105.

Christmas Merry-making

And whilst thus inspired we sing,
Let all the streets with echoes ring,
Woods and hills and everything

Bear witness we are merry.

GEORGE WITHER

CEREMONIES FOR CHRISTMAS

OME, bring with a noise,

COM

My merry, merry boys,

The Christmas log to the firing;

While my good dame she
Bids ye all be free,

And drink to your hearts' desiring.

With the last year's brand

Light the new block, and
For good success in his spending,
On your psaltries play,

That sweet luck may

Come while the log is a-teending.'

Drink now the strong beer,
Cut the white loaf here;

The while the meat is a-shredding;

For the rare mince-pie,

And the plums stand by

To fill the paste that's a-kneading.

Ceremonies for Christmas

CHRISTMAS EVE: ANOTHER CEREMONY

NOME, guard this night the Christmas pie,

CON

That the thief, though ne'er so sly,

With his flesh-hooks don't come nigh

To catch it.

From him, who all alone sits there,
Having his eyes still in his ear
And a deal of nightly fear,

To watch it.

ANOTHER TO THE MAIDS

WASH your hands, or else the fire

Will not teend to your desire;

Unwash'd hands, ye maidens, know,
Dead the fire though ye blow.

W

ANOTHER

ASSAIL the trees, that they may bear
You many a plum and many a pear;

For more or less fruits they will bring,

As you do give them wassailing.

ROBERT HERRICK

106.

G

THE WASSAIL

IVE way, give way, ye gates, and win
An easy blessing to your bin

And basket, by our entering in.

The Wassail

May both with manchet 1 stand replete;
Your larders too so hung with meat,
That though a thousand, thousand eat,

Yet, ere twelve moons shall whirl about
Their silv'ry spheres, there's none may doubt
But more 's sent in than was serv'd out.

Next may your dairies prosper so
As that your pans no ebb may know;
But if they do, the more to flow;

Like to a solemn sober stream
Bank'd all with lilies, and the cream
Of sweetest cowslips filling them.

Then, may your plants be prest with fruit,
Nor bee or hive you have be mute;

But sweetly sounding like a lute.

Next may your duck and teeming hen
Both to the cock's tread say Amen;

And for their two eggs render ten.

Last may your harrows, shears, and ploughs,
Your stacks, your stocks, your sweetest mows,
All prosper by your virgin vows.

ROBERT HERRICK

I White bread.

107.

TWELFTH NIGHT

OW, now the mirth comes

Now,

With the cake full of plums,

Where bean's the king of the sport here;
Besides we must know,

The pea also

Must revel as queen in the court here.

Begin then to choose

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 queen for the night here.

Which known, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;

And let not a man then be seen here,

Who unurg'd will not drink,

To the base from the brink,

A health to the king and the queen here.

Next crown the bowl full
With gentle lamb's wool:
Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too:

And thus ye must do

To make the wassail a swinger.

108.

Twelfth Night

Give then to the king

And queen wassailing:

And though with ale ye be whet here,
Yet part ye from hence

As free from offence

As when ye innocent met here.

ROBERT HERRICK

TO SIR SIMOND STEWARD

O news of navies burnt at seas;

N No noise of late-spawn'd tittyries;

No closet plot, or open vent

That frights men with a parliament:
No new device or late-found trick

I

To read by th' stars the kingdom's sick;
No gin to catch the state, or wring
The free-born nostrils of the king,
We send to you: but here a jolly
Verse crown'd with ivy and with holly,
That tells of winter's tales and mirth,
That milkmaids make about the hearth,
Or Christmas sports, the wassail bowl,
That tost up, after fox-i-th'-hole;
Of blind-man-buff, and of the care
That young men have to shoe the mare;
Of twelve-tide cakes, of peas and beans,
Wherewith you make those merry scenes,
Whenas ye choose your king and queen
And cry out: Hey, for our town green';
I An early club of Mohocks.