christmas; for, in 1170, when King Henry the Second had his son Henry crowned in his own lifetime, he himself, to do him honour, brought up the boar's head with trumpets before it, " according to the manner." It continued the principal entry at all grand feasts, and was frequently ornamented. At the coronation feast of Henry the Sixth there were boars' heads in " castellys of golde and enamell." By Henry the Eighth's time it had become an established Christmas dish, and we find it ushered in at this season to his daughter the Princess Mary, with all the usual ceremonies, and no doubt to the table of the monarch him- self, who was not likely to dispense with so royal a dish ; and so to the time of Queen Elizabeth, and the revels in the Inns of Court in her time, when at the Inner Temple a fair and large boar's head was served on a silver platter, with min- strelsy. At the time of the celebrated Christmas dinner, at Oxford, in 1607, the first mess was a boar's head, carried by the tallest of the guard, having a green scarf and an empty scabbard, preceded by two huntsmen, one carrying a boar spear and the other a drawn faucion, and two pages carrying mustard, which seems to have been as indispensable as the head itself. A carol was sung on the occasion, in the burden of which all joined. Queen's College, Oxford, was also cele- brated for its custom of bringing in the boar's head with its old carol. Even in the present day, though brawn, in most cases, is considered as a sort of substitute, the boar's head with lemon in his mouth may be seen, though rarely, and when met with, may be safely recommended as a dainty ; but some of the soi-disant boars' heads seen at Christmas in a pompous state of whiskerless obesity, may without disparagement, take Lady Constance's words literallv and " hang a calf skin on — 3.2 — their recreant limbs." Brawn is probably as old as boar's head ; but the inventor of such an arrangement of hogsflesh must have been a genius, and would have been a patentee in our days, and probably have formed a joint-stock brawn association. We have just observed it in the time of Henry the Third, and the ' begging frere/ in c Chaucer's Sompnoure's Tales/ says, " geve us of your braun, if ye have any," and it may be found in most of the coronation and grand feasts; even in the coronation feast of Katharine, queen to Henry the Fifth, in 1421, brawn and mustard appear, though the feast was intended to be strictly a fish dinner, and with this exception and a little confectionary, really was so, comprising, with other marine delicacies, " fresh sturgion with welks," and "porperous rosted," the whole bill of fare, however, would match even the ministerial whitebait dinner. This is not the only instance where brawn was ranked with fish ; for when Calais was taken, there was a large quantity there ; so the French, guessing it to be some dainty, tried every means of cooking it ; they roasted it, boiled it, baked it, but all in vain, till some imaginative mind suggested a trial au naturel, when its merits were discovered. But now came the question, in what class of the animal creation should it be placed ? The monks tasted and admired : " Ha ! ha ! " said they, " capital fish \" and immediately placed it on their list of fast-day pro- visions. The Jews were somewhat puzzled, but a committee of taste, of the most experienced elders, decided that it certaiidy was not any preparation from impure swine, and included it in their list of clean animals. At the coronation of Henry the Seventh, a distinction was made between "brawnc royall," and "brawne," the former probably being confined to the king's table. Brawn and — 33 — mustard appear to be as inseparable as the boar's bead and mustard, and many directions respecting them may be found at early feasts. In the middle of the sixteenth century brawn is called a great piece of service, chiefly in Christmas time, but as it is somewhat hard of digestion, a draught of malvesie, bastard, or muscadell is usually drunk after it, where either of them is conveniently to be had. " Even the two rundlets, The two that was our hope, of niuscadel, (Better ne'er tongue tript over,) these two cannons, To batter brawn withal, at Christmas, sir, — Even these two lovely twins, the enemy Had almost cut off clean." At the palace, and at the revels of the Inns of Court, it seems to have been a constant dish at a Christmas breakfast. Tusser prescribes it amongst his good things for Christmas, and it has so remained to the present time. The salmon recently mentioned, as having been ordered for the king, continued to be a favourite dish for this feast. Carew says — " Lastly, the sammon, king of fish, Fils with good cheare the Christmas dish." There used to be a superstition at Aberavon, in Monmouth- shire, that every Christmas Day, in the morning, and then only, a large salmon exhibited himself in the adjoining river, and permitted himself to be handled and taken up, but it would have been the greatest impiety to have captured him. One would not wish to interfere with the integrity of this legend, by calling on the salmon some Christmas morning, for fear that he may have followed the tide of emigration, or may have been affected by free trade. — 34 — The salmon, however, is not the only living creature, besides man, that is supposed to venerate this season. " Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long : And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad ; The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike ; No fairy tales, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time." According to popular superstition the bees are heard to sing, and the labouring cattle may be seen to kneel, on this morning, iu memory of the cattle in the manger, and the sheep to walk in procession, in commemoration of the glad tidings to the shepherds. Howison, in his ' Sketches of Upper Canada/ mentions an interesting incident of his meeting an Indian at midnight, on Christmas Eve, during a beautiful moonlight, cautiously creeping along, and beckoning him to silence, who, in answer to his inquiries, said, " Me watch to see the deer kneel ; this is Christmas night, and all the deer fall upon their knees to the Great Spirit, and look up." In our notice of Christmas wines, we must not omit malt- wine or ale, which may be considered, indeed, as our national beverage. " The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale, Puts downe all drinke when it is stale," or, as it has been classically rendered, alum si sit stalum. The Welsh who are still famous for their ale, had early laws regulating it, while the steward of the king's household had as much of every cask of plain ale as he could reach with his — 35 — middle finger dipped into it ; and as much of every cask of spiced ale as he could reach with the second joint of his middle finger. As millers are remarkable for the peculiarity of then' thumbs, no doubt these stewards were gifted with peculiarly long middle fingers. Ale. or beer, was afterwards divided into single beer, or small ale, double beer, double- double beer, and dagger ale ; there was, also, a choice kind, called March ale ; and our early statute books contain several laws regulating the sale of ale, which was to be superintended by an ale-taster, and the terrors of the pillory and cucking- stool held over misdemeanants. It may be expected that (i Christmas broached the mightiest ale," and Christmas ale has, accordingly, been famous from the earliest times. — " Bryng us in good ale, and bryng us in good ale, For our blyssd Lady sake, bring us in good ale," is a very old wassailing cry, and the wandering musicians always expected a black jack of ale and a Christmas pye. A favourite draught, also, was spiced ale with a toast, stirred up with a sprig of rosemary, — " Mark you, sir, a pot of ale consists of four parts : imprimis, the ale, the toast, the ginger, and the nutmeg." Mead, or metheglin, was another national drink, and here the steward was only allowed as far as he could reach in the cask with the first joint of his middle finger. That metheglin was so called from one Matthew Glinn, who had a large stock of bees that he wished to make profitable, must be considered more as a joke than a tradition. Henry the Third generally kept his Christmasscs with festivities. In 1.230, there was a grand one at York, the — 36 — King of Scots being present j bnt four years afterwards he kept it at Gloucester, with only a small company, many of the nobles having left him in consequence of the great favour he was showing foreigners, to their injury. In 1241, he again offended them by placing the Pope's legate, at the great dinner at Westminster Hall, in the place of honour, that is, the middle, he himself sitting on the right-hand, the Archbishop of York (the Archbishop of Canterbury being dead) on his left-hand, and then the prelates and nobles, according to rank. This etiquette, as to place at table, is certainly as old as the Egyptians, and many a wronged or neglected individual's dinner has been spoilt, who has failed in getting such a place above the salt, or at the cross table, as he con- sidered his merits entitled him to. On one occasion, in his forty-second year, Henry rather took undue advantage of the custom of the season, and being distressed for money, required compulsory New Year's Gifts from the Londoners. His wars frequently distressed him for money, and in 1254, his queen sent him, to Gascoigne, 500 marks from her own" revenues, as a New Year's Gift, toward the maintenance of them. In several instances, he kept his Christmasses at the expense of some of the great nobles, as Hubert dc Burgh, and Peter, bishop of Winchester, who, in 1232, not only took all the expense upon himself, but gave the king and all his court festive garments ; and, in another year, when Alexander, King of Scots, married his daughter Margaret, the Archbishop of York, where the feast was held, gave 600 fat oxen, which were all spent at one meal, and ex- pended 1000 marks besides. This convenient practice saved the pocket of the sovereign, and gratified the ambition of the subject; but the great expense caused by such a favour, — 37 — must have been something like the costly present of an elephant, by an Eastern despot, to a subject. In his later years, the king laid aside hospitality very much. The three Edwards kept the feast much as before, and Edward the First is said to have been the first king who kept any solemn feast at Bristol, holding his Christmas there in 1284. In his wardrobe accounts, there are some valuable particulars of the custom of the king at this time. In pursuance of ancient usage, he offered at the high altar, on the Epiphany, one golden florin, frankincense, and myrrh, in commemoration of the offering of the three kings j a custom carried down with some variation to the present day. In the same accounts, some of the New Year's Gifts given to him are mentioned ; among them, a large ewer set with pearls all over, with the arms of England, Flanders, and Barr, a present from the countess of Flanders ; a comb and looking-glass of silver-gilt enamelled, and a bodkin of silver in a leathern case, from the countess of Barr; also, a pair of large knives of ebony and ivory, with studs of silver enamelled, given by the Lady Margaret, his daughter, duchess of Brabant. The custom of giving New Year's Gifts existed from the earliest period, and as Warmstry, in his ( Vindication/ says, may be " harmless provocations to Christian love, and mutuall testimonies thereof to good purpose, and never the worse because the heathens have them at the like times/' The Romans had their Xenia and Strenas, during the Saturnalia, which were retained by the Christians, whence came the French term ctrennes ; a very ancient one, for in the old mystery, " Li Gieus de Robin et de Marion," in the thirteenth century, Marion says, she will play, " aux jeux qu'on fait aux etrennes, entour la veille de Noel." The Greek word streiiEe, is trans- — 38 — lated in oui' New Testament,, delicacies; so that, whether delicacies were called strense because such gifts were generally of an elegant or graceful nature, or the New Year's Gifts adopted a word previously applied to delicacies, seems imma- terial, as the result is the same. These " diabolical New Year's Gifts," as some called them, were denounced by certain of the councils, as early as the beginning of the seventh cen- tury, though without effect. They were either in the nature of an offering from an inferior to his superior, who gave something in return, or an interchange of gifts between equals. Tenants were accustomed to give capons to their landlords at this season, and in old leases, a capon, at Christmas, is some- times reserved as a sort of rent, — " Yet must he haunt his greedy landlord's hall, With often presents at ecli festivall ; With crammed capons ev'ry New Year's morne." The practice of New Year's Gifts is of great antiquity in this country. In the twelfth century, Jocelin of Brakelond, when about to make a gift to his abbot, refers to it, as being according to the custom of the English ; and, in very early times, the nobility, and persons connected with the court, gave these New Year's Gifts to the monarch, who gave in return presents of money, or of plate, the amount of which in time became quite a matter of regulation ; and the messenger, bringing the gift, had, also, a handsome fee given him. How much kindly feeling is caused by the interchange of these gifts, and how much taste and fancy displayed at Fortnum and Mason's, and other places, to tempt us to purchase for the gratification of our younger friends, and receive our reward in the contemplation of their unfeigned pleasure and amusement ! — 39 — Humorous and witty, as well as elegant, bon-bons and souvenirs, drawing the money from us like so many magnets ; as Nasgeorgus says — " These giftes the husband gives his wife, And father eke the childe, And maister on his men bestowes The like, with favour milde." There are some particulars in the wardrobe accounts of the New Year's Gifts of Edward the Second, and also payments made to him to play at dice at Christmas ; a custom existing probably long before his time, and certainly continued down to a comparatively recent period, gambling at the groom- porter's having been observed as late as the time of George the Third. He also gave numerous gifts, being, as is Avell known, of extravagant and luxurious habits. In his eleventh year, especially, at Westminster, several knights received sumptuous presents of plate from him, and the king of the bean (Rex Fabse) is mentioned as receiving handsome silver- gilt basins and ewers as New Year's Gifts. Two of the kings of the bean named, are, Sir William de la Bech, and Thomas de Weston, squire of the king's household. Edward kept several stately Christmasses, and one at Nottingham in 1324, with particular magnificence, glory, and resort of people. Even when a prisoner at Kenilworth in 1326-7, he kept up a degree of state, although his son, Edward the Third, then aged about sixteen years, was crowned on Christmas Day, 1326, the queen-mother keeping open court, with a great assembly of nobles, prelates, and burgesses, when it was decided to depose the father, whose melancholy fate is well known. Edward the Third became not only a great warrior, but, also, — 40 — in many respects, a great monarch, and his Christmasses, with other feasts, were held with much splendour. One at Wells, where there were many strange and sumptuous shows made to pleasure the king and his guests, is particularly men- tioned; but that at Windsor, in 1343-4, is by far the most distinguished in history, as the king then renewed the Round Table, and instituted the celebrated Order of the Garter, making St. George the patron; whether from the circum- stance of the countess of Salisbury having dropped her garter (whence the old Welsh tune took its name of Margaret has lost her garter), cannot now be distinctly proved; but we may as well leave the balance in favour of gallantly. Suffice it, that never has any order of knighthood enrolled such a suc- cession of royal, brave, and world-renowned characters. In 1347 at Guildford, and 1348 at Ottford, in Kent, there were great revellings at Christmas. In the first of these years, there were provided for the amusements of the court, eighty- four tunics of buckram, of divers colours ; forty-two visors of different likenesses ; twenty-eight crests ; fourteen coloured cloaks; fourteen dragons' heads; fourteen white tunics; fourteen heads of peacocks, with wings; fourteen coloured tunics, with peacocks' eyes; fourteen heads of swans, with wings; fourteen coloured tunics of linen; and fourteen tunics, coloured, with stars of gold and silver. In the fol- lowing year, quadrupeds were in the ascendancy, instead of the feathered creation, and amongst the things mentioned in the wardrobe expenses are, twelve heads of men, surmounted by those of elephants; twelve of men, having heads of lions over them; twelve of men's heads, having bats' wings; and, twelve heads of wodewoscs, or wildmen. A good pantomime decorator would have been invaluable 4 in those days. On — 41 — New Year's Eve 1358, Edward, with his gallant son, were in a different scene, fighting under the banners of Sir Walter de Mauny before the walls of Calais, which place the French thought had been betrayed to them j but the plot was coun- teracted, and they were defeated, and many French knights made captives, who were hospitably entertained by the English king on the following day, being New Year's Day. The mummeries, or disguises, just referred to, were known here as early as the time of Henry the Second, if not sooner, and may have been derived originally from the heathen custom of going about, on the kalends of January, in disguises, as wild beasts and cattle, and the sexes changing apparel. They were not confined to the diversions of the king and his nobles ; but a ruder class was in vogue among the inferior orders, where, no doubt, abuses were occasionally introduced in con- sequence. Even now, our country geese or guise dancers are a remnant of the same custom, and, in some places, a horse's head still accompanies these mummers. The pageants, in former times, of different guilds or trades, some of which still exist, and, at the Lord Mayor's shows, had all probably a common origin, modified by circumstances; but, with respect to those of the city, I must refer to Mr. Fairholt's account, printed for the Percy Society, where he has treated largely on the subject. "Who knows how many juvenile citizens may not have been fired by ambition at the sight of these soul-stirring spectacles, to becoming common council- men, aldermen, sheriffs, and lord-mayors themselves — to have at their beck, the copper-cased knights ; the brazen trumpets ; the prancing horses, bedecked with streamers; the marshal- men, in martial attire ; gilded coach, with the sword of state looking out of window ! — and then the charms of the dinner, — 42 — in all the magnificence of turtle-soup, barons of beef, cham- pagne, venison, and minced pies, with Gog and Magog looking benignly on; though they must miss the times, when the Lord Mayor's Fool used to jump into a huge bowl of Ahnayn custard. Edward the Third gave and received New Year's Gifts, as former kings ; and we find an instance of presents given to Roger Trumpony and his companions, minstrels of the king, in the name of the king of the bean. He also made the usual oblations at the Epiphany. The continental usages were, in many places, similar to our own ; but, as before intimated, they will be but slightly noticed. Charles the Fifth, of France, for instance, in 1377, held the feast of Christmas, or Noel as it was called, at Cambray, " et Ik, fist ses serimonies imperiaulx, selon Fusage," referring evidently to old customs ; he also presented gold, incense, and myrrh, in three gilt cups. Not many years afterwards, the duke of Burgundy gave New Year's Gifts of greater value than any one, and especially to all the nobles and knights of his household, to the value of 15,000 golden florins ; but there was probably as much policy in this, as any real regard for the sacred festival. Richard the Second was young when he came to the throne, extravagant, fond of luxury and magnificence, and the vagaries of fashion in dress were then, and for a long time after, un- equalled ; his dress, was " all jewels, from jascy to his diamond boots." It is to be expected, therefore, that his Christmasses were kept in splendour, regardless of expense; and this ap- pears to have been the case even to the close of his short and unfortunate reign ; as, in 1399, there was a royal Christmas at Westminster, with justinga and running at the tilt throughout, — 43 — and from twenty-six to twenty-eight oxen, with three hundred sheep, and fowls without number, were consumed every day. In the previous Christmas, at Lichfield where the Pope's nuncio and several foreign gentlemen were present, there were spent two hundred tuns of wine, and two thousand oxen, with their appurtenances. It is to be assumed that the pudding was in proportion to the beef; so these, in point of feasting, must have been royal Christmasses indeed. In the midst of all this grandeur, there was a want of clean- liness and comfort in the rush-strewn floors and imperfectly furnished rooms and tables, that would have been very evident to a modern guest ; and the manners at table, even in good society, would rather shock our present fastidious habits. Chaucer, not long previously, in describing the prioresse, who appears to have been a well-bred and educated person for the time, proves the usual slovenliness of the domestic habits, by showing what she avoided — " At mete was she wel ytaughte withalle ; She lette no morsel from hire lippes falle, Ne wette hire fingres in hire sauce depe. Wel coude she carie a morsel, and wel kepe, Thatte no drope ne felle upon hire brest. In curtesie was selte ful moche hire lest. Hire over lippe wiped she so clene, That in hire cuppe was no ferthing sene, Of grese, whan she dronken hadde hire draught." or, according to the Roman de la Rose, from whence Chaucer took this account, — " Et si doit si sagement boyre, Que sur soy n'en espande goutte." It must be remembered, however, that there were no forks — 44 — in those days. The Boke of Curtasye of the same age, re- probates a practice that is even now scarcely obsolete, and may unexpectedly be seen in company, where it excites sur- prise, to say the least of it ; — " dense not tlii tethe at mete sittande, With knyfe ne stre, styk ne wande." Richard also had his pageants, or disguisings, but instead of looking to the brute or feathered creation for models, we find, on one occasion, there is a charge for twenty-one linen coifs for counterfeiting men of the law, in the king's play or diversion at Christmas, 1389. If the men of the law had been as plentiful as at present, there would have been no need of making any counterfeits, where a sufficient quantity of real ones might have been procured so cheap. The un- fortunate Richard was murdered on Twelfth Day, 1400, a sad finish to all his Christmasses. At the same time, a plan was laid by the earls of Kent and Huntingdon (recently degraded from the dukedoms of Exeter and Surrey), with the earl of Salisbury and others, to gain access, under colour of a Christ- mas mumming, at Windsor, where Henry the Fourth and the princes were keeping the feast, and thus effect the restoration of Richard; but one of the conspirators, the earl of Rutland (degraded from duke of Aumarle) , gave timely notice of it, in order, as it is said, to forestal his father, the duke of York, who had got some knowledge of the plot. Henry the Fourth kept his Christmas feasts in the usual style, and does not require any particular notice, which might tend to needless repetition. ," mmm$& CHAPTER III. H E wild course of Henry the Fifth, while Prince of Wales, and his brilliant but short career as king, are well known, and are immortalised by Shakespeare ; — " Never was such a sudden scholar made : Never came reformation in a flood, With such a heady current, scouring faults ;" his historical plays have probably supplied many with their principal knowledge of the early annals of our country, from King Lear downwards; and we must not quarrel with the dramatic fate of Cordelia, although her real story was more prosperous, as we have, consequently, some of the most — 46 — pathetic passages in the works of our immortal bard — that is, if such bard there ever was ; for the overbearing mass of intellect, imagination, and beauty, presented to us under the name of Shakespeare, is such, that one almost considers the name a myth, and decides that, at least, the Seven Sages must have been engaged in its production. When his warlike avocations allowed him Henry the Fifth kept the feast with splendour ; but his reign was nearly brought to a close at its outset, if we are to believe those historians who state that, when he was keeping the Christmas of 1413-14, at Eltham, there was a plot for seizing him and his three brothers, and the principal clergy, and killing them. As this plot was, however, attributed to the Lollards, some of whom were taken and executed, and rewards offered for Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, imputing thereby the attempts to him, the account must be taken with considerable allowance. Even in the midst of the horrors of war Henry did not forget the Christian mercies of this tide ; for during the siege of Rouen in his sixth year, and that city being in great ex- tremity from hunger, he ceased hostilities on Christmas Day, and gave food to all his famishing enemies who would accept of it. " Alle thay to have mete and drynke therto, And, again, save condyte to come and to go." Something like this occurred, in 1428, at the siege of Orleans, " where the solemnities and festivities of Christmas gave a short interval of repose : the English lords requested of the French commanders, that they might have a night of minstrelsy with trumpets and clarions. They borrowed these musicians and instruments from the French, and Dunois and Suffolk also exchanged gifts. In his eighth year, Henry, — 47 — with his queen, the " most fair " Katherine, sojourned at Paris during the feast, and "kept such solemn estate, so plentiful a house, so princely pastime, and gave so many gifts, that from all parts of France, noblemen and others resorted to his palace, to see his estate, and do him honour." This was a stroke of policy to ingratiate himself with the French, and the French king at the same time kept his Christmas quietly. Henry the Sixth, for the first few years of his troubled reign, was a mere child; though, in the tenth year of his reign, and the same of his age, having just previously received the homage of the French and Norman nobles at Paris, he celebrated the Feast with great solemnity at Rouen ; a place where, not long after, some of those in high places of our country were to disgrace themselves by the cruel punishment of Joan of Arc. He seems afterwards to have kept his Christmas in the usual manner, until the disastrous wars of York and Lancaster, during which the fate of the monarch, — and, indeed, who, for the time being, was such monarch — depended on the predominance of the white or red rose. There are several instances recorded of New Year's Gifts, or Christmas Boxes, given to and by him when a boy; amongst others, to his mother Queen Katherine; to Queen Jane, widow of Henry the Fourth; and, to the Cardinal of England ; being tablets of gold, ornamented with precious stones. On one occasion he gave his mother a ruby, set in a ring of gold, that the duke of Bedford had given him at a previous Christmas. At another time he gave his mother a tablet of gold, with a crucifix garnished with sapphires and pearls, weighing about fourteen