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Title: A book of Christmas verse

Compiler: H. C. Beeching

Release date: June 6, 2023 [eBook #70928]

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1926

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70928

Credits: Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF CHRISTMAS VERSE ***

A BOOK OF

CHRISTMAS VERSE

SELECTED BY

H. C. BEECHING

SECOND EDITION

REVISED

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

1926

Oxford University Press

London      Edinburgh    Glasgow    Copenhagen

New York    Toronto      Melbourne  Cape Town

Bombay      Calcutta    Madras      Shanghai

Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY

Printed in England

At the OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

By John Johnson

Printer to the University

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

The original edition of A Book of Christmas Verse was issued in 1895. At his death in 1919 Dean Beeching left a copy of the book marked with deletions and corrections, and an amount of new matter for insertion. This revision has been carried out, and both deletions and additions have been a little increased. But substantially the book remains the same; its editor’s divisions have been preserved, and the omission of his own preface to the first edition is in accord with his markings. A few poems by contemporary writers have been added.

Dean Beeching’s acknowledgements for permission to use copyright poems are here reprinted from his notes:

For No. 54 to the authorities of Christ Church, Oxford; for No. 71 to Messrs. Macmillan; for No. 112 to Mr. Robert Bridges; for No. 113 to Messrs. Kegan Paul and Trench; for No. 133 to the Chiswick Press; and for No. 114 to Mr. Davidson (with an omission specially sanctioned by him). Nos. 78 and 79 (by Gerard Hopkins and Selwyn Image) appeared for the first time in this book.

For poems now appearing for the first time acknowledgements are due as follows: for No. 77, by Coventry Patmore, to Messrs. George Bell; for No. 81, by R. L. Stevenson, to Messrs. Chatto & Windus; for No. 82, by Mrs. Meynell, to Messrs. Burns & Oates; for No. 83 to Mr. Robert Bridges; for No. 84., by Mr. Hilaire Belloc, to Messrs. Duckworth; for No. 85 (from The Wild Knight) to Mr. G. K. Chesterton and Messrs. Dent; for Nos. 86 and 87 to the Rev. R. L. Gales; for No. 88, by Miss Sayers, to Mr. Basil Blackwell; for No. 89 to Mr. J. D. C. Pellow; for No. 90 to Messrs. Macmillan; for No. 91 to Mrs. Chesterton; for No. 92 to Mr. Francis Keppel.

CONTENTS

EARLY CAROLS

PAGE

1.

Welcome Yule

3

2.

I sing of a Maiden

4

3.

As Joseph was a-walking

4

4.

Now is Christëmas ycome

4

5.

This Endris Night

8

6.

Lullay, my Liking, my Dear Son

10

7.

Saint Stephen was a Clerk

11

8.

The Shepherds’ Offerings

13

9.

Can I not sing but Hoy!

15

10.

When Christ was born of Mary free

18

11.

Be we merry in this Feast

18

12.

Man, be merry as Bird on Berry

19

13.

All this Time this Song is best

20

14.

Mater, ora filium

21

15.

Eya, Jesus hodie

22

16.

Ave maris stella

23

17.

Noël, Noël, Noël, Noël

24

18.

Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose

25

TRADITIONAL CAROLS

19.

God rest you merry, Gentlemen

29

20.

Remember, O thou Man

31

21.

I saw Three Ships

33

LATER POEMS AND CAROLS

22.

Of the Nativity of Christ

William Dunbar

37

23.

The Burning Babe

Robert Southwell

39

24.

New Prince, New Pomp

Robert Southwell

40

25.

New Heaven, New War

Robert Southwell

41

26.

A Child my Choice

Robert Southwell

43

27.

Nativity

John Donne

44

28.

For Christmas Day

Joseph Hall

45

29.

A Hymn on the Nativity of my Saviour

Ben Jonson

45

30.

The Shepherds’ Song

Edmund Bolton

46

31.

Of the Epiphany

Sir John Beaumont

48

32.

The Angels

William Drummond

50

33.

The Shepherds

William Drummond

50

34.

A Rocking Hymn

George Wither

51

35.

Gloria in Excelsis

Giles Fletcher

53

36.

Who can forget?

Giles Fletcher

54

37.

A Christmas Carol

Robert Herrick

56

38.

An Ode on the Birth of our Saviour

Robert Herrick

57

39.

Christmas

George Herbert

59

40.

On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity

John Milton

60

41.

A Hymn of the Nativity

Richard Crashaw

69

42.

Satan’s Sight of the Nativity

Richard Crashaw

74

43.

A Hymn for the Epiphany

Richard Crashaw

77

44.

Hymn for Christmas Day

Jeremy Taylor

80

45.

Hymn for Christmas Day

Jeremy Taylor

81

46.

Christmas Day

Joseph Beaumont

82

47.

Sonnet XXV

Joseph Beaumont

85

48.

On the Nativity of our Saviour

J. M.

85

49.

The Shepherds

Henry Vaughan

87

50.

Christ’s Nativity

Henry Vaughan

89

51.

And they laid Him in a Manger

Sir Edward Sherburne

90

52.

At the Sign of the Heart

91

53.

Lodged in an Inn

92

54.

Yet if His Majesty our Sovereign Lord

93

55.

And art Thou come, Blest Babe?

94

56.

Song of the Angels at the Nativity

Nahum Tate

95

57.

Shepherds, rejoice

Isaac Watts

96

58.

A Cradle Song

Isaac Watts

97

59.

A Hymn for Christmas Day

John Byrom

98

60.

A Hymn for Christmas Day

Philip Doddridge

99

61.

A Hymn for Christmas Day

Charles Wesley

100

62.

The Shepherds went their hasty Way

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

101

63.

From Ottfried’s Paraphrase of the Gospel

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

103

64.

The Virgin’s Cradle Hymn

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

104

65.

Brightest and best of the Sons of the Morning!

Reginald Heber

105

66.

They leave the Land of Gems and Gold

Aubrey de Vere

106

67.

Christmas and New Year Bells

Alfred Tennyson

107

68.

The First Christmas Eve

Alfred Domett

109

69.

Christ was born on Christmas Day

John Mason Neale

111

70.

A Christmas Carol

Charles Kingsley

112

71.

A Christmas Carol

Christina Rossetti

113

72.

Masters, in this Hall

William Morris

115

73.

Outlanders, whence come ye last?

William Morris

117

74.

Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery

William Morris

119

75.

Aishah Schechinah

R. S. Hawker

128

76.

King Arthur’s Waes-hael

R. S. Hawker

130

77.

Regina Coeli

Coventry Patmore

131

78.

Mary Mother of Divine Grace,

compared to the Air we breathe

Gerard Hopkins

132

79.

A Meditation for Christmas Day

Selwyn Image

136

80.

A Morning Song for Christmas Day

Herbert P. Horne

137

81.

Christmas at Sea

R. L. Stevenson

139

82.

Unto us a Son is given

Alice Meynell

142

83.

Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913

Robert Bridges

143

84.

Noël

Hilaire Belloc

145

85.

A Christmas Carol

G. K. Chesterton

146

86.

The Creatures’ Nowel

R. L. Gales

147

87.

The Heavenly Noel

R. L. Gales

148

88.

Carol

Dorothy L. Sayers

150

89.

Christmas Carol

J. D. C. Pellow

150

90.

The Oxen

Thomas Hardy

151

91.

How far is it to Bethlehem?

Frances Chesterton

152

92.

Epiphany

Francis Keppel

153

POEMS ON CHRISTMAS MERRY-MAKING

93.

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell

157

94.

Man, be joyful

157

95.

Make we merry

158

96.

Holly and Ivy

159

97.

Alleluia, Alleluia

159

98.

Ivy Chief of Trees it is

160

99.

Nay, Ivy, nay

161

100.

Hey, hey, hey, hey

162

101.

Caput apri defero

163

102.

Nowel, Nowel, Nowel, Nowel

164

103.

Proface, welcome, welcome

164

104.

Christmas Merry-making

George Wither

165

105.

Ceremonies for Christmas

Robert Herrick

169

106.

The Wassail

Robert Herrick

170

107.

Twelfth Night

Robert Herrick

172

108.

To Sir Simond Steward

Robert Herrick

173

109.

Song

Thomas Campion

175

110.

Song

176

111.

The Damsel donn’d her Kirtle Sheen

Sir Walter Scott

176

112.

Winter was not unkind

Robert Bridges

178

113.

Ballade of Christmas Ghosts

Andrew Lang

179

114.

Christmas Eve

John Davidson

180

115.

Now have good Day!

184

LATIN HYMNS

116.

Puer natus in Bethlehem

189

117.

Heu quid jaces stabulo

John Mauburn

190

118.

Adeste fideles

191

119.

Corde natus ex Parentis

Prudentius

193

120.

Ave Jesu, Deus magne

194

121.

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell

195

INDEX OF AUTHORS

197

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

198

EARLY CAROLS

1. WELCOME YULE

WELCOME Yule, thou merry man,

In worship of this holy day.

Welcome be thou, heaven-king,

Welcome, born in a morning,

Welcome, for whom we shall sing

Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye, Stephen and John,

Welcome Innocents, every one;

Welcome Thomas, martyr one;

Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye, good new year,

Welcome Twelfth day, both in fere;

Welcome Saintës, lief and dear;

Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye, Candlemas,

Welcome be ye, Queen of bliss,

Welcome both to more or less,

Welcome Yule.

Welcome be ye that are here;

Welcome all and make good cheer;

Welcome all, another year,

Welcome Yule.

2. I SING OF A MAIDEN

I SING of a maiden

That is makeless;[1]

King of all kingës

To her son she ches;[2]

He came also[3] still

There his mother was,

As dew in April

That falleth on the grass.

He came also still

To his mother’s bower,

As dew in April

That falleth on the flower.

He came also still

There his mother lay,

As dew in April

That falleth on the spray.

Mother and maiden

Was never none but she;

Well may such a lady

Goddes mother be.

[1] Matchless.

[2] Chose.

[3] As.

3. AS JOSEPH WAS A-WALKING

AS Joseph was a-walking

He heard an angel sing:—

‘This night shall be born

Our heavenly King;

‘He neither shall be born

In housen nor in hall,

Nor in the place of Paradise,

But in an ox’s stall;

‘He neither shall be clothed

In purple nor in pall,

But all in fair linen

As were babies all.

‘He neither shall be rocked

In silver nor in gold,

But in a wooden cradle

That rocks on the mould.

‘He neither shall be christened

In white wine or red,

But with fair spring water

With which we were christened.’

4. NOW IS CHRISTËMAS YCOME

NOW is Christëmas ycome,

Father and Son together in one,

Holy Ghost as ye be one

In fere,

God send us a good new year.

I would you sing and I might

Of a Child is fair in sight,

His mother him bare this endris[4] night

So still,

And as it was his will.

There came three kings fro Galilee

Into Bethlem, that fair citee,

To seek him that should ever be

By right,

Lord and king and knight.

As they came forth with their off’ring,

They met with Herod, that moody king,

This tide,

And this to them he said,

‘Of whence be ye, you kingës three?’

‘Of the East, as ye may see,

To seek him that should ever be

By right,

Lord and king and knight.’

‘When you at this child have be

Come home again by me,

Tell me the sights that you have see,

I pray,

Go you no nother way.’

They took their leave both old and ying[5]

Of Herod, that moody king:

They went forth with their offering

By night,

By the star that shone so bright,

Till they came in to the place

Where Jesu and his mother was;

Offered they up with great solace

In fere,

Gold and ’cense and myrrh.

When they had their offering made

As the Holy Ghost them bade,

Then were they both merry and glad

And light:

It was a well fair sight.

Anon as they away went

The Father of heaven an angel sent

To these three Kings that made present

This tide,

And thus to them he said,

‘My Lord have warned you every one

By Herod king you go not home:

For an you do he will you slowe

And strow,[6]

And do you mickle woe.’

They yeden all another way

Thorough the might of Goddes lay[7]

As the angel to them did say

Full right:

It was a well fair sight.

When they were come to their countree

Glad and blithe they were all three

Of the sights that they had see;

By dene[8]

The company was clean.

Kneel we now here adown;

Pray we in good devotion

To the King of great renown

For grace

In heaven to have a place.

[4]Last.

[5]Young.

[6]Lay low.

[7]Law.

[8]Forthwith.

5.  THIS ENDRIS NIGHT

THIS endris[9] night

I saw a sight,

A star as bright as day;

And ever among[10]

A maiden sung

Lullay, byby, lullay.

This lovely lady sat and sang, and to her child gan say,

‘My son, my brother, my father dear, why liest thou thus in hay?

My sweetë brid,[11]

Thus it is betid

Though thou be King veray;

But, nevertheless,

I will not cease

To sing byby, lullay.’

The child then spake in his talking; and to his mother said—

‘I am beknown for heaven’s king, in crib though I be laid;

For angels bright

Down to me light,

Thou knowest it is no nay.

And of that sight

Thou mayest be light,

To sing byby, lullay.’

‘Now sweetë son, since thou art king, why art thou laid in stall?

Why ne thou ordainèd thy bedding in some great kingës hall?

Methinketh it right

That king or knight

Should lie in good array;

And then among

It were no wrong

To sing byby, lullay.’

‘Mary, mother, I am thy child, though I be laid in stall,

Lords and dukes shall worship me, and so shall kingës all.

Ye shall well see,

The kingës three

Shall come the twelfthë day;

For this behest

Give me thy breast,

And sing byby, lullay.’

‘Now tell me, sweet son, I thee pray, thou art me lief and dear,

How should I keep thee to thy pay,[12] and make thee glad of cheer?

For all thy will

I would fulfil,

Thou weet’st full well in fay.[13]

And for all this

I will thee kiss,

And sing byby, lullay.’

‘My dear mother, when time it be, thou take me up aloft,

And settë me upon thy knee, and handle me full soft.

And in thy arm

Thou hile[14] me warm,

And keepë night and day;

If I weep

And may not sleep,

Thou sing byby, lullay.’

‘Now, sweet son, since it is so, that all is at thy will,

I pray thee grant to me a boon if it be right and skill,[15]

That child or man

That will or can

Be merry upon my day;

To bliss them bring,

And I shall sing

Lullay, byby, lullay.’

[9] Last.

[10] Anon.

[11] Bird.

[12] Content.

[13] Faith.

[14] Cover.

[15] Reasonable.

6.  LULLAY, MY LIKING, MY DEAR SON

LULLAY, my liking, my dear son, my sweeting,

Lullay, my dear heart, my own dear darling.

I saw a fair maiden sitten and sing.

She lulled a little child, a sweet lording.

Lullay, &c.