ounces of gold, which was bought of John Patteslee, goldsmith, for forty pounds. The — 48 — usual payment to the heralds for their largess seems to have been a hundred shillings. A small quarto book, with rich illuminations, given to Henry by the abbot of Edmundsbury, is now in the British Museum. The kings of arms and heralds were accustomed, in preceding reigns, to have their livery out of the great wardrobe, at Christmas, like other squires of the court ; but the practice having apparently got into disuse during the boyhood of Henry, they petitioned, in the eighteenth year of his reign, to have them again, which was granted, and they again were decorated as at present, like gilded court cards. In 1428, a sum of four pounds was given to Jakke Travaill and companions, for making divers plays and interludes before the king, at Christmas. Plays and interludes, with disguisings and mummings, were of very ancient date, and derived, like many other things, from the heathens. As early as 408 stage plays and spec- tacles were forbidden by the Concilium Africanum, on the Lord's day, and other solemn Christian festivals, and by several subsequent councils, whose orders seem to have been but little attended to, showing how deep-rooted was the attachment to these shows. The early secular plays, prin- cipally performed by strolling minstrels, were frequently of a comic nature, but of a gross character, and accompanied by music, dancing, and mimicry. About the twelfth century the ecclesiastics introduced miracle-plays and scripture-his- tories, to counteract the secular plays, and these became common in the time of Henry the Second j the miracle-play of St. Katherine was acted at Dunstaple early in the twelfth century. London became famous for them, and in some places different trade-guilds produced each their separate play — 49 — or mystery, as we find in the case of the Chester and Coventry Mysteries, and others. It was found expedient in these to introduce some comic passages, to relieve the length of the performances, and attract the notice of the audience, who probably paid on the voluntary system, as each thought proper. Thus, in the ' Chester Mysteries/ about the fourteenth century, Noah's wife refuses to go into the ark, without her gossips, every one, and swears by Christ and by Saint John ; and when she is at last forced in, she salutes Noah with a hearty box on the ear. In the Cornish Mystery of the ' Creation of the World/ by Jordan, which is, however, nearly three centuries later in date, the lady is much more civil, and is very careful to collect her property, like a thrifty housewife, because " they cost store of money." In the ' Secunda Pastomm ' of the Towneley Mysteries, which are said to be about a century later than those of Chester, Mak, the buffoon of the piece, steals a sheep from the Shepherds, while they are asleep, and takes it home to his wife, who puts it into the cradle, endeavouring to make it pass for a child, and praying that if ever she beguiled the Shepherds, who have come in search of it, she may eat the child lying there. The trick, however, is discovered, one of the Shepherds, going to kiss the child, finds the long snout. A similar story is told of Archie Armstrong, the jester, in the seventeenth century, excepting that his fraud was not discovered. In the ' Slaughter of the Innocents/ a cowardly character, called Watkyn, requests Herod to knight him, that he may be properly qualified to assist ; he is nevertheless well beaten by the women, and goes to complain accordingly. These Mysteries abound in anachronisms: Pharaoh in his pursuit of the Israelites, when in fear of drowning, recommends — 50 — his people to lift up their hearts to Mahownde, or Mahomet ; Herod constantly swears by him, sometimes even calling him St. Mahomed, as the Sicilian peasants swear by Santu Diavolu, and promises to make one of his counsellors Pope, by way of reward ; Noah's wife swears by Mary ; Caiaphas sings mass ; and the Shepherds are acquainted with the fools of Gotham; but as individuals of this class are of a very ancient, as well as lasting, breed, the statement may be correct, if applied to some Gotham in Palestine, In the ' Mactatio Abel/ of the same collection, Cain is made to speak in the rudest dialect of West York, using the vulgarest phrases, with gross buffoonery. The pilgrims and crusaders, on their return from the East, introduced other subjects, and the frequent use of the name of Mahomed or Mahomet may have some connection with them. The Christmas play of St. George and the Dragon — " St. George ! that swindg'd the dragon, and e'er since Sits on his horseback, at mine hostess' door," — with the King of Egypt, and fair Sabra, his daughter, still extant in some parts of the country, may have the same origin. It is evidently of great antiquity ; and the fact of its being- performed in similar manner in the extreme northern and western parts of the country, a considerable part indeed being nearly identical, tends to prove this. (< St. George !" was the old battle cry of the English, or " Sand Jors !" as an old German poem, of the fourteenth century, on the battle of Poictiers, calls it. After the introduction of miracle-plays and mysteries, if there was a deficiency at anytime of ecclesiastical performers, the clergy took secular players to assist them ; and besides — 51 — the fraternities and guilds, as before mentioned, some of the public schools also claimed an exclusive privilege of per- forming plays at particular times and places; the scholar of Paul's School, indeed, applied to Richard the Second to prohibit inexperienced persons from presenting the ' History of the Old Testament/ which the clergy had been at great expense to represent publicly at Christmas. The parish- clerks were also famed for their representations, which seem frequently to have taken place at Clerkenwell, and occasionally lasted for several days. One is mentioned by Stow, in 1409, at Skinner's Well, near Clerkenwell, which lasted eight days, commencing from the Creation of the World; which was indeed the favourite beginning, if we may judge from the sets of mysteries still extant; the authors thinking that date sufficiently remote : unlike some pedigree hunters, who some way down their ornamented tree, place a note, stating that about this time the world began ; or the Chinese picture of the Creation, which has, in a corner, a Chinese mandarin looking on through a telescope. About the middle of the fifteenth century, moralities, or morals, appear to have been introduced, consisting of allegorical personifications, and with them the Vice with his dagger of lath and fooPs coat. The scripture- plays were not, however, immediately abandoned, and may be met with, though perhaps in the shape of a puppet-show, as late certainly as the time of Queen Anne, when at Heatley's Booth, at Bartholomew Fair, might be seen the old Creation of the World, newly revived, commencing with the Creation of Adam and Eve, and finishing with rich Dives in Hell, and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. The French had representa- tions similar to those of the English, at least as early in date; and, in 1313, Philippe-le-Bcl exhibited, on the occa- — 52 — sion of conferring knighthood on his children, the following spectacles : — ' Adam et Eve ; ' ' Les Trois Rois j ' * Le Menrte des Innocens ; ' N. S. riant avec Sa Mere, et mangeant des pommes j Herode et Caiphe en mitre, &c. In France, and in Spain, where they had their Autos Sacrament ales, as they called these mysteries, from an equally early date, these performances have been continued to modern times among the country people, and most of their collections of carols contain two or three short mysteries. The plays exhibited at court, during the Christmas, were probably different from those of the clergy, and more in the nature of mummeries, or disguisings, with pageants, until the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the regular drama was performed before her, a practice which has been renewed in the elegant Christmas festivities of our present Queen. After Edward the Fourth became the undisputed king of this country, he resumed the custom of keeping Christmas with pomp, wearing his crown, and keeping his estate, and making presents to his household ; but the parliament never- theless, in 1465, thought it necessary to pass one of those useless acts against excess in dress, forbidding cloth of gold, and shoes with pikes more than two inches long, to any under a lord. In 1461, also, all diceing, or playing at cards, was pro- hibited except at Christmas. Cards forming then, as since, an essential part, in many places, of the Christmas amusements. Among the Christmas gifts, during this reign, several were given to players and minstrels. Margery Paston, in a letter to her husband John Paston, 24th Dec, 1484, says that his eldest son had gone to Lady Morley to know how the Christ- mas next after her husband's death was kept, and that there were no disguisings, nor harping, nor luting, nor singing, nor — 53 — loud disports; but playing at the tables, and chess, and cards. Richard the Third's reign was too short and turbulent to give much opportunity for festivities, but he nevertheless kept two or three Christmasses in state, and particularly in 1 184, at Westminster, when he wore his crown at a royal banquet on the Epiphany, clad in rich attire, of which he was fond j and it was observed that the princess Elizabeth was dressed in splendid robes of the same form and colour as those of the queen, whence inferences were drawn that he wished to get rid of the queen, either by death or divorce. Yet even now we hardly know the real character of Richard, and whether there were not some lights to relieve the dark shade : ambitious he was, and unscrupulous, but eloquent, and brave or bold; and perhaps, after all, his hump was only a high- shoulder. The old Countess of Desmond, who danced with him in her youth, describes him as a handsome man, somewhat dazzled probably by dancing with royalty. Shakespeare has rather treated him like a mad dog, and given him a bad name. With Henry the Seventh commenced that series of splendid Christmasses which lasted, with little interruption, until the time of the civil wars, and were especially magnificent in the first half of the reign of Henry the Eighth, and of which historians have left us such particulars, that ^ve can fancy our- selves present at them. In Christmas, 1489, however, the measles were prevalent, and proved fatal to several ladies and gentlewomen, and there were no disguisings, and but few plays, though there was an abbot of Misrule, who "made much sport and did right well his office ; " the ambassadors of Spain dined at the king's board on Twelfth Day, and the officers of arms had their largess, as they were accustomed. In the — 54 — following year, to make up for it, there was a goodly disguising on New Year's Night, and many plays during the Christmas. There are some household books of this king still extant at the Chapter- House, which contain many particulars of the payments for the Christmas diversions. Among these there are numerous gifts to different sets of players j dramatic performances, such as they were, being frequent in this reign ; but the payments are somewhat of the smallest, varying from ten shillings to £2. 13s. 4d. for each set of players, excepting on occasions when some of the gentlemen of his chapel played before him, who received as much as £6. 13s. 4d. for their services, which sum appears also to have been the usual reward for the lord of Misrule. It is probable, however, that the players had rewards from other people besides the king, and that when the cap was handed round a handsome collec- tion was frequently made. On one occasion no less than £12. was given to a little maiden that danced : now, considering how careful Henry was of his money, and comparing her reward to that of the players, we must presume her to have been the Taglioni of her day, The payments by the nobles were frequently small ; in Lord Howard's account there is one of 3s. 4d. to four players. Besides the plays, there were disguisings and banquets; and W alter Alwyn and Jakes Haute had, at different Christmasscs, each j620 and upwards, for the disguisings or revels. In 1493, on Twelfth Night, there was a great banquet and wassail, and a pageant of Saint George with a castle; and twelve lords, knights, and esquires, with twelve ladies, danced after the wassail. Henry the Eighth at this time was but a fat-cheeked child, so could scarcely reckon his taste for this sort of amuse- ment — in which he afterwards so much delighted — from so — 55 — early a date, but had plenty of opportunities subsequently of maturing it, On Twelfth Day the king made the accustomed offerings of gold, myrrh, and frankincense : the dean of the chapel sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury the offering by a clerk or priest, who was to have the next benefice in the gift of the archbishop. The king was to wear his crown and his royal robes, kirtle, surcoat, furred hood, and mantle, with long train, and his sword before him; his armills of gold set with rich stones on his arms, and his sceptre in his right hand. The wassail was introduced in the evening with great cere- mony : the steward, treasurer, and comptroller of the household went for it with their staves of office; the king's and the queen's sewers, having fair towels round their necks, and dishes in their hands, such as the king and queen should eat of; the king's and queen's carvers following in like manner. Then came in the ushers of the chamber, with the pile of cups — the king's, the queen's, and the bishop's — with the butlers and wine, to the cupboard, or sideboard as we should now call it ; and squires of the body to bear them. The gentlemen of the chapel stood at one end of the hall, and when the steward came in with the wassail, he was to cry out three times, "Wassail, wassail, wassail ! " to which they answered with a good song — no doubt a wassail song or a carol, as they were pre- valent at this time. The terms wassail and wassailing are, as before mentioned, of very early date. Mr. Hunter, in his interesting essay on Robin Hood, notices a payment of a hundred shillings made, in the time of Edward the Second, to Isabelle del Holde and Alisoun Conand, damsels of the queen, for crying Noel and AYcsscl. They were not, however, absolutely confined to — 56 — Christmas, but were used to indicate any convivial and festive meetings : — " The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassel." The meetings indeed were themselves called after them — " He is wit's peddler, and retails his wares At wakes and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs." One of the earliest wassail songs is that introduced by Dis- simulation, disguised as a religious person, in Bale's old play of Kynge Johan, about the middle of the sixteenth century. He brings in the cup by which the king is poisoned, stating that it " passith malmesaye, capryck, tyre, or ypocras," and then sings — " Wassayle, wassayle out of the mylke payle, Wassayle, wassayle as white as my nayle, Wassayle, wassayle in snowe, froste, and hayle, Wassayle, wassayle with partriche and rayle, Wassayle, wassayle that muche doth avayle, Wassayle, wassayle that never wylle fayle." In Caxton's Chronicle the account of the death of King- John represents the cup to have been filled with good ale ; and the monk bearing it, knelt down, saying, " Syr, wassayll for euer the dayes so all lyf dronke ye of so good a cuppe." The loving-cup, at city and other feasts, may be considered as an offshoot of the wassail-bowl, drinc-hcil being converted into drink-all. In after times the term became applied almost exclusively to Christmas, perhaps from wassailing being more common at that period, and there was a custom in many places of carrying the bowl round, generally by young women, from door to door, with an appropriate song, the bearer expecting — 57 — a small gift in return. Selden, in his f Table Talk/ alluding to this custom, says, " The Pope, in sending relics to princes, does as wenches do by their wassails at New Year's tide, they present you with a cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them moneys ten times more than it is worth." The days generally chosen for the wassail bowl were Christ- mas Eve, New Year's Eve or Twelfth Night, which in some places was called Wassail eve. Maehyn, in his Diary, men- tions his being at supper at Mrs. Lentall's, at Henley-on- Thames, on Twelfth Eve, 1556, when there came in "xij wessells with maydens syngyng with their wessells, and after cam the cheyff wyffes syngyng with their wessells ; and the gentyll- woman had hordenyd a grett tabull of bankett, dyssys of spyssys and frut, as marmelad, gynbred, gele, comfett, suger plat, and dyver odur." Master Maehyn is somewhat arbitrary in his spelling, even allowing for the eccentricities in this art at the time in which he wrote. In the seventeenth century the wassail bowl was carried round to the houses of the gentry and others, the bearers expecting a gratuity : — "Good dame, here at your door Our wassel we begin ; We are all maidens poor, We pray now let us in With our wassel. Our wassel we do fill With apples and with spice, Then grant us your good will To taste here once or twice Of our good wassel." The custom is still partially extant. Many great houses had, and no doubt still have, wassail bowls of massive silver. Wassail, in Ben Jonson's mask of Christmas, is described as a neat sempster and songster ; her page bearing a brown bowl, dressed with ribbons and rosemary, before her. The practice of introducing the bowl is still retained in Christmas meetings, though the component parts are generally ale, sugar, nutmeg, and a toast, omitting the roasted apples, which are necessary to constitute genuine lamb's wool ; " lay a crab in the fire to roast for lamb's wool;" in olden times indeed the apple was almost an inseparable ingredient. — " . . . . sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab ; And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, And on her wither'd dew-lap pour the ale." There are several old wassail songs still existing, as well as some that bear a more modern stamp. In Devonshire, and elsewhere, it is an old custom to wassail the apple and pear trees, by pouring out a libation at the foot, in order that they may bear the better. " Wassaile the trees, that they may beare You many a plumb, and many a peare ; For more or less fruits they will bring, As you doe give them wassailing." From what we read of the character of Henry the Seventh, we cannot fancy him entering into these amusements with unrestrained hilarity, but to have treated them as part of the state ceremonies, counting the necessary cost with reluctance. All the forms to be adopted for each day were laid down in exact manner, and no doubt the time and quantity of smiles — 59 — and laughter were properly regulated. Even his jokes were somewhat of a severe practical kind ; he once asked an astro- loger if he knew where he, the astrologer, should pass his Christmas, and on his professing his ignorance, told him that he was then the most skilled of the two, as he knew the astro- loger would pass it in the Tower, and sent him there accord- ingly, and then we may suppose ate his Christmas dinner with much self-satisfaction. The custom of giving Christmas- boxes and New Year's Gifts, seems now to have been organ- ised into a regular system ; there was a graduated scale for giving and receiving, according to the rank of the parties, and the amount was as well ascertained as the quiddam hono- rarium to a barrister or a physician. At New Year's Day in the morning, an usher of the cham- ber came to the door of the king's chamber, and said, " There is a New Year's Gift come from the queen," to which the king answered, " Sir, let it come in ;" the usher with the gift was then admitted, and afterwards the ushers with gifts from the nobles, according to their rank, and these messengers had rewards given them, from ten marks to the queen's messenger, if a knight, down to forty shillings to an earl and countess's servant. The queen received gifts in the same manner, though of less value. The king was on this day to wear his kirtle, his surcoat, and his pane of arms, with his hat of estate, and his sword borne before him. No doubt an accurate list was kept of those expected to give their New Year's Gifts, and as their messengers arrived they were marked off; or, if they failed in their duty, were looked on with suspicion and ill will. In one year he gave away as much as £120 in New Year's Gifts, but this was probably in return for presents of much larger amount, or in reward to those bringing gifts; the — 60 — whole must have been a sadly formal proceeding, and more to the glorification of man than any other purpose. On Christmas Day and the other feast days, the queen made her offerings, amounting generally to five shillings in each case, and also gave away money in alms, charges being made* for sixty., shillings for this purpose on New Year's Eve. She also gave numerous sums at Christmas, in gifts; as, to the grooms and pages of the household <£20 ; to the lord of Misrule 20s. \ to my lord privy seaPs fool 3s. 4d. Cards were much used, as in former times, and sums of a hundred shillings are charged for the queen's "disporte at cardes." The lord, or abbot, of Misrule, as he was indis- criminately called, was now an important officer, and an essential accompaniment to the Christmas revels ; payments are frequently made to him, generally of ten marks or £6. 13s. 4d. Under these or some other similar names this personage existed from very early times, not only at court, but in the houses of the nobility, of the lord-mayor and sheriffs, in the Inns of Court, and at the different colleges; he is even mentioned in the original draft of statutes, of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1546, soon after which time he appears to have reached the summit of his magnificence. Many of the nobility kept the feast with great splendour, and probably during the time of Henry the Seventh, exceeded even the court in this respect. They had their own players, minstrels, and waits, and officers of their household, in imitation of the royal establishment ; having among their retainers many gentlemen and frequently some knights. Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, gave some princely entertainments during this reign; on the Epiphany, 1508, he had 459, to dinner, of different degrees, including 134 gentry, — 61 — with two minstrels,, six trumpets, four waits, and four players. The supply of provisions was fully commensurate with the demand, but it would not afford much interest to give it in detail ; as unusual dishes now, may be mentioned a salt sturgeon, three swans, two peacocks, two herons, four dog fish, and half a fresh conger ; oysters were probably scarce, as only 200 are mentioned, valued at 4d. ; the wines were Gascony, Malvoisy, Rhenish, and Ossey, besides 259 flaggons (gallons) and one quart of ale ; there were also two gallons of furmity, a dish which has continued in use to the present time. On the previous Christmas Day, the guests being fewer in number, the consumption of ale was only 171 flaggons and one quart, of which seventeen flaggons and three quarts were for break- fast; but this was not far from the time when the maids of honour had a chet loaf, a manchet, a gallon of ale, and a chine of beef for breakfast, Swans were standard dishes formerly at great houses at Christmas, and other great festivals; Chaucer's monk, no doubt a good judge, " A fat swan loved lie best of any rost." In the Northumberland Household Book, five are directed for Christmas Day, three for New Year's Day, and four for Twelfth Day. Except in the state of a cygnet, and that rarely, the bird now is not met with at table. The humbler classes of society also had their rejoicings at this tide, and were allowed certain privileges and facilities for the purpose, the restrictions under which artificers, labourers, and servants were placed as to not playing at cards and certain other games being suspended during Christmas, when there was, among other sports, playing at cards for counters, nails, — 62 — and points, in every honse ; but, as Stow says, more for pastime than for gain. The holidays, according to this annalist, extended from All- Hallows Evening to the day after Candlemas Day, and there was a penalty attached to any householder allowing such games, except during this time. Dramatic performances were exhibited at the houses of the great and wealthy, where the tenants and peasantry were allowed access, and cheered with good Christmas hos- pitality; carol singing was encouraged, and it is not im- probable that some of our modern carols may be connected with this age, though somewhat modified. CHAPTER IV. HEN Henry the Eighth came to the throne the festivities at Christmas, as well as those at other seasons, were kept with great splendour. He was then young, of manly address, and tall handsome person, skilled in martial exercises, of great bodily strength and activity, and accomplished; fond of exhibit- ing his prowess ; and, though naturally overbearing, possessed some chivalrous qualities in the early part of his reign, until freed from the advice of Wolsey, and spoiled by flattery and adulation, and the unrestrained indulgence of his passions ; for, as the cardinal said of him in his dying state, "he is a prince of most royal courage ; rather than miss any part of his will, he — 64 — will endanger one half of his kingdom." Had he not been so unfortunate as to rule in what was then a despotic monarchy, he might have passed through life as an impetuous, convivial, somewhat overbearing person, rather keeping his family in fear, but not much worse than characters we all now and then meet with in society, who bully their wives, children, servants, and clerks, bluster at committee meetings, and are somewhat troublesome members of clubs. As the case was, however, he presents a memorable example of the effects of uncontrolled selfishness, pride, and passion. Plays, masques, pageants, and similar diversions were fre- quent and splendid during this reign, or rather during the first half of it; for after Henry became interested in the reformed religion, and encumbered with the succession of his wives, and also grew unwieldy in shape, and unfitted for personally partaking in their amusements, they gradually fell off, both in magnificence and in frequency, till they nearly ceased altogether. In his younger days he was generally a performer, and a skilful one, in those pastimes; and numerous entries may be found of payments of every description con- nected with Christmas — such as for disguisings, lord of Mis- rule, New Year's gifts, Christmas-boxes, &c. In his first year he kept it at Richmond with great royalty, and although there had not been time to arrange such a pageant or masque as wc shall find in after-times, yet the lord of Misrule, whose pay- ment, in the time of Henry the Seventh, never exceeded £6 13s. 4d., was paid £8 6s. 8d., which was afterwards in- creased to £15 6s. 8d. The lord of Misrule, in the first and several of the following years, was William Wynncsbcrry, who also appears in his father's reign : other persons named in this office are, Richard Pole, Edmund Travorc, and William Tolly. — 65 — Sir Walter Scott gives a humorous account (except to the sufferer) of the ill usage of an apparitor, or macer, of the see of St. Andrew, in 1547. He was sent with letters of excom- munication against Lord Borthwick, and, unluckily for him, chose the time when the inmates of his castle were engaged in the revels of the Abbot of Unreason, as this festive ruler was called in Scotland. The unfortunate apparitor was of course looked on as an alien enemy, or an outlaw, or any other terrible thing, and was immediately seized and well ducked ; after which he was compelled to eat the parchment letters of excommunication, which had been previously steeped in a bowl of wine, and then to drink off the wine. In the play of Sir John Oldcastle, a similar incident is introduced, but the sumner of the Bishop of Rochester, who is the sufferer there, and has to eat the waxen seal also, is told that u tough wax is the purest of the honey." In 1545, Sir Thomas Cawarden, who died 1560, was appointed master of the revels. In the same year payments were made to Robert Amadas, for plate of gold stuff for the disguising, of £451 12s. 2d. ; and to William Buttry, for silk for the same purpose, of £133 7s. 5 d. ; so that, taking the difference of value of money into account, Henry began his reign with a determination to spare no expense in his enter- tainments, and subsequently the charges were much increased. In his second year the Christmas was kept at Richmond, and on the Twelfth Day Ave have a specimen of the pageants after- wards so much in fashion, though rather wild perhaps for our present tastes. This was devised like a mountain, glittering^ as if with gold, and set with stones, on the top of which was a tree of gold, spreading out on every side with roses and pomegranates; it was brought towards the king, when out — 66 — came a lady, dressed in cloth of gold, and the henchmen, or children of honour, who were dressed in some disguise, and they danced a morris before the king; after which they re-entered the mountain, which was drawn back, and then the wassail or banquet was brought in, and so ended the Christmas. These pageants must have been managed something like the pantomime or melo-dramatic devices we see on our own stage, and produced perhaps as much effect, taking into account the increase of modern fancy and expectation in this respect. In his third year, at Greenwich, there was a magnificent Christmas, with such abundance of viands for all comers of any honest behaviour, as had been seldom seen; and the invention of the devisers of pageants was taxed to the utmost, and dancing-masters were doubtless in request for the rehearsals; the clever Mr. Flexmore would have been in- valuable. On New Year's Night, there was erected in the hall, a castle, with gates, towers, and dungeon, garnished with artillery, and other warlike weapons of the most approved form ; and in the front of it was written its name, " Le For tr esse dangerus," that is evidently, dangerous from the ladies' eyes, and not from the warlike preparations. For in this castle were six fair ladies, no doubt selected for their grace and beauty, all clothed in russet satin, laid over with leaves of gold, and each hood knit with laces of blue silk and gold ; and coifs and caps of gold on their heads. From the abundance of gold on these occasions, we could almost imagine that some "diggins" must have been known then. Well, after this castle, with the golden damsels in it, had been drawn about the hall, and the queen had seen it, (for Henry really was attached to her for the first few years of liis reign,) in came the king with five select companions, dressed in coats, — 67 — of which half was of velvet satin, with spangles of gold, the other half of rich cloth of gold, having on their heads caps of russet satin, embroidered with fine gold bullion. These gallant knights vigorously assaulted the castle, and the ladies seeing them so courageous, capitulated with them, and yielded it up, after which they came down and danced together for some time, when the ladies in their turn became the conquerors, and took the knights into the castle, which suddenly vanished out of sight ; by which we must assume, not that they all vanished into the air, but that they were drawn out of the hall as fast as the living, and probably con- cealed machinery used for the purpose, could make away with them. The sports of this Christmas, however, were not yet at an end; for on the night of the Epiphany, the king and eleven chosen companions were disguised after the manner of Italy, called a mask, a thing not before seen in England ; they were dressed in long and broad garments, wrought with gold, and had visors and caps of gold ; and after the banquet they came in with six gentlemen, disguised in silk, bearing staff torches, and desired the ladies to dance. Some of them were content to do so, but others that knew the fashion of it refused, because it was a thing not commonly seen, something like the hesitation shown when the waltz, the polka, and other strange matters, were first introduced here, the passion for which, after a little time, made up for the shyness with which they were at first admitted into good society. These pageants must have been gorgeous affairs, as far as dress and decorations, but would hardly suit the present taste; the descriptions here given will enable any one in- clined (if any) to imitate them. In the following year the Christmas was again kept at — 68 — Greenwich, and on Twelfth Day a mount was introduced, ornamented with flowers of silk, and full of slips of broom, signifying Plantagenet; the branches being made of green satin, and the flowers of flat gold of Damascus. On the top was a goodly beacon giving light, round which sat the king and five others, dressed in coats and caps of crimson velvet, spangled and embroidered with gold. Four wodehouses (or wild men) drew the mount towards the queen, and then the king and his companions descended and danced ; the mount then suddenly opened, and out came six ladies, dressed in crimson satin, embroidered with gold and pearls, and with French hoods on their heads, and they danced by themselves for a tims ; after which the lords and ladies danced together ; the ladies then re-entered the mount, which was conveyed out of the hall, and then there was a very sumptuous banquet. These French hoods were probably a new fashion, and as fashions travelled into the country but slow in those times, when there were neither electric telegraphs, railroads, stage- coaches, newspapers, magazines, nor penny, nor, indeed, any other postage, they do not seem to have got into Cornwall much before the year 1550; for the wife of one of the prisoners condemned to suffer for the riot at that time, intending to go to beg his life, took so long to adjust her new French hood to her taste, that her husband was hung before she arrived. It is to be hoped that she was not taking this course of revenging Henry's injuries to the sex. In the fifth year of this reign, Sir Harry Guildford, master of the revels, immortalised his name by inventing an interlude, in which was a moresco dance of six persons and two ladies. In the sixth year, there was another grand Christmas ; and on Twelfth Night the pageant may be considered as a ballet of — 69 — action, differing from some of modern times, simply in this : that in ours professing to mean something, the meaning cannot be discovered, while in these there was no meaning at all. On New Year's Night the king and the Duke of Suffolk, his chivalrous brother-in-law, with two others, dressed in mantles, hose, doublets, and coats of cloth of silver, lined with blue velvet, the silver being pounsed, so that the velvet might be seen through, led in four ladies in gowns, after the fashion of Savoy, of blue velvet, lined with cloth of gold ; and mantles like tippets, knit together of silver; with bonnets of burnished gold. They were accompanied by four torch-bearers, in white and blue satin. The fanciful attire of the party pleased much, especially the queen, into whose chamber they went and danced, after which they put off their visors, and made themselves known, when the queen heartily thanked the king for her goodly pastime, and kissed him ; finding it necessary, in these early times, probably to natter his vanity, and keep him in good humour. On Twelfth Night we have the ballet, though what we should call now of limited interest. The king and the queen came into the hall at Greenwich, where this Christmas was kept, when suddenly a tent of cloth of gold entered ; before it stood four men-at-arms, armed at all points, with swords in their hands, then, at the sound of trumpets, four more came in, and a fierce, but bloodless, combat ensued, of four to four ; but before the victory could be awarded to either party, sud- denly (again) there came out of a place like a wood, eight wild men, with ugly weapons and terrible visages, dressed in green moss made of silk, green moss being the assumed sub- stance of which wild men make their apparel. These attacked the knights, but after a terrific combat of eight to eight, were — 70 — driven out of the hall by the knights, who followed them. After these warlike representations the tent opened, and six ladies and six lords, richly apparelled, came out and danced; after which they again entered the tent, which was conveyed out of the hall ; and then the king and queen were served with a right sumptuous banquet, which, indeed, formed an essential part of every entertainment. There were payments made this Christmas to Leonard Friscobald of £24<7 12s. Id., for velvets and silks for the dis- guising; and to Richard Gybson, for certain apparel for the same, of £137 14s. 0\d. ; and, in after years, we find other similar payments to this Gybson ; so that trade benefited by these amusements, which is a natural consequence. In his seventh year Henry kept his Christmas at Eltham ; and in the fine old hall there, on Twelfth Night, a castle was introduced, having in it ladies and knights dressed in braids of gold, with moving spangles, silver and gilt, set in crimson satin, and not fastened ; the ladies' heads and bodies being after the fashion of Amsterdam. This castle was attacked by certain vagrant knights, who were, however, repulsed after a severe struggle. Dancing then of course took place ; and afterwards a banquet of 200 dishes, with great plenty to everybody. In his eighth year, there was a grand Christmas at Green- wich ; and on Twelfth Night, the Queen of Scots also being a visitor, an artificial garden was set up, called the Garden of Esperance. This had towers at each corner, and was sur- mounted with gilt rails, and the banks were all set with artificial flowers of silk and gold, the leaves being of green satin, " so that they seemed very flowers." In the middle was a pillar of antique work, all gold, and set with pearls and stones, and on the top an arch crowned with gold, within — 71 — which stood a bush of red and white roses of silk and gold, and a bush of pomegranates of like materials. Of course there were knights and ladies, richly apparelled, walking in this garden ; there were indeed six of each, who came down and danced, and were afterwards conveyed out of the hall in the garden, and the entertainments concluded as usual with a great banquet. Our friend Richard Gybson had <£130 19s. O^d. for divers things bought by him for this disguising. In the following year, in consequence of the prevalence of the sweating sickness from July to December, there was no solemn Christmas kept at Court; but in several following years it was kept much as before, and it will be needless to multiply examples, especially as the pageants were in general of a less marked description. As, in nearly every year, there were payments made to sets of players, the highest being in general £4 to the king's old players, who are distinguished from the king's players, whose fee was usually but £3 6s. 8d., it seems that during the Christmas, on what may be called the off-nights, there were some performances by them. The children also of the king's chapel gave their assistance, but their services were estimated higher, as there are several payments of £6 13s. 4d. to Mr. Cornish, for playing before the king with them. In his tenth year, also, the gentlemen of the king's chapel had j£13 6s. 8d. for their good attendance in Christmas, and there are similar charges in subsequent years. In the eleventh year there was another mask, and Richard Gybson received £207 5s. \\d. for the revels called "a maskelyn at New Hall, or Beaulieu, in Essex. In the fourteenth year the Christmas was kept at Eltham, where the Cardinal made many reformations in the royal — 72 — household, and all that had no masters were sent away; in modern phrase, no followers were allowed. In the sixteenth year there were grand feats of arms, and an assault made on a strong artificial fort at Greenwich, where the king and the Duke of Suffolk distinguished them- selves ; the whole concluding with masks and dancing. In his seventeenth year — inconsequence of the prevalence of the plague according to historians, and partly perhaps because he was now maturing his plans for the possession of Ann Boleyn (who would not yield to him, as her sister Mary had done), and for the divorce of Queen Catherine, though not effected until long afterwards — the king kept his Christmas quietly at Eltham, whence it was called the still Christmas. Wolsey, however, would not follow his master's example, and kept a royal Christmas at Richmond, with plays and dis- guisings, which gave much offence to see him keep an open court, and the king a secret one. In the following year, however, the king made up for this intermission of revels, by keeping a solemn Christmas at Greenwich, with revels, masks, disguisings, and banquets; and there were justs kept on the 30th of December, and also on the 3d of January, where 300 spears were broken. After- wards the king and fifteen others, in masking apparel, took barge, and went to the Cardinal's place, where was a great company of lords and ladies at supper, — " having heard by fame Of this so noble and so fair assembly, This night to meet here, they could do no less, Out of the great respect they bear to beauty." The maskers danced, after which the ladies plucked away their visors, so that they were all known ; and the sports Avcrc — 73 — concluded with a great banquet. Previous to this time the Christmas festivities at the Inns of Court had become cele- brated, and as we shall find, in subsequent reigns, surpassed those of the court in fancy, and wit, and real splendour ; nor is this a matter of surprise when we consider the concentra- tion of talent that must always exist in these communities, some fresh from the universities, embued with classic lore, though in the age of which we are now writing perhaps somewhat pedantic ; others, fraught with the accumulated knowledge of years, sharpened by the continual collision with intellects as keen as their own ; and few perhaps are better able to ap- preciate true wit and humour than those who seek it as a relief from deep and wearing mental labour, not that all hard and plodding students can appreciate them, many are but what we used to call at school, muzzes, et prater ea nihil. That the entertainments were somewhat stiff or pedantic was of the spirit of the times, and yet there was a freedom in dancing " round about the coal fire," which would scarcely suit the present day, though it would attract a considerable number of spectators to see the barristers, dressed in their best, singing and dancing, before the chancellor, judges, and benchers, and that on penalty of being disbarred ; a threat absolutely held out, in the time of James the First, at Lincoln's Inn, because they did not dance on Candlemas Day, according to the ancient order of the Society, and some were indeed put out of commons by decimation. Imagine an unfortunate suitor inquiring about a favourite counsel, who had his case at his fingers' ends, and being told he was dis- barred, because he had refused to dance the night before with his opponent's counsel ; the benchers not having taken into consideration the difficulty of a little man, as he was, polk-ing with a fat barrister, gown, and wig, and all. Dugdale gives the following programme of the performances at a date some- what later than that of which we are now speaking. " First, the solemn revells (after dinner and the play ended,) are begnn by the whole house, judges, sergeants-at-law, benchers ; the utter and inner barr ; and they led by the master of the revels ; and one of the gentlemen of the utter barr are chosen to sing a song to the judges, sergeants, or masters of the bench ; which is usually performed ; and in default thereof there may be an amerciament. Then the judges and benchers take their places, and sit down at the upper end of the hall. Which done, the utter barristers and inner bar- risters perform a second solemn revell before them. "Which ended, the utter barristers take their places and sit down. Some of the gentlemen of the inner barr do present the house with dancing, which is called the post revels, and continue their dances till the judges or bench think meet to rise and depart." So that a barrister might be punished for not singing, as well as not dancing. Whether he was obliged to sing carols, or might choose his own song, such as, " Oh ! brief is my joy," " Ye shall walk in silk attire, and siller ha' to spend," " Bid me discourse," &c, does not appear on record. Lincoln's Inn celebrated Christmas as early as the time of Henry the Sixth, but the Temple and Gray's Inn afterwards disputed the palm with it, and indeed the latter on some occasions seems to have surpassed the other Inns of Court. The first particular account of any regulations for conduct- ing one of these grand Christmasses, is in the ninth of Henry the Eighth, when, besides the King for Christmas Day, the marshal, and master of the revels, it is ordered that the King i D of the Cockneys on Christmas Day should sit and have due service, and that he and all his officers should use honest man- ner and good order, without any waste or destruction making in wines, brawn, chely, or other vitails j and also that he and his marshal, butler, and constable-marshal should have their lawful and honest commandments by delivery of the officers of Christmas ; and that the said King of Cockneys nor none of his officers meddle neither in the buttery nor in the steward of Christmas his office, upon pain of forty shillings for every such meddling; and, lastly, "that Jack Straw and all his adherents should be thenceforth utterly banisht, and no more to be used in this house, upon pain to forfeit, for every time, five pounds, to be levied on every fellow hapning to offend against this rule." "Who this Jack Straw was, and what his offences were, does not appear, unless a kind of Wat Tyler against the peace and dignity of the King of Cockneys. One of the leaders of Wat Tyler's insurrection, indeed, according to some accounts, the next in command, assumed the name of Jack Straw, others being called Wyl Wawe, Jack Shepherd, Tom Miller, and Hob Carter; besides the celebrated priest, John Ball, who began one of his sermons on Blackheath with " When Adam dome and Evah span, Who was then a gentle-man ?" But there was also a Jack Straw hung and quartered in the eighth of Henry the Sixth. In the eighteenth year of Henry, the Society of Gray's Inn got into a worse difficulty than paying allegiance to Jack Straw, and that, too, in perfect innocence on their part ; but they had a play or disguising, which had been in great part — 76 — devised by Serjeant John Roe twenty years before. The plot was, that Lord Governance was ruled by Dissipation and Negligence, by whose misgovernance and evil order, Lady Public-weal was put from Governance, which caused Rumor populi, Inward grudge, and Disdain of wanton sovreignetie to rise with a great multitude to expel Negligence and Dissipa- tion, and restore Public-weal again to her estate. It was set forth with rich and costly apparel, with masks and morescoes, and was highly praised. But the proud Wolsey, who was then busying himself about the intended divorce, fancied it reflected on him, and sent in a great fury for the unlucky serjeant, took his coif from him, and sent him to the Fleet prison, together with one of the actors, Thomas Moyle of Kent, who probably gained this unenviable distinction by having excelled in the performance of the character intrusted to him ; all the actors were highly rebuked and threatened. After a time the matter was satisfactorily explained, and the captive revellers were liberated. It was found prudent from time to time to make regulations in respect to these revels, in order to limit the expenses, and, if possible, to check the rivalry between the different societies, and they were not therefore performed every year During the Christmas of 1529, Cardinal Wolsey, who had been disgraced a short time before, was dangerously ill, which produced a short return of favour with the selfish monarch, who became much worried with his state, and also the unset- tled position of his own domestic arrangements j for although it was supposed that Ann Boleyn was in fact living with him as his queen, yet no divorce had taken place from Catherine, who had still a strong party in her favour, and excited much sympathy. However, for the king's recreation, a solemn / / Christmas was kept at Greenwich, with justs, banquets, masks and disguisings, attended by the two legates and many of the nobility; but the queen gave them no manner of countenance, her mind being so troubled. In the two following years she kept the Christmas with him, and there were masks and inter- ludes ; but in his twenty-third year, at a solemn Christmas at Greenwich, there was no mirth, the queen and her ladies being absent — like Queen Vashti she refused to come, and no wonder, for in a very few days after her royal estate was given unto another, and Henry publicly married Anne Boleyn. After this time he does not appear himself to have mixed in the Christmas festivities, though yearly entries may be found of payments to players, for playing before him, and sometimes to the gentlemen of the chapel, and the children as before, with occasional notices of solemn Christm asses ; but his temper grew worse, and his zest for these amusements gradually less, as his age and person increased. In the Christmas of his twenty-ninth year, after the death of Queen Jane in the previous October, he appeared in mourning apparel, which was somewhat unnecessary, as he had made an offer, although an unsuccessful one, to the Duchess Dowager of Longueville, within a month after the death of his wife. His Twelfth Day, 15 10, was rather unlucky for him ; although great rejoicings were going forward, as he then married Anne of Cleves, from whom, as it is known, he was soon after divorced. Card playing and other games were still continued, and different payments were made on this account ; the king, one Christmas, having as much as £212 10s. for this purpose. Payments were made also to Princess Mary to disport her with at Christmas, generally £20, and in her own private — 78 — accounts are payments at Christmas, varying from £1 to €4, to have in her purse and to play at cards. The Lady Anne Boleyn received as much as £100 at a time, towards her Near Year's Gift. The Princess Mary, from her childhood, had an establishment of her own, and was accustomed to these festivities before she had completed her sixth year, having a lord of Misrule, John Thurgoode, one of the valets of her household about this time; but the sanction of the great cardinal was necessary even for her; and in 1525 there is an application by the Council of her household to him, to know whether they may appoint a lord of Misrule, and provide for interludes, disguisings, or plays, and a banquet ; and whether the princess was to send New Year's Gifts to the king and queen, and the French queen, and of what value. The princess herself had received New Year's Gifts as early as her third year, when the cardinal gave her a cup of gold; the French queen, a pomander; Lady Mountjoy, two smocks; a favourite gift by the bye, as we shall hereafter see that Queen Elizabeth had many of these, handsomely decorated, given to her. In after years we find at different times gifts of the following nature given to the Princess Mary. Lady Dorset and others gave her wrought smocks and hand- kerchiefs; her brother the prince, a little tablet of gold; the Princess Elizabeth, a little chain, and a pair of hose, wrought in gold and silk; the Lady Margaret, a gown of carnation satin of the Venice fashion ; Lady Butler, a pepper- box, silver-gilt ; the Earl of Hertford, a diamond ring ; three Venetians, a fair steel glass ; Mr. Thomas Hobbs, yeoman of the robes, a pair of silver snuffers; Mrs. Whelar, a pen and inkhorn, silver -gilt; the Italian dancer, a partlct of gold, wrought; Lady Brown, a fuming-box of silver; and the — 79 — king's master-cook, a marchpane; which was the usual present of this functionary. All the servants who brought these gifts had handsome presents in money in return, the king's messenger having as much as forty shillings given him. Besides money gifts to her own household, and to the king's minstrels and musicians, among whom the harper had 5s., she gave others of value in various Christmasses to dis- tinguished persons; as, in 1543, a chair to the king, of which the covering and embroidery cost £21 6s. 8d.; also, to the lord admiral, a brooch of gold, of the history of Moses striking water out of the rock, and a balas set. in the same ; she herself having a brooch of the history of Noah's flood, set with little diamonds and rubies ; the king, and the queen for the time being, and the Prince Edward, as we may imagine, also received gifts from his sisters ; and on one occasion the Lady Elizabeth gave him a cambric shirt of her own working. In the present day it would probably have been a couvrette, or an embroidered smoking cap, though he was rather young for that. His times were innocent of this strange fashion, though they had quite sufficient eccentricities of their own to answer for. It is a pity that the recent act, compelling chimneys to consume their own smoke, does not extend to smokers; it is almost worth while mooting the point, whether it does or not. The nobility kept the feast in manner similar to the court, making allowance for difference of station. They had their lord of Misrule, or master of the revels, and their minstrels, their players, with their interludes and disguisings; the chaplain being frequently the maker of the interludes ; and most minute rules were laid down to regulate the different payments and gifts. The Earl of Northumberland, whose household book has been so often quoted in illustration of the — 80 — manners and customs of this age, used to give, when he was at home, to those of his chapel, if they played the play of the Nativity on Christmas Day, 20s.; and to his master of the revels, 20s.; to the king's servant, bringing a New Year's gift, he gave £o, or if a special friend of his own, £6 13s. 4d.; to the queen's servant, £3 6s. Sd.; but to the servant (probably a domestic), bringing one from Lord Percy, only I2d.; to his three minstrels, on New Year's Day, for playing at the chamber doors of the different members of the family £1 3s. 4d.; to his six trumpets, 20s.; to his officer of arms, for crying largess, 20s.; to the grooms of his chamber, to put in their box, 20s.; to the abbot of Misrule, 20s.; to his chaplain for making an interlude, the price seems to be 13s. 4d., rather moderate when compared with the other gifts. Different presents also to various sets of players ; also 20s. each to the barne-bishops (boy-bishops) of Beverley and York, showing that the custom still existed. Traces of the boy-bishop may be found as far back as the Constantinopolitan synod in 867, and as early as Edward the First's reign, one of them was permitted to sing vespers before him at Heton, near Newcastle, in 1299, when on his way to Scotland, and received forty shillings for himself and the boys who sang with him. In the time of Edward the Second pay- ments were made to this personage ; and Dean Colet, in his