That ilke lord is that that made all thing,

Of all lordës he is lord, of all kingës king.

Lullay, &c.

There was mickle melody at that childës birth,

All that were in heaven’s bliss they made mickle mirth.

Lullay, &c.

Angels bright they sung that night and saiden to that child,

Blessed be thou, and so be she that is both meek and mild.

Lullay, &c.

Pray we now to that child, and to his mother dear.

Grant them his blessing that now maken cheer.

Lullay, &c.

7.  SAINT STEPHEN WAS A CLERK

SAINT Stephen was a clerk

In King Herodës hall,

And servèd him of bread and cloth

As every king befall.

Stephen out of kitchen came,

With boarës head on hand,

He saw a star was fair and bright

Over Bethlem stand.

He cast adown the boarës head

And went into the hall:

‘I forsake thee, King Herodës,

And thy workës all.

‘I forsake thee, King Herodës,

And thy werkës all;

There is a child in Bethlem born

Is better than we all.’

‘What aileth thee, Stephen?

What is thee befall?

Lacketh thee either meat or drink

In King Herodës hall?’

‘Lacketh me neither meat ne drink

In King Herodës hall;

There is a child in Bethlem born

Is better than we all.’

‘What aileth thee, Stephen? Art thou wode[16]

Or thou ginnest to breed?[17]

Lacketh thee either gold or he

Or any richë weed?’[18]

‘Lacketh me neither gold or fee,

Ne none richë weed;

There is a child in Bethlem born

Shall help us at our need.’

‘That is also[19] sooth, Stephen,

Also sooth, i-wis,[20]

As this capon crowë shall

That lieth here in my dish.’

That word was not so soonë said,

That word in that hall,

The capon crew, ‘Christus natus est,’

Among the lordës all.

‘Riseth up, my tormentors,

By two and also by one,

And leadeth Stephen out of this town,

And stoneth him with stone.’

Tooken they Stephen

And stoned him in the way,

And therefore is his even

On Christës own day.

[16] Mad.

[17] Become (mad).

[18] Dress.

[19] As.

[20] Certainly.

8.  THE SHEPHERDS’ OFFERINGS

Angel.

HERDMEN hend,[21]

Dread ye no thing

Of this star that ye do see;

For this same morn

God’s son is born

In Bethlem of a maiden free.

First Shepherd.

Hail maid, mother, and wife so mild!

As the angel said, so have we fand.

I have nothing to present with thy child

But my pipe; hold, hold, take it in thy hand;

Wherein much pleasure that I have fand;

And now, to honour thy glorious birth,

Thou shalt it have to make thee mirth.

Second Shepherd.

Now, hail be thou, child, and thy dame!

For in a poor lodging here art thou laid,

So the angel said and told us thy name;

Hold, take thou here my hat on thy head!

And now of one thing thou art well sped,

For weather thou hast no need to complain,

For wind, ne sun, hail, snow, and rain.

Third Shepherd.

Hail be thou, Lord over water and lands!

For thy coming all we may make mirth.

Have here my mittens to put on thy hands,

Other Treasure have I none to present thee with.

Mary.

Now, herdmen bend,

For your coming

To my child shall I pray,

As he is heaven king

To grant you his blessing

And to his bliss that ye may wend

At your last day.

Here the Shepherds sing:

As I out rode this enderes[22] night

Of three jolly shepherds I saw a sight,

And all about their fold a star shone bright;

They sang terli, terlow;

So merrily the shepherds their pipes can blow.

Down from heaven, from heaven so high,

Of angels there came a great company,

With mirth and joy and great solemnity,

They sang terli, terlow;

So merrily the shepherds their pipes can blow.

[21] Courteous.

[22] Last.

9.  CAN I NOT SING BUT HOY!

CAN I not sing but Hoy!

When the jolly shepherd made so much joy!

The shepherd upon a hill he sat,

He had on him his tabard and his hat,

His tar-box, his pipe, and his flagat.

His name was called Jolly, Jolly Wat;

For he was a good herds-boy,

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy.

Can I not sing but hoy.

The shepherd upon a hill was laid,

His dog to his girdle was tayd,

He had not slept but a little braid,

But gloria in excelsis was to him said;

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

The shepherd on a hill he stood,

Round about him his sheep they yode,

He put his hand under his hood,

He saw a star as red as blood.

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

Now farewell Mall, and also Will,

For my love go ye all still,

Unto I come again you till,

And ever more Will ring well thy bell.

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

Now must I go there Christ was born,

Farewell, I come again to-morn;

Dog, keep well my sheep fro the corn,

And warn well Warroke when I blow my horn!

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

When Wat to Bethlehem come was,

He sweat, he had gone faster than a pace.

He found Jesus in a simple place,

Between an ox and an ass.

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

The shepherd said anon right:

‘I will go see yon ferly[23] sight,

Where as the angel singeth on-height,

And the star that shineth so bright!’

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

‘Jesus, I offer to thee here my pipe,

My skirt, my tar-box, and my scrip,

Home to my fellows now will I skip,

And also look unto my sheep!’

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

‘Now farewell, mine own herds-man Wat!’

‘Yea,’fore God, Lady, even so I hat![24]

Lull well Jesus in thy lap.

And farewell, Joseph, with thy round cap!’

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

‘Now may I well both hop and sing,

For I have been at Christ’s bearing;

Home to my fellows now will I fling;

Christ of heaven to His bliss us bring!

Ut hoy!

For in his pipe he made so much joy!

Can I not sing, &c.

[23] Wondrous.

[24] Am called.

10.  WHEN CHRIST WAS BORN OF MARY FREE

WHEN Christ was born of Mary free

In Bethlem, in that fair citee,

Angels sang there with mirth and glee,

In excelsis gloria.

Herdmen beheld these angels bright,

To them appearèd with great light,

And said, ‘God’s son is born this night.’

In excelsis gloria.

The King is comen to save kind,

As in scripturës we find,

Therefore this song have we in mind,

In excelsis gloria.

Then, Lord, for thy great grace

Grant us in bliss to see thy face

When we may sing to thee solace,

In excelsis gloria.

11.  BE WE MERRY IN THIS FEAST

BE we merry in this feast,

In quo Salvator natus est.

In Bethlehem that noble place,

As by prophecy said it was,

Of the Virgin Mary full of grace,

Salvator mundi natus est.

Be we merry, &c.

On Christmas night an angel it told

To the shepherds, keeping their fold,

That into Bethlehem with beastës wold,[25]

Salvator mundi natus est.

Be we merry, &c.

The shepherds were compassèd right,

About them was a full great light;

‘Dread ye nought’, said the angel bright,

‘Salvator mundi natus est.’

Be we merry, &c.

‘Behold to you we bring great joy;

For why[26] Jesus is born this day,

To us, of Mary, that mild may,[27]

Salvator mundi natus est.’

Be we merry &c.

And thus in faith find it ye shall,

Lying poorly in an oxes-stall.

The shepherds then God lauded all,

Quia Salvator mundi natus est.

Be we merry &c.

[25] Would go.

[26] Because.

[27] Maid.

12.  MAN, BE MERRY AS BIRD ON BERRY

MAN, be merry as bird on berry

And all thy care let away.

This time is born a child full good,

He that us bought upon the rood;

He bound the devil that is so wood,

Till the dreadful doomës-day.

When the child of mickle might

Would be born of Mary bright,

A token he sent to king and knight,

A star that shone both night and day.

The star shone as bright as fire,

Over all the world both far and near,

In token He was without peer;

And peerless he shall lasten ay.

The xii day come kingës three

Out of the east, with heartë free;

To worship Him they kneeled on knee

With gold and myrrh and frankincense.

13.  ALL THIS TIME THIS SONG IS BEST

ALL this time this song is best:

Verbum caro factum est!

This night there is a child born

That sprang out of Jesse’s thorn;

We must sing and say thereforn

Verbum caro factum est!

Jesus is the childës name

And Mary mild is his dame;

All our sorrow shall turn to game,

Verbum caro factum est.

It fell upon high midnight,

The stars shone both fair and bright,

The angels sang with all their might

Verbum caro factum est.

Now kneel we down on our knee,

And pray we to the Trinity,

Our help, our succour for to be!

Verbum caro factum est.

14.  MATER, ORA FILIUM

MATER, ora filium

ut post hoc exilium

nobis donet gaudium

beatorum omnium!

Fair maiden, who is this bairn

That thou bearest in thine arm?

Sir, it is a Kingës Son,

That in heaven above doth wone.[28]

Mater, ora, &c.

Man to father he hath none,

But Himself God alone!

Of a maiden He would be born,

To save mankind that was forlorn!

Mater, ora, &c.

Three Kingës brought him presents,

Gold, myrrh, and frankincense,

To my Son full of might,

King of Kings and Lord of right!

Mater, ora, &c.

Fair maiden, pray for us

Unto thy Son, sweet Jesus,

That He will send us of His grace

In heaven on high to have a place.

Mater, ora, &c.

[28] Dwell.

15.  EYA, JESUS HODIE

EYA, Jesus hodie

Natus est de virgine.

Blessed be that maid Mary!

Born He was of her body;

Goddes son that sit’th on high,

Non ex virili semine.

In a manger of an ass

Jesu lay and lulled was,

Hardë painës for to pass,

Pro peccante homine.

Kingës came from divers land

With great giftës in their hand,

In Bethlem the child they fand,

Stellae ducti lumine.

Man and child both old and young

Now in his blissful coming

To that child may we sing

Gloria tibi, Domine.

Nowel, nowel in this hall,

Make merry, I pray you all;

Unto the child may we call

Ullo sine crimine.

16.  AVE MARIS STELLA

AVE maris stella

The star on the sea,

Dei Mater alma

Blessed mot[29] she be,

Atque semper virgo

Pray thy son for me,

Felix caeli porta,

That I may come to thee.

Gabriel that archangel,

He was messenger;

So fair he gret our Lady

With an ’ave’ so clear:

‘Hail be thou, Mary,

Be thou, Mary,

Full of Goddes grace,

And Queen of Mercy.’

[29] May.

17.  NOËL, NOËL, NOËL, NOËL

NOEL, Noël, Noël, Noël,

This is the salutation of Gabriel!

Tidings true there be come new, sent from the Trinity

By Gabriel to Nazareth, city of Galilee,

A clean maiden and pure virgin thoro’ her humility

Conceived the second person in divinity.

Noël.

When he first presented was before her fair visage

In most demure and goodly wise he did to her homage

And said, ‘Lady, from heaven so high, that lordës heritage

The which of thee born would be, I am sent on message.’

Noël.

‘Hail, virgin celestial, the meekest that ever was;

Hail, temple of deity, and mirror of all grace;

Hail, virgin pure, I thee ensure within full little space

Thou shalt receive and Him conceive that shall bring great solace.’

Noël.

Then again to the angel she answered womanly,

‘Whatever my lord command me do, I will obey meekly;

Ecce sum humillima ancilla Domini,

Secundum verbum tuum, she said, fiat mihi.’

Noël.

18.  OF A ROSE, A LOVELY ROSE

OF a rose, a lovely rose,

Of a rose is all my song.

Listen, lordings, both eld and ying,

How this rose began to spring;

Such a rose to my liking

In all this world ne know I none.

The angel came from heaven’s tower

To greet Mary with great honour,

And saidë she should bear the flower

That should break the fiendës bond.

The flower sprung in high Bethlem,

That is bothë bright and sheen;

The rose is Mary, heaven’s queen,

Out of her bosom the blossom sprung.

The firstë branch is full of might,

That sprung on Christëmass night;

The star shone over Bethlem bright

That is both broad and long.

The second branch sprung to hell,

The fiendës power down to fell;

Therein might none soulë dwell;

Blessed be the time the rose sprung.

The third branch is good and swote,

It sprang to heaven crop[30] and root,

Therein to dwell and be our boot,

Every day it showeth in priestës hand.

Pray we to her with great honour,

She that bare the blessed flower,

She be our help and succoúr,

And shield us from the fiendës bond.

[30] Tip.

TRADITIONAL CAROLS

19.  GOD REST YOU MERRY, GENTLEMEN

GOD rest you merry, gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay;

Remember Christ our Saviour

Who was born on Christmas Day,

To save our souls from Satan’s fold

Which long time had gone astray.

And ’tis tidings of comfort and joy.

From him that is our Father

The Blessed Angel came,

And to the watchful shepherds brought

The tidings of the same;

That there was born in Bethlehem

The Son of God by name.

And ’tis, &c.

Fear not, then said God’s Angel,

Let nothing you affright,

This day is born a Saviour

Of a Virgin pure and bright;

He is able to advance you

And throw down Satan quite.

And ’tis, &c.

The shepherds at these tidings

Rejoiced much in mind,

And left their flocks a-feeding

In tempest, storm, and wind.

And straight they went to Bethlehem

The Son of God to find.

And ’tis, &c.

But when they came to Bethlehem

Where as our Saviour lay,

They found him in a manger,

Where oxen fed on hay,

Our blessed Lady kneeling by

Unto the Lord did pray.

And ’tis, &c.

At which with sudden gladness

The shepherds then were filled,

When as the Babe of Israel

Thus when they had beheld.

Before his mother thus to lie

The Scripture thus fulfilled.

And ’tis, &c.

Now let me all of you entreat

That are within this place,

That each dear loving Xian

The other would embrace.

For the happy time of Xmas

Is drawing on apace.

With its, &c.

This version is from a broadside in the British Museum; another version is given in Sandy’s Christmas Carols (1833), of which the last verse is:

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 Xmas

All others doth deface.

With its, &c.

20.  REMEMBER, O THOU MAN

REMEMBER, O thou man,

O thou man, O thou man,

Remember, O thou man,

Thy time is spent.

Remember, O thou man,

How thou earnest to me than,

And I did what I can:

Therefore repent.

Remember Adam’s fall,

O thou man, O thou man,

Remember, O thou man,

From Heaven to Hell.

Remember Adam’s fall,

How we were condemnèd all

To Hell perpetual

There for to dwell.

Remember God’s goodness,

O thou man, O thou man,

Remember God’s goodness

And promise made.

Remember God’s goodness,

How his only Son He sent

Our sins for to redress;

Be not afraid!

The Angels all did sing,

O thou man, O thou man,

The Angels all did sing

On Sion Hill;

The Angels all did sing

Praise to our heavenly king

And peace to man living

With right good will.

The shepherds amazèd was,

O thou man, O thou man,

The shepherds amazèd was,

To hear the Angels sing.

The shepherds amazèd was,

How this should come to pass,

That Christ our Messias

Should be our king.