regulations for St. Paul's School, 1512, directs the scholars to go every Childermas Day to St. Paul's to hear the child- bishop's sermon, and each to offer him a penny. Henry the Eighth, however, put down the custom, which akin revived by Queen Mary, but finally abolished by Elizabeth. The Earl of Northumberland's three henchmen presented him with gloves, and received 6s. Sd. in return; and his — 81 — footmen also gave him gloves, and received 3s. 4d. in reward. My lord and lady were accustomed to make offerings at high mass on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Twelfth Day ; but of rather small amount, his lordship's being 12c?. and her ladyship's 8d. In lesser establishments there was, of course, less state and smaller payments; and in the household accounts of the Lestranges of Hunstanton, in the eleventh of Henry, is a payment of 4er formers were — 157 — dressed in frocks, or white shirts, with paper or pasteboard helmets, — calling themselves Hector, Paris, Guy of Warwick, and other great names, and performing many evolutions with their swords, accompanied by a fiddler or doctor, and a cha- racter called Bessy. Cards, dancing, and music, are still resorted to; but the brawl, the pavan, the minuet, the gavot, the saraband, and even the country dance, excepting in the exhilirating form of Sir Roger de Coverley, have given place to the quadrille, the polka, and the galope ; and if we look at the figures of some of the old dances, our drawing-room coryphees will not be sorry to be spared the task of learning them. Take the account of the brawl in one of our old plays, which one of the characters says she has forgotten : " Why ! His but two singles on the left, two on the right, three doubles, a traverse of six round ; do this twice, curranto pace ; a figure of eight, three singles broken down, come up, meet two doubles, fall back, and then honour." But if we have not gained much in the exhibition of this accomplishment, it is amply made up in the quality of our domestic musical acquirements, where, instead of a ditty or lesson, or sonata, droned out on the virginals or harpsichord, our ladies now treat us not only with the elegant compositions of the talented Osborne, and other able modern writers, but with the classical works of Beethoven, Mozart, and other masters of the noble science. Many of our male amateurs also, both vocal and instrumental, have acquired considerable skill ; but as they in general are pretty well aware of their own merits, it will not be necessary to remind them here. Singing, however, is more particularly in quest at Christmas time, but the old carol is rarely now to be met with, though several of them possess much pleasing liar- — 158 — mony. One of the great gratifications, however, of these Christmas meetings, where they can take place, is the re-union, even though for a short space, of relations and friends, renew- ing, as it were, the bonds of love and friendship j casting off for a time the cares of the world; joining, if not audibly, yet mentally, in the praise of that Creator, who has given us so much "richly to enjoy;" and, if it be His will that loved and familiar faces, one by one, drop off, yet are we not left com- fortless; for though they cannot return to us, we, through faith in Him, whose Nativity we now commemorate, shall join them, in that blessed region, where the cares and trials of our weary pilgrimage here will be forgotten, as a dream that is past ; and hope shall be fulfilled, when ( ' the desire cometh," that " is a tree of life." Our pagan ancestors observed their sacred festival at this season, in honour of their unknown gods, and of a mystic mythology, founded on the attributes of the Deity ; but cor- rupted in the course of ages into a mass of fables and idolatry : but we keep it in commemoration of Him, who, as at this time, mercifully revealed Himself to us ; who is omniscient and omnipresent, and of whom my lamented and learned friend, Dr. Macculloch, has emphatically said, referring to the true Christian, " Not an object will occur to him, in which he will not see the hand of God, and feci that he is under the eye of God ; and if he but turn to contemplate the vacancy of the chamber around him, it is to feci that he is in the presence of his Maker ; surrounded, even to contact, by Him who fills all space. Feeling this, can he dare to be evil ? " CHAPTER IX. H E subjects of the offerings at the Epiphany, with the accompanying legend of the Three Kings or Magi, and that of carol singing, require so much space that it has been thought preferable to devote particular chap- ters to them, rather than interrupt the narrative of Christmas festivities. The offerings on the day of the Epiphany were in remem- brance of the Manifestation of our Saviour to the Gentiles, and of the gifts made to Him by the Magi, or Wise Men of the East ; when " the kings of Tarshish and of the isles brought presents; the kings of Sheba and Saba offered — 160 — gifts/' or, as the i Bee Hive/ of the Romish Church, states it, " Kings came out of the Moor's land to worship Christ." The king of the bean was the forerunner of our Twelfth- Day King j in the Saturnalia a king was elected, and as some say by beans, by way of lot, and he was invested with full power over the guests, and from him the lord of Misrule, under his various names, may take his origin ; but the king of the bean and Twelfth-Day king were strictly confined to Twelfth Day, and ephemeral in their rule. At the time of our Saviour's birth, there was an expecta- tion of his appearance among many of the heathen nations ; it is said even that the initiated in the religious mysteries of the Persians, possessed as a secret handed down from the time of Zoroaster, that a divine prophet should be born of a virgin, whose birth should be proclaimed by the appearance of a bright star. The celebrated prophecy of Balaam, also made an impression on the surrounding nations ; " I shall see him, but not now ; I shall behold him, but not nigh ; there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth." When the star eventually appeared, the Magi, or Three Kings, as they are commonly called, eagerly followed it to the cradle of our Saviour to pay their adorations, — " See how from far upon the eastern road, The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet." According to old legends, which arc always fond of cmbe lishment, this star was an eagle flying and beating the i with his wings, and had within it the form and likeness of a young child, and above him the sign of a cross. D'Isracli mentions some rays of this star, in a collection of relics. — 161 — There are numerous histories of the magi or kings them - selves, all agreeing as to their number having been three, but some of them differing entirely in name. We may, however, consider Melchior, Jasper, and Balthasar, to be the genuine ones, and certainly more euphonious than Galagalath, Maga- lath, and Tharath; but even the legends that agree in the names, differ in the description of their persons, or in the appropriation of the presents given by them ; but as Bede, in the seventh century, was the first writer in this country who has given a description of them, which he, no doubt, took from some earlier account, we may adopt, in the main, his history. According to this, Melchior was old, with gray hair and long beard, and offered gold to our Saviour in acknow- ledgment of his sovereignty ; Jasper was young, without any beard, and offered frankincense in recognition of the divinity ; and Balthasar was of a dark complexion, as a Moor, with a large spreading beard, and offered myrrh to our Saviour's humanity; or as one of my family, Sandys the traveller, translates the description from ' Festa Anglo-Romana/ — " Three kings the King of kings three gifts did bring, Myrrh, incense, gold, as to man, God, a king. Three holy gifts be likewise given by thee To Christ, even such as acceptable be For myrrha tears ; for frankincense impart Submissive prayers ; for pure gold a pure heart." Many of the ancient ecclesiastical writers endeavoured to find out mystical meanings in every sacred subject, in which, however, they have followers in the present day ; so that the variety in appearance of the Three Kings may be supposed to have some reference to the three races of man, where, accord- 11 — 162 — ing to the Armenian tradition, Shem had the region of the tawny, Japhet that of the ruddy, and Ham that of the blacks. The early heralds, who considered that none could be ennobled, or good, or great, without the aid of their science, little anticipating that, in after times, any one might have (t arms found" for him, with crest and motto, according to order and price, and having some vague notions of the early origin of the same, emblazoned coats of arms for all the great characters in the Bible, commencing with Adam — giving one even to our Saviour. It may, therefore, be readily supposed that the Three Kings had theirs. Their journey lasted twelve days, during which they required no refreshment, it seeming to them as one day. After they had presented their gifts, the Virgin Mary gave them in return one of our Saviour's swaddling clothes, which they took as a most noble gift. In after days they were baptised by St. Thomas, and some time subsequent to their deaths, their bodies were taken by the Empress Helena, in the fourth century, to Constantinople; from thence they were moved to Milan ; and when this city was taken by the Emperor Frederick, in 1161, he gave these relics to Reinaldus, Archbishop of Cologne, whence they are commonly called the Three Kings of Cologne. There is some story of Louis the Eleventh having moved some of the bones from Cologne, as they were considered to be of sovereign virtue in royal ailments. Their names even were thought of great efficacy in falling-sickness and madness, if written on parchment, and hung about the patient's neck, witli the sign of the cross; and, as it is to be presumed in all these eases, with a good deal of faith. Another charm is rather more extensive; in its benefits : — — 163 — " Sancti Tres Beges Gaspar, Melcliior, Belthazar, Orate pro nobis, nunc et en hora Mortis nostras. " Ces billets ont touche aux trois tetes de S.S. Eois a Cologne. lis sont pour des voyageurs, contre les malheurs de chernins, maux de tete, mal caduque, fievres, sorcellerie, toute sorte de malefice, et mort subite." It was found in the purse of Jackson, a celebrated smuggler, convicted of murder, in 1749, but did not prove efficacious with him, as he died, struck with horror, just after being measured for his irons. Another charm is to write their names in virgin wax, with a cross against each, and place it under the head of one who has had any thing stolen from him, and he will dream of what has become of the stolen article. If he does not remember his dream, it must be his own fault, of course. The names of the Three Kings, together with those of the four shepherds, who went to our Lord in Bethlehem — Misael, Achael, Cyrianus, and Stephanus — (in the Chester mysteries they have the more humble names of Harvey, Tudd, arid Hancken), form a charm against the bite of serpents, and other venomous reptiles and beasts. One John Aprilius, when he was hung, having implored their assistance, was more successful than Jackson ; for, after having been suspended for three days, he was found to be alive, and being taken down, he went to Cologne, half naked, with the halter about his neck, to return thanks, and, probably, to request that next time he might be taken down a little sooner. One Roprecht, a robber, was hung for certain crimes against society, but his body disappeared from the gibbet, whether by the intervention of the Three Kings or not, was unknown. — 161 — In a short time, however, it was found hanging again, with the addition of a pair of boots and spurs. As he was now really dead, and could tell no tales, this freak of his abscond- ing for a short time, for the purpose, apparently, of being hung over again in boots and spurs, could not be explained by the people ; but the fact was, that some passer-by had, in the first instance, found him still Living, and compassionately maintained him for some time ; but, like the warmed viper, he returned to his old knavish practices, and stole his bene- factor's horse, when, being pursued and taken, he was, after some trouble, replaced in his old noose, and left to his fate. According to Picart, the Feast of the Epiphany was estab- lished in the fourth century, though Brady says it was first made a separate feast in 813. It became, however, one of the most popular of the Christmas festivals, and some of the most splendid entertainments were given on this day ; and in our times it is probably the most popular day throughout the Christmas, thanks to the Twelfth Cake, and drawing for cha- racters, with other amusements. It was a very early custom to choose a Twelfth day king, or king of the bean, as he was formerly called; and this was originally a case of election, although afterwards, as at present, taken by lot ; but, at the same time, the practice of election was also continued, even to recent times ; the French court choosing one of the courtiers for king, who vvas then waited on by the other nobles, as Late as the time of the revolution, when, amongst other vagaries, the ruling citizens, for the time being, changed " La fete dc Rois," to " La fete de Sans-culottcs." The students and citizens in the various cities and universities in Germany, also, used to choose one of their companions for king; and this practice would appear preferable to our practice of — 165 — drawing for characters, and would probably ensure the election of the person best calculated to promote the wit and enjoy- ment of the evening, instead of taking the chance of the least adapted, or who may be called the " slowest" of the party drawing the lucky card. Even now, however, occasionally an election is made, and the fortunate elect then chooses his court for the evening. In the last century, the Twelfth Night cards represented ministers, maids of honour, and other attendants of a court, and the characters were to be supported throughout the night. At present they are in general grotesque, and seldom possess much wit or humour. Many early notices may be met with of the antiquity of the custom. In " Les Crieries de Paris," of the thirteenth century, the "Gastel a feve orroiz" is men- tioned, which is described as a cake, with a bean for the " Fete de Rois," and we shall find a present given to the court minstrels on the Epiphany, in the name of the king of the bean, in the time of Edward the Third. Down to the time of the civil wars, the feast was observed with great splendour, not only at court, but at the Inns of Court, and the universi- ties (where it was an old custom to choose the king by the bean in a cake), and in private mansions and houses. The lord mayor and aldermen, and the crafts of London also, used to go to St. Paul's on Twelfth Day, to hear a sermon, which is mentioned as an old custom, in the early part of Elizabeth's reign. The usual course, of choosing by the bean, was to insert it in the cake, though sometimes a piece of money was put in instead. The cake was then cut up, and the person to whom the piece with the bean fell was the king for the evening. Sometimes pieces were allotted to our Saviour, and the Virgin — 166 — Mary, and the Three Kings, which were given to the poor j and if the bean should be in either of these portions, the king was chosen by pulling straws. Baby-cake, in the mask of ' Christmas/ was attended by an usher, bearing a great cake, with a bean and pea. The king elect chose his queen, or occasionally a pea was inserted in the cake for the purpose, and they chose their officers ; and in France, when either of them drank, the company were to cry out, on pain of forfeit, " Le Roi (ou la Reine) boit." Louis the Fourteenth, on one occasion, in his youth, was king of the bean, but would not undertake the office, handing it over to his governor, De Souvre. Herrick, in the seventeenth century, refers to the practice of choosing by the bean and pea : — " Now, now the mirth comes, With the cake full of plums, Where beane's the king of the sport here ; Beside we must know, The pea also Must re veil as queene in the court here. Begin then to chuse, This night as ye use, Who shall for the present delight here ; Be a king by the lot, And who shall not Be Twelfth-Day queene for the night heere." The French twelfth-cake is still plain in appearance, con- taining a bean: it was composed, about 250 years since, of flour, honey, ginger and pepper; what it is made of now, Monsieur Verey can no doubt tell, if he will ; they arc how- — 167 — ever far exceeded in appearance by the rich frosted, almond- pasted, festooned, bedizened, and carefully-ornamented cakes of the English pattern, gladdening the eyes of joyful holiday young people, and through them the hearts of their parents. The eager grouping of passers-by, to see the shop-windows crowded with these elegant productions of confectionary science, causes stoppages in our highways and thoroughfares, with reiterated "Move-ons" from our policemen. About twenty-five years ago there was one exhibited, said to weigh one ton, but it might have weighed any given number, being simply several large wedges of cake, all plastered together, at the top and sides, with one uniform coat of sugar-frost. Speaking from memory, and with a taste somewhat blunted to these enjoyments, the flavour was somewhat below the average, and curiosity was rewarded by ascertaining — to use a bad pun, which it is hoped may be excused — that it really was (J'Eya 'yiowov (mega cakon). The adoration of the Magi was a favourite subject in the early mysteries. The celebrated Marguerite de Yalois, Queen of Navarre, wrote one on it as well as on the Nativity, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Flight into Egypt, which were all published in 1547, in the collection of her works, called ' Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses, tres- illustre Reyne de Navarre/ There are said indeed to have been representations in the French churches of the Three Magi as early as the fifth cen- tury; and there are French mysteries relating to them in the eleventh century, and also a Latin one mentioned by Lebeuf, wherein Virgil accompanies the kings on their journey; and at the end of the Adoration joins them very piously in the bene- dicamus. — 168 — The first feast of the Three Kings was celebrated at Milan in 1336, by the friar preachers, and was called the Feast of the Star. A golden star was exhibited, as if in the sky, preceding them ; the Three Kings appeared on horseback, crowned and richly clad, with a large retinue, and bearing golden cups filled with myrrh, frankincense, and gold. They asked Herod where Christ should be born, and having been answered in Bethlehem, proceeded to the church of St. Eus- torgius, preceded by trumpets, horns, apes, baboons, &c. In the church, on one side of the altar, was the representation of a manger, with an ox and an ass ; and the infant Saviour in the arms of his mother, to whom the kings then made their offerings. It forms a favourite subject in our early English Mysteries, which were suppressed early in the time of James the First ; but it was introduced as a puppet-show at Bartho- lomew fair as late as the time of Queen Anne. In ' Dives and Pauper/ 1496, it is stated, " For to represente in playnge at Crystmasse Herodes and the Thre Kynges and other processes of the gospellcs both than and at Ester, and other times also, it is lefull and comendable." Several provincial French collections of Carols, published within these few years, contain a Mystery or Scripture play of the Adoration. The Feast of the Star, just mentioned, was retained to some extent in Germany up to the end of the last century; and Hoffman, in his ' Hora3 Bclgicae,' contains the Star-song used on the occasion, as old perhaps as the fifteenth century, of which a nearly literal translation is given hereafter. The history of these kings was a favourite subject for tapestry and illuminations for books, of which numerous examples might be given ; also for paintings on church and monastic walls, as Barclay, in his Egloges, says, — 169 — " . . the Thre Kinges, with all their company, Their crownes glistning bright and oriently, With their presentes and giftes niisticall. All this behelde I in picture on the wall." The offerings by our sovereigns of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, continued down to the present time, is referred to elsewhere in this work. Melchior w T as said to have pre- sented a golden apple, formerly belonging to Alexander the Great, — made from the tribute of the world — and thirty pieces of gold. The history of these pieces of gold is curious, showing how ingeniously these legends were dovetailed together. They were first coined by Terah, the father of Abraham, and taken by the latter, when he left the land of the Chal- dees. They were by him paid away to Ephron as part of the purchase money for the field and cave of Machpelah. The Ismaelites then, according to one account, paid them back as the price of Joseph to his brethren ; and as, according to our version of the Scriptures, the price of Joseph w r as but twenty pieces, we may imagine the remainder were given for some other purpose; though Adam Davie, who wrote in 1312, referring to this event, says — " Ffor thritti pens thei sold that childe." The money was afterwards paid to Joseph by his brethren during the time of scarcity ; and on the death of Jacob, his son paid them to the royal treasury of Sheba for spices to embalm him. The celebrated Queen of Sheba, on her visit to Solomon, presented them to him with, many other gifts. In the time of his son Rehoboam, when the King of Egypt spoiled the temple, the King of Arabia, who accom- panied him, received these pieces of money in his share of the plunder, and in his kingdom they remained until the time of — 170 — Melchior, who presented them to our Saviour. On the flight into Egypt, the holy family were closely pursued by Herod's soldiers, and coming to a field where a man was sowing asked the way : when they had passed on, the corn miraculously sprang up ; just afterwards Herod's soldiers arrived and inquired of the sower if he had seen our Saviour and his parents, but he told them that no one had passed since his corn was sown, on which the soldiers turned back and gave up the pursuit. This legend is mentioned in the carol of the Carnal and the Crane. In the hurry of the flight the Virgin Mary dropped these pieces of money and the other gifts. They were found by a shepherd, who kept them by him, and in after years, being afflicted by some disease incurable by mortal aid, applied to our Saviour, who healed him, and he then offered these gifts at the high altar. They were subsequently paid to Judas by the priests as the reward of his perfidy. There are two reasons given for his requiring thirty pieces of money : one that he considered he had lost thirty pieces by the box of precious ointment not having been sold for 300 pence, of which he would have purloined the tenth part ; and the other, that having been sent by our Saviour, on Holy Thursday, with this amount of money, to provide for the last supper, he fell asleep in the way and was robbed. In the midst of his distress the rich Jew, Pilate, met him, and he then agreed to betray his master for the amount he had lost. In one of our ancient chronicles there is a legend of the life of Judas, before he became an apostle, very similar, in many respects, to the well-known history of (Kdipus, which need not be repeated here. When, smitten by remorse, he returned the money to the priests, and destroyed himself: — 171 — they applied half in purchase of the potter's field, and with the other half bribed the soldiers who guarded the sepulchre to say that the disciples came by night and stole the body of our Saviour. After this, having performed their mission, they were dispersed, and all traces of them lost. They were made of the purest gold, the term pieces of silver used in some parts of our translation with reference to them, being, according to the history, merely a common or generic name for money, like argent in French ; on one side was a king's head crowned, and on the other some unintelligible Chaldaic characters, and they were said to have been worth three florins each. There are many old manuscript histories of these kings in existence, at the Museum and elsewhere, one of which resolves the whole story into alchemy; and early printed histories, as by Guldenschaiff, in 1477, and Wynkyn de Worde, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Some account of particularly splendid feasts on Twelfth Day have been mentioned in the foregoing pages. Their names were occasionally used as a term of adjura- tion, which, in former times, whatever may be case now, was a mark of respect. Diccon, in that quaint production c Gammer Gurton's Needle/ of which the plot and catas- trophe would rather astonish a modern audience, says to Dame Chat, — " There I will have you swear by oure dere lady of Bullaine, Saint Dunstone and Saint Donnyke, with the Three Kings of Kullain, That ye shall keep it secret." I will now conclude this chapter with the ' Star Song/ before referred to — — 172 — " We come walking with oiir staves Wreathed with laurel, We seek the Lord Jesus, and would wish To put laurel on his knees ; Are the children of Charles the Kin-. Pater bonne Franselyn, Jeremie. We did come before Herod's door, &c. Herod, the king, came himself before, &c. Herod then spake with a false man's heart, &c. Why is the youngest of three so swart ? S:e. Altho' he is swart, he is well be known, See. In orient land he has a throne, &c. We all came over the lofty hill, &c. And there saw we the Star stand still, &c. Oh, Star ! you must not stand still so, &c. But must with us to Bethlehem go, &c. To Bethlehem, the lovely town, &c. Where Mary and her child sit down, &c. How small the child, and how great the good, &c. A blessed New Year that gives us God, &c. CHAPTER X. H E term carol, appears originally to have signified a song, joined with a dance, a union frequently found in early religious ceremonies ; and it is used in this sense by Chaucer, Boccacio, Spenser, and others. By some it has been derived from cantare, to sing, and vol a, an interjec- tion of joy. It was, however, applied to joyous singing, and thus to festive songs ; and as these became more frequent at Christmas, it has for a long time past, though not exclusively yet more particularly, designated those sung at this feast. But strictly, it should be applied only to those of a cheerful character, and not to the Christmas hymn, which is of a more — 174 — solemn cast ; many of them, indeed, being more suitable for Passion Week than for Christmas; and a large and appro- priate collection might be readily selected for that season, and an interesting work made to illustrate them. In practice, however, the word carol is applied indiscriminately to both classes, whether cheerful or solemn. In the earlier times, music, both instrumental and vocal, was introduced into religious ceremonies, and was a necessary accompaniment to all the sacred feasts and games. JubaPs harp or organ, whatever that instrument may have been, was doubtless, like the harp of David, used on such occasions, and the science of music was a necessary part of the education of many of the priesthood. In the records and sculptures of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other great nations of antiquity, and in the recent discoveries at ancient Nineveh, we find descriptions and representations connected with it. The Hebrews, as we know, had numerous psalms and hymns, one of the earliest on record being that of Miriam and her companions, on the overthrow