To Bethlehem did they go,

O thou man, O thou man,

To Bethlehem did they go

This thing to see;

To Bethlehem did they go

To see whether it was so,

Whether Christ was born or no

To set us free.

As th’ Angels before did say,

O thou man, O thou man,

As th’ Angels before did say,

So it came to pass.

As th’ Angels before did say

They found him wrapt in hay

In a manger where he lay,

So poor he was.

In Bethlehem was he born,

O thou man, O thou man,

In Bethlehem was he born

For mankind dear.

In Bethlehem was he born

For us that were forlorn,

And therefore took no scorn

Our sins to bear.

In a manger laid he was,

O thou man, O thou man,

In a manger laid he was

At this time present.

In a manger laid he was,

Between an ox and an ass

And all for our trespass;

Therefore repent.

Give thanks to God alway

O thou man, O thou man,

Give thanks to God alway

With hearts most jolly.

Give thanks to God alway

Upon this blessed day,

Let all men sing and say

Holy, holy.

21.  I SAW THREE SHIPS

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 unto Bethlehem

On Christmas day, on Christmas day.

O they sailed unto Bethlehem

On Christmas day in the morning.

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!

LATER POEMS AND CAROLS

22.  ON THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST

RORATE Coeli desuper!

Heavens, distil your balmy showers,

For now is risen the bright daystar

From the Rose Mary, flower of flowers;

The clear sun, whom no cloud devours,

Surmounting Phoebus in the east,

Is comen of his heavenly towers;

Et nobis Puer natus est.

Archangels, angels, dominations,

Thrones, potentates, and martyrs seir,[31]

And all the heavenly operations,

Star, planet, firmament, and sphere,

Fire, earth, air, and water clear,

To Him give loving, most and least,

That come is in so meek maneir;

Et nobis Puer natus est.

Sinners, be glad, and penance do,

And thank your Maker heartily,

For He, that ye might not come to,

To you is comen full humbly,

Your soulës with His blood to buy,

And loose you of the fiend’s arrest,

And only of His own mercy;

Pro nobis Puer natus est.

Celestial fowlës in the air,

Sing with your notes upon hight,

In firthës and forests fair.

Be mirthful now, at all your might,

For passed is your dully night;

Aurora has the cloudis perced,

The sun is risen with gladsome light,

Et nobis Puer natus est.

Now spring up flowrës from the root,

Revert you upward naturally,

In honour of the blessed fruit

That rose up from the Rose Mary;

Lay out your leavës lustily,

From dead take life now, at the least,

In worship of that Prince worthy,

Qui nobis Puer natus est.

Sing heaven imperial, most of height,

Regions of air make harmony;

All fish in floud, and fowl of flight,

Be mirthful and make melody;

All Gloria in Excelsis cry,

Heaven, earth, sea, man, bird, and beast,

He that is crowned above the sky.

Pro nobis Puer natus est.

WILLIAM DUNBAR

[31] Many.

23.  THE BURNING BABE

AS I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,

Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear.

Who scorched with exceeding heat such floods of tears did shed,

As though His floods should quench His flames with what His

tears were fed;

Alas, quoth He, but newly born in fiery heats I fry,

Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I.

My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,

Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;

The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals;

The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls;

For which, as now on fire I am, to work them to their good,

So will I melt into a bath, to wash them in my blood:

With this He vanished out of sight, and swiftly shrunk away,

And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

ROBERT SOUTHWELL

24.  NEW PRINCE, NEW POMP

BEHOLD a silly tender Babe,

In freezing winter night,

In homely manger trembling lies,

Alas! a piteous sight.

The inns are full, no man will yield

This little Pilgrim bed;

But forced He is with silly beasts

In crib to shroud His head.

Despise Him not for lying there,

First what He is inquire;

An orient pearl is often found

In depth of dirty mire.

Weigh not His crib, His wooden dish,

Nor beast that by Him feed;

Weigh not His mother’s poor attire,

Nor Joseph’s simple weed.

This stable is a prince’s court,

This crib His chair of state;

The beasts are parcel of His pomp,

The wooden dish His plate.

The persons in that poor attire

His royal liveries wear;

The Prince Himself is come from heaven

This pomp is prizèd there.

With joy approach, O Christian wight!

Do homage to thy King;

And highly praise this humble pomp

Which He from heaven doth bring.

ROBERT SOUTHWELL

25.  NEW HEAVEN, NEW WAR

COME to your heaven, you heavenly quires!

Earth hath the heaven of your desires:

Remove your dwelling to your God,

A stall is now His best abode;

Sith men their homage do deny,

Come, angels, all their faults supply.

His chilling cold doth heat require,

Come, Seraphim, in lieu of fire;

This little ark no cover hath,

Let Cherubs’ wings His body swathe;

Come, Raphael, this Babe must eat,

Provide our little Tobie meat.

Let Gabriel be now His groom,

That first took up His earthly room;

Let Michael stand in His defence,

Whom love hath linked to feeble sense;

Let Graces rock when He doth cry,

And Angels sing His lullaby.

The same you saw in heavenly seat

Is He that now sucks Mary’s teat;

Agnize[32] your King a mortal wight,

His borrowed weeds lets[33] not your sight;

Come, kiss the manger where He lies;

That is your bliss above the skies.

This little Babe so few days old

Is come to rifle Satan’s fold,

All hell doth at His presence quake,

Though He Himself for cold do shake;

For in this weak unarmèd wise

The gates of hell He will surprise.

With tears He fights and wins the field,

His naked breast stands for a shield;

His battering shot are babish cries;

His arrows, looks of weeping eyes;

His martial ensigns, cold and need;

And feeble flesh His warrior’s steed.

His camp is pitchèd in a stall,

His bulwark but a broken wall,

His crib His trench, hay-stalks His stakes,

Of shepherds He His muster takes;

And thus, as sure His foe to wound,

The angels’ trumps alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight;

Stick to the tents that He hath pight;

Within His crib is surest ward,

This little Babe will be thy guard;

If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,

Then flit not from this heavenly Boy.

ROBERT SOUTHWELL

[32] Acknowledge.

[33] Hinders.

26.  A CHILD MY CHOICE

LET folly praise that fancy loves,

I praise and love that Child,

Whose heart no thought, whose tongue no word,

Whose head no deed defiled.

I praise Him most, I love Him best,

All praise and love is His;

While Him I love, in Him I live,

And cannot live amiss.

Love’s sweetest mark, laud’s highest theme,

Man’s most desirèd light,

To love Him life, to leave Him death,

To live in Him delight.

He mine by gift, I His by debt,

Thus each to other due,

First friend He was, best friend He is,

All times will try Him true.

Though young, yet wise; though small, yet strong;

Though man, yet God He is;

As wise He knows, as strong He can,

As God He loves to bless.

His knowledge rules, His strength defends,

His love doth cherish all;

His birth our joy, His life our light,

His death our end of thrall.

Alas! He weeps, He sighs, He pants,

Yet doth His angels sing;

Out of His tears, His sighs and throbs,

Doth bud a joyful spring.

Almighty Babe, whose tender arms

Can force all foes to fly,

Correct my faults, protect my life,

Direct me when I die!

ROBERT SOUTHWELL

27.  NATIVITY

IIMMENSITY, cloistered in thy dear womb,

Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment;

There He hath made Himself to His intent,

Weak enough now into our world to come:

But oh! for thee, for Him, hath th’ inn no room?

Yet lay Him in His stall, and from the orient

Stars and wise men will travel, to prevent

Th’ effect of Herod’s jealous general doom.

See’st thou, my soul! with thy faith’s eyes, how He,

Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie!

Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high,

That would have need to be pitied by thee?

Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go,

With His kind mother who partakes thy woe.

JOHN DONNE

28.  FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

IMMORTAL Babe, who this dear day

Didst change Thine heaven for our clay,

And didst with flesh Thy godhead veil,

Eternal Son of God, all hail!

Shine, happy star; ye angels, sing

Glory on high to heaven’s King:

Run, shepherds, leave your nightly watch,

See heaven come down to Bethlehem’s cratch.

Worship, ye sages of the east,

The King of gods in meanness dressed,

O blessèd maid, smile and adore

The God thy womb and arms have bore.

Star, angels, shepherds, and wise sages,

Thou virgin glory of all ages,

Restorèd frame of heaven and earth,

Joy in your dear Redeemer’s birth!

JOSEPH HALL

29.  A HYMN ON THE NATIVITY OF MY SAVIOUR

I SING the birth was born to-night,

The Author both of life and light,

The angel so did sound it:

And like the ravished shepherds said,

Who saw the light and were afraid,

Yet searched, and true they found it.

The Son of God, th’ Eternal King,

That did us all salvation bring,

And freed our soul from danger;

He whom the whole world could not take,

The Word, which heaven and earth did make,

Was now laid in a manger.

The Father’s wisdom willed it so,

The Son’s obedience knew no No,

Both wills were in one stature;

And as that wisdom had decreed,

The Word was now made flesh indeed,

And took on Him our nature.

What comfort by Him we do win,

Who made Himself the price of sin

To make us heirs of glory!

To see this Babe, all innocence,

A martyr born in our defence:

Can man forget the story?

BEN JONSON

30.  THE SHEPHERDS’ SONG

SWEET music, sweeter far

Than any song is sweet:

Sweet music, heavenly rare,

Mine ears, O peers, doth greet.

You gentle flocks, whose fleeces pearled with dew

Resemble heaven, whom golden drops make bright,

Listen, O listen, now, O not to you

Our pipes make sport to shorten weary night:

But voices most divine

Make blissful harmony:

Voices that seem to shine,

For what else clears the sky?

Tunes can we hear, but not the singers see,

The tunes divine, and so the singers be.

Lo, how the firmament

Within an azure fold

The flock of stars hath pent,

That we might them behold,

Yet from their beams proceedeth not this light,

Nor can their crystals such reflection give.

What then doth make the element so bright?

The heavens are come down upon earth to live:

But hearken to the song,

Glory to glory’s King,

And peace all men among,

These quiristers do sing.

Angels they are, as also (shepherds) He

Whom in our fear we do admire to see.

Let not amazement blind

Your souls, said he, annoy:

To you and all mankind

My message bringeth joy.

For lo! the world’s great Shepherd now is born,

A blessèd Babe, an Infant full of power:

After long night uprisen is the morn,

Renowning Bethlem in the Saviour.

Sprung is the perfect day,

By prophets seen afar:

Sprung is the mirthful May,

Which winter cannot mar.

In David’s city doth this Sun appear

Clouded in flesh, yet, shepherds, sit we here?

EDMUND BOLTON

31.  OF THE EPIPHANY

FAIR eastern star, that art ordained to run

Before the sages, to the rising sun,

Here cease thy course, and wonder that the cloud

Of this poor stable can thy Maker shroud:

Ye heavenly bodies glory to be bright,

And are esteemed as ye are rich in light,

But here on earth is taught a different way,

Since under this low roof the Highest lay.

Jerusalem erects her stately towers,

Displays her windows and adorns her bowers;

Yet there thou must not cast a trembling spark,

Let Herod’s palace still continue dark;

Each school and synagogue thy force repels,

There Pride enthroned in misty error dwells:

The temple, where the priests maintain their quire,

Shall taste no beam of thy celestial fire,

While this weak cottage all thy splendour takes:

A joyful gate of every chink it makes.

Here shines no golden roof, no ivory stair,

No king exalted in a stately chair,

Girt with attendants, or by heralds styled,

But straw and hay enwrap a speechless Child.

Yet Sabae’s lords before this Babe unfold

Their treasures, offering incense, myrrh, and gold.

The crib becomes an altar: therefore dies

No ox nor sheep; for in their fodder lies

The Prince of Peace, who, thankful for His bed,

Destroys those rites in which their blood was shed:

The quintessence of earth He takes, and fees,

And precious gums distilled from weeping trees;

Rich metals and sweet odours now declare

The glorious blessings which His laws prepare,

To clear us from the base and loathsome flood

Of sense, and make us fit for angels’ food,

Who lift to God for us the holy smoke

Of fervent prayers with which we Him invoke,

And try our actions in the searching fire,

By which the seraphims our lips inspire:

No muddy dross pure minerals shall infect,

We shall exhale our vapours up direct:

No storm shall cross, nor glittering lights deface

Perpetual sighs which seek a happy place.

SIR JOHN BEAUMONT

32.  THE ANGELS

RUN, shepherds, run, where Bethlehem blest appears,

We bring the best of news; be not dismayed;

A Saviour there is born more old than years,

Amidst heaven’s rolling height this earth who stayed.

In a poor cottage inned, a virgin maid

A weakling did Him bear, who all upbears;

There is He poorly swaddled, in manger laid,

To whom too narrow swaddlings are our spheres:

Run, shepherds, run, and solemnize His birth.

This is that night—no, day, grown great with bliss,

In which the power of Satan broken is:

In heaven be glory, peace unto the earth!

Thus singing, through the air the angels swam,

And cope of stars re-echoèd the same.

WILLIAM DRUMMOND

33.  THE SHEPHERDS

O THAN the fairest day, thrice fairer night!

Night to blest days in which a sun doth rise,

Of which that golden eye which clears the skies

Is but a sparkling ray, a shadow-light!

And blessèd ye, in silly pastor’s sight,

Mild creatures, in whose warm crib now lies

That heaven-sent Youngling, holy-maid-born Wight,

Midst, end, beginning of our prophecies!

Blest cottage that hath flowers in winter spread,

Though withered—blessèd grass that hath the grace

To deck and be a carpet to that place!

Thus sang, unto the sounds of oaten reed,

Before the Babe, the shepherds bowed on knees,

And springs ran nectar, honey dropped from trees.

WILLIAM DRUMMOND

34.  A ROCKING HYMN

SWEET baby, sleep! What ails my dear?

What ails my darling thus to cry?

Be still, my child, and lend thine ear

To hear me sing thy lullaby.

My pretty lamb, forbear to weep;

Be still, my dear; sweet baby, sleep!

Thou blessèd soul, what canst thou fear?

What thing to thee can mischief do?

Thy God is now thy Father dear;

His holy spouse thy mother too.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep!

Whilst thus thy lullaby I sing,

For thee great blessings ripening be;

Thine Eldest Brother is a King,

And hath a kingdom bought for thee.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

Sweet baby, sleep, and nothing fear;

For whosoever thee offends

By thy protector threatened are,

And God and angels are thy friends.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

When God with us was dwelling here,

In little babes He took delight:

Such innocents as thou, my dear,

Are ever precious in His sight.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

A little Infant once was He,

And strength in weakness then was laid

Upon His virgin-mother’s knee,

That power to thee might be conveyed.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

In this thy frailty and thy need

He friends and helpers doth prepare,

Which thee shall cherish, clothe, and feed,

For of thy weal they tender are.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

The King of kings, when He was born,

Had not so much for outward ease;

By Him such dressings were not worn,

Nor such-like swaddling clothes as these.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

Within a manger lodged thy Lord,

Where oxen lay and asses fed;

Warm rooms we do to thee afford,

An easy cradle or a bed.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

The wants that He did then sustain

Have purchased wealth, my babe, for thee;

And by His torments and His pain

Thy rest and ease securèd be.

My baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

Thou hast, yet more, to perfect this,

A promise and an earnest got

Of gaining everlasting bliss,

Though thou, my babe, perceiv’st it not.

Sweet baby, then, forbear to weep;

Be still, my babe; sweet baby, sleep.

GEORGE WITHER

35.  GLORIA IN EXCELSIS

AS on the night before this happy morn,

A blessèd angel unto shepherds told

Where (in a stable) He was poorly born,

Whom nor the earth nor heaven of heavens can hold:

Thro’ Bethlehem rung

This news at their return;

Yea, angels sung

That God with us was born;

And they made mirth because we should not mourn.

Their angel carol sing we, then,

To God on high all glory be,

For peace on earth bestoweth He,

And sheweth favour unto men.

This favour Christ vouchsafèd for our sake;

To buy us thrones, He in a manger lay;

Our weakness took, that we His strength might take;

And was disrobed that He might us array;

Our flesh He wore,

Our sin to wear away;

Our curse He bore,

That we escape it may;

And wept for us, that we might sing for aye.

With angels therefore, sing again,

To God on high all glory be,

For peace on earth bestoweth He,

And sheweth favour unto men.

GILES FLETCHER

36.  WHO CAN FORGET?

WHO can forget—never to be forgot—

The time, that all the world in slumber lies,

When, like the stars, the singing angels shot

To earth, and heaven awakèd all his eyes

To see another sun at midnight rise

On earth? Was never sight of pareil fame,

For God before man like Himself did frame,

But God Himself now like a mortal man became.

A Child He was, and had not learnt to speak,

That with His word the world before did make;

His mother’s arms Him bore, He was so weak,

That with one hand the vaults of heaven could shake,

See how small room my infant Lord doth take,

Whom all the world is not enough to hold!

Who of His years, or of His age hath told?

Never such age so young, never a child so old.

And yet but newly He was infanted,

And yet already He was sought to die;

Yet scarcely born, already banishèd;

Not able yet to go, and forced to fly:

But scarcely fled away, when by and by

The tyrant’s sword with blood is all defiled,

And Rachel, for her sons, with fury wild,

Cries, ‘O thou cruel king, and O my sweetest child!’

Egypt His nurse became, where Nilus springs,

Who, straight to entertain the rising sun,

The hasty harvest in his bosom brings;

But now for drought the fields were all undone,

And now with waters all is overrun:

So fast the Cynthian mountains poured their snow,

When once they felt the sun so near them glow,

That Nilus Egypt lost, and to a sea did grow.

The angels carolled loud their song of peace;

The cursèd oracles were strucken dumb;

To see their Shepherd the poor shepherds press;

To see their King the kingly sophies come;

And them to guide unto his Master’s home,

A star comes dancing up the orient,

That springs for joy over the strawy tent,

Where gold, to make their Prince a crown, they all present.

GILES FLETCHER

37.  A CHRISTMAS CAROL

[Sung to the King in the Presence at Whitehall.]

Chorus.

WHAT sweeter music can we bring

Than a carol, for to sing

The birth of this our heavenly King?

Awake the voice! awake the string!

Heart, ear, and eye, and every thing

Awake! the while the active finger

Runs division with the singer.

[From the flourish they come to the song.]

1. Dark and dull night, fly hence away,

And give the honour to this day,

That sees December turn’d to May.

2. If we may ask the reason, say

The why and wherefore all things here

Seem like the spring-time of the year?

3. Why does the chilling winter’s morn

Smile like a field beset with corn?

Or smell like to a mead new shorn,

Thus on the sudden? 4. Come and see

The cause why things thus fragrant be:

’Tis He is born whose quickening birth

Gives life and lustre, public mirth,

To heaven and the under-earth.

Chorus.

We see Him come, and know Him ours,

Who with His sunshine and His showers

Turns all the patient ground to flowers.

1. The Darling of the world is come,

And fit it is we find a room

To welcome Him. 2. The nobler part

Of all the house here is the heart.

Chorus.

Which we will give Him; and bequeath

This holly and this ivy wreath,

To do Him honour; who’s our King,

And Lord of all this revelling.

ROBERT HERRICK

38.  AN ODE ON THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR

IN numbers, and but these few,

I sing Thy birth, O Jesu!

Thou pretty Baby, born here

With sup’rabundant scorn here:

Who for Thy princely port here,

Hadst for Thy place

Of birth, a base

Out-stable for Thy court here.

Instead of neat enclosures

Of interwoven osiers,

Instead of fragrant posies

Of daffodils and roses,

Thy cradle, kingly Stranger,

As gospel tells,

Was nothing else

But here a homely manger.

But we with silks, not crewels,

With sundry precious jewels,

And lily work will dress Thee;

And, as we dispossess Thee

Of clouts, we’ll make a chamber,

Sweet Babe, for Thee,

Of ivory,

And plastered round with amber.

The Jews they did disdain Thee,

But we will entertain Thee,

With glories to await here

Upon Thy princely state here,

And more for love than pity.

From year to year

We’ll make Thee here

A free-born of our city.

ROBERT HERRICK

39.  CHRISTMAS

ALL after pleasures as I rid one day,

My horse and I both tired, body and mind,

With full cry of affections quite astray,

I took up in the next inn I could find.

There, when I came, whom found I but my dear—

My dearest Lord; expecting till the grief

Of pleasures brought me to Him; ready there

To be all passengers’ most sweet relief?

O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted, light,

Wrapt in night’s mantle, stole into a manger;

Since my dark soul and brutish is Thy right,

To man, of all beasts, be not Thou a stranger.

Furnish and deck my soul, that Thou may’st have

A better lodging than a rack or grave.

The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?

My God, no hymn for thee?

My soul’s a shepherd too; a flock it feeds

Of thoughts and words and deeds.

The pasture is Thy word, the streams Thy grace,

Enriching every place.

Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers

Outsing the daylight hours.

Then we will chide the sun for letting night

Take up his place and right:

We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should

Himself the candle hold.

I will go searching till I find a sun

Shall stay till we have done;

A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly

As frost-nipt suns look sadly.

Then we will sing and shine all our own day,

And one another pay.

His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine,

Till ev’n His beams sing and my music shine.

GEORGE HERBERT

40.  ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY

THIS is the month, and this the happy morn,

Wherein the Son of heaven’s eternal King,

Of wedded Maid and Virgin-Mother born,

Our great redemption from above did bring;

For so the holy sages once did sing,

That He our deadly forfeit should release,

And with His Father work us a perpetual peace.

That glorious form, that light unsufferable,

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

Wherewith He wont at heaven’s high council-table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid aside; and, here with us to be,

Forsook the courts of everlasting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Say, heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein

Afford a present to the Infant God?

Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,

To welcome Him to this His new abode,

Now while the heaven, by the sun’s team untrod,

Hath took no print of the approaching light,

And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

See, how from far, upon the eastern road,

The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet;

O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,

And lay it lowly at His blessed feet;

Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet,

And join thy voice unto the angel-quire,

From out His secret altar touch’d with hallow’d fire.

THE HYMN

It was the winter wild,

While the heaven-born Child

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;

Nature in awe to Him,

Had doff’d her gaudy trim,

With her great Master so to sympathize:

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.

Only with speeches fair,

She woos the gentle air

To hide her guilty front with innocent snow,

And on her naked shame,

Pollute with sinful blame,

The saintly veil of maiden-white to throw;

Confounded, that her Maker’s eyes

Should look so near upon her foul deformities.

But He, her fears to cease,

Sent down the meek-eyed Peace;

She, crown’d with olive green, came softly sliding

Down through the turning sphere,

His ready harbinger,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing;

And waving wide her myrtle wand,

She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.

No war, or battle’s sound,

Was heard the world around:

The idle spear and shield were high up-hung,

The hooked chariot stood

Unstain’d with hostile blood;

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng,

And kings sat still with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

But peaceful was the night

Wherein the Prince of Light

His reign of peace upon the earth began:

The winds with wonder whist

Smoothly the waters kist,

Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,

While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

The stars with deep amaze

Stand fix’d in steadfast gaze,

Bending one way their precious influence.

And will not take their flight

For all the morning light,

Or Lucifer that often warn’d them thence;

But in their glimmering orbs did glow,

Until their Lord Himself bespake, and bid them go.

And though the shady gloom

Had given day her room,

The sun himself withheld his wonted speed,

And hid his head for shame,

As his inferior flame

The new enlighten’d world no more should need;

He saw a greater Sun appear

Than his bright throne, or burning axletree could bear.

The shepherds on the lawn,

Or ere the point of dawn,

Sat simply chatting in a rustic row;

Full little thought they then

That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them below;

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,

Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.

When such music sweet

Their hearts and ears did greet,

As never was by mortal finger strook;

Divinely-warbled voice

Answering the stringed noise,

As all their souls in blissful rapture took:

The air such pleasure loth to lose,

With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close.

Nature that heard such sound,

Beneath the hollow round

Of Cynthia’s seat, the airy region thrilling,

Now was almost won

To think her part was done,

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling;

She knew such harmony alone

Could hold all heaven and earth in happier union.

At last surrounds their sight

A globe of circular light,

That with long beams the shamefac’d night array’d,

The helmed Cherubim,

And sworded Seraphim,

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display’d,

Harping in loud and solemn quire,

With unexpressive notes to Heaven’s new-born Heir.

Such music (as ’tis said)

Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning sung,

While the Creator great

His constellations set,

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung,

And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres,

Once bless our human ears,

(If ye have power to touch our senses so;)

And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time,

And let the base of heaven’s deep organ blow;

And with your ninefold harmony

Make up full consort to th’ angelic symphony.

For if such holy song

Enwrap our fancy long,

Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold;

And speckled Vanity

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould;

And Hell itself will pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

Yea, Truth and Justice then

Will down return to men,

Orb’d in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,

Mercy will sit between,

Thron’d in celestial sheen,

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;

And heaven, as at some festival,

Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall.

But wisest Fate says no,

This must not yet be so,

The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy,

That on the bitter cross

Must redeem our loss;

So both Himself and us to glorify:

Yet first to those ychain’d in sleep,

The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep,

With such a horrid clang

As on Mount Sinai rang.

While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake:

The aged earth aghast

With terror of that blast,

Shall from the surface to the centre shake;

When at the world’s last session,

The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne.

And then at last our bliss

Full and perfect is,

But now begins; for from this happy day

The old dragon under ground

In straiter limits bound,

Not half so far casts his usurped sway,

And wroth to see his kingdom fail,

Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb,

No voice or hideous hum

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving

Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.

No nightly trance, or breathed spell,

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

The lonely mountains o’er,

And the resounding shore,

A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;

From haunted spring and dale,

Edg’d with poplar pale,

The parting Genius is with sighing sent;

With flower-inwoven tresses torn,

The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

In consecrated earth

And on the holy hearth

The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;

In urns and altars round,

A drear and dying sound

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;

And the chill marble seems to sweat,

While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat.

Peor and Baälim

Forsake their temples dim,

With that twice batter’d god of Palestine;

And mooned Ashtaroth,

Heaven’s queen and mother both,

Now sits not girt with tapers’ holy shine;

The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn,

In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.

And sullen Moloch, fled,

Hath left in shadows dread

His burning idol all of blackest hue;

In vain with cymbals’ ring

They call the grisly king,

In dismal dance about the furnace blue;

The brutish gods of Nile as fast,

Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.

Nor is Osiris seen

In Memphian grove or green,

Trampling the unshower’d grass with lowings loud:

Nor can he be at rest

Within his sacred chest,

Naught but profoundest hell can be his shroud;

In vain with timbrell’d anthems dark

The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipt ark.

He feels from Juda’s land

The dreaded Infant’s hand;

The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;

Nor all the gods beside

Longer dare abide,

Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:

Our Babe, to show His Godhead true,

Can in His swaddling bands control the damned crew.

So when the sun in bed,

Curtain’d with cloudy red,

Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,

The flocking shadows pale

Troop to th’ infernal jail;

Each fetter’d ghost slips to his several grave,

And the yellow-skirted Fays

Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.

But see the Virgin blest

Hath laid her Babe to rest;

Time is our tedious song should here have ending,

Heaven’s youngest-teemed star

Hath fix’d her polish’d car,

Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending:

And all about the courtly stable

Bright-harness’d angels sit in order serviceable.

JOHN MILTON

41.  A HYMN OF THE NATIVITY

Chorus.

COME we shepherds whose blest sight

Hath met Love’s noon in Nature’s night,

Come, lift we up our loftier song,

And wake the sun that lies too long.

To all our world of well-stol’n joy,

He slept and dreamt of no such thing,

While we found out heaven’s fairer eye

And kist the cradle of our King;

Tell him he rises now too late,

To show us aught worth looking at.

Tell him we now can show him more

Than e’er he showed to mortal sight,

Than he himself e’er saw before,

Which to be seen needs not his light.

Tell him, Tityrus, where th’ hast been,

Tell him, Thyrsis, what th’ hast seen.

Tityrus.

Gloomy night embraced the place

Where the noble Infant lay,

The Babe looked up and showed His face;

In spite of darkness it was day.

It was Thy day, Sweet, and did rise

Not from the East but from Thine eyes.

Chorus.—It was Thy day, Sweet, &c.

Thyrsis.

Winter chid aloud and sent

The angry North to wage his wars,

The North forgot his fierce intent,

And left perfumes instead of scars;

By those sweet eyes’ persuasive powers,

Where he meant frost he scattered flowers.

Chorus.—By those sweet eyes, &c.

Both.

We saw Thee in Thy balmy nest,

Bright dawn of our eternal day!

We saw Thine eyes break from their East

And chase the trembling shades away:

We saw Thee and we blest the sight,

We saw Thee by Thine own sweet light.

Tityrus.

Poor world (said I), what wilt thou do

To entertain this starry Stranger?

Is this the best thou canst bestow,

A cold and not too cleanly manger?

Contend, ye powers of heaven and earth,

To fit a bed for this huge birth.

Chorus.—Contend, ye powers, &c.

Thyrsis.

Proud world (said I), cease your contest,

And let the mighty Babe alone,

The Phoenix builds the Phoenix’ nest,

Love’s architecture is all one.