of the Egyptians, when they celebrated the downfall of the horse and his rider, with timbrels and with dances. The Druids had recourse to music, and the Anglo-Saxons and Gothic nations made great use of hymns in their public worship. Some early specimens of the primitive music have been handed down to us, but do not impress us with much respect for the powers of harmony of our forefathers, and their neumes, and other obscure and imperfect methods of notation, must have cramped them. Certain of the old chants have a pleasing solemnity, and it has of late been much the custom to revive or to imitate them, commencing even with the old Ambrosial] chant; though, as our ancestors considered the introduction of the Gregorian — 175 — chant to have been a great improvement on it, we may very safely be of the same opinion, as this is really fine, and we need not here trouble ourselves with the Lydian, Phrygian, or Dorian modes. With respect to the merits of ancient music, our taste and skill have been so gradually improving, that we can scarcely be judges of what — though flat, insipid, and meaningless to us — might have given much gratification to the less educated ears of former times. Even within the last few years, a great advance has been made in our own musical knowledge : pieces and composers, popular in the early part of this century, are now scarcely known ; and recollected, perhaps (if at all), with amazement at their having ever been listened to ; while works of the great masters, then thought impracticable, and containing difficulties not understood, or considered insuperable, are played and appreciated in most good musical meetings. More might be said on this subject, but want of space, and not of materials, compels a postpone- ment, till some future opportunity. It may be mentioned, that much curious information, respecting our ancient national airs, with the tunes themselves, will be found in the very interesting work on the subject, by my friend, Mr. William Chappell, who, it is to be hoped, will, at no distant time, increase our obligation to him, by further publication from the large store in his possession, still unedited. Many of these airs are very pleasing, yet simple in construction, and still remain popular after the lapse of centimes; they are, however, much more recent than the ancient music before referred to. The Romans had their hymns on the calends of January, and the practice was adopted by the early Christians, especially on their Sabbath-days and festivals, and on the vigils of their — 176 — saints. St. Paul and St. James both refer to this custom, and Pliny the younger, in a letter to Trajan, mentioning the Christians, says, "They were wont to meet together on a certain day, before it was light, and sing among themselves, alternately, a hymn to Christ, as to God." Bishop Taylor observes, that the well-known " Gloria in Excelsis," sung by the angels to the shepherds, on the night of the Nativity, is the earliest Christmas carol. We have many carols now existing, that are founded on the appearance of the angels to the shepherds; and the subject is represented in several of the ancient mysteries, and occasionally in a very familiar and homely manner. In the Chester mysteries, for instance, the three shepherds, with their man Trowle, who is the buffoon of the piece (though the greater part of the play of the shepherds is of a humorous nature, comprising the homely dialogue of rustic labourers), having eaten their supper of sheep's head, soused in ale, with onions, garlic, and leeks, and other viands of like quality, and plenty of ale, are having a bout at wrestling, where Trowle throws his masters. In the midst of their sport the star appears, and afterwards the angels' song is heard. They then proceed reverently, though "rude in speech," to Bethlehem, and make their offerings; the first shepherd, addressing our Saviour, — " Heale, Kinge of heaven, so hie, Borne in a crabe, Mankinde unto Thee Thou baste made fullye. Heale, kinge I borne in a mayden'a bower, Profittes did k-ll thou shouldesl be our succore, '[ mis clarkcs doth save. — 177 — Lor, I bringe thee a bell ; I praie Thee save me from hell, So that I may with Thee dwell, And serve thee for aye." The second Shepherd presents a flagon with a spoon, and the third a cap, but finishes his speech with some degree of pathos. " This gueifte, Sonne, I bringe Thee is but small, And though I come the hyndmoste of all, "When Thou shall them to Thy blesse call, Good Lorde, yet thinke on me." "Well may we say, seeing how small our gifts are, " Good Lord, yet think on me." In the second century, Telesphorus refers to the Christians celebrating public worship, on the night of the Nativity, and then solemnly singing the angels' hymn, because in the same night, Christ was declared to the Shepherds by an angel; and in the early times of Christianity the bishops were accus- tomed to sing hymns on Christmas Day among their clergy. Aurclius Prudentius, towards the end of the fourth century, wrote a divine hymn or carol in Latin, which is still extant; but, besides that it consists of twenty-nine stanzas, it is not of sufficient general interest to be printed here. The Bretons were very similar in manners and language to the inhabitants of Britain, many of them having had the same origin, and being, in fact, a colony from our island. The Cornouaille of Bretagne, however, must not be con- founded with our province of that name by the well-wishers of the latter, because the romance writers do not speak in such terms of some of their knights as their friends might have desired. 12 — 178 — There is a Breton song, said to be as old as the fifth century, arranged as a dialogue between a Druid and a scholar, which is similar in idea and construction to the carol beginning, "In those twelve days," and to that called 'Man's Duty/ though the twelve subjects given are quite different from those in the carols, and refer to some druidical superstitions. It is called ' Ar Rannou/ or ' Les Series/ and is in the " dialecte de Cornouaille." The early missionaries engrafted on this a poem or song of the same construction, where the twelve subjects were connected with the Christian religion, and agree much with those in the carols, which there is fair reason to suppose may have been taken from this early poem. These subjects are, — one God; two Testaments; three Patriarchs; four Evangelists; five books of Moses; six water- vessels at Cana of Galilee; seven Sacraments; eight Beatitudes; nine degrees of Angels; ten Commandments; eleven stars that appeared to Joseph ; twelve Apostles. The hymn itself is in Latin, and at the end of each verse all the previous subjects are repeated in the style of the ' House that Jack built/ an example to which I refer simply from its being so well known, the style itself being of great antiquity, and taken originally from an old Hebrew hymn, of which some particulars, with a translation, may be found in HalliwclPs 'Nursery Rhymes of England;' but the butcher, the ox, the dog, and the cat, with the other characters mentioned there, have all a mystical meaning. The last verse of the old Latin hymn may be given as a specimen : — " . . . . Die mihi quid duodceim ? .... Duodceim Apostoli ; Undeim stellae A Josepho visa) : — 179 — Decern mandate Dei, Novem angelorum chori, Octo beatitudines ; Septem sacramenta ; Sex hydriae positas In Cana Galileae ; Quinque libri Moysis, Quatuor Evangelists?, Tres Patriarchae, Duo testamenta ; Unus est Deus, Qui regnat in Ccelis." In the fourth century, St. Ambrose introduced the chant known by his name, at Milan, of which he was the bishop, and some reformation took place in church music ; and when the Gregorian chant was composed, about two centuries later, a still greater advance was made. The Anglo-Saxons, after their conversion, preserved their fondness for religious music, it being a common practice in their guilds that each member should sing two psalms daily, one for the dead, and the other for the living members. Particular hymns were appropriated to particular feasts ; the Nativity, therefore, especially had its own. When the Anglo-Normans obtained the government, they equally encouraged music, and introduced greater pomp into their ceremonies. In the twelfth century, or sooner, the monks composed legends in verse, of the lives of the saints, &c., for the proper holidays ; and religious pieces suited to the time, with appro- priate hymns, were recited at Christmas ; some Latin hymns of this description of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, being still extant. — 180 — King John, in 1201, gave 25s. to the clerks who chanted " Christus vincit" before him on Christmas Day; and these spiritual songs were gradually introduced into the palace, and private houses, together with others for the same purpose, of a lighter description, which were found acceptable, and thus the carol had its origin. The theatrical exhibitions at this season, of which the sub- jects were originally taken from the Holy Scriptures, as they gradually ripened into maturity, also occasionally had songs incidental to them. The angels' song to the Shepherds, in the Towneley mysteries, may be taken as a carol. " Herkyn, hyrdes, awake, gyf lovyng ye shalle, He is borne for youre sake, Lorde perpetualle ; He is comen to take and rawnson you alle, Youre sorowe to slake, Kyng imperialle, He behestys ; That chyld is borne At Bethlehem this morne, Ye shalle fynde Hym beforne Betwix two bestys." In the Coventry pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, towards the beginning of the fifteenth century, there are three songs which arc in the nature of carols. One, by the women, is a lullaby song, on our infant Saviour, beginning, " Lully lulla, thou littell tine' child," and referring to Herod's wrath. One by the Shepherds is short, and may serve as an example. " As I out rode this endenes (last) night, Of thre ioli sheppardes I saw a sight, And all a bowte there fold a star shone bright, They sange terli terlow, So mereli the sheppards ther pipes can blow." — 181 — In the same pageant one of the prophets says — " Novellis, novellis of wondrfull mrvellys, Were 'hy and defuce vnto the lieryng, Asse scripture tellis these strange novellis to you I bryng." One of the earliest known carols, however, in our island, is the Anglo-Norman one, of the thirteenth century, first printed in Douce's f Illustrations of Shakespeare/ with a free trans- lation, which is not only of a cheerful, but of a festive nature, giving the " . . . . host's command, And Christmas joins him hand in hand, To drain the brimming bowl." It is in effect a Christmas drinking song. Edward the Fourth had regulations for the singing of songs before him at Christmas, by the clerks and children of his chapel, and the custom of singing songs had now become general. In some of the early ones, scraps of Latin were introduced, probably from the Christmas hymns, which they were intended in a great measure to supersede ; as, for example, from additional MS., 5665, British Museum, about the time of Henry the Eighth, which contains several others. " Now make us ioye in this feste, In quo xpiis natus est, A patre unigenitus, iij zong maydens cam till us, Syng we to hym and say well come, Veni Eedemptor gentium. Agnoscat omne seculum, A bryzth sterre iij kyngs made come, A solis ortus cardine, So myzthi a lord ys non as he, Veni Eedemptur omniu gentium." Others, again, were in a simple, familiar style, adapted to — 182 — the hearths of our unsophisticated ancestors ; a style, by the by, we may soon expect to see again, if the taste for medi- evalism and prse-Raphaelism extends much more, and we shall have a modern ode to parliament, beginning — " Sit you merry gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay." In the fifteenth century, the Low Countries had their carols, similar to the English ; in some cases, even the subjects being the same, and equally adapted to the simplicity of their hearers. Several examples of these are given by Hoffman, in the second part of his Horse Belgicas ; and I must here express my thanks to Mr. Thorns, who will, no doubt, convey them safely to the editor of that very useful publication, ' Notes and Queries/ for the kind loan of this book. There is a story on record, of a terrible plague at Goldsberg, in 1553, which carried off above 2500 persons, leaving not more than twenty- five housekeepers alive in the place. The plague having abated, one of the few survivors went, on Christmas Eve, to the lower ring, and sang a carol, according to old custom ; he was gradually joined by others, to excite each other to thanksgiving ; and thence arose a custom for the people to assemble in large numbers, at the upper and lower ring, on Christmas morning, to sing carols, beginning with, " Unto us this day a child is born." In the time of Henry the Seventh, after the introduction of the wassail, a good song, that is, no doubt, a carol, was to be given in answer to the steward's cry of wassail, by those belonging to the chapel ; and when the king held his state on other occasions, at Christinas, the enrol was introduced. The reward given to the children of the chapel, for singing " Gloria in excelsis," appears to have been usually 10*. ; and, in the — 183 — seventh year of his reign, there is a payment of £1 to Newark, for making of a song, probably a carol. In the ' Northumber- land Household Book/ the reward to the singers varies from 6s. Sd. to 20s. On Christmas Day, 1521, the Princess Mary gave 10s. to John Sentone, and other clerks, of the college of Windsor, singing before her. William Cornyshe, a musician of those days, was paid 13s. \d. for setting a carol ; but scanty reward, even if he was only arranging any well-known tune ; but the price of a collection was low in proportion, for at St. Mary-at-Hill, in 1537, Sir Mark had only Zs. 4d. for ' Carolls for Christmas/ being five square books. One would gladly multiply this small fee by a good round figure, to get hold of these five square books now. Few of the oldest song tunes had much melody, and there are probably none extant beyond the fifteenth century ; but here I must again refer to Mr. ChappelTs valuable collection of English airs. Church music was cultivated in the sixteenth century, by clergy and laity, and secular music was also in request. The pious puritans, both in England and Scotland, used to unite their rhapsodies to popular song tunes (as has been done in modern times), frequently preserving a few lines at the com- mencement. Luther himself composed some appropriate hymns of thanksgiving for Christmas. There are some collections of old carols and songs, with the music, of the early part of the sixteenth century, or some- what earlier, in the British Museum, but not of a popular description, or of interest, except to the musical antiquary ; and some of the old psalm tunes, as the Bristol, Salisbury, and Kenchester, have a similarity to the graver style of old carol tunes. Tusser, who prescribes jolly carols for Christmas, — 184 — mentions one to be sung to the tune of King Solomon. Several of the existing carol tunes are very pleasing, and are of considerable antiquity; one or two of them, according to repute, having been known in Cornwall for three hundred years and upwards; and some of the northern tunes are, probably, equally old, though the age may be a little over- stated. The natives of Cornwall have been famous for their carols from an early date. Scawen says, they had them at several times, especially at Christmas, which they solemnly sang, and sometimes used in their churches after prayers, the burthen of them being ' ' Nowell, nowell, good news, good news, of the gospel." Henry the Eighth, and his children, being skilled in music, and keeping also the Christmas feast with great magnificence, carol singing nourished ; and Latin hymns being abolished at the time of the Reformation, the carols became still more in vogue, and were sung throughout the kingdom. At the grand Christm asses, at the Inns of Court, the master of the revels was, after dinner and supper, to sing a carol or song, and command other gentlemen to sing with him ; but it is to be assumed that he selected such "other gentlemen" as could respond properly to his call. The Roman Catholics observed the custom equally with the Reformed church. " And carols sing in prayse of Christ, and for to help them heare, The organs answere every verse with sweete and solcmne ehcare." The carols at this time seem to have been of two descrip- tions : one of a serious sort, snng commonly in churches, and through the streets, and from house to house, as they were in Shakespeare's time, ushering in the Christmas morn- ing; and the other of a more convivial nature, and adapted — 185 — to feasting. The festive carols were sung by the company, or by itinerant minstrels, that went round for the purpose, to the houses of the wealthy : some of them were called wassail songs. Those of the religious or grave style were getting out of use in private houses, until the time of the puritans, who, when they began to strive for the mastery, tried to bring them back, in substitution of the lighter ones, and subse- quently endeavoured to abolish the latter altogether. As early as 1596, one of them says, that superstition and idolatry were entertained, which appeared in keeping of festival days, bonfires, pilgrimages, singing of carols at Yule. The carol, beginning, "All you that are to mirth inclined," was written by the well-known Thomas Deloney, at the end of the sixteenth century. In the former part of the seven- teenth century, carols continued in great repute, and were introduced at all the feasts, even those of the higher ranks ; and Bishop Andrews, in a sermon on the Nativity, in 1619, celebrates it as glorious in all places, as well at home with carols, as in the church with anthems. At the celebrated feast of the ' Christmas Prince/ at St. John's College, Oxford, in 1607, the boar's head was ushered in with a peculiar carol, of which there were several connected with this important dish, and all the company joined in it by way of chorus. There is an amusing anecdote of carol singers of this date, in l Pasquil's Jests/ 1609, which may as well be given in the words of the original. " A Tale of a Merry Christmas Carroll, sung by women. " There was sometime an old knight, who being disposed to make himselfe merry in a Christmas time, sent for many of — 186 — his tenants, and poore neighbors, with their wives, to dinner ; when, having made meat to be set on the table, would suffer no man to drinke, till he that was master ouer his wife should sing a carroll, to excuse all the company. Great nicenesse there was, who should bee the musician, now the cuckow time was so farre off. Yet, with much adoe, looking one upon another, after a dry hemme or two, a dreaming companion drew out as much as hee durst, towards an ill-fashioned ditty. When, having made an end, to the great comfort of the beholders, at last it came to the woman's table, where, like- wise, commandment was given, that there should no drinke be touched till she that was master ouer her husband had sung a Christmas carroll ; whereupon they fell all to such a singing, that there was never heard such a catterwalling peece of musicke j whereat the knight laughed heartely, that it did him halfe as muche good as a corner of his Christmas pie." This jolly old kuight might have been a descendant of the squire of Gamwell Hall, in the time of Robin Hood (who Mr. Hunter has lately brought down a little from his supposed aristocratic birth, and cleared from the mist of poetic legend) — for he is made to say, " . . . . Not a man here shall taste my March beer, Till a Christmas carol he does sing; Then all clapt their hands, and they shouted and sung, Till the hall and the parlour did ring." Sir Thomas Overbury, who died in 1613, in his description of a Franklin, says, he kept the " wakcfull ketches " on Christ- mas Eve, with other observances, yet held them no relics of popery ; other writers of the same age also refer to them. As the rule of the puritans advanced, and the time of the — 187 — Commonwealth approached, endeavours were made, as stated in a former page, to suppress all observances of Christmas ; and carol singing would naturally share the same fate, and join therefore in the struggle to avoid absolute destruction. In ' Festorum Metropolis/ 1652, it is stated, " As for our songs and carrols, brethren, they are collected and composed out of the Scriptures, contain e matter of instruction and edification, they implant the history and benefits of Christ's birth in the minds of poor ignorant people ; and oftentimes he is taken by a song that will five a sermon." They were still preserved in private, and in remote places, and old Christmas, in his visit to Devonshire, before mentioned, names the carols and pleasant songs as part of the amusements of the evening. Warmstry, also, in his ' Vindication of Christmas/ in answer to an objec- tion, whether the feast might not be a remnant of the Satur- nalia, and whether the carols might not arise from the hymn to Ceres, during that feast called lovtes, says " Christmasse Kariles, if they be such as are fit for the time, and of holy and sober composures, and used with Christian sobriety and piety, they are not unlawfully and may be profitable, if they be sung with grace in the heart." An observation that may well be remembered in the present times, in answer to any objectors. Warton mentions two celebrated itinerant ballad, and therefore doubtless carol, singers, about the middle of this century, called Outroaringe Dick and AVat Wimbars, who occasionally made 20s. a day, by attending fairs and meetings ; but they must have been of earlier date, as they are men- tioned also in ' Kind Hart's Drcame/ by Henry Chettle, in 1592; their gains, therefore, taking into account the differ- ence of value in money, were large, and such as would tempt — ]88 — many a modern carol-singer, as well as some members of a recently reformed learned profession, anxiously looking for any respectable life-boat to save them from sinking. After the Restoration, the people gladly returned to their amusements without restraint, and from the reaction, in many instances perhaps, went into the opposite extreme and indulged in too much conviviality. Carol singing was renewed with increased zeal. " Carols and not minc'd meat make Christmas pies, "lis mirth, not dishes, sets a table off; Brutes and phanaticks eat and never laugh." It so continued down to the present century, when it apparently began to abate ; but it will be unnecessary to give any references to prove the continuance of such a custom, when, to a certain extent, it exists at present, though this and other observances are much shorn of their honours. Many of us will recollect when at Christmas time every street of any note had its carol singers, with their bundle of various carols, whereas now scarcely one vagrant minstrel can be found throughout the town, brass bands having blown them out; but there is still some demand for the carols, and specimens of broadside carols may be procured from the printers of this class of literature, in St. Andrew's Street, Monmouth Court, Long Lane, and elsewhere. In Birmingham also, and other large manufacturing towns, and other neighbourhoods where the practice of carol singing is retained, popular editions of the style called chap-books, as well as broadsides may be found ; several of them of con- siderable antiquity, handed down for many generations, and frequently illustrated by woodcuts of the most grotesque — 189 — nature in point of execution and design. Many of us will also recollect when carols were sung in the country, not only in the farm-houses, in mansions, and baronial halls, but like- wise in churches — as Heath says, was the custom, in Scilly, in the middle of last century — and this with much propriety and right feeling. " If unmelodious was the song, It was a hearty note and strong." Each succeeding year shows a falling-off in the number of houses where the practice is now admitted; and in many parts the carols are scarcely heard at all, people getting too refined, or — too good (? ) ; the extreme west and north, and some of the manufacturing districts, being the most likely places to hear them, as they were, in former times, among the yeomanry of our land. The custom exists also in Ireland and Wales, there being many carols in the Welch language, some of which are of ancient date, and others recent; one David Jones, of Rhuddlan, having died about twenty years since, who for fifty- three successive years, sang at the church there, a new carol of his own composing every Christmas ; a worthy poet laureat of his parish. The practice of singing carols on the Continent is of ancient date. Crysostom, the unfortunate youth in Don Quixote, " was such a great man at composing couplets, that he made carols for Christmas Eve, and plays for the Lord's Day, which were represented by the young men in our village ; and every body said they were tip-top." The Spaniards, before their country got into so much confusion, used, in most respectable families, to set up a nacimiento, which was a rude imitation of rocks, with baby — 190 — houses, &c, and clay figures, representing the Nativity, the Shepherds, the ox, and ass, kneeling to the Holy Infant, with Joseph and Mary in a ruinous stable. They had numerous collections of carols, and parties used to meet, dancing, reciting speeches, and singing carols to the sound of the zambomba, an instrument formed by stretching a piece of parchment, slightly covered with wax, over the mouth of an earthen jar, with a slender reed fixed in the centre, from which a sound was produced something like the tambourine, when rubbed by the finger. The only refreshments were Christmas cakes, called oxaldres, and sweet wines, and home-made liquors. In France, the custom of carol singing was of very early date, and there are many collections of them, including several in the patois, or provincial dialect. They are called noel, or nouel, and sometimes nuel, derived evidently from the same source, as novell or nowell, used in some of our old carols, and references to Christmas, as in Chaucer, for instance. " Janus sit by the fuyr with double berd, And drynketli of his bugle horn the wyn ; Biforn him stont the braun of toskid swyn, And nowel crieth every lusty man." The term is, however, sometimes used in the sense of news or tidings. Some writers have derived it from natalis, as sig- nifying a cry of joy at Christmas, but this seems a doubtful etymology. It may have the same origin as yule, or gulc, but it was not absolutely confined to Christmas time, though it was probably borrowed from its use then. It was frequently used as a sort of burden to carols. In a carol, orjiymn, by Ilcrradc de Landsberg, Abbess of Ilohenbourg, as early as the twelfth century, saluting the holy " creche," or manger, she sings, — 191 — " Leto leta concio Cinoel resonat tripudio, Cinoel hoc in natalitio, Cinoel, cinoel, Noel, noel, noel, Noel, noel, noel, noel, Sec." In Normandy it is called nnel. In Burgundy the people pronounce noe for noel. A priest at Dijon, wishing to avoid this error, fell into the opposite extreme, and in one of his discourses repeated three or four times, " PArche de noel, et le patriarche Noe." The Poitevins write nau ; and in la vielle Bible des noels, is found " chanter no." Rabelais talks of ^ ^^Ofrrara^rayrafcT^iT^ CjarDlk /^EIGNORS, ore entendez a nus, ^J De loinz sumes venuz a vous, Pur quere noel ; Car Fern nus dit que en cest hostel, Soleit tenir sa feste anuel, Ahi, cest jur. Deu doint a tuz icels joie d'amurs, Qui a danz noel ferunt honors ! Seignors, jo mis dis por veir, Ke danz noel ne velt aveir, Si joie non; E repleni sa maison, De payn, de char, e de peison, Por faire honor. Deu doint a tuz ces joie d'amur ! Seignors, il est crie en Post, Que cil qui despent bien, e tost, E largement ; E fet les granz honors sovent, Deu li duble quanque il despent, Por faire honor. Deu doint a . . . . — 216 — Seignors, escriez les malveis, Car vuz nel les troverez jameis De bone part ; Botun, batun, ferun, groinard, Car tot dis a le quer cunard, Por faire honor. Deu doint. . . . Noel beyt bien li vin Engleis, E li Gascoin, e li Franceys, E r Angevin ; Noel fait beivere son veisin, Si qu'il se dort,, le chief enclin, Sovent le jor. Deu doint a tuz eels. . . Seignors, jo vus di par noel, E par li sires de cest hostel, Car bevez ben ; E jo primes beverai le men, E pois apres chescon le soen, Par mon conseil ; Si jo vus di trestoz, ' Wesseyl V Dehaiz eit qui ne dirra, f Drincheyl V — 217 II. Jx ORDINGS, from a distant home, To seek old Christmas we are come, Who loves our minstrelsy : And here, unless report mis-say, The grey-beard dwells, and on this day, Keeps yearly wassel, ever gay, With festive mirth and glee. To all who honour Christmas, and commend our lays, Love will his blessings send, and crown with joy their days. Lordings list, for we tell you true, Christmas loves the jolly crew That cloudy care defy : His liberal board is deftly spread With manchet loaves and wastel-bread ; His guests with fish and flesh are fed, Nor lack the stately pye. Lordings, you know that far and near, The saying is, " Who gives good cheer, And freely spends his treasure ; On him will bounteous Heaven bestow Twice treble blessings here below; His happy hours shall sweetly flow, In never-ceasing pleasure." Lordings, believe us, knaves abound, In every place are flatterers found, May all their arts be vain ! — 218 — But chiefly from these scenes of joy, Chase sordid souls that mirth annoy, And all who with their base alloy, Turn pleasure into pain. Christmas quaffs our English wines, Nor Gascoigne juice, nor French declines, Nor liquor of Anjou : He puts th' insidious goblet round, Till all the guests in sleep are drown' d Then wakes 'em with the tabor's sound, And plays the prank anew. Lordings, it is our host's command, And Christmas joins him hand in hand, To drain the brimming bowl : And I'll be foremost to obey : Then pledge me, sirs, and drink away, For Christmas revels here to day, And sways without controul. Now wassel to you all, and merry may ye be ! But foul that wight befall, who drinks not health to me ! III. V|/|#ELCU 30le in good array, ^Wl In worship of ]? e holiday, Welcu be J? u heue kyng, Welcu ]? u born i on mornyng, Welcu to ]) G now wil wc syng, Welcu 30IC for eu r & ay, — 219 — Welcu be ]? u mare myld, Welcu be ]? u & ]> { child, Welcu fro ]? e fynd ]? u as schildc, Welcu 3ole for eu r & ay, Welcu be 3 e steue & ione, Welcu childrn euechone, Welcu thomas, mart 1 ', all on, Welcu 3ole for eu r & ay, Welcu be ]> u good newyere, Welcu J?e xij days efere, Welcu be ye all ]?t bene here, Welcu 3ole for ew 1 ' & ay, Welcu be 3e lord and lady, Welcu be 3e all J?is cupane, ffore 3olis love makis mere, Welcu 3ole fore ew r & ay. IV. •W^AY iuy, nay, hyt shall not be I wys, JU*4 Let holy hafe )> e maystry as j?e maner ys. Holy stond in ]? e hall fayre to behold, Iuy stond w* out ]? e dore, she ys ful sore a cold. Nay iuy, &c. Holy and hys mery men J?ey dawnsyn & J?ey syng, Iuy and her maydenys )?ey wepyn & ]>ey wryng. Nay, &c. — 220 — Iuy hath a lyve she laghtyt w* j?e colde, So mot )?ey all ha fae y w* jvy hold. Nay iuy, nay, hyt, &c. Holy hat berys as rede as any rose, The foster J?e hunters kepe hem fro J?e dos. Nay iuy, nay, hyt, &c. Iuy hath berys as blake as any slo, Ther com j?e oule & ete hym as she goo. Nay iuy, nay, hyt, &c. Holy hath byrdys a ful fayre flok, The nyghtyngale J?e perpyinguy, J>e gayntyl lauyrok. Nay, &c. Gode iuy what byrdys ast \ u ? Non but )?e howlat J?t kreye how how. Nay iuy, nay, hyt shal not, &c. *|MOW ys Crystemas y-cum, C™~ Fadyr and Son togedyr in oon, Holy Goste, as ye be oon, in fcre-a, God sende us a good n(e)w yerc-a. — 221 — I wolde yow synge for and I myg3hgt, Off a chylde ys fayre in syghg3t, Hys modyr hym bare tliys yndyrs nygli3t so sty lie- a, And as yt was hys wylle-a. There cam iij kynges fro Galylee Into Bethleem, that fayre cytee, To seke hym that ever shnlde be by rygh3t-a Lorde and kynge and knygh3t-a. As they cam forth with there offrynge, They met with Herode that mody kynge, thys tyde-a, And thys to them he sayde-a. " Off wens be ye, yow kynges iij. ? Off the Este, as ye may see, To seke hym that ever shnlde be by ryghg3t-a Lorde and kynge and knygh3t-a." " Wen yow at thys chylde have be, Cum home a3eyne by me, Tell me the sygli3tes that yow have sec, I prayc yow j Go yow no nodyr way-a." — 222 — They toke her leve both olde and yonge Off H erode that mody kynge ; They went forth with there offrynge by lygh}th-a, By the sterre that shoone so brygli3t-a. Tyll they cam in to the place There Jhesu and hys modyr was, Offryd they up with grete solace in fere-a Golde and sence and mvrre-a. The fadyr of hewn an awngyllc down sent, To thyke iij kynges that made presentc thys tyde-a, And thys to them he sayd-a. My lorde have warnyd yow everychone, By Hcrode kynge yow go not home ; For and yow do, he wylle you slonc and strye-a, And hurte yow wondyrly-a." Forthe them wente thys kynges iij, Tyllc they cam liome to there cuntiv Glade and blyth they were alle iij, Off the sygli3tes that they had sec, by-dene-a, The cumpany was clene-a. — 223 — Knele we now here a-down, Pray we in good devocioun To the kynge of grete renown, of grace-a, In hevyn to have a place-a. 30 VI. OWELL, noweli, noweli, noweli, Tydyng gode y thyngke to telle. The borys hede, that we bryng here, Betokeneth a prince withonte pere, Ys born this day to bye us dere, Noweli. A bore ys a sonerayn beste, And acceptable in eury feste, So mote thys lord be to moste and leste, Noweli. This borys hede we bryng w* song, In worchyp of h}^m that thus sprang Of a virgyne to redresse all wrong. Noweli. 224 VII. •1M0WELL, nowell, nowell, nowell. fj«& Who ys there that syngith so nowell, nowell ? I am here, syre Cristsmasse ; Well, come, my lord s r Crstsmasse, Welcome to. vs all bothe more & lasse, Com ner, nowell. Dievs wous garde brewe srs tydyge y 30W bryng. A mayde hath borne a chylde full 3ong, The weche causeth 3ew for to syng, Nowell. Criste is now born of a pure mayde, In an oxe stalle he ys layde, Wher'for syng we alle atte abrayde, Bevvex bian par tutte la company, Make gode chere and be ryght mery, And syng w* vs now ioyfully, Nowell. Nowell. VIII. i-Art Bonne God wote ! *Jm Stickes in my throate, Without I have a draught Of cornic aile, Nappy and staile, My lyffe lyes in great waustc. Some ayle or bcarc, Gcntill l)utlere ; — 225 — Some lycoure thou hus showe, Such as you mashe, Our throates to Avashe, The best were that vow brew. Saint, master, and knight, That Saint Mault hight, Were prest betwen two stones ; That swet humour Of his lycoure Would make us sing at once. Mr. Wortley, I dar well say, I tell you as I thinke, Would not, I say, Byd hus this day, But that we shuld have drink. His men so tall Walkes up his hall, With many a comly dishe ; Of his gogd meat I cannot eate, Without a drink i-wysse ; Now gyve hus drink, And let cat wynke, I tell you all at once, Yt stickes so sore, I may sing no more, Tyll I have dronken once. L5 JxL — 226 — IX. Nowel el el el, now is wel that evere was woo. BABE is born al of a may, In the savasyonn of us, To hem we syngyn bothe ny3ht and day, Veni creator spiritus. At Bedlem that blyssid pas, The chylde of blysse born he was, Hym to serve, go 3 eve us gras, O lux beata trinitas. Ther come thre kynges out of the est, To worchepe the Kyng that is so fre, With gold and myrre and francincens, A solis ortus cardine. The herdes herdyn an aungele cry, A merye song then sungyn he, Qwy arn 3e so sore a-gast? Jam ortus solis cardine. The aungele comyn down with on cry, A fayr song then sungyn he, In the worchepe of that chyld, Gloria tibi, Domine. 227 — X. © Make we myrth, For Crystes byrth, And syng we 30-le tyl Candelmes. HE fyrst day of 3ole have we in mynd, How God was man born of owre kynd ; For lie the bondes wold onbynd Of all owre synnes and wykednes. The secund day we syng of Stevene, That stoned and steyyd up even To God that he saw stond in hevyn, And crounned was for hys prouesse. The iij day longeth to sent Johan, That was Cristys darlyng, derer non, Whom he betok, whan he shuld gon, Hys moder der for hyr clennesse. The iiij day of the chyldren 3ong, That Herowd to deth had do with wrong, And Crist thei coud non tell with tong, But with ther blod bar hym wytnesse. The v day longeth to sent Thomas, That, as a strong pyller of bras, Held up the chyrch, and sclayn he was, For he sted with ry3twesnesse. The viij day tok Jhesu hys name,, That saved mankynd fro syn and shame, And circnmsysed was for no blame, But for ensample of meknessc. The xij day offerd to hym kynges iij, Gold, myr, and cense, thes gyftes free, For God, and man, and kyng was he, Thus worschyppyd thei his worthynes. On the xl day cam Mary myld, Unto the temple with hyr chyld, To shew hyr clen that never was fylyd, And thcrwith endyth Crystmcs. XT [WLYSSID be that lady bryght, G*+ That bare a chyld off great myght, Withouten peyne, as it was right, Mayd mother Maryc. Goddys sonne is borne, his moder is a maid, Both aftur and beforne, as the prophycy said, With ay ; A wonder thyng it is to se, How mayden and moder on may be ; Was there nonne but she, Maid moder Marye. 229 The great lord of heaven our servant is becom, Thorow Gabriels stevyn, owr kynd have benoin, With ay; A wonder thyng it is to se, How lord and servant on may be j Was ther never nonne but he, Born off maid Marye. Two sons togyther they owght to shyne bryght ; So did that fayer ladye, whan Jesu in hir light, With ay ; A wonder thyng is fall, The lord that bought fre and thrall, Is found in an assis stall, By his moder Mary. The shepherdes in her region thei lokyd into Heaven, Thei se an angell commyng down, that said with myld steven. With ay; Joy be to God almyght, And pece in yerth to man is dyte, Fore God was born on Chrismes nyght, Off his moder Marye. Thre kyngcs off great noblay, whan that chyld was born, To hym they tok the redy way, and kneled hym beforn, With ay ; Thes iij kynges cam fro fare, Thorow ledyng of a stare, And offered hym gold, encence, and mure, And to hys moder Mary. — 230 — XII. ^J*EY, hey, hey, hey, the borrys hede is armyd gay. •*•/ The boris hede in hond I bryng, With garlond gay in porttoryng, I pray yow alle with me to synge, With hay. Lordys, kny3ttes, and skyers, Persons, prystis, and wycars, The boris hede ys the fart mes, The boris hede, as I yow say, He takis his leyfe, and gothe his way, Gone after the xij, theyl ffyt day, With hav. With hay. Then commys in the secnnde kowrs with mykylle pryde, The crannns, the heyrrouns, the bytteris by ther syde, The pertrychys and the plowers, the wodcokus and the snyt, With hay. Larkys in hot schow, ladys for to pyk, Good drynk thcrto, lycyus and fvnc, Blwet of allmaync, romnay and wyin, With hay, — 231 — Gud bred alle and wyin dare I welle say, The boris hede with musterd armyd soo gay ; Furmante to pottage, with wennissun fyne, And the hombuls of the dow, and all that ever commis in ; Cappons i-bake, with the pesys of the roow, Reysons of corrons, with odyre spy sis moo. XIII. Caput afri differo Reddens laudes domino. 'HE bore's heed in hand bring I, With garlans gay and rosemary, I pray you all synge merely Qui estis in convivio. The bore's heed, I vnderstande, Is the chefe seruyce in this lande ; Loke, where euer it be fande, Seruite cum cantico. Be gladde lordes, bothe more and lasse, For this hath ordeyned our stewarde, To chere you all this Christmasse, The bores heed with mustarde. jja — 232 — XIV. In Betfjeieenu E we mery in this feste, In quo saluator natus est. In Betheleem, that noble place, As by prophesy sayd it was, Of the vyrgyn Mary, full of grace, Saluator mundi natus est. Be we mery, &c. On Chrystmas nyght, an angel it tolde To the shephardes, kepyng theyr folde, That into Betheleem with bestes wolde, Saluator mundi natus est. Be we mery, &c. The shephardes were copassed ryght, About them was a great lyght, Drede ye nought, sayd the angell bryght, Saluator mundi natus est. Be we mery, &c. Bcholde to you we brynge great ioy, For why, Jesus is borne this day (To vs) of Mary, that myldc may, Saluator mundi natus est. Be in cry, &c. — 233 — And thus in favth fvnde it ve shall, Lyenge porely in an oxe stall. The shephardes than lauded God all, Quia Saluator mundi natus est. Be mery, &c. XV. Sung to the Tune of " Essex Last G-ood Night. LL you that in this house be here, Remember Christ that for us dy'd. And spend away with modest cheere, In loving sort this Christmas tide. And whereas plenty God hath sent, Give frankly to your friends in love : The bounteous mind is freely bent, And never will a niggard prove. Our table spread within the hall, I know a banquet is at hand, And friendly sort to welcome all That wil unto their tacklings stand. The maids are bonny girles I see, Who have provided much good cheer, Which at my dame's commandment be To set it on the table here. — 234 — For I have here two knives in store, To lend to him that wanteth one ; Commend my wits, good lads, therefore, That comes now hither having none. For if I schuld, no Christmas pye Would fall, I doubt, unto my share j Wherefore I will my manhood try, To fight a battle if I dare. For pastry-crust, like castle walls, Stands braving me unto my face ; I am not well until it falls, And I made captain of the place. The prunes so lovely look on me, I cannot chuse but venture on : The pye-meat spiced brave I see, The which I must not let alone. Then, butler, fill me forth some beer, My song hath made me somewhat dry : And so again to this good cheer, Fie quickly fall couragiously. And for my master I will pray, With all that of his household are, Both old and young, that long wc may Of God's good blessings have a share. 235 XVI. f*\ EMEMBER, O thou man, thou man ! J^cL Remember, O thou man ! Thy time is spent ; Remember, O thou man, how thou art dead and gone, And I did what I can, therefore repent ; Remember Adam's fall, O thou man, O thou man ! Remember Adam's fall, From heaven to hell ; Remember Adam's fall, How we were condemned all, In hell perpetuall Therefor to dwell. Remember God's goodnesse, O thou man, man, O thou man ! Remember God's goodnesse, And his promise made, Remember God's goodnesse, How he sent his sonne doutlesse, Our shines for to redresse, Be not aft'raid. The angels all did sing, O thou man, O thou man ! The angels all did sing, Vpon the shepheardes hill. — 236 — The angels all did singe, Praises to our heauenly King, And peace to man liuing, With a good will. The shepheards amazed was, O thou man, O thou man ! The shepheards amazed was, To heare the angels sing ; The shepheards amazed was, How it should come to passe, That Christ, our Messias, Should be our King. To Bethlem did they goe, O thou man, O thou man ! To Bethlem did they go, The shepheards three ; To Bethlem did they goe, To see where it were so or no, Whether Christ were borne or no, To set man free. As the angels before did say, O thou man, O thou man ! As the angels before did say, So it came to passe ; As the angels before did say, The found a babe where it lay, In a manger wrapt in hay, So poor he was. — 237 — In Bethlem he was borne, O thou man, O thou man ! In Bethlem he was borne, For mankind sake ; In Bethlem he was borne, For vs that were forlorne, And therefore tooke no scorac, Our flesh to take. Giue thanks to God always, O thou man, O thou man ! Giue thanks to God always, With heart most ioy fully; Giue thankes to God always, For this our happy day : Let all men sing and say, Holy, holy. XVII. 3ESUS Christ of Nazareth, He is born of a maiden pure, Wherein God is blessed. All the angels of the kingdom of Heaven, And all the shepherds of earth They sung, they had great joy. When Herod became aware That a little child was born, Then had he in his heart great spite. — 238 — He had search made here and there, For young children of two years. All of which he deprived of life. When our Lady heard this, And that Herod was thus massacring infants, She felt in her heart great grief. She spoke to Joseph without delay; Get you ready, we must away, We should be gone, His more than time. All the angels of the kingdom of Heaven, And all the clergy of the earth, They all delighted were and glad ! Jesus Christ of Nazareth, He is born of a maiden pure, Wherein God is blessed. XVIII. *N those twelve days, and in those twelve days, let us be glad, * For God of his power hath all things made. What is that which is but one ? We have but one God alone, In Heaven above sits on his throne. — 239 — What are they which are but two ? Two Testaments, as we are told, The one is New and the other Old. And in those, &c. What are they that are but three ? Three persons in the Trinity, To Father, Son, and Ghost Holy. And in those, &c. "What are they that are but four? Four Gospels written time, John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew. And in those, &c. What are they that are but five? Five senses we have to tell, God grant us grace to use them well. And in those, &c. What are they that are but six? Six ages this world shall last, Five of them are gone and past. And in those, &c. What are they that are but seven? Seven days in the week have we, Six to work and the seventh holy. And in those, &c. — 240 — What are they that are but eight? Eight beatitudes are given. Use them well and go to Heaven. And in those, &c. What are they that are but nine? Nine degrees of angels high, Which praise God continually. And in those, &c. What are they that are but ten? Ten commandments God hath given, Keep them right and go to Heaven. And in those, &c. What are they that are but eleven? Eleven thousand virgins did partake, And suffered death for Jesus' sake. And in those, &c. What arc they that are but twelve? Twelve apostles Christ did chuse, To preach the Gospel to the Jews. And in those, &c. — 241 XIX. 30SEPH was an old man, and an old man was he, When he wedded Mary, in the land of Galilee ; When Joseph and Mary walked in the garden good, There was cherries and berries as red as the blood. then bespoke Mary, so meek and so mild, Plnck me some cherries, Joseph, for I am with child ; then bespoke Joseph, with words so nnkind, Let him pluck the cherries that brought thee with child. then bespoke Jesus in his mother's womb, Bow down then the tallest tree, that my mother may have some; Then bowed down the tallest tree, it bent to Mary's hand, Then she cried, See, Joseph, I have cherries at command. O then bespoke Joseph, I have done Mary wrong, But cheer up, my dearest, and be not cast down; Then Joseph and Mary did to Bethlehem go, And with travels were weary walking to and fro. They sought for a lodging, but the inns were filled all, They, alas ! could not have it, but in an ox's stall ; But before the next morning our Saviour was born, In the month of December, Christmas Day in the morn. L6 — 2 12 XX. HH CHILD this day is born, JBXo A child of high renown, Most worthy of a sceptre, A sceptre and a crown. Novels, novels, novels, Novels, sing all we may, Because the King of all kings "Was born this blessed day. ^ * The which the holy prophets Spake of long time before, That from the fall of Adam He should us all restore. Novels, &c. This child, both God and man, From Heaven down to us came, He is the King of all kings, And Jesus is his name. Novels, &c. These tidings shepherds heard, In field watching their fold, Were by an angel unto them, That night reveal' d and told. Novels, &c. — 243 — ' Who standing near by them. To them shined so bright, That they amazed were At that most glorious sight. Novels, &c. To whom the angel spoke, Saying, Be not afraid. Be glad, poor silly shepherds, Why are you so dismayed ? Novels, &c. For lo ! I bring you tidings Of gladness and of mirth, Which cometh to all people by This holy infant's birth. Novels, &c. Him hath God lifted up, As light and shepherd's horn, Which in the city of David, This present time was born. Novels, &c. The only Son of God was he, The Lord and God most highest ; And He is the true shepherd, The young child Jesus Christ. Novels, &c. — 244 — Then was there with the angel, An host incontinent Of heavenly bright soldiers, Which from the highest was sent. Novels, &c. Landing the Lord our God, And his celestial king ; All glory be in Paradise, This heavenly host did sing. Novels, &c. Glory be unto our God, That sitteth still on high, With praises and with triumph great, And joyful melody. Novels, &c. But when this holy army Of heavenly soldiers bright, Was unto God returned, And vanished out of sight. Novels, &c. The shepherds' hearts joyful, At this great glorious news, That the King of all kings Was risen amongst the Jews. Novels, &c. — 245 — Without the least of hinderance, Anon they went in then, And found the young child, Jesus Christ, Thus born in Bethlehem. Novels, &c. And as the angel told them, So to them did appear ; They found the young child, Jesus Christ, With Mary, his mother dear. Novels, &c. Now such a place it was, Where this was come to pass, For want of room this child was laid Betwixt an ox and ass. Novels, &e. Not sumptuously, but simply, Was this young King array' d ; A manger was the cradle, Where this young child was laid. Novels, &c. No pride at all was found In this most holy child, But he being void of all sin, The lamb of God most mild. Novels, &c. — 246 — His body unto bitter pains He gave to set us free ; He is our Saviour, Jesus Christ, And none but only he. Novels, &c. ■ To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, All glory be therefore, To whom be all dominion Both now and evermore. Novels, &c. XXI. HHS I passed by a river side, UnL And there as T did reign, In argument I chanced to hear A carnal and a crane. The carnal said unto the crane, If all the world should turn, Before we had the Father, But now we have the Son. From whence does the Son come ? From where and from what place ? He said, In a manger, Between an ox and ass ! — 247 — I pray thee, said the carnal, Tell me before thou go, Was not the mother of Jesus Conceived by the Holy Ghost ? She was the purest virgin, And the cleanest from sin j She was the handmaid of our Lord, And mother of our King. Where is the golden cradle That Christ was rocked in ? Where are the silken sheets That Jesus was wrapt in ? A manger was the cradle That Christ was rocked in ; The provender the asses left. So sweetly he slept on. There was a star in the West land, So bright it did appear, Into king Herod's chamber, And where king Herod were. The wise men soon espied it, And told the king on high, A princely Babe was born that nightj No king could e'er destroy. — 248 — If this be true, king Herod said, As thou tellest unto me, This roasted cock that lies in the dish Shall crow full fences three. The cock soon freshly feather' d was, By the work of God's own hand, And then three fences crowed he, In the dish where he did stand. Rise up, rise up, you merry men all, See that you ready be, All children under two years old Now slain they all shall be. Then Jesus, ah ! and Joseph, And Mary, that was so pure, They travelled into Egypt, As you shall find it sure. And when they came to Egypt's land, Amongst those fierce wild beasts, Mary, she being weary, Must needs sit down to rest. Come sit thee down, says Jesus, Come sit thee down by me, And thou shalt sec how these wild beasts Do come and worship me. — 249 — First, came the lovely lion, Which Jcsus's grace did spring, And of the wild beasts in the field, The lion shall be king. AW 11 choose our virtuous princes, Of birth and high degree, In every sundry nation, Where'er we come and see. Then Jesus, ah ! and Joseph, And Mary, that was unknown, They travelled by a husbandman, Just while his seed was sown. God speed thee, man ! said Jesus, Go fetch thy ox and wain, And carry home thy corn again, Which thou this day hast sown. The husbandman fell on his knees, Even before his face ; Long time hast Thou been looked for, But now Thou art come at last. And I myself do now believe Thy name is Jesus called ; Redeemer of mankind thou art, Though undeserving all. — 250 — The truth, man, thou hast spoken, Of it thou may est be sure, For I must lose my precious blood For thee and thousands more. If any one should come this way, And enquire for me alone, Tell him that Jesus passed by As thou thy seed did sow. After that there came king Herod, With his train so furiously, Enquiring of the husbandman Whether Jesus passed by. Why the truth it must be spoke, And the truth it must be known, For Jesus passed by this way, When my seed was sown. But now I have it reapen, And some laid on my wain, Ready to fetch and carry Into my barn again. Turn back, says the captain, Your labour and mine's in vain, It's full three quarters of a year Since he liis seed lias sown. — 251 — So Herod was deceived, By the work of God's own hand. And further he proceeded Into the Holy Land. There's thousands of children young, Which for his sake did die ; Do not forbid those little ones, And do not them deny. The truth now I have spoken, And the truth now I have shown ; Even the blessed virgin, She's now brought forth a Son. XXII. ^jfltfS it fell out one May morning, And upon one bright holiday, Sweet Jesus asked of his dear mother, If He might go to play. To play, to play, sweet Jesus shall go, And to play pray get you gone, And let me hear of no complaint, At night when you come home. — 252 — Sweet Jesus went down to yonder town, As far as the Holy Well, And there did see as fine children As any tongue can tell. He said, God bless you every one, And your bodies Christ save and see ; Little children, shall I play with you, And you shall play with me ? But they made answer to him, No ! They were lords' and ladies' sons ; And He, the meanest of them all, A maiden's child, born in an oxen's stall. Sweet Jesus turned him around, And he neither laugh'd nor smil'd, But the tears came trickling from his eyes, Like water from the skies. Sweet Jesus turned him about, To his mother's dear home went he, And said, I have been in yonder town, As after you may see. I have been down in yonder town, As far as the Holy Well, And there did I meet as fine children As any tongue can tell. — 253 — I bid God bless them every one, And their bodies Christ save and see ; Little children, shall I play with you, And yon shall play with me ? But they made answer to me, No ! They were lords' and ladies' sons, And I, the meanest of them all, A maiden's child, born in an ox's stall. Though you are but a maiden's child, Born in an ox's stall, Thou art the Christ, the King of Heaven, And the Saviour of them all. Sweet Jesus go down to yonder town, As far as the Holy Well, And take away those sinful souls And dip them deep in hell. Nay, nay, sweet Jesus said, Nay, nay, that may not be, For there are too many sinful souls Crying out for the help of me. O then spoke the angel Gabriel, Upon one good Saint Stephen, Altho' you're but a maiden's child, You are the King of Heaven. 