The Babe whose birth embraves this morn,

Made His own bed ere He was born.

Chorus.—The Babe whose birth, &c.

Tityrus.

I saw the curl’d drops, soft and slow,

Come hovering o’er the place’s head,

Offering their whitest sheets of snow

To furnish the fair Infant’s bed:

Forbear (said I), be not too bold;

Your fleece is white, but ’tis too cold.

Chorus.—Forbear (said I), &c.

Thyrsis.

I saw the obsequious seraphins

Their rosy fleece of fire bestow;

For well they now can spare their wings,

Since heaven itself lies here below:

Well done (said I), but are you sure

Your down so warm will pass for pure?

Chorus.—Well done (said I), &c.

Tityrus.

No, no, your King’s not yet to seek

Where to repose His royal head.

See, see, how soon His new-bloom’d cheek

Twixt’s mother’s breasts is gone to bed:

Sweet choice (said I), no way but so,

Not to lie cold, yet sleep in snow.

Chorus.—Sweet choice (said I), &c.

Both.

We saw Thee in Thy balmy nest,

Bright dawn of our eternal day!

We saw Thine eyes break from their East

And chase the trembling shades away;

We saw Thee and we blest the sight,

We saw Thee by Thine own sweet light.

Chorus.—We saw Thee, &c.

Full Chorus.

Welcome all wonder in one sight,

Eternity shut in a span,

Summer in winter, day in night,

Heaven in earth and God in man!

Great little One! whose all-embracing birth

Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.

Welcome, though not to gold nor silk

To more than Caesar’s birthright is,

Two sister seas of virgin milk,

With many a rarely-tempered kiss,

That breathes at once both maid and mother,

Warms in the one and cools in the other.

She sings thy tears asleep, and dips

Her kisses in thy weeping eye;

She spreads the red leaves of thy lips

That in their buds yet blushing lie:

She ’gainst those mother-diamonds tries

The points of her young eagle’s eyes.

Welcome, though not to those gay flies

Gilded i’ the beams of earthly kings,

Slippery souls in smiling eyes,

But to poor shepherds’ home-spun things;

Whose wealth’s their flock, whose wit to be

Well read in their simplicity.

Yet when young April’s husband-showers

Shall bless the fruitful Maia’s bed,

We’ll bring the first-born of her flowers

To kiss Thy feet and crown Thy head:

To Thee, dread Lamb, whose love must keep

The shepherds more than they their sheep.

To Thee, meek Majesty! soft King

Of simple graces and sweet loves,

Each of us his lamb will bring,

Each his pair of silver doves,

Till burnt at last in fire of Thy fair eyes,

Ourselves become our own best sacrifice.

RICHARD CRASHAW

42.  SATAN’S SIGHT OF THE NATIVITY

HEAVEN'S golden-wingèd herald late he saw

To a poor Galilean virgin sent:

How long the bright youth bowed, and with what awe

Immortal flowers to her fair hand present.

He saw th’ old Hebrew’s womb neglect the law

Of age and barrenness, and her babe prevent

His birth by his devotion, who began

Betimes to be a saint, before a man.

He saw rich nectar thaws release the rigour

Of th’ icy north, from frost-bound Atlas’ hands

His adamantine fetters fall; green vigour

Gladding the Scythian rocks and Libyan sands.

He saw a vernal smile sweetly disfigure

Winter’s sad face, and through the flowery lands

Of fair Engaddi’s honey-sweating fountains

With manna, milk, and balm new broach the mountains.

He saw how in that blest day-bearing night

The heaven rebukèd shades made haste away;

How bright a dawn of angels with new light

Amazed the midnight world, and made a day

Of which the morning knew not; mad with spight

He mark’d how the poor shepherds ran to pay

Their simple tribute to the Babe, whose birth

Was the great business both of heaven and earth.

He saw a threefold sun with rich increase

Make proud the ruby portals of the East,

He saw the temple sacred to sweet peace

Adore her Prince’s birth flat on her breast.

He saw the falling idols all confess

A coming Deity. He saw the nest

Of poisonous and unnatural loves, earth-nurst,

Touch’d with the world’s true antidote, to burst.

He saw heaven blossom with a new-born light,

On which, as on a glorious stranger, gazed

The golden eyes of night, whose beam made bright

The way to Bethlem; and as boldly blazed

(Nor ask’d leave of the sun) by day as night.

By whom (as heaven’s illustrious handmaid) raised

Three kings or, what is more, three wise men went

Westward to find the world’s true orient.

That the great angel-blinding light should shrink

His blaze to shine in a poor shepherd’s eye,

That the unmeasured God so low should sink

As Pris’ner in a few poor rags to lie,

That from His mother’s breast He milk should drink

Who feeds with nectar heaven’s fair family,

That a vile manger His low bed should prove

Who in a throne of stars thunders above:

That He, whom the sun serves, should faintly peep

Through clouds of infant flesh; that He the old

Eternal Word should be a Child and weep,

That He who made the fire should fear the cold:

That heaven’s high majesty His court should keep

In a clay cottage, by each blast controll’d:

That glory’s self should serve our griefs and fears,

And free Eternity submit to years;

And further, that the law’s eternal Giver

Should bleed in His own law’s obedience;

And to the circumcising knife deliver

Himself, the forfeit of His slave’s offence;

That the unblemish’d Lamb, blessed for ever,

Should take the mark of sin, and pain of sense:—

These are the knotty riddles, whose dark doubt

Entangle his lost thoughts past getting out.

RICHARD CRASHAW

(from Sospetto d’Herode)

43.  A HYMN FOR THE EPIPHANY

[Sung as by the three kings.]

1st King.

BRIGHT Babe! whose awful beauties make

The morn incur a sweet mistake;

2nd King.

For whom the officious heavens devise

To disinherit the sun’s rise;

3rd King.

Delicately to displace

The day, and plant it fairer in thy face;

1st King.

O Thou born King of loves!

2nd King. Of lights!

3rd King. Of joys!

Chorus.

Look up, sweet Babe, look up and see!

For love of Thee,

Thus far from home,

The East is come

To seek herself in Thy sweet eyes.

1st King.

We who strangely went astray,

Lost in a bright

Meridian night;

2nd King.

A darkness made of too much day;

3rd King.

Beckoned from far,

By thy fair star,

Lo, at last have found our way.

Chorus.

To thee, thou Day of Night; thou East of West!

Lo, we at last have found the way

To thee, the world’s great universal East,

The general and indifferent day.

1st King.

All-circling point! all-centring sphere!

The world’s one, round, eternal year:

2nd King.

Whose full and all-unwrinkled face,

Nor sinks nor swells, with time or place;

3rd King.

But everywhere and every while

Is one consistent solid smile.

1st King.

Not vexed and tost,

2nd King.

’Twixt spring and frost;

3rd King.

Nor by alternate shreds of light,

Sordidly shifting hands with shades and night.

Chorus.

O little All, in Thy embrace,

The world lies warm and likes his place;

Nor does his full globe fail to be

Kissed on both his cheeks by Thee;

Time is too narrow for Thy year,

Nor makes the whole world Thy half-sphere.

Therefore, to Thee, and Thine auspicious ray,

(Dread sweet!), lo thus,

At least by us,

The delegated eye of day,

Does first his sceptre, then himself, in solemn tribute pay;

Thus he undresses

His sacred unshorn tresses;

At thy adorèd feet thus he lays down,

1st King.

His glorious tire

Of flame and fire,

2nd King.   His glittering robe,

3rd King.                  His sparkling crown,

1st King.   His gold,

2nd King.            His myrrh,

3rd King.                  His frankincense.

Chorus.

To which he now has no pretence;

For being show’d by this day’s light, how far

He is from sun, enough to make thy star,

His best ambition now is but to be

Something a brighter shadow, sweet! of thee.

Or on heaven’s azure forehead high to stand,

Thy golden index; with a duteous hand

Pointing us home to our own Sun,

The world’s and his Hyperion.

RICHARD CRASHAW

44.  HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

[Being a dialogue between three shepherds.]

1st.

WHERE is this blessed Babe

That hath made

All the world so full of joy

And expectation;

That glorious Boy

That crowns each nation

With a triumphant wreath of blessedness?

2nd.

Where should He be but in the throng,

And among

His angel ministers, that sing

And take wing

Just as may echo to His voice,

And rejoice,

When wing and tongue and all

May so procure their happiness?

3rd.

But He hath other waiters now:

A poor cow,

An ox and mule, stand and behold,

And wonder

That a stable should enfold

Him that can thunder.

Chorus.—O what a gracious God have we,

How good! how great! even as our misery.

JEREMY TAYLOR

45.  HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

AWAKE, my soul, and come away:

Put on thy best array;

Lest if thou longer stay

Thou lose some minutes of so blest a day.

Go run,

And bid good-morrow to the sun;

Welcome his safe return

To Capricorn,

And that great morn

Wherein a God was born,

Whose story none can tell

But He whose every word’s a miracle.

To-day Almightiness grew weak;

The Word itself was mute and could not speak.

That Jacob’s star which made the sun

To dazzle if he durst look on,

Now mantled o’er in Bethlehem’s night,

Borrowed a star to show him light.

He that begirt each zone,

To whom both poles are one,

Who grasped the zodiac in his hand

And made it move or stand,

Is now by nature man,

By stature but a span;

Eternity is now grown short;

A King is born without a court;

The water thirsts, the fountain’s dry;

And life, being born, made apt to die.

Chorus.

Then let our praises emulate and vie

With His humility!

Since He’s exiled from skies

That we might rise,—

From low estate of men

Let’s sing Him up again!

Each man wind up his heart

To bear a part

In that angelic choir and show

His glory high as He was low.

Let’s sing towards men goodwill and charity,

Peace upon earth, glory to God on high!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

JEREMY TAYLOR

46.  CHRISTMAS DAY

WONDER'S birthday,

Which mak’st December’s face

Fairer than May,

And bidst the spring give place

To fresher winter, in whose hardy snow

A flower more sweet than the whole spring doth grow.

For winter now

A virgin plant espies,

Which all his snow

Could never equalize:

More white, more chaste is she, yet fertile too,

The King of Miracles would have it so.

For he it was

Who would be born below.

And find a place

Amongst poor us to grow.

Himself he planted in our dust that he

Might be as true a mortal thing as we.

Himself he set

And by that art was sure

That he should get

A birth all clean and pure:

Proud flesh corrupts and stains the seed we sow;

He, planted by his Spirit, will spotless grow.

Virginity

His Father wanteth not,

Though glorious he

So great a Son hath got;

Wherefore Heaven orders that a virgin be

The Lily-Mother of his purity.

Upon the white

Church-wall oft-times have I

Observ’d the light,

Which darting from the sky

Pierc’d the unbroken glass and with it brought

The orient colours in the window wrought.

So from his sphere

The Lord of Light doth come,

And passing here

His crystal Mother’s womb

Leaves her entirely whole, yet brings away

Her perfect image, born a man to-day.

He who did wear

God’s radiant boundless form

Shrinks himself here

Into a simple worm.

Heaven moulded up in earth; Eternity

Grasp’d in a span of time doth bounded lie.

All Paradise

Collected in one bud

Doth sweetly rise

From its fair Virgin bed:

Omnipotence an Infant’s shape puts on,

Immensity becomes a Little One.

But only LOVE

Would not thus scanted be,

But stoutly strove

’Gainst this conspiracy

Of strange Epitomies, and did display

Itself more full on this contracting day.

JOSEPH BEAUMONT

47.  SONNET XXV

Incarnatio est maximum Dei donum.

LIKE as the fountain of all light created

Doth pour out streams of brightness undefin’d

Through all the conduits of transparent kind,

That heaven and air are both illuminated,

And yet his light is not thereby abated;

So God’s eternal bounty ever shin’d

The beams of being, moving, life, sense, mind;

And to all things himself communicated

But for the violent diffusive pleasure

Of goodness that left not till God had spent

Himself by giving us himself his treasure

In making man a God omnipotent.

How might this goodness draw ourselves above

Which drew down God with such attractive love!

JOSEPH BEAUMONT

48.  ON THE NATIVITY OF OUR SAVIOUR

WHY does the frowning winter smile

And check his fierce intent?

Why does he curb his ruffling powers,

As he for snow would sprinkle flowers?

There is a reason for this guile,

’Twas but to pay his rent:

It is the best that Huff-capp gives

At the great birth

Of publicke mirth,

And pay’d, no longer lives.

The Babe unveils His lovely face

To chase the shades away;

As soon as He casts up His eyes

A sudden brightness will arise

To gild the room does Him embrace;

In spite of clouds ’tis Day.

Lodg’d in His mother’s bosom He

May sleep in snow,

(Without cold tho’)

For down from cold is free.

Be not amazèd, souls, for this

Is but the half of Joy;

The Angels spare their nimble wings,

For now they’re but superfluous things;

To men, since Heaven descended is

Contracted in a Boy.

The Rose of Sharon’s budded now

And every thing

Portends a spring.

December snows adieu:

Adieu, but stay: a Subject prov’d a Ring,

Presents as great, as splendid, offering.

My breast’s the mine whence golden precepts rise,

Myrrh drops in bitter tears from virgin eyes.

Frankincense, praise’s furnish’d with desert

Offered upon no altar but my heart,

This reinvites my God unto my breast

And spreads the table for the welcome guest.

Tho’ gold, myrrh, frankincense, kings off’red Thee,

Thou’st frankincense, with gold and myrrh from me.

If these shrink in performance, at Thy eyes

I’ll trine my selfe and prove Thy sacrifice.

J. M.

49.  THE SHEPHERDS

SWEET, harmless live{r}s! on whose holy leisure,

Waits innocence and pleasure;

Whose leaders to those pastures and clear springs

Were patriarchs, saints, and kings;

How happen’d it that in the dead of night

You only saw true light,

While Palestine was fast asleep, and lay

Without one thought of day?

Was it because those first and blessèd swains

Were pilgrims on those plains

When they received the promise, for which now

’Twas there first shown to you?

’Tis true he loves that dust whereon they go

That serve him here below,

And therefore might for memory of those

His love there first disclose;

But wretched Salem, once his love, must now

No voice nor vision know;

Her stately piles with all their height and pride

Now languishèd and died,

And Bethlem’s humble cots above them stept

While all her seers slept;

Her cedar, fir, hewed stones, and gold were all

Polluted through their fall;

And those once sacred mansions were now

Mere emptiness and show.

This made the angel call at reeds and thatch,

Yet where the shepherds watch,

And God’s own lodging, though he could not lack,

To be a common rack.

No costly pride, no soft-clothed luxury

In those thin cells could lie;

Each stirring wind and storm blew through their cots,

Which never harboured plots;

Only content and love and humble joys

Lived there without all noise;

Perhaps some harmless cares for the next day

Did in their bosoms play,

As where to lead their sheep, what silent nook,

What springs or shades to look;

But that was all; and now with gladsome care

They for the town prepare;

They leave their flock, and in a busy talk

All towards Bethlem walk,

To seek their soul’s great Shepherd, who was come

To bring all stragglers home;

Where now they find Him out, and, taught before,

That Lamb of God adore,

That Lamb, whose days great kings and prophets wished

And longed to see, but missed.

The first light they beheld was bright and gay,

And turned their night to day;

But to this later light they saw in Him

Their day was dark and dim.

HENRY VAUGHAN

50.  CHRIST’S NATIVITY

AWAKE, glad heart! get up and sing!

It is the Birthday of thy King.

Awake! awake!

The sun doth shake

Light from his locks, and, all the way

Breathing perfumes, doth spice the day.

Awake! awake! hark how th’ wood rings,

Winds whisper, and the busy springs

A concert make!

Awake! awake!

Man is their high-priest, and should rise

To offer up the sacrifice.

I would I were some bird or star,

Fluttering in woods, or lifted far

Above this inn,

And road of sin!

Then either star or bird should be

Shining or singing still to Thee.

I would I had in my best part

Fit rooms for Thee! or that my heart

Were so clean as

Thy manger was!

But I am all filth, and obscene:

Yet, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make clean.

Sweet Jesu! will then. Let no more

This leper haunt and soil Thy door!

Cure him, ease him,

O release him!

And let once more, by mystic birth,

The Lord of life be born in earth.

HENRY VAUGHAN

51.  AND THEY LAID HIM IN A MANGER

HAPPY crib, that wert alone

To my God, bed, cradle, throne!

Whilst thy glorious vileness I

View with divine fancy’s eye,

Sordid filth seems all the cost,

State, and splendour, crowns do boast.

See heaven’s sacred majesty

Humbled beneath poverty;

Swaddled up in homely rags,

On a bed of straw and flags!

He whose hands the heavens display’d,

And the world’s foundations laid,

From the world almost exiled,

Of all ornaments despoil’d.

Perfumes bathe Him not, new-born,

Persian mantles not adorn;

Nor do the rich roofs look bright,

With the jasper’s orient light.

Where, O royal Infant, be

Th’ ensigns of Thy majesty;

Thy Sire’s equalizing state;

And Thy sceptre that rules fate?

Where’s Thy angel-guarded throne,

Whence Thy laws Thou didst make known—

Laws which heaven, earth, hell, obey’d?

These, ah! these aside He laid;

Would the emblem be—of pride

By humility outvied?

SIR EDWARD SHERBURNE

52.  AT THE SIGN OF THE HEART

BUT art Thou come, dear Saviour? hath Thy love

Thus made Thee stoop, and leave Thy throne above

Thy lofty heavens, and thus Thyself to dress

In dust to visit mortals? Could no less

A condescension serve? and after all

The mean reception of a cratch and stall?

Dear Lord, I’ll fetch Thee thence! I have a room

(’Tis poor, but ’tis my best) if Thou wilt come

Within so small a cell, where I would fain

Mine and the world’s Redeemer entertain.

I mean, my Heart: ’tis sluttish, I confess,

And will not mend Thy lodging, Lord, unless

Thou send before Thy harbinger, I mean

Thy pure and purging Grace, to make it clean

And sweep its nasty corners; then I’ll try

To wash it also with a weeping eye.

And when ’tis swept and wash’d, I then will go

And, with Thy leave, I’ll fetch some flowers that grow

In Thine own garden, Faith and Love, to Thee;

With these I’ll dress it up, and these shall be

My rosemary and bays. Yet when my best

Is done, the room’s not fit for such a Guest.

But here’s the cure; Thy presence, Lord, alone

Will make a stall a Court, a cratch a Throne.

UNKNOWN

53.  LODGED IN AN INN

LODGDED in an inn

What Guest divine

There meekly lay,

The God of night and day!

In tax-time to pay sums

He comes,

Ev’n man’s price full:

From Satan’s rule

He will set free

Our poor humanity.

To us betake

Blest God! and make

Within our breast

Thy lodging-place and rest;

Thou Temples seek’st, not Inns:

Let sins

No more intrude

On th’ Inmate God,

Nor e’er deface

The ornaments of grace.

UNKNOWN

54.  YET IF HIS MAJESTY OUR SOVEREIGN LORD

YET if his majesty our sovereign Lord

Should of his own accord

Friendly himself invite,

And say, ‘I’ll be your guest to-morrow night,’

How should we stir ourselves, call and command

All hands to work! ‘Let no man idle stand.’

‘Set me fine Spanish tables in the hall,

See they be fitted all;

Let there be room to eat,

And order taken that there want no meat.

See every sconce and candlestick made bright,

That without tapers they may give a light.

‘Look to the presence: are the carpets spread,

The daïs o’er the head,

The cushions in the chairs,

And all the candles lighted on the stairs?

Perfume the chambers, and in any case

Let each man give attendance in his place.’

Thus if the king were coming would we do,

And ’twere good reason too;

For ’tis a duteous thing

To show all honour to an earthly king,

And after all our travail and our cost,

So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.

But at the coming of the King of heaven,

All’s set at six and seven.

We wallow in our sin,

Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn,

We entertain Him always like a stranger,

And as at first still lodge Him in the manger.

UNKNOWN

55.  AND ART THOU COME, BLEST BABE?

AND art Thou come, blest Babe, and come to me?

Come down to teach me how to come to Thee?

Welcome, thrice welcome to my panting soul,

Which, as it loves, doth grieve that ’tis so foul.

The less ’tis fit for Thee come from above,

The more it needs Thee, and the more I love.

UNKNOWN

56.  SONG OF THE ANGELS AT THE NATIVITY

WHILE shepherds watch’d their flocks by night,

All seated on the ground,

The Angel of the Lord came down,

And glory shone around.

‘Fear not,’ said he (for mighty dread

Had seized their troubled mind);

‘Glad tidings of great joy I bring

To you and all mankind.

’To you in David’s town this day

Is born of David’s line

The Saviour, who is Christ the Lord;

And this shall be the sign:—

‘The heavenly Babe you there shall find

To human view display’d,

All meanly wrapt in swathing-bands,

And in a manger laid.’

Thus spake the seraph; and forthwith

Appear’d a shining throng

Of angels praising God, and thus

Address’d their joyful song:—

‘All glory be to God on high,

And to the earth be peace;

Good will henceforth from heaven to men

Begin, and never cease!’

NAHUM TATE

57.  SHEPHERDS, REJOICE

SHEPHERDS, rejoice, lift up your eyes,

And send your fears away;

News from the region of the skies!

Salvation’s born to-day.

‘Jesus, the God whom angels fear,

Comes down to dwell with you;

To-day He makes His entrance here,

But not as monarchs do.

‘No gold, nor purple swaddling bands,

Nor royal shining things;

A manger for His cradle stands

And holds the King of kings.

‘Go, shepherds, where the Infant lies,

And see His humble throne:—

With tears of joy in all your eyes

Go, shepherds, kiss the Son.’

Thus Gabriel sang: and straight around

The heavenly armies throng;

They tune their harps to lofty sound,

And thus conclude the song:

‘Glory to God that reigns above,

Let peace surround the earth;

Mortals shall know their Maker’s love,

At their Redeemer’s birth.’

Lord! and shall angels have their songs,

And men no tunes to raise?

O may we lose these useless tongues

When they forget to praise!

Glory to God that reigns above,

That pitied us forlorn!

We join to sing our Maker’s love—

For there’s a Saviour born.

ISAAC WATTS

58.  A CRADLE SONG

HUSHG, my dear, lie still and slumber,

Holy angels guard thy bed!

Heavenly blessings without number

Gently falling on thy head.

Sleep, my babe; thy food and raiment,

House and home thy friends provide;

All without thy care or payment,

All thy wants are well supplied.

How much better thou’rt attended

Than the Son of God could be,

When from heaven He descended,

And became a Child like thee!

Soft and easy is thy cradle;

Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay:

When His birthplace was a stable,

And His softest bed was hay.

See the kinder shepherds round Him,

Telling wonders from the sky!

Where they sought Him, there they found Him,

With the virgin-mother by.

See the lovely Babe a-dressing;

Lovely Infant, how He smiled!

When He wept, the mother’s blessing

Soothed and hushed the holy Child.

Lo, He slumbers in His manger

Where the hornèd oxen fed;

—Peace, my darling, here’s no danger;

Here’s no ox a-near thy bed.

Mayst thou live to know and fear Him,

Trust and love Him all thy days;

Then go dwell for ever near Him,

See His face, and sing His praise.

I could give thee thousand kisses,

Hoping what I most desire;

Not a mother’s fondest wishes

Can to greater joys aspire.

ISAAC WATTS

59.  A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

CHRISTIANS, awake, salute the happy morn

Whereon the Saviour of the world was born;

Rise to adore the Mystery of love,

Which hosts of angels chanted from above:

With them the joyful tidings first begun

Of God incarnate, and the Virgin’s Son:

Then to the watchful shepherds it was told,

Who heard th’ Angelic Herald’s voice—‘Behold!

I bring good tidings of a Saviour’s birth

To you, and all the nations upon earth;

This day hath God fulfill’d his promised word;

This day is born a Saviour, Christ, the Lord:

In David’s city, shepherds, ye shall find

The long-foretold Redeemer of mankind,

Wrapt up in swaddling clothes, the Babe divine

Lies in a manger; this shall be the sign.’

JOHN BYROM

60.  A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

HARK, the glad sound! the Saviour comes,

The Saviour promised long;

Let every heart prepare a throne,

And every voice a song!

He comes, the prisoners to release

In Satan’s bondage held;

The gates of brass before Him burst,

The iron fetters yield.

He comes, the broken heart to bind,

The bleeding soul to cure,

And with the treasures of His grace

T’ enrich the humble poor.

Our glad Hosannas, Prince of Peace,

Thy welcome shall proclaim,

And heaven’s eternal arches ring

With Thy belovèd name.

PHILIP DODDRIDGE

61.  A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

HARK! how all the welkin rings,

Glory to the King of kings!

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,

Join the triumph of the skies;

Universal nature say,

Christ the Lord is born to-day.

Christ, by highest Heaven adored;

Christ, the Everlasting Lord;

Late in time behold Him come,

Offspring of a Virgin’s womb;

Veil’d in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail, th’ Incarnate Deity!

Pleased as man with men t’ appear,

Jesus, our Immanuel here!

Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace!

Hail! the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Risen with healing in His wings.

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.

CHARLES WESLEY

62.  THE SHEPHERDS WENT THEIR HASTY WAY

THE shepherds went their hasty way,

And found the lowly stable-shed,

Where the virgin-mother lay;

And now they checked their eager tread,

For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung,

A mother’s song the virgin-mother sung.

They told her how a glorious light,

Streaming from a heavenly throng,

Around them shone, suspending night!

While sweeter than a mother’s song,

Blest angels heralded the Saviour’s birth,

Glory to God on high! and peace on earth!

She listened to the tale divine,

And closer still the Babe she pressed;

And while she cried, The Babe is mine!

The milk rushed faster to her breast:

Joy rose within her, like a summer’s morn;

Peace, peace on earth! the Prince of Peace is born.

Thou mother of the Prince of Peace,

Poor, simple, and of low estate!

That strife should vanish, battle cease,

O why should this thy soul elate?

Sweet music’s loudest note, the poet’s story,—

Didst thou ne’er love to hear of fame and glory?

And is not War a youthful king,

A stately hero clad in mail?

Beneath his footsteps laurels spring;

Him earth’s majestic monarchs hail

Their friend, their playmate! and his bold bright eye

Compels the maiden’s love-confessing sigh.

‘Tell this in some more courtly scene

To maids and youths in robes of state!

I am a woman poor and mean,

And therefore is my soul elate.

War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled,

That from the aged father tears his child.

‘A murderous fiend by fiends adored,

He kills the sire and starves the son;

The husband kills, and from her board

Steals all his widow’s toil had won;

Plunders God’s world of beauty; rends away

All safety from the night, all comfort from the day.

‘Then wisely is my soul elate,

That strife should vanish, battle cease;

I’m poor and of a low estate,

The mother of the Prince of Peace.

Joy rises in me, like a summer’s morn:

Peace, peace on earth! the Prince of Peace is born.’

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

63.  FROM OTTFRIED’S PARAPHRASE OF THE GOSPEL

SHE gave with joy her virgin breast;

She hid it not, she bared the breast

Which suckled that divinest Babe!

Blessed, blessed were the breasts

Which the Saviour Infant kiss’d;

And blessed, blessed was the mother

Who wrapp’d His limbs in swaddling clothes,

Singing placed Him on her lap,

Hung o’er Him with her looks of love,

And soothed Him with a lulling motion.

Blessed! for she shelter’d Him

From the damp and chilling air;

Blessed, blessed! for she lay

With such a Babe in one blest bed,

Close as babes and mothers lie!

Blessed, blessed evermore,

With her virgin lips she kiss’d,

With her arms, and to her breast,

She embraced the Babe divine,

Her Babe divine the virgin-mother!

There lives not on this ring of earth

A mortal that can sing her praise.

Mighty mother, virgin pure,

In the darkness and the night

For us she bore the heavenly Lord.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

64.  THE VIRGIN’S CRADLE HYMN

Copied from a print of the Virgin in a Catholic village in Germany.

DORMI, Jesu! mater ridet

Quae tam dulcem somnum videt,

Dormi, Jesu! blandule!

Si non dormis, mater plorat,

Inter fila cantans orat,

Blande, veni, somnule.

Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling:

Mother sits beside thee smiling;

Sleep, my darling, tenderly;

If thou sleep not, mother mourneth,

Singing as her wheel she turneth:

Come, soft slumber, balmily!

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

65.  BRIGHTEST AND BEST OF THE

SONS OF THE MORNING!

BRIGHTEST and best of the sons of the morning!

Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid!

Star of the East, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our Infant Redeemer is laid!

Cold on His cradle the dew-drops are shining;

Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;

Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining,

Maker and Monarch and Saviour of all.

Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion,

Odours of Edom and offerings divine?

Gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean,

Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?

Vainly we offer each ample oblation;

Vainly with gifts would His favour secure;

Richer by far is the heart’s adoration;

Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning!

Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid!

Star of the East, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our Infant Redeemer is laid!

REGINALD HEBER

66.  THEY LEAVE THE LAND OF GEMS AND GOLD

THEY leave the land of gems and gold,

The shining portals of the East;

For Him, the woman’s Seed foretold,

They leave the revel and the feast.