251 XXIII. *A-t VIRGIN most pure as the prophets do tell, J**» Hath brought forth a babe, as it hath befell, To be our Redeemer from death, hell, and sin, Which Adam's trangrcssion bad wrapt us all in. Rejoice and be you merry, set sorrow aside, Christ Jesus our Saviour was born on this tide. In Bethlehem city, in Jury it was, Where Joseph and Mary together did pass, And there to be taxed with many one more, For Caisar commanded the same should be so. Rejoice, &c. But when they had entered the city so far, The number of people so mighty was there, That Joseph and Mary whose substance was small, Could get in the city no lodging at all. Rejoice, &c Then they were constrained in a stable to lie, Where oxen and asses they used to tie ; Their lodging so simple, (hey held it no scorn, But against the next morning our Saviour was born. Rejoice, &c. — 255 — The King of all Glory to the world being brought, Small store of fine linen to wrap him was bought; When Mary had swaddled her young son so sweet, Within an ox manger, she laid him to sleep. Rejoice, &c. Then God sent an angel from heaven so high, To certain poor shepherds in fields whore they lie, And bid them no longer in sorrow to stay, Because that our Saviour was born on this day. Rejoice, &c. Then presently after the shepherds did spy A number of angels appear in the sky, Who joyfully talked and sweetly did sing, To God be all glory, our Heavenly King. Rejoice, &c Three certain wise princes, they thought it most meet, To lay their rich offerings at our Saviour's feet ; Then the shepherds consented and to Bethlehem did go, And when they came thither, they found it was so. Rejoice, &c. T 2Q\$p 256 XXIV. fH OD rest you, merry gentlemen, \j[ Let nothing you dismay, For Jesus Christ our Saviour Was born upon this day, To save us all from Satan's power When we were gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy, For Jesus Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day. In Bethlehem, in Jury, This blessed babe was born, And laid within a manger Upon this blessed morn ; The which his mother Mary Did nothing take in scorn. O tidings, &c. From God, our Heavenly Father, A blessed angel came, And unto certain shepherds Brought tidings of the same, That there was born in Bethlehem The Son of God by name. O tidings, &c. — 257 — Fear not then, said the Angel, Let nothing you affright, This day is born a Saviour Of a pure Virgin bright ; So frequently to vanquish all The friends of Satan quite. O tidings, &c. The shepherds at these tidings Rejoiced much in mind, And left their flocks a feeding In tempest, storm, and wind, And went to Bethlehem straightway, This blessed Babe to find. O tidings, &c. But when they came to Bethlehem, Where our dear Saviour lay, They found Him in a manger, Where oxen fed on hay; His mother, Mary, kneeling, Unto the Lord did pray. O tidings, &c. Now to the Lord sing praises All you within this place, And with true love and brotherhood Each other now embrace ; This holy tide of Christmas All others doth deface. O tidings, &c. 17 — 258 XXV. /lOD'S dear Sou without beginning, ^4 Whom the wicked Jews did scoru ; The only wise without all sinning On this blessed day was born. To save us all from sin and thrall, "When we in Satan's chains were bound, And shed his blood to do us good, With many a purple bleeding wound. At Bethlehem, king David's city, Mary's Babe had sweet creation, God and Man endu'd with pity, And a Saviour of each nation. Yet Jewry land with cruel hand, Both first and last his power envy'd ; Where He was born, they did Him scorn, And shew'd Him malice when He died. No princely palace for our Saviour, In Judea could be found, But blessed Mary's meek behaviour, Patiently upon the ground, Her babe did place in vile disgrace, Where oxen in their stalls did feed ; No midwife mild had this sweet Child, Nor woman's help at mother's need. — 259 — No kingly robes nor golden treasure Deck'd the birth-day of God's Son ; No pompal train at all took pleasure To this King of kings to run. No mantle brave could Jesus have, Upon His cradle for to lye ; No musick's charms in nurse's arms, To sing the Babe a lullaby. Yet as Mary sat in solace, By our Saviour's first beginning, Hosts of angels from God's palace Sounded sweet from Heaven singing ; Yea, heaven and earth, for Jesus' birth, With sweet melodious tunes abound, And every thing for Jewry's King, Upon the earth gave chearful sound. Then with angel's love inspired, The wise princes from the East, To Bethlehem as they desired, Came whereas the Lord did rest : And there they laid before the maid, Before her Son, our God and King, Their offerings sweet, as was most meet, Unto so great a power to bring. Now to Him that us redeemed, By His precious death and passion ; And us sinners so esteemed To buy us dearly thus salvation ; — 260 — Yield lasting fame that still the name Of Jesus may be honored here ; And let us say that Christmas Day Is still the best day in the year. XXVI. I SAW three ships come sailing in On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; I saw three ships come sailing in On Christmas Day in the morning. And what was in those ships all three, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day? And what was in those ships all three, On Christmas Day in the morning ? Our Saviour Christ and his lady, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; Our Saviour Christ and his lady, On Christmas Day in the morning. Pray whither sailed those ships all three, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; Pray whither sailed those ships all three, On Christmas Day in the morning. O, they sailed into Bethlehem, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; O, they sailed into Bethlehem, On Christmas Day in the morning. — 261 — And all the bells on earth shall ring, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; And all the bells on earth shall ring, On Christmas Day in the morning. And all the angels in Heaven shall sing, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; And all the angels in Heaven shall sing, On Christmas Day in the morning. And all the souls on earth shall sing, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; And all the souls on earth shall sing, On Christmas Day in the morning. Then let us all rejoice amain, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; Then let us all rejoice amain, On Christmas Day in the morning. XXVII. 'HE first nowell the angel did say Was to three poor shepherds in the fields as they lay; In fields where they lay keeping their sheep, In a cold winter's night that was so deep. Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell, Born is the King of Israel. — 263— i They looked up and saw a star Shining in the east, beyond them far, And to the earth it gave great light, And so it continued both day and night. i Nowcll, &c. And by the light of that same star, Three wise men came from country far ; To seek for a King was their intent, ! And to follow the star wherever it went. Nowcll, &C. This star drew nigh to the north-west, O'er Bethlehem it took its rest, And there it did both stop and stay Right over the place where Jesus lay. Nowcll, &c. Then did they know assuredly Within that house the King did lie ; One entered in then for to sec, And found the Babe in poverty. Nowcll, &c. Then enter'd in those wise men three, Most reverently upon their knee, And oflcr'd there, in His presence, Both gold, and myrrh, and frankincense. Nowcll, &c. — 263 — Between an ox -stall and an ass, This child truly there born He was ; For want of clothing they did Him lay All in the manger, among the hay. Now ell, &c. Then let us all, with one accord, Sing praises to our Heavenly Lord, That hath made Heaven and earth of nought, And with His blood mankind hath bought. No well, &c. If we in our time shall do well, We shall be free from death and hell ; For God hath prepared for us all A resting-place in general. Nowell, &c. XXVIII. 'HE Lord at first had Adam made Out of the dust and clay, And in his nostrils breathed life, E'en as the Scriptures say j And then in Eden's Paradise He placed him to dwell, That he within it should remain, To dress and keep it well. Now let good Christians all begin An holy life to live, And to rejoice and merry be, For this is Christmas Eve. — 264 — And thus within the garden he Commanded was to stay ; And unto him in commandment These words the Lord did say : " The fruit that in the garden grows To thee shall be for meat, Except the tree in the midst thereof, Of which thou shalt not eat. Now let good, &c. For in that day thou dost it touch, Or dost it then come nigh, And if that thou dost eat thereof, Then thou shalt surely die." But Adam he did take no heed To that same only thing, But did transgress God's holy laws, And sore was wrapp'd in sin. Now let good, &c. Now mark the goodness of the Lord, Which He to mankind bore ; His mercy soon he did extend Lost man for to restore ; And then, for to redeem our souls From death, and hell, and thrall, He said his own dear Son should come The Saviour of us all. Now let good, &c. — 265 — Which promise now is brought to pass, Christians believe it well, And by the coming of God's Son, We are redeem' d from hell. And if we truly do believe, And do the thing that's right, Then by His merits we at last Shall live in Heaven bright. Now let good, &c. Now, for the benefits that we Enjoy from Heaven above, Let us renounce all wickedness, And live in perfect love. Then shall we do Christ's own command, Even his written word ; And when we die, in Heaven we shall Enjoy our living Lord. Now let good, &c. And now the tide is nigh at hand, In which our Saviour came ; Let us rejoice and merry be, In keeping of the same. Let's feed the poor and hungry sort, And such as do it crave ; And when we die, in Heaven be sure Our reward we shall have. Now let good, &c. 266 — XXIX. |0-MORROW 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, oh ! my love, oh ! my love, my love, my love ; This have I done for my true love. Then was I born of a virgin pure, Of her I took fleshly substance ; Thus was I knit to man's nature, To call my true love to my dance. Sing, oh ! &c. In a manger laid and wrapped 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, oh ! &c. Then afterwards baptized I was, The Holy Ghost on me did glance, My Father's voice heard from above, To call my true love to my dance. Sing, oh ! &c. — 267 — Into the desert I was led, Where I fasted without substance ; The Devil bade me make stones my bread, To have me break my true love's dance. Sing, oh ! &c. The Jews on me they made great suit, And with me made great variance, Because they lov'd darkness rather than light, To call my true love to my dance. Sing, oh ! &c. For thirty pence Judas me sold, His covetousness for to advance ; Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold, The same is he shall lead the dance. Sing, oh ! &c. Before Pilate the Jews me brought, Where Barabbas had deliverance, They scourg'd me and set me at nought, Judged me to die to lead the dance. Sing, oh ! &c. Then on the cross hanged 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, oh ! &c. — 268 — 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, oh ! &c. Then up to Heaven I did ascend, Where now I dwell in sure substance, On the right hand of God, that man May come unto the general dance. Sing, oh ! &c. XXX. e |ffiOW when Joseph and Mary C"* Were to Bethlehem bound, They with travelling were weary, Yet no lodging they found In the city of David, Tho* they sought o'er all ; They, alas ! could not have it, But in an oxes stall. The place was no braver But as mean as might be, Our Redeemer and Saviour, The great King of Glory, — 269 — Then the sweet Babe of Heaven Was born there we find, Whose sweet life was once given For the sins of mankind. Whilst the shepherds were feeding Of their flocks in the fields, The birth of our Saviour Unto them was revealed ; Many angels assembling, In their glory appeared, Whilst the shepherds were trembling, Being smitten with fear. O forbear to be fearful, We have reason to sing ; Then rejoice and be chearful, We glad tidings do bring : There is born in the city Of David, therefore, Such a Saviour of pity, Whom we all do adore. He's the Prince of Salvation, Then be not afraid, And with this salutation To the shepherds they said, Be no longer a stranger, For in mean swadling clothes He is laid in a manger ; Then the shepherds arose. — 270 — Being resolved together They to Bethlehem go, And when they came thither They found it was so ; They with duty adore him, Coming where he was laid — Strait they fell down before him, This obedience they made. Nay, the wise men, whose prudence Had discovered the star, Came to pay their obedience When they travell'd from far ; Bringing with them the choicest That their land did afford, Of gold, myrrh, and spices, To present to the Lord. Their example engages Every Christian to be, Ever since in all ages, Both noble and free ; Then rejoice and be merry, In a moderate way, Never, never be weary, To honour this day. Which afforded a blessing To the race of mankind, Far beyond all expressing Therefore let us mind ; — 271 — Whilst on earth he was dwelling, He was still doing good, Nay, his love more excelling, For he shed his own blood. To redeem us and save us From the guilt of our sins, For His love he would have us A new life to begin ; Then remember the season, Be you kind to the poor, It's no more than is reason, We have blessings in store. XXXI. 'HIS new Christmas carol, let us cheerfully sing, To the honor and glory of our Heavenly King ; Who was born of a virgin, blessed Mary by name, For poor sinners' redemption, to the world here He came. The mighty Jehovah, by the prophets foretold, That the sweet Babe of Heaven mortal eyes should behold; Both King, Prince, and Prophet, nay, our Saviour beside, Let His name through all ages be ever glorified. — 272 — Now, when Joseph and Mary was espoused, we find, Having seen her condition, he was grieved in mind ; Aye, and thought to dismiss her, whom he loved so dear, But an angel from Heaven did her innocence clear. He declared in a vision, that a Son she should have, By the Father appointed, fallen mortals to save ; And the same should be called blessed Jesus by name, From the high court of Heaven this Ambassador came. Then the righteous man, Joseph, believed the news, And the sweet Virgin Mary he did no wise refuse ; Thus the blest amongst women, did bear and bring forth A sweet Prince of Salvation, both in Heaven and Earth. When the days of her travail did begin to draw nigh, Righteous Joseph and Mary went immediately To the city of David, to be taxed indeed, E'en as Caesar Augustus had firmly decreed. Being come to the city, entertainment they crave, But the inns were so filled they no lodging could have, For the birth of our Saviour, though he was Prince of all, He could have there no place but a poor oxes stall. Now the proud may come hither, and perfectly see, The most excellent pattern of humility ; For, instead of a cradle, deckt with ornaments gay, Here, the great King of Glory, in a manger He lay. — 273 — As the shepherds were feeding their flocks in the field, The sweet birth of our Saviour unto them was revealed, By blest angels of glory, who those tidings did bring, And directed the shepherds to their heavenly King. When the wise men discover' d the bright heavenly star, Then with gold and rich spices, straight they came from afar, In obedience to worship with a heavenly mind, Knowing that He was born for the good of mankind. Let us learn of those sages, who were wise, to obey ; Nay, we find through all ages they have honoured this day, Ever since our Redeemer's bless' d nativity, Who was born of a virgin to set sinners free. XXXII. ^nnf HEN Caesar did the sceptre sway, \AH Of Roman state God's word did say, That all the world should out of hand, Be taxed by his great command, Noel, noel, we may rejoice To hear the angel Gabriel's voice — Noel, noel. In David's city, in Bethlehem, Great store of people thither came, According to the king's decree, In Jury land taxed to be. Noel, noel, &c. 18 — 274 — Then Joseph with his virgin bright, Came with the rest at that same tide, And their substance being but small, Could get in the inn no lodging at all. Noel, noel, &c. At length a stable room they had, In which the virgin was full glad ; And in that stable so forlorn The world's Redeemer there was born. Noel, &o. No palace nor a costly inn Was found to put our Saviour in j No costly robes of silver and gold, To wrap Him in as reason would. Noel, &c. No music nor sweet melody, But glorious angels from on high, Declare to shepherds where they lay, That Jesus Christ was born this day. Noel, &c. Thus Jesus Christ, in humble wise, Appeared thus to human eyes ; Then may we all both more and less Cast off the bands of wickedness. Noel, &c. — 275 — Let variance, strife, and all debate, 'Twixt neighbours iioav be out of date, That peace may spread throughout earth then, There shall be good will with men. Noel, &c. Rejoice, rejoice, in sober wise, And praise the Lord who rules the skies, Who for our sakes thought it no scorn To give command now Christ is born. Noel, &c. XXXIII. fVAINT Stephen was an holy man, ff Endued with heavenly might, And many wonders he did work Before the people's sight. And by the blessed Spirit of God, Which did his heart inflame, He spared not in every place To preach Christ Jesus' name. O man, do never faint nor fear, When God the truth shall try, But mark how Stephen for Christ's sake Was willing for to die. 276 Which doctrine seem'd most wond'rous strange Among the faithless Jews, And for the same despitefully Good Stephen they accused. Before the elders was he brought His answer for to make,, But they could not his spirit withstand, Whereby this man did speak. O man, &c. And then false witness did appear, And looked him in the face, And said he spake blasphemous words Against that holy place ; And how he said that Jesus Christ The temple would destroy, And change the laws which they so long From Moses did enjoy. O man, &c. Whilst this was told, the multitude Beholding him aright, His comely face began to shine Most like an angel bright. The high priest then to them did say, And bid them tell at large, If this was true, which at that time They laid unto his charge. O man, &c. — 277 — Then Stephen did put forth his voice, And he did first unfold The wond'rous works that God hath wrought, Even from their fathers old ; That they thereby might plain perceive Christ Jesus should be he, That from the burthen of the law Should save us frank and free. O man, &c. But, oh ! quoth he, you wicked men, Which of the prophets all Did not your fathers persecute And keep in woeful thrall ; Who told the coming of the just In prophecies most plain ; Who here amongst you was betrayed And most unjustly slain? O man, &c. But when they heard him so to say, Their hearts in sunder clave, And gnashing on him with their teeth, Like mad men they did rave ; And with a shout most loud and shrill, Upon him they all ran, And then without the city gates They ston'd this holy man. O man, &c. — 278 — Then he most meekly on his knees, To God did pray at large, Desiring that He would not lay This sin unto their charge ; Then yielding up his soul to God, Who had it dearly bought, He lost his life, whose body then To grave was seemly brought. O man, &c. XXXIV. ^■•ARK ! the herald Angels sing, •*•/ Glory to the new-born King ; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinner reconcil'd. Hark ! the herald angels sing, Glory to the new-born King. Joyfull all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies, With the angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark ! the herald, &c. Christ by highest Heaven ador'd, Christ the everlasting Lord ! Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin's womb. Hark ! the herald, &c. — 279 — Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace ! Hail the Snn of Righteousness ! Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing on His wings. Hark ! the herald, &c. Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth. Hark ! the herald, &c. XXXV. Su l'ar "Ma Meee makiez-moi." •■£ UILLO, pran ton tamborin \If Toi, pran tai fleute, Robin. Au son de ces instruman, Turelurelu, patapatapan j Au son de ces instruman Je diron Noei gaiman. C eto lai mode autrefoi De loiie le Roi de Roi, Au son de ces instruman, Turelurelu, patapatapan ; Au son de ces instruman, Ai nos an fau faire autan. — 280 — Ce jor le Diale at ai cu, Randons an graice ai Jesu, Au son de ces instruman, Turelurelu,, patapatapan, Au son de ces instruman, Fezon lai nique ai Satan. L'homme & Dei son pu d'aicor Que lai neiite & le tambor. Au son de ces instruman, Turelurelu, patapatapan, Au son de ces instruman, Chanton, danson, sautons-an. XXXVI. Per le jour des Keys. Un Pastou ben de Hierusalem Sf dits a sons Coumpaignons. S^%E noubelos Efans, en benen de la bilo 4r^ E' bist passa tres Reys d'uno faysso gentilo, E' demandon per tout l'hostalet benazit Que le Rcy d' Israel per palays a cauzit. Qualqu'un a decelat que porton per estrenos, Tres Brustietos d'Enccns, d'Or, e de Myrro plenos Que li ban humblomen ufri, digomendiu, Que confesson deja qu'cl cs Rey, home, Diu. — 281 — Elis parlon sampa de TEfantet aymable Que nous aus P autre jour troubeguen a Testable, A qui Peyret dounec un Aignelet pla fayt, E' jou sense reprochi, un picbarrou de layt. Posco dounc oiiey metis uno ta belo troupo Hurousomen trouba le bel efan de poupo, Mentre que de nous aus quadun le pregara De nous salba Y esprit quand le cos mourira. XXXVII. 'RES Rei de 1'Orian Son conduit per un Astro Ver lou nouvel Enfan, Qu'an adoura lei Pastre Venouen sensen Creigne aucu desastre, L'Astre avancen S'arreste en Bethlehem. S'isten, vount 'ei PEnfan, Fixa Pastre admirable, Intron dessu lou chan, Trouvon Jesus aim able. Dcscouvron qu'ei Lou sul Dieou veritable, Qu'es hommc, & rei ; Chacun lou recounei. — 282 — A ginoux, a sei pe Entoura de sei page Em'un profond respe, Liaguen fa seis houmage Lisfron perlor Aquelei pious mage De sei tresor L'encen, la mirrhe, & Tor. Fasen nostei presen A Jesus, qui nous amou, Oufren li nostei ben, Nostei cor, nosteis amou. Enfan tan doux, Yost' amour nous enflamou, Nou charma tous ; Voulen ama que vous. XXXVIII. Sur un chant joyeux. jf\ UAND Dieu naquit a Noel VIJ Dedans la Judee, On vit ce jour solemnel La joie inondee ; Se n'etoit ni petit ni grand Qui n'apportat son present, Et n'o, n'o, n'o, n'o, Et n'offrit, frit, frit, Et n'o, n'o, & n'offrit, Et n'offrit sans cessc Toute sa richessc. — 283 — L'un apportoit un agneau Avec un grand zele, L' autre un peu de lait nouveau Dedans une ecuelle; Tel, sous ses pauvres habits, Cachoit un peu de pain bis, Pour la, la, la, la, Pour la, sain, sain, sain, Pour la, la, pour la sain, Pour la Ste Vierge et Joseph Concierge. Ce bon Pere putatif De Jesus mon Maitre, Que le pasteur plus chetif Desiroit connaitre, D'un air obligeant & doux, Recevoit les dons, de tous, Sans ce, ce, ce, ce, Sans cere, re, re, Sans ce, ce, sans cere, Sans ceremonie, Pour le fruit de vie. II ne fut pas jusqu' aux Rois Du rivage Maure, Qui joint au nombre de trois, Ne vinssent encore ; Ces bons Princes d' Orient. Offrirent en le priant, I/en, Fen, Pen, Fen, Fen, Cens, cens, cens, cens, cens, L'en, Fen, Fen, cens, cens, cens, L'encens & la myrrhe et For qu^on admire. — 284 — Quoiqu'il n'en eut pas besom, Jesus notre Maitre, II en prit avecque soin Pour faire connoitre Qu'il avoit les qualites Par ces dons representees, : D'un vrai, vrai, vrai, vrai, D'un Roi, Roi, Roi, Roi, D'un vrai, vrai, d'un Roi, Roi, D'un vrai, Roi de Gloire en qui Pon doit croire. Plaise a ce divin Enfant Nous faire la grace, Dans son sejour triomphant D' avoir une place ; Si nous y sommes jamais, Nous gouterons une paix De Ion, Ion, Ion, Ion, De gue, gue, gue, gue, De Ion, Ion, de gue, gue, De longue duree dans cet empiree. XXXIX. Sur l'air " Vek lou Pottrtaou San-Laze." EO N de la gran carricrc, Vcr lou Pourtaou-Limber, Ay vis pareisse en l'air Un Ange de lumiere, Cridavou de per- tout, Bergie*, reveillas-vous. — 285 — Ere su ma mounture, D'abord sieou descendu, Et m^a dit, beou Moussu, Ay, la belle aventure, Es na lou Fis de Dieou, Toun Mestre amay lou mieou. Foou quitta ta famille, Vay-t'en en Bethelem, Trouvaras Plnoucen A cent pas de la ville, Portou-ye quaouquouren, Es lougea paouramen. Ay poursui moun vouyage, Ay vis veni de gen, Qu'eroun touteis ensen, Em'un grand equipage, Erou tres gran Seignour, Erne toutou sa cour. Chascun avie sei Page, Erne sei Gardou- cor, Me sieou pensa d'abor, Qu'eroun leis tres Rei Mage, Que venien adoura Lou gran Rei nouveou na. — 286 — Me sieou mes a n'un cay re, Per lei leissa passa, Et puis ay demanda A seis homes d'affayre, Si van en Bethelem Veire lou Dieou neissen. Ya un d'aquelei Garde Que ma brutalisa, Su lou cham m J a douna Un bon co d'halabarde Si m'espouffesse pa, Me venie may pi qua. Yeou ay suivi la foulou, Sen me descouragea, La doulour m'a passa, Ou bout d'une miechourou, Sieou ana erne lou trin Jusquo ver lou Douphin. Avien de dromadairou, Quantita de charrios, Et de cameou fort gros, La suite erou fort bcllou, Jamay yeou n'ay ren vi Erne tant de plesi. & — 287 — Un astre lei guidave, Plus brillan qu'un souleou, Jamay ren de tant beou, Tout lou mounde badave : Lou tern m'a ren dura, Tant ere esmerveilla. Apres dex jour de marche, L'astre s'es arrest a Sur un lio tout trouca, Ben plus precioux que FArche, Aqui lou Tout-puissan Parci coum'un enfan. XL. Siir l'ayre, " Quand je me lete le matin. 'AN mil sies cens quaranto cine, Repassen per nostro memorio, Coussi Jousep en paure trine Acoumpaignee le Rev de Glorio, Quand demourabo dins les rens De Mario la piucelo prens. Jousep e Mario maridats En Bethlehen sen ban amaco, Nou soun pas fort amounedats. Mes be soun de Rouyalo raco, E Pefan es Rev dins les rens, De Mario la piucelo prens. — 288 — Sense gran argen al paquet N'an pas un trine de grand parado, Non menoun que le bourriquet Dambe le bioon soun camarado, Diu mentretan es dins les rens, De Mario la piucelo prens. Aprep un penible cami Sant Jousep e la santo mero, Que nou saben pas oun dourmi, Ban beilba dins uno feignero, Oun l'efan que Diu sort des rens Nou laysso plus sa mero prens. Aqui la paillo lour fa lieyt Sense cousseno ni courtino, Oun las estelos de la neyt Bezen ajayre lour Regino, E' naysse Fefan de sous rens Piucelo toutjour e nou prens. XLI. •jT ANTAN po no rue, C* Passai le menetrei, Acoute come ai jue. Su los hauboi de noci ; No devan le feu Po le meii, Chantons an jeusqu'ai mencu. — 289 — An De9anbre on trezenle, De noei to le jor ; De chantre fot-an-gueule, An antone e carrefor ; No devan le feu, &c. Le borgei dan lai grainge You gmllo le Popon, Cliantire ai sai louainge De noei de to le ton ; No devan le fen, &c. Le bone jan disire De noei be devo, Ma qnant ai le chantire, Ai n'aivein pa le pie chan ; No devan le fen, &c. Dans lo froide chambrote, Le none an ce sain moi, Faute d' autre emusote, Chante noei queiqne foi j No devan, &c. Le prove laivandeire, Au son de lo rullo, An chante ai lai riveire, Lai tete au van, le pie mo ! No devan, &c. 1!) — 290 — Qui montre au feu se cueiisse Trepille de chantai, Qui sofle dan se peiice, Nan di pa noei si gai' ; No devan, &c. XLII. I HEAR along our street Pass the minstrel throngs : Hark ! they play so sweet, On their hautboys, Christmas songs ! Let us by the fire Ever higher Sing them till the night expire ! In December ring, Every day the chimes ; Loud the gleemen sing, Tn the streets, their merry rhymes. Let us, &c. Shepherds at the grange, Where the Babe was born, Sang with many a change, Christmas carol s until morn. Let us, &c. — 291 — These good people sang, Songs devout and sweet, While the rafters rang, There they stood with freezing feet. Let us, &c. Nuns in frigid cells, At this holy tide, For want of something else, Christmas songs at times have tried. Let us, &c. Washerwomen old, To the sound they beat, Sing by rivers cold, With uncovered heads and feet. Let us, &c. Who by the fireside stands, Stamps his feet and sings ; But he who blows his hands, Not so gay a carol brings. Let us by the fire Ever higher Sing them till the night expire. 