To earth their sceptres they have cast,

And crowns by kings ancestral worn;

They track the lonely Syrian waste;

They kneel before the Babe new born.

O happy eyes that saw Him first;

O happy lips that kissed His feet;

Earth slakes at last her ancient thirst;

With Eden’s joy her pulses beat.

True kings are those who thus forsake

Their kingdoms for the Eternal King;

Serpent, her foot is on thy neck;

Herod, thou writhest, but canst not sting.

He, He is King, and He alone

Who lifts that infant hand to bless;

Who makes His mother’s knee His throne,

Yet rules the starry wilderness.

AUBREY DE VERE

67.  CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR BELLS

1

THE time draws near the birth of Christ:

The moon is hid; the night is still;

The Christmas bells from hill to hill

Answer each other in the mist.

Four voices of four hamlets round,

From far and near, on mead and moor,

Swell out and fail, as if a door

Were shut between me and the sound:

Each voice four changes on the wind,

That now dilate, and now decrease,

Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,

Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.

This year I slept and woke with pain,

I almost wish’d no more to wake,

And that my hold on life would break

Before I heard those bells again:

But they my troubled spirit rule,

For they controll’d me when a boy;

They bring me sorrow touch’d with joy,

The merry, merry bells of Yule.

2

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light:

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For these that here we see no more;

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;

Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.

ALFRED TENNYSON

(from In Memoriam)

68.  THE FIRST CHRISTMAS EVE

IT was the calm and silent night:

Seven hundred years and fifty-three

Had Rome been growing up to might,

And now was Queen of earth and sea:

The clashing of continual wars

Was hushed throughout the wide domain;

Apollo, Pallas, Jove and Mars

Held undisturbed their ancient reign,

In the solemn midnight

Centuries ago.

It was the calm and silent night:

The Senator of ancient Rome

Impatient urged his chariot’s flight,

From lordly revel rolling home:

Triumphal arches gleaming swell

His breast with thoughts of boundless sway;

Nought recked the Roman what befell

A paltry province far away,

In the solemn midnight

Centuries ago.

Within that province far away,

Went plodding home the weary boor.

A streak of light before him lay,

Fallen through a half-shut stable door

Across his path:—he passed; for nought

Told what was going on within;

How bright the stars his only thought,

The air, how calm and cold and thin

In the solemn midnight

Centuries ago.

Oh strange indifference! low and high

Drowsed over common joys and cares—

The earth was still, it knew not why,

The world was listening unawares,

How calm a moment may precede

One that shall thrill the world for ever.

To that still moment none would heed,

Man’s doom was linked, no more to sever,

In the solemn midnight

Centuries ago.

It is the calm and silent night—

A thousand bells ring out, and throw

Their joyous peals around, and smite

The darkness—charmed and holy now—

The day that erst no name had worn,

To it a blessed name is given,

For in that stable lay, new born,

The Peaceful Prince of earth and heaven—

In the solemn midnight

Centuries ago.

ALFRED DOMETT

69.  CHRIST WAS BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY

CHRIST was born on Christmas day;

Wreathe the holly, twine the bay;

Christus natus hodie:

The Babe, the Son, the Holy One of Mary.

He is born to set us free,

He is born our Lord to be,

Ex Maria Virgine:

The God, the Lord, by all adored for ever.

Let the bright red berries glow

Everywhere in goodly show;

Christus natus hodie:

The Babe, the Son, the Holy One of Mary.

Christian men, rejoice and sing;

’Tis the birthday of a King,

Ex Maria Virgine:

The God, the Lord, by all adored for ever.

Night of sadness, Morn of gladness

Evermore:

Ever, ever, after many troubles sore,

Morn of gladness, evermore and evermore.

Midnight scarcely passed and over,

Drawing to this holy morn,

Very early, very early

Christ was born.

Sing out with bliss, His name is this—

Emmanuel,

As was foretold in days of old

By Gabriel.

J. M. NEALE

70.  A CHRISTMAS CAROL

IT chanced upon the merry merry Christmas eve

I went sighing past the church across the moorland dreary—

‘Oh! never sin and want and woe this earth will leave,

And the bells but mock the wailing round, they sing so cheery.

How long, O Lord! how long before Thou come again?

Still in cellar, and in garret, and on moorland dreary

The orphans moan, and widows weep, and poor men toil in vain,

Till earth is sick of hope deferred, though Christmas bells be cheery.’

Then arose a joyous clamour from the wildfowl on the mere,

Beneath the stars, across the snow, like clear bells ringing,

And a voice within cried—‘Listen!—Christmas carols even here!

Though thou be dumb, yet o’er their work the stars and snows are singing.

Blind! I live, I love, I reign; and all the nations through

With the thunder of my judgements even now are ringing;

Do thou fulfil thy work, but as yon wildfowl do,

Thou wilt hear no less the wailing, yet hear through it angels singing.’

CHARLES KINGSLEY

71.  A CHRISTMAS CAROL

IN the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him,

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty

Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air:

But only His mother,

In her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the Belovèd

With a kiss.

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb,

If I were a wise man

I would do my part,—

Yet what I can I give Him:

Give my heart.

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

72.  MASTERS, IN THIS HALL

TO Bethlem did they go, the shepherds three;

To Bethlem did they go, to see whe’r it were so or no,

Whether Christ were born or no

To set men free.

Masters, in this hall,

Hear ye news to-day

Brought over sea,

And ever I you pray,

Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell!

Sing we clear!

Holpen are all folk on earth,

Born is God’s Son so dear.

Going over the hills

Through the milk-white snow,

Heard I ewes bleat

While the wind did blow.

Nowell, &c.

Shepherds many an one

Sat among the sheep;

No man spake more word

Than they had been asleep.

Nowell, &c.

Quoth I, ‘Fellows mine,

Why this guise sit ye?

Making but dull cheer,

Shepherds though ye be?’

Nowell, &c.

‘Shepherds should of right

Leap and dance and sing;

Thus to see ye sit

Is a right strange thing.’

Nowell, &c.

Quoth these fellows then,

‘To Bethlem town we go,

To see a mighty Lord

Lie in manger low.’

Nowell, &c.

‘How name ye this Lord,

Shepherds?’ then said I.

‘Very God,’ they said,

‘Come from heaven high.’

Nowell, &c.

Then to Bethlem town

We went two and two,

And in a sorry place

Heard the oxen low.

Nowell, &c.

Therein did we see

A sweet and goodly May,

And a fair old man;

Upon the straw she lay.

Nowell, &c.

And a little Child

On her arm had she;

‘Wot ye who This is?’

Said the hinds to me.

Nowell, &c.

Ox and ass Him know,

Kneeling on their knee:

Wondrous joy had I

This little Babe to see.

Nowell, &c.

This is Christ the Lord,

Masters, be ye glad!

Christmas is come in,

And no folk should be sad.

Nowell, &c.

WILLIAM MORRIS

73.  OUTLANDERS, WHENCE COME YE LAST?

OUTLANDERS, whence come ye last?

The snow in the street and the wind on the door.

Through what green sea and great have ye passed?

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

From far away, O masters mine,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door.

We come to bear you goodly wine:

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

From far away we come to you,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door.

To tell of great tidings strange and true:

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

News, news of the Trinity,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door.

And Mary and Joseph from over the sea:

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

For as we wandered far and wide,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door.

What hap do ye deem there should us betide?

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

Under a bent when the night was deep,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door.

There lay three shepherds tending their sheep:

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

‘O ye shepherds, what have ye seen,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door,

To slay your sorrow and heal your teen?’

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

‘In an ox-stall this night we saw,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door,

A Babe and a maid without a flaw.’

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

‘There was an old man there beside,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door,

His hair was white and his hood was wide.’

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

‘And as we gazed this thing upon,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door,

Those twain knelt down to the Little One.’

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

‘And a marvellous song we straight did hear,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door,

That slew our sorrow and healed our care.’

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

News of a fair and a marvellous thing,

The snow in the street and the wind on the door.

Nowell, nowell, nowell, we sing!

Minstrels and maids, stand forth on the floor.

WILLIAM MORRIS

74.  SIR GALAHAD, A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY

IT is the longest night in all the year,

Near on the day when the Lord Christ was born;

Six hours ago I came and sat down here,

And ponder’d sadly, wearied and forlorn.

The winter wind that pass’d the chapel door,

Sang out a moody tune, that went right well

With mine own thoughts: I look’d down on the floor,

Between my feet, until I heard a bell

Sound a long way off through the forest deep,

And toll on steadily; a drowsiness

Came on me, so that I fell half asleep,

As I sat there not moving: less and less

I saw the melted snow that hung in beads

Upon my steel shoes; less and less I saw

Between the tiles the bunches of small weeds:

Heartless and stupid, with no touch of awe

Upon me, half-shut eyes upon the ground,

I thought; O Galahad! the days go by,

Stop and cast up now that which you have found,

So sorely you have wrought and painfully.

Night after night your horse treads down alone

The sere damp fern, night after night you sit

Holding the bridle like a man of stone,

Dismal, unfriended, what thing comes of it.

And what if Palomydes also ride,

And over many a mountain and bare heath

Follow the questing beast with none beside?

Is he not able still to hold his breath

With thoughts of Iseult? doth he not grow pale

With weary striving, to seem best of all

To her, ‘as she is best,’ he saith? to fail

Is nothing to him, he can never fall.

For unto such a man love-sorrow is

So dear a thing unto his constant heart,

That even if he never win one kiss,

Or touch from Iseult, it will never part.

And he will never know her to be worse

Than in his happiest dreams he thinks she is:

Good knight, and faithful, you have ’scaped the curse

In wonderful-wise; you have great store of bliss.

Yea, what if Father Launcelot ride out,

Can he not think of Guenevere’s arms, round,

Warm and lithe, about his neck, and shout

Till all the place grows joyful with the sound?

And when he lists can often see her face,

And think, ‘Next month I kiss you, or next week,

And still you think of me’: therefore the place

Grows very pleasant, whatsoever he seek.

But me, who ride alone, some carle shall find

Dead in my arms in the half-melted snow,

When all unkindly with the shifting wind,

The thaw comes on at Candlemas: I know

Indeed that they will say: ‘This Galahad

If he had lived had been a right good knight;

Ah! poor chaste body!’ but they will be glad,

Not most alone, but all, when in their sight

That very evening in their scarlet sleeves

The gay-dress’d minstrels sing; no maid will talk

Of sitting on my tomb, until the leaves,

Grown big upon the bushes of the walk,

East of the Palace-pleasaunce, make it hard

To see the minster therefrom: well-a-day!

Before the trees by autumn were well bared,

I saw a damozel with gentle play,

Within that very walk say last farewell

To her dear knight, just riding out to find

(Why should I choke to say it?) the Sangreal,

And their last kisses sunk into my mind,

Yea, for she stood lean’d forward on his breast,

Rather, scarce stood; the back of one dear hand,

That it might well be kiss’d, she held and press’d

Against his lips; long time they stood there, fann’d

By gentle gusts of quiet frosty wind,

Till Mador de la Porte a-going by,

And my own horsehoofs roused them; they untwined,

And parted like a dream. In this way I,

With steeply face bent to the chapel floor,

Kept musing half asleep, till suddenly

A sharp bell rang from close beside the door,

And I leapt up when something pass’d me by,

Shrill ringing going with it, still half blind

I stagger’d after, a great sense of awe

At every step kept gathering on my mind,

Thereat I have no marvel, for I saw

One sitting on the altar as a throne,

Whose face no man could say he did not know,

And though the bell still rang, he sat alone,

With raiment half blood-red, half white as snow.

Right so I fell upon the floor and knelt,

Not as one kneels in church when mass is said,

But in a heap, quite nerveless, for I felt

The first time what a thing was perfect dread.

But mightily the gentle voice came down:

‘Rise up, and look and listen, Galahad,

Good knight of God, for you will see no frown

Upon my face; I came to make you glad.

‘For that you say that you are all alone,

I will be with you always, and fear not

You are uncared for, though no maiden moan

Above your empty tomb; for Launcelot,

‘He in good time shall be my servant too,

Meantime, take note whose sword first made him knight,

And who has loved him alway, yea, and who

Still trusts him alway, though in all men’s sight,

‘He is just what you know, O Galahad,

This love is happy even as you say,

But would you for a little time be glad,

To make me sorry long day after day?

‘Her warm arms round his neck half throttle Me,

The hot love-tears burn deep like spots of lead,

Yea, and the years pass quick: right dismally

Will Launcelot at one time hang his head;

‘Yea, old and shrivell’d he shall win my love.

Poor Palomydes fretting out his soul!

Not always is he able, son, to move

His love, and do it honour: needs must roll

‘The proudest destrier sometimes in the dust,

And then ’tis weary work; he strives beside

Seem better than he is, so that his trust

Is always on what chances may betide;

‘And so he wears away, my servant, too,

When all these things are gone, and wretchedly

He sits and longs to moan for Iseult, who

Is no care now to Palomydes: see,

‘O good son Galahad, upon this day,

Now even, all these things are on your side,

But these you fight not for; look up, I say,

And see how I can love you, for no pride

‘Closes your eyes, no vain lust keeps them down.

See now you have ME always; following

That holy vision, Galahad, go on,

Until at last you come to Me to sing

‘In heaven always, and to walk around

The garden where I am’: he ceased, my face

And wretched body fell upon the ground;

And when I look’d again, the holy place

Was empty; but right so the bell again

Came to the chapel-door, there entered

Two angels first, in white, without a stain,

And scarlet wings, then after them a bed,

Four ladies bore, and set it down beneath

The very altar-step, and while for fear

I scarcely dared to move or draw my breath,

Those holy ladies gently came a-near,

And quite unarm’d me, saying: ‘Galahad,

Rest here a while and sleep, and take no thought

Of any other thing than being glad;

Hither the Sangreal will be shortly brought,

‘Yet must you sleep the while it stayeth here.’

Right so they went away, and I, being weary,

Slept long and dream’d of heaven: the bell comes near,

I doubt it grows to morning. Miserere!

[Enter two angels in white, with scarlet wings; also, four ladies in gowns of red and green; also an angel, bearing in his hands a surcoat of white, with a red cross.]

An Angel.

O servant of the high God, Galahad!

Rise and be arm’d, the Sangreal is gone forth

Through the great forest, and you must be had

Unto the sea that lieth on the north:

There shall you find the wondrous ship wherein

The spindles of King Solomon are laid,

And the sword that no man draweth without sin,

But if he be most pure: and there is stay’d,

Hard by, Sir Launcelot, whom you will meet

In some short space upon that ship: first, though,

Will come here presently that lady sweet,

Sister of Percival, whom you well know,

And with her Bors and Percival: stand now,

These ladies will to arm you.