292 Act I. — Scene I. Enter Alexander. — Alexander speaks. {SILENCE, brave gentlemen ; if you will give me an eye, ff Alexander is my name, I'll sing the Tragedy ; A ramble here I took, the country for to see, Three actors here I've brought so far from Italy ; The first I do present, he is a noble king, He's just come from the wars, good tidings he doth bring ; The next that doth come in, he is a docter good, Had it not been for him, I'd surely lost my blood : Old Dives is the next, a miser you may see, Who, by lending of his gold, is come to poverty. So, gentlemen, you see four actors will go round ; Stand off a little while, more pastime shall be found. [Exeunt. Act I. — Scene II. Enter Actors. Room, room, brave gallants, give us room to sport, For in this room we have a mind to resort — Resort, and to repeat to you our merry rhyme, For remember, good sirs, this is Christmas time ; The time to cut up goose pics now doth appear, So we are come to act our merry mirth here : — 293 — At the sounding of the trumpet, and beating of the drum, Make room, brave gentlemen, and let our actors come. We are the merry actors that traverses the street j We are the merry actors that fight for our meat ; We are the merry actors that show the pleasant play : Step in, thou king of Egypt, and clear the way. [appear, King of Egypt. I am the king of Egypt, as plainly doth And Prince George he is my only son and heir : Step in, therefore, my son, and act thy part with me, And shew forth thy praise before the company. [bold, Prince George. I am Prince George, a champion brave and For with my spear I've won three crowns of gold ; 'Twas I that brought the Dragon to the slaughter, And I that gain'd the Egyptian monarch's daughter. In Egypt's fields I prisoner long was kept, But by my valour I from them soon 'scap'd : I sounded at the gates of a divine, And out came a giant of no good design ; He gave me a blow, which almost struck me dead, But I up with my sword, and did cut off his head. Alexander. Hold, Stacker, hold, pray do not be so hot, For on this spot thou knowest not who thou's got ; "lis I that's to hash thee and smash thee as small as flies, And lend thee to Satan to make minch pies : Minch pies hot, minch pies cold — I'll send thee to Satan ere thou be three days' old. But, hold, Prince George, before thou go away, Either thou or I must die this bloody day ; Some mortal wounds thou shalt receive by me, So let us fight it out most manfully. [Exeunt. — 294 Act II. — Scene I. Alexander and Prince George fight : the tatter is wounded, and falls. King of Egypt speaks. Curs'd Christian, what is this thou hast done ? Thou hast ruined me by killing my best son. Alex. He gave me a challenge — why should I him deny ? How high he was, but see how low he lies ! K. of Egypt. O Sambo ! Sambo ! help me now, For I never was in more need ; For thou to stand with sword in hand, And to fight at my command. Doct. Yes, my liege, I will thee obey, And by my sword I hope to win the day : Yonder stands he who has kilPd my master's son ; I'll see if he be sprung from royal blood, And through his body make an ocean flood. Gentleman, you see my sword-point is broke, Or else I'd run it down that villain's throat. K. of Egypt. Is there never a doctor to be found, That can cure my son of his deadly wound? Doct. Yes, there is a doctor to be found, That can cure your son of his deadly wound. K. of Egypt. "What diseases can he cure? Doct. All diseases, both within and without, Especially the itch, . . . ., palsy, and the gout ; Come in, you ugly, nasty, dirty . . . ., Whose age is threescore years or more, 295 Whose nose and face stands all awry, Fll make her very fitting to pass by. I'll give a coward a heart, if he be willing, Will make him stand without fear of killing. And any man that's got a scolding spouse, That wearies him with living in his house, I'll ease him of his complaint, and make her civil, Or else will send her headlong to the devil. Ribs, legs, or arms, when any's broke, I'm sure I presently of them will make a cure ; Nay, more than this by far, I will maintain, If you should break your neck, I'll cur't again. So here's a doctor rare, who travels much at home, Here take my pills, I cure all ills, past, present, and to come I in my time many thousands have directed, And likewise have as many more dissected. To cure the love-sick maid, like me there's none, For with two of my pills the job I've done ; I take her home, and rubs her o'er and o'er, Then if she dies ne'er believe me more. To cure your son, good sir, I do fear not, With this small bottle, which by me I've got. The balsam is the best which it contains, Rise up, my good Prince George, and fight again. [Exeunt. 296 Act II. — Scene II. Prince George arises. — Prince George speaks. O, horrible ! terrible ! the like was never seen — A man drove ont of seven senses into fifteen ; And out of fifteen into fourscore ! O, horrible ! terrible ! the like was ne'er before. [stranger. Alex. Thou silly ass, that lives by grass, dost thou abuse a I live in hopes to buy new ropes, and tie thy nose to the Pr. Geo. Sir, unto you I bend. [manger. Alex. Stand off, thou slave, I think thee not my friend. Pr. Geo. A slave, sir ! that is for me by far too base a That word deserves to stab thy honour's fame. [name, Alex. To be stab'd, sir, is the least of all my care, Appoint your time and place, I'll meet you there. Pr. Geo. I'll cross the water at the hour of five. Alex. I'll meet you there, sir, if I be alive. [and young, Pr. Geo. But stop, sir, — I'd wish you to a wife, both lusty She can talk both Dutch, French, and the Italian tongue. Alex. I'll have none such. Pr. Geo. Why, don't you love your learning? Alex. Yes, I love my learning as I do my life, I love a learned scholar, but not a learned wife, Stand off, had I as many hussians, shusians, chairs, and stools, As you have had sweethearts, boys, girls, and fools; I love a woman, and a woman loves me, And when I want a fool I'll send for thee. — 297 — K. of Egypt. Sir, to express thy beauty, I am not able, For thy face shines like a very kitchen table ; Thy teeth are no whiter than the charcoal, And thy breath stinks like the ! Alex. Stand off, thou dirty dog, for by my sword thou's die, Fll make thy body full of holes, and cause thy buttons flie. [Exeunt. Act. III. — Scene I. King of Egypt fights, and is killed. Enter Prince George. Oh ! what is here ? Oh ! what is to be done ? Our king is slain, the crown is likewise gone ; Take up the body, bear it hence away, For in this place no longer shall it stay. The Conclusion. Bounser Buckler, velvet's dear, And Christmas comes but once a year, Though when it comes, it brings good cheer, But farewell Christmas once a year. Farewell, farewell, adieu ! friendship and unity, I hope we have made sport, and pleas' d the company ; But, gentlemen, you see, we're but young actors four, We've done the best we can, and the best can do no more. 18 — Cfjristmag Pag of £>L ffieorge anti fyt ©ragon, AS REPRESENTED IN THE WEST OF ENGLAND Enter Father Christmas. T^fERE come I, old Father Christmas, ■*•£ Welcome, or welcome not, I hope old Father Christmas Will never be forgot. I am not come here for to laugh or to jeer, But for a pocketfull of money, and a skillfull of beer ; To show some sport and pastime, Gentlemen and ladies in the Christmas time. If you will not believe what I do say, Come in the Turkish Knight — clear the way. Enter the Turkish Knight. Open your doors, and let me in, I hope your favors I shall win ; Whether 1 rise, or whether I fall, Fll do my best to please you all. St. George is here, and swears he will come in, And if he docs, I know he'll pierce my skin. [f you will not believe what I do say. Come in the King of Egypt — clear the way. — 299 — Enter the King of Egypt. Here I, the King of Egypt, boldly do appear, St. George, St. George, walk in, my son and heir. Walk in, my son St. George, and boldly act thy part, That all the people here may see thy wondrous art. Enter Saint George. Here come I, St. George, from Britain did I spring, I'll fight the Dragon bold, my wonders to begin. I'll clip his wings, he shall not fly ; I'll cut him down, or else I die. Enter the Dragon. Who's he that seeks the Dragon's blood, And calls so angry, and so loud? That English dog, will he before me stand ? I'll cut him down with my courageous hand. With my long teeth, and scurvy jaw, Of such I'd break up half a score, And stay my stomach, till I'd more. [St. George and the Dragon fight : the latter is killed.] Father Christmas. Is there a doctor to be found All ready, near at hand, To cure a deep and deadly wound, And make the champion stand? Enter Doctor. Oh ! yes, there is a doctor to be found All ready, near at hand, To cure a deep and deadly wound, And make the champion stand. — 300 — Fa. Chr. What can you cure ? Doct. All sorts of diseases, Whatever you pleases, The phthisic, the palsy, and the gout ; Whatever disorder, Til soon pull him out. Fa. Chr. What is your fee ? Doct. Fifteen pounds, it is my fee, The money to lay down ; But as 'tis such a rogue as he, I'll cure him for ten pound. I have a little bottle of Elicumpane, Here, Jack, take a little of my flip-flop, Pour it down thy tip -top : Rise up, and fight again. [The Doctor gives his medicine : St. George and the Dragon again fight, and the latter is again killed.'] St. George. Here am I, St. George, that worthy champion bold, And with my sword and spear I've won three crowns of gold : I fought the fiery dragon, and brought him to the slaughter ; By that I've won fair Sabra, the King of Egypt's daughter. The Turkish Knight advances. Here come I, the Turkish Knight, Come from the Turkish land to fight. I'll fight St. George, avIlo is my foe, I'll make him yield before I go : He brags to such a high degree, He thinks there's none can do the like of he. — 301 — St. George. Where is the Turk that will before me stand ? I'll cut him down with my courageous hand. [They fight : the Knight is overcome, and falls on one knee, saying — Oh ! pardon me, St. George, pardon of thee 1 crave, Oh ! pardon me this night, and 1 will be thy slave. St. George. I'll never pardon a Turkish Knight ; So rise thee up again, and try thy might. [They fight again, when the Knight is killed, and a scene with Father Christmas and the Doctor occurs as before, and the Knight is cured. The Doctor then, according to the stage direction, has a basin of girdy grout given him, and a kick, and is driven out. Sometimes the Giant Turpin is introduced, but his part is little more than a repetition of the Turkish Knight. If there is a fair Sabra, she is generally a mute, and now comes for- ward to Saint George.] Father Christmas. Now ladies and gentlemen, your sport is just ended, So prepare for the box, which is highly commended. The box it would speak, if it had but a tongue : Come, throw in your money, and think it no wrong. — 303 — INDEX TO CAROLS. I had hoped to have inserted a Carol by the Rev. R. S. Hawker, of Moorwen- *tow, Cornwall, but it was previously engaged for the Christmas number of ' Household Words.' I must, however, take the opport unity of correcting a mistake in ' Trenoodle's Specimens of Cornish Dialect,' where the song of ' The Trelawney Rising' is treated as an old ballad. This spirited composi- tion is the production of Mr. Hawker. No. PAGE 1. Seignors, ore entendez a nus .... . 215 From Douce's Illustration of Shakespeare (MS. Reg. 16. E. viii, 13 th century. 2. Lordings, from a distant home . 217 Translation of the same, from Douce's Illustrations. 3. \Telcii ^ole in good array .... . 218 Douce MS., 302. loth century. 4. Holy stond in be hall fayre to behold . 219 Harln. MS., 5396. Temp. Hen. 6. 5. Now ys Crystemas y-cum .... Wright's Carols (Harln. MS., 541. Temp. Hen. 7-) . 220 6. The borys hede, that we bryng here . . 223 7. I am here, syre Crist smasse . . 224 Both from Additional MS., 5065. Temp. Hen B 8. A bonne G-od wote ! . . 224 Wright's Carols, Cotton. MS., Vespasian, A, xxv. 9. A Babe is born al of a may .... . 226 The same, Sloane MS., 2593. 10. The fyrst day of 3ole have we in mynd . 227 11. Blyssid be that lady bryght .... . 228 *Both from Wright's Songs and Carols. 12. Hey, hey, hey, hey, the borrys hede is armyd gay Wright's Carols. . 230 13. The bore's heed in hand bring I . . 231 Ritson's Ancient Songs. 14. In Betheleem, that noble place . 232 Bibliographical Miscellanies (Kele's Christmas Carolles.) 15. All vou that in this house be here . 233 Wright's Carols (New Carols, 1661). I — 304 — PAGE 16. Kemember, thou man, thou man ! Melismata, 1611. . 235 17. Jesus Christ of Nazareth .... Translated from Hoffman's Horse Belgicae, part 2, p. 16. . 237 18. "What is that which is but one ? . 238 19. Joseph was an old man, and an old man was he . 241 20. A child tins day is born .... . 242 21. As I passed by a river side .... . 246 22. As it fell out one May morning . 251 23. A Virgin most pure, as the prophets do tell . . 254 24. God rest you, merry gentlemen . 256 25. God's dear Son without beginning . 258 26. I saw three ships come sailing in . 260 27 The first nowell the angel did say . 261 28. The Lord at first had Adam made . 263 29. To-morrow shall be my dancing day . . 266 30. Now when Joseph and Mary . 268 31. This new Christmas Carol, ' Let us cheerfully sing' . . 271 32. When Caesar did the sceptre sway . 273 33. Saint Stephen was a holy man . 275 34. Hark ! the herald angels sing . 278 This and the sixteen preceding are from manuscript copies, scve ral of which arc also printed as broadsides. 35. Guillo pran ton tamborin .... Noei Bourgignon. . 279 36. De noubelos Efans en benen do la bilo Recueil de Poetes Gascons, 1700. . 280 37. Tres Kei de l'Orian ..... Nouveaux Cantiques Spirituels Provcncaux, 1750. . 281 38. Quand Dieu naquit a Noel .... Noels Vieux & Nouveaux. . 282 39. Lon de la gran carriere .... Recueil de Noels Provcncaux, 1791. . 284 40. L'An mil sies cens quaranto cine ElecueO de Poetes Gascons. . 287 41. J'antan po no rue ..... Noei Bourgignon. . 288 42. I hear along the street .... Translation of No. 41, by Longfellow. . 290 Christmas Play of Alexander .... . 292 The like of St. George ..... . 298 — 305 — INDEX TO PRINCIPAL MATTERS. PAGE Ale Christmas, account of 35 Boar's head and brawn . 30, 32 Boy Bishop, referred to . 80 Carol singing . . 173 Carols, list of 207 Carol, Merry, tale of 185 Carol, Cherry Tree, account of 200 Carol singing in France 192 Christmas block . 113 Christmas boxes . 149 Christmas plays . 153 Christmas tree 151 Cross, account of 204 Epiphany, offerings on 37, 42, 55 Evergreens, practice of decorating with 11, 127 Feasts of fools and asses . . 13 Fools, domestic, referred to 124 Grray's Inn, Christmas feast 93 Gray's Inn, Serjeant Roe's play at 76 Inns of Court, revels 73 King of the bean . 39, 42, 164, 166 Lord of Misnile . 60, 86, 91, 121-2 Minced pies . 138 Misletoe .... . 12 Mysteries and miracle plays . 48 New year's gifts . . 37, 39, 42, * 17, 59, 78, 90, 99, 110, 123, 133, 143 Noel, description of term . 190 Pageants, revels, and mummings 40, 44, 48, 65-70, 86, 106 Pantomime, Christmas . 152 Star- song . 171 Temple Christmas feasts . 92, 122 Thirty pieces of silver, legend of . . 169 Tln-ee Kings, history of . . 159 20 306 — Turkeys at Christmas .... . 112 Twelfth cake ..... . 166 Twelfth Night— Epiphany . 164 Twelfth Night at sea . 132 Waits ...... . 83, 96, 116 Wassail bowl ..... 18, 55 Yule, explanation of 5 INDEX OF REFERENCES. To avoid encumbering the pages with 'foot-notes, all references requiring them have been omitted, but the principal works and passages referred to wit/ be found in this Index, excepting those that already appear in the bodg of the tvorJc. Many of the old Chronicles have been inspected for historical facts, but it has not been thought necessary to specify them, except in a few instances ; and where one is cited, the fact is frequently corroborated by two or three others. Hickes's 'Thesaurus,' vol. i, pp. 209-14, and Gebelin's 'Allegories Orientales,' contain a good deal of learning about Yule or G-ule, and the former as to midwinter. Du Cange's ' Glossary,' in voce Festum, gives many part iculars respecting the Feasts of Asses and Fools. The Wardrobe Accounts, temp. Edw. First, have entries connected with that time ; and Mr. Collier's ' Annals of the Stage, and History of Dramatic Poetry,' and the 'Account of Kevels,'by Mr. Peter Cunningham, both works containing much valuable information, the Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, of Henry the Eighth, and of the Princess Mary, the 'Northumberland Household Book,' and Nichols's' Progn— Queen Elizabeth and King James,' arc the authorities for many of the plays and masks, and the particulars of the accounts connected with them, and the New Year's Gifts from the time of Henry the Seventh to that of James tin' First; and many additional particulars may be found in them. Brady's ' Clavis Calendaria' contains much information respecting the early history of ( 'hri-tinas ; and Mosheim's 'Ecclesiastical History,' may also be consulted. Spehnan's ' Glossary,' voce Xenia, and Ijoulanger, TAntiqiute Devoilee,' iv, 16, 17, a work however not to be recommended, speak of the ancient New Year's < lift -. Madox's ' History of the Exchequer' states the movements of our early — 307 — nionarchs, mentioning for a long series of years where they kept their Chris t- masses ; and Turner's, Henry's, and Lingard's ' Histories of England,' and the ' Pictorial History,' may be referred to also, by those wishing to look further into the subject. Many facts taken from these books do not appear to require more than this general reference to them. TAGE LI.VE 3 29 Nehemiah, viii, 10. 15 31 Eabelais, vol. i, 478, n. ed. 1823. 20 22 Lingard's Hist. Eng. ed. 1837, vol. i, 259. 21 22 John of Bromton. Twysden, X Scriptores. 25 26 Archaeologia, vol. xi, 13 (from WilMns's Condi.). 27 26 Blount, Fragmenta Antiq., by Beckwith, 50. 30 13, 21 Madox's Hist. Exchequer, 258. 33 13 The Woman's Prize, Fletcher, iv, 2. 31 9 Hamlet i, 1. 36 18, 29 Bakers Cln-onicle, 82, 83. 37 31 Theatre Francais au moyen Age, 1812, p. 118. 38 20 Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda, 46. 39 21 Archaeologia, xxvi, 342. 10 21, 30 Axchaeologia, xxxi, 37, 38, -13, 122. 12 9 Cotton MS. Nero, C. viii. — 15 Petitot Memoires, 1st Ser. vi, 66. — 22 Monstrelet, ed. 1840, i, 153. 11 11 Warton, Hist, of Poetry, 8vo, ii, 71, 72. 15 — Henry V, i, 1. iO 24 Archaeologia, xxi, 66. Old Poem on Siege of Rouen. — 31 Petitot Memoires, 1st Ser. viii, 35. 17 26, 31 Excerpta Historica, 1 18, 150.— (Co1 ton MS. Cleopal ra, F. iv.) — 28 Proceedings of Privy Council, iii, 285. 48 4 Fairholt's History of Costume.— (Hurl. MS. 2278.) — 11 Proceedings of Privy Council, v, 114. — 14 Kymer's Fuedera, x, 387. — 30 Collier, Hist. Dram. Poetry, ii, 127. 50 17 King John, ii, 1. 51 28 Harl. MS. 5931. 52 3 Fabliaux et Contes du xii et xiii siecles, i, 32l», &c. 54 29 Additional MS. 6113. i — 308 — l\u;E LINE 55 25 Antiquarian Repertory, i, 328. 56 4 Hamlet, i, 4. — 7 Love's Labour Lost, v, 2. 57 31 Eitson's Ancient Songs, 304. (From New Clmstmas Carols.) 58 15 Midsummer Night's Dream, ii, 1. — 24 Herrick's Works, ii, 92. 59 25 Ordinances of Royal Household, 120. 61 14 Archseologia, xxv, 319-27. C>6 6 Hall's, Holinshed's, and Baker's Chronicles may be considted for this and most of the Christmas revels in the time of Henry VIII ; also Collier's Annals of the Stage, for many particulars of payments and gifts. 72 29 Henry VIII, i, 4. 76 18 Hall's Chronicle. 78 14 Ellis's Original Letters, i, 271.— (Cotton MS. Vespasian, F. xhi.) 79 16 Cotton MS. Appendix, xxviii. 80 27 Strata's Sports, &c. 305. " 81 8 Archseologia, xxv, 422. 82 4 Leland's Itinerary, iv, 182. 83 7 Camden's Remains, 262. — 18 Archaeological Journal, No. 4, 367. — 24 Kalendars of the Exchequer, i, 269. 89 10 Particulars of George Ferrer's Misrule will be found in Stow'fl Annals, Baker's Chronicle, Loseley MS. 45, &c. and Marilyn's Diary, L3,&c. 90 10 Loseley MS. 90. 91 17 Machyn's Diary, 162. 92 4 Machyn's Diary, 222. 93 19 Dugdale Origines Jurid. — 21 Account of Revels, 28. 95 — See Collier, i, 196, &c, for this page. 96 13 Lansdowne MS. 71. — 22 Ben Jonson's Conversations with Drummond, 23. ]()2 — See Archseologia, i, 9 j Ditto, xix, 292 ; Nichols's Progresses; Sloane MS. 4827; Ditto, 814, Additional MS. 5751;— for particulars of NVu War's GKfba in this and preceding pages. 103 r> Account of Bevels, 204. L08 L2, 22 Pictorial Eistorj of England, hi, ss. - — 309 — PAGE LINE 110 25 Nichols's Progresses, i, xl,». — 30 Account of Bevels, xi. Ill 30 Lansdowiie MS. 92. 112 26 Doblado's Letters. 113 17 Introduction to Canto 6, Marmion. — 28 Eonieo and Juliet, i, 4. 114- 4 Westward Ho, ii, 3. 115 6 Horace, lib. i, od. 9. — 19 Michaelmas Term, ii, 3. — 23 Promptorimn Parvulormn, 238. 116 2 Johnes's Translation, vol. hi, c. 7. — 16 Herrick's Works, h, 124. — 30 Witty Fair One, iv, 2. 118 27 Nichols's Illustrations of Manners and Expenses, 53. 121 25 Archseologia, xvih, 335. 122 6 Curiosities of Literature, iii, 269. 124 6 Hone's Every Day Book, i, 9. (Banquet of Jests, 1634.) 125 29 Petitot Memoires, 47, 101. 136 17 Percy's Reliques, ed. 1840, 169. — 28 Evans's Ballads, hi, 262. 137 15 Evans's Ballads, i, 146. 138 15 City Madam, ii, 1. 144 23 Roper's Life of Sir T. More, 73. 146 17 Cowley's Anacreontiques, No. 2. 147 9 Wine and Walnuts, ii, 157. — 30 New Year's Day, by Hartley Coleridge. 149 30 Brady Clavis Calendaria, ii, 316, 17. 154 20 In Wily Beguiled. 155 22 Collier's Annals of the Stage, i, 22. 157 18 Malcontent, by Marston, iv, 2. 158 — Dr. Macculloch's Proofs and IUustrations of the Attributes of God, i, 358, a work of remarkable learning and information joined to sincere and unaffected piety — the production of a gifted and accomplished man, whose death will ever be regretted by those who, in his lifetime, enjoyed his friendship. 160 25 Milton's Ode on the Nativity. 161 25 Sandy s's Travels, 141. 310 162 12 Harl. MSS. 437, 619. — 16 Apocryphal New Testament, 2, 3. — Infancy, iii, 2. — 29 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 1638, 225. 163 16 Diary of Philip Henslowe, 70. — 22, 28 Hone's Every Day Book, i, 46. 165 16 Fabliaux et Contes, par Barbazan et Meon, ii, 285. — 18 Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 8vo, 344. 166 12 Archives Curieuses de l'Histoire de France, 2 Series, v, 392. 168 13 Warton's History of Poetry, 8vo, ii, 91 n. — 16 Harl. MS. 5931. 170 9 French Mystery of the 15th Century, ' Le Greu des trois Rois.' 171 13 MS. Bibl. Keg. 5 F. xiv, 7. lb. 18 A, x, 8. Harl. MS. 1704-11. — 14 Harl. MS. 2407, 13. 178 24 This reference should be ' Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales.' 179 12 Barzaz-Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, i, 1, 25. 180 2 Description of Patent Rolls, by T. D. Hardy, 129. 183 6 Privy Purse Expenses of Princess Mary, Introduction, xxvii. — 7 Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, 83. 184 25 Barnaby Googe, translation of Naogeorgus. 185 11 Pictorial History of England, iii, 446 (address by Mr. John Davison to General Assembly in Scotland, 1596). 186 25 Old Ballads, 1723, p. 69. 188 11 Batt upon Batt, 1711, p. 6. 191 6 Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes, i, 250. — 20 Rabelais, vi, 209, n. (liv. 4, c. 22). — 26 Pasquicr les Recherches de la France, 383-4. — 30 Menage Diction. Etymol., voce Noel. 1 92 3 Archooologia, 22. — 17 Fabliaux et Contes, iv, 80, 99. 194 1 Laborde's Essai, i, 118, n. 200 27 Notes and Queries, v, 7, communication by Mr. Thorns. 203 8 Introduction to Scotch songs, i, 104. 206 2 See French mystery of fifteenth century, La Nativite, edited by Jubinal, ii, 19, Cornish plaj of Creation of the World, and poem of Mount Calvary, for further particulars. — 26 Home's introduction to the Scriptures, i, 629. 213 2 Maccabees, 15, 88. — 313- A VIRGIN MOST PURE. I fas #=pp 5^ *=N=± S£3 ^. §i^ Vir -a. gin most pure, as the pro -^r I 2± S ES -»— F- #: 3* F* r phets do tell, Hath brought forth Babe, as 3£3 :■=£ t=n i^i-^i^ ^H-j-J: n hath her be aij-u i i-^ m ±=t ^=^: fell. -e> — ■ To SI — 3= be our 25 S H i J J 4- i^jz^ ^«~V T s=P t Re - deem - er from Death, Hell, and Sin, Which m x=£±=t i 21 314 ±3FfeM=* ■ & — z£ A - dam's trans - gres - sion hath wrapt us all iu. m CL t-0 m 22 „ Chorus. 1-4— -N 1=* r— nJ J J ^j ^ f-< — w — -"3= g zz F ii i : =:::=s ^ :=: i Ee joice and be you mer *y. bHee4 — ^- T=t Set 3E WF= S f=F=r : s* S=E 1 Sor - row side, Christ Bi| m - p ¥ , -r- Br Er JN=d=j: sj: — o- =FP 3 f=?E i 1 -&• sus, our Sa - viour, was born on this tide. Edfe 3 *-* n » s^ng :=t «= 315 A CHILD THIS DAY IS BORN. 3S =i=i # -9- A child this m. +-*- & is born, A child of high re afe^ x &- ism 3=p: zt=at=t nown, Most worthy of a seep - tre, a scep-tre and a o ztgm crown. «- | I I l-H — I — h ^Chobtis. f imrt-H mus. , , , , fe3 t^^ggs^ 335? •©- • •* -w- -w- -w- - \^ -^* _^___T "^~ "* No-vcls, novels, no - rels, uo - vels sing all we may, Be - r ^& I s> , . I - j i — | fE»~i — 1 U 4 4 q ^. 4 r . Iz 8— *— S -Sr L - -d —= - 13 - cause the King of all kings was born this blessed day. m^^M m %=^ m — 316 THE LORD AT FIRST HAD ADAM MADE. J^fff^F^ ^pfe^j The Lord at first had A - dam made Out s^p^S {=&=4=rt=*=l=^ EEEEFJEEE =3 rt=* 5=P^ £M ■H # F £=Ez*=* F a?i* of the dust and clay, And in his nos - trils #. .-#. -p- £*=£ j^^j ^j^ ^ S3 3=t -# #- == ^ breath - ed life, E'en as the Scrip - tures BHE ^=t±=t m P ^ ---# ^» — *■ « gaa And then in E - den's Pa - ra - dise He ^Sa e££^ m 317 fe^fe £S & ^^^ pla - ced him to dwell, That he with - in it ass i—l g^J m $ Choeus. -r — f J— H4 £££ P should re - main To dress and keep it well. Now ^ # ?S^ *=; fe ^3 ffl l^^^iP^ ^ m$ let good Christians all be -gin an ho-ly life to live, And Bi ^E if ,:p ^^ i- f -*7 r m #-r-#- ^3E fi-=fi to re-joice, and mer -ry be, For this is Christ-mas Eve. #-^ EESBEFEE — fr — ~ r~hd — £= =1= — 318 — THE FIRST NOWELL. W "^ yjj^ ' ptff 'Cx M fcc The first Now -ell that the Angels did say Was to cer-tainpoor g Hh l f f l ; -L_U^ Fa^=l shepherds in field as they lay, In fields where they lay, keep - 2 |- / smi J-Jrpi pTTTf^ Chorus. ing their sheep In a cold winter's night that was so deep. Now mfcn&m ipppiitisflffJtte ell, Now - ell, Now - ell,No«'- ell, Born is theKing of Is-ra - el. — 319 — m THIS NEW CHRISTMAS CAROL. *=»: =t=t= -I— I— ^ ^ * 0- This new Christmas Ca - rol Let us cheer - f ul - ly ess »—f =tz -j. 3 SE* pi ^==^r=lS=tri=lqpE=»^ dzrizi HT"TT tgiS^lli sing, To the Hon - our and glo - ry of our heav'n-ly King, eei ^Be - — « — ^-J- — J — u name, For poor sin - ners redemp-tion To the world here he came. ffi i z=— =: riiliiiijii!! 320 GOD REST YOU, MERRY GENTLEMEN. — I- sea ±=±f=r=z I -or ■& ^ Frr n n ^ rm s *" "Br God rest you,merry gen - tie - men, Let nothing you dis - may, BE m 33 3 -e> — i^iimil =1= iPiiiiiiiii Sg For JesusChristourSa-vi-our Was born on Christmas day, To save us TOT ^ IHIi =M=P= s w* -I- I I - J q _ | ■ q | || | 4= 3^=^ all from Sa-tan's pow'r, When we were gone 1= stray. Chobus. il=islE 3-- =1= feij- rt Ji-c-tr f t ^yj^UffH^H Oh! tid - ings, Oh! tid - ings of com-fort and joy IS m =a J tPFPq -g :=£: 4n ^^ -H-J-nrW— I I I I 1 J Was born on Christmas day. Kr^ i \f fft\rM .lUnfrH For Je-susChristour Sa - vi-our — 321 — SAINT STEPHEN. I B ^-#- P $= *- lt—f-' Saint Ste - phen was an ho - ly En- gS^E =§ ^Luaiii-Q I i^a *=p* i $^- -ZT-M? : dued with hea-ven-ly might; And ma - ny won - ders B^mg^mgrn^ h=^ 6=5=P=P=iC EB i r ^ he did work Be - fore the peo - pies' eight. And m ^ zM m WF^E*: 3-H^ — d EfcfcrrJ F^ fr^+ fej ^fe^ B3 =i — ■&- by the bless - ed Spi-rit of God, Wbieb did his •3 — gr- rg^-F — c^ S-- -- m^a^m^l 3^^3^sm Ma *y in the land of Ga - li lee. bee§ mm — 327 IN THOSE TWELVE DAYS. E jr.: :P=PE t=t -0 — #- f=t j£zj± In those twelve days let us be glad, In those twelve day slet us be m -0—9- SE5 F^-S^ — h R s i=i ^^s: i £ P , f '^V^c ^^ ant BEE glad, For Godby hi9 pow'r hath all things made. 1 What is t=t -F-F- izzi: —J 9 1 1 "1 h ~ i |- ~ cs ; ii • # c J J u. I i f J - 5 \ 4fJ ii i • * *^# i • ) -* J 1 1 7^ « that which is but J one P What is that which is but one? We ' V ii * '• • • ^ P- P 1 ! ^ c> ii 1 1 i i i I 1 1 I 1 # *_J 1 1 — 1 u s^ ^=9~^K *=£ JS -/-=y=I have but one God a - lone, In hea-ven a - bove sits on his throne. 3? £=* E. TUCKER, PRINTER, PERRTS PLACE, OXFORD STREET.