First Lady [putting on the hauberke].

Galahad,

That I may stand so close beneath your brow,

I, Margaret of Antioch, am glad.

Second Lady [girding him with the sword].

That I may stand and touch you with my hand,

O Galahad, I, Cecily, am glad.

Third Lady [buckling on the spurs].

That I may kneel while up above you stand,

And gaze at me, O holy Galahad,

I, Lucy, am most glad.

Fourth Lady [putting on the basnet].

O gentle knight,

That you bow down to us in reverence,

We are most glad, I, Katherine, with delight

Must needs fall trembling.

Angel [putting on the crossed surcoat].

Galahad, we go hence,

For here, amid the straying of the snow,

Come Percival’s sister, Bors, and Percival.

[The four Ladies carry out the bed, and all go but Galahad.]

Galahad.

How still and quiet everything seems now!

They come, too, for I hear the horsehoofs fall.

[Enter Sir Bors, Sir Percival, and his Sister.]

Fair friends and gentle lady, God you save!

A many marvels have been here to-night;

Tell me what news of Launcelot you have,

And has God’s body ever been in sight?

Sir Bors.

Why, as for seeing that same holy thing,

As we were riding slowly side by side,

An hour ago, we heard a sweet voice sing,

And through the bare twigs saw a great light glide,

With many-colour’d raiment, but far off,

And so pass’d quickly—from the court nought good;

Poor merry Dinadan, that with jape and scoff

Kept us all merry, in a little wood

Was found all hack’d and dead; Sir Lionel

And Gauwaine have come back from the great quest,

Just merely shamed; and Lauvaine, who loved well

Your father Launcelot, at the king’s behest

Went out to seek him, but was almost slain,

Perhaps is dead now; everywhere

The knights come foil’d from the great quest; in vain,

In vain they struggle for the vision fair.

WILLIAM MORRIS

75.  AISHAH SCHECHINAH

A SHAPE, like folded light, embodied air,

Yet wreath’d with flesh and warm;

All that of heaven is feminine and fair,

Moulded in visible form.

She stood, the Lady Schechinah of earth,

A chancel for the sky;

Where woke, to breath and beauty, God’s own birth

For men to see Him by.

Round her, too pure to mingle with the day,

Light, that was life, abode;

Folded within her fibres meekly lay

The link of boundless God.

So link’d, so blent, that when, with pulse fulfill’d,

Moved but that infant hand,

Far, far away, His conscious Godhead thrill’d,

And stars might understand.

Lo! where they pause, with intergathering rest,

The Threefold and the One!

And lo! He binds them to her orient breast,

His Manhood girded on.

The Zone, where two glad worlds for ever meet,

Beneath that bosom ran:

Deep in that womb, the conquering Paraclete

Smote Godhead on to man!

Sole scene among the stars, where, yearning, glide

The Threefold and the One:

Her God upon her lap, the Virgin-Bride,

Her Awful Child, her Son.

R. S. HAWKER

76.  KING ARTHUR’S WAES-HAEL

THE RUBRIC

When the brown bowl is filled for yule, let the dome or upper half be set on; then let the waes-haelers kneel one by one and draw up the wine with their reeds through the two bosses at the rim. Let one breath only be drawn by each of the morice for his waes-hael.

WAES-HAEL for knight and dame!

O! merry be their dole;

Drink-hael! in Jesu’s name

We fill the tawny bowl;

But cover down the curving crest,

Mould of the Orient Lady’s breast.

Waes-hael! yet lift no lid:

Drain ye the reeds for wine.

Drink-hael! the milk was hid

That soothed that Babe divine;

Hushed, as this hollow channel flows,

He drew the balsam from the rose.

Waes-hael! thus glowed the breast

Where a God yearned to cling;

Drink-hael! so Jesu pressed

Life from its mystic spring;

Then hush, and bend in reverent sign,

And breathe the thrilling reeds for wine.

Waes-hael! in shadowy scene,

Lo! Christmas children we;

Drink-hael! behold we lean

At a far Mother’s knee;

To dream, that thus her bosom smiled,

And learn the lip of Bethlehem’s Child.

R. S. HAWKER

77.  REGINA COELI

SAY, did his Sisters wonder what could Joseph see

In a mild, silent little Maid like thee?

And was it awful, in that narrow house,

With God for Babe and Spouse?

Nay, like thy simple, female sort, each one

Apt to find Him in Husband and in Son,

Nothing to thee came strange in this.

Thy wonder was but wondrous bliss:

Wondrous, for, though

True Virgin lives not but does know,

(Howbeit none ever yet confess’d,)

That God lies really in her breast,

Of thine He made His special nest!

And so

All mothers worship little feet,

And kiss the very ground they’ve trod;

But, ah, thy little Baby sweet

Who was indeed thy God.

COVENTRY PATMORE

78.  MARY MOTHER OF DIVINE GRACE,

COMPARED

TO THE AIR WE BREATHE

WILD air, world-mothering air,

Nestling me everywhere,

That each eyelash or hair

Girdles; goes home betwixt

The fleeciest, frailest-flixed

Snow-flake; that’s fairly mixed

With, riddles, and is rife

In every least thing’s life;

This needful, never spent

And nursing element;

My more than meat and drink,

My meal at every wink;

This air, which, by life’s law,

My lung must draw and draw

Now, but to breathe its praise,—

Minds me in many ways

Of her who not only

Gave God’s infinity,

Dwindled to infancy,

Welcome in womb and breast,

Birth, milk, and all the rest,

But mothers each new grace

That does now reach our race,

Mary Immaculate,

Merely a woman, yet

Whose presence, power is

Great as no goddess’s

Was deemèd, dreamèd; who

This one work has to do—

Let all God’s glory through,

God’s glory, which would go

Through her and from her flow

Off, and no way but so.

I say that we are wound

With mercy round and round

As if with air: the same

Is Mary, more by name,

She, wild web, wondrous robe,

Mantles the guilty globe,

Since God has let dispense

Her prayers His providence.

Nay, more than almoner,

The sweet alms’ self is her

And men are meant to share

Her life as life does air.

If I have understood,

She holds high motherhood

Towards all our ghostly good

And plays in grace her part

About man’s beating heart,

Laying, like air’s fine flood,

The death-dance in his blood;

Yet no part but what will

Be Christ our Saviour still.

Of her flesh he took flesh:

He does take, fresh and fresh,

Though much the mystery how,

Not flesh but spirit now

And wakes, O marvellous!

New Nazareths in us,

Where she shall yet conceive

Him, morning, noon, and eve;

New Bethlems, and he born

There, evening, noon and morn—

Bethlem or Nazareth,

Men here may draw like breath

More Christ, and baffle death;

Who, born so, comes to be

New self, and nobler me

In each one, and each one

More makes, when all is done,

Both God’s and Mary’s son.

Again, look overhead

How air is azurèd.

O how! nay do but stand

Where you can lift your hand

Skywards: rich, rich it laps

Round the four finger-gaps.

Yet such a sapphire-shot,

Charged, steepèd sky will not

Stain light. Yea, mark you this:

It does no prejudice.

The glass-blue days are those

When every colour glows,

Each shape and shadow shows.

Blue be it: this blue heaven

The seven or seven times seven

Hued sunbeam will transmit

Perfect, not alter it.

Or if there does some soft

On things aloof, aloft,

Bloom breathe, that one breath more

Earth is the fairer for.

Whereas did air not make

This bath of blue and slake

His fire, the sun would shake,

A blear and blinding ball

With blackness bound, and all

The thick stars round him roll

Flashing like flecks of coal,

Quartz-fret, or sparks of salt

In grimy vasty vault.

So God was God of old;

A mother came to mould

Those limbs like ours which are

What must make our daystar

Much dearer to mankind:

Whose glory bare would blind

Or less would win man’s mind.

Through her we may see Him

Made sweeter, not made dim,

And her hand leaves His light

Sifted to suit our sight.

Be thou, then, O thou dear

Mother, my atmosphere;

My happier world wherein

To wend and meet no sin;

Above me, round me lie

Fronting my froward eye

With sweet and scarless sky;

Stir in my ears, speak there

Of God’s love, O live air,

Of patience, penance, prayer;

World-mothering air, air wild,

Wound with thee, in thee isled,

Fold home, fast fold thy child.

GERARD HOPKINS

79.  A MEDITATION FOR

CHRISTMAS DAY

CONSIDER, O my soul, what morn is this!

Whereon the eternal Lord of all things made

For us, poor mortals, and our endless bliss,

Came down from heaven; and, in a manger laid,

The first, rich, offerings of our ransom paid:

Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!

Consider what estate of fearful woe

Had then been ours, had He refused this birth;

From sin to sin tossed vainly to and fro,

Hell’s playthings, o’er a doomed and helpless earth!

Had He from us withheld His priceless worth,

Consider man’s estate of fearful woe!

Consider to what joys He bids thee rise,

Who comes, Himself, life’s bitter cup to drain!

Ah! look on this sweet Child, whose innocent eyes,

Ere all be done, shall close in mortal pain,

That thou at last Love’s Kingdom may’st attain:

Consider to what joys He bids thee rise!

Consider all this wonder, O my soul:

And in thine inmost shrine make music sweet!

Yea, let the world, from furthest pole to pole,

Join in thy praises this dread birth to greet!

Kneeling to kiss thy Saviour’s infant feet!

Consider all this wonder, O my soul!

SELWYN IMAGE

80.  A MORNING SONG FOR

CHRISTMAS DAY

[For Music.]

1 WAKE, what unusual light doth greet

The early dusk of this our street?

2 It is the Lord! it is the Christ!

That hath the will of God sufficed;

That ere the day is born anew,

Himself is born a Child for you.

Chorus.

The harp, the viol, and the lute,

To strike a praise unto our God!

Bring here the reeds! bring here the flute!

Wake summer from the winter’s sod!

Oh, what a feast of feasts is given

To His poor servants, by the King of Heaven!

3 Where is the Lord?

2                        Here is the Lord,

At thine own door. ’Tis He, the Word;

He, at whose face, the eternal speed

Of orb on orb was changed to song.

Shall He the sound of viols heed,

Whose ears have heard so high a throng?

Shall He regard the citherns strung

To whom the morning stars have sung?

Chorus.

Then wake, my heart, and sweep the strings,

The seven in the Lyre of Life!

Instead of lutes, the spirit sings;

With praise its quiet house is rife!

Oh, what a feast of feasts is given

To His poor servants, by the King of Heaven!

4 Who is the Lord?

2                        He is the Lord,

That Light of light, that Chief of all!

1 Who is the Lord?

2                        He is the Lord,

An outcast lying in a stall;

For in the inn no room is left,

While the unworthy feast instead;

He of all welcome is bereft,

And hath not where to lay His head.

1 What fitter place could I prepare,

What better cradle, say, is there

Than this my heart, if that were fair?

2 Thou hast divined! A nobler part

In man or angel, or of earth, or skies,

There is not, than a broken heart;

The which thy God may ne’er despise.

THE HYMN

Chorus.

Lord, in my heart a little child,

Now that the snows beat far and wide,

While ever wails the tempest wild,

Good Lord abide.

Nor go Thou if the summer comes,

Nor if the summer days depart;

But chiefly make Thy home of homes,

Lord, in my heart.

HERBERT P. HORNE

81.  CHRISTMAS AT SEA

THE sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;

The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;

The wind was a nor’wester, blowing squally oft the sea;

And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;

But ’twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.

We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,

And we gave her the maintops’l, and stood by to go about.

All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;

All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;

All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,

For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.

We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;

But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard;

So’s we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,

And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.

The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;

The good red fires were burning bright in every ’long-shore home;

The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;

And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.

The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;

For it’s just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)

This day of our adversity was blessèd Christmas morn,

And the house above the coastguard’s was the house where I was born.

O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,

My mother’s silver spectacles, my father’s silver hair;

And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves,

Go dancing round the china-plates that stand upon the shelves.

And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,

Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;

And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way,

To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessèd Christmas Day.

They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.

‘All hands to loose topgallant sails,’ I heard the captain call.

‘By the Lord, she’ll never stand it,’ our first mate, Jackson, cried.

... ‘It’s the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson,’ he replied.

She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,

And the ship smelt up to windward, just as though she understood.

As the winter’s day was ending, in the entry of the night,

We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.

And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,

As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;

But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,

Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.

R. L. STEVENSON

82.  UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN

GIVEN, not lent,

And not withdrawn—once sent,

This Infant of mankind, this One,

Is still the little welcome Son.

New every year,

New born and newly dear,

He comes with tidings and a song,

The ages long, the ages long;

Even as the cold

Keen winter grows not cold

As childhood is so fresh, foreseen,

And spring in the familiar green.

Sudden as sweet

Come the expected feet.

All joy is young, and new all art,

And He, too, whom we have by heart.

ALICE MEYNELL

83.  NOEL: CHRISTMAS EVE, 1913

Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

A FROSTY Christmas Eve when the stars were shining

Fared I forth alone where westward falls the hill,

And from many a village in the water’d valley

Distant music reach’d me peals of bells aringing:

The constellated sounds ran sprinkling on earth’s floor

As the dark vault above with stars was spangled o’er.

Then sped my thought to keep that first Christmas of all

When the shepherds watching by their folds ere the dawn

Heard music in the fields and marvelling could not tell

Whether it were angels or the bright stars singing.

Now blessed be the tow’rs that crown England so fair

That stand up strong in prayer unto God for our souls:

Blessed be their founders (said I) an’ our country folk

Who are ringing for Christ in the belfries to-night

With arms lifted to clutch the rattling ropes that race

Into the dark above and the mad romping din.

But to me heard afar it was starry music

Angels’ song, comforting as the comfort of Christ

When He spake tenderly to His sorrowful flock:

The old words came to me by the riches of time

Mellow’d and transfigured as I stood on the hill

Heark’ning in the aspect of th’ eternal silence.

ROBERT BRIDGES

84.  NOËL

I

ON a winter’s night long time ago

(The bells ring loud and the bells ring low),

When high howled wind, and down fell snow

(Carillon, Carilla).

Saint Joseph he and Nostre Dame,

Riding on an ass, full weary came

From Nazareth into Bethlehem.

And the small child Jesus smile on you.

II

And Bethlehem inn they stood before

(The bells ring less and the bells ring more),

The landlord bade them begone from his door

(Carillon, Carilla).

‘Poor folk’ (says he), ‘must lie where they may,

For the Duke of Jewry comes this way,

With all his train on a Christmas Day.’

And the small child Jesus smile on you.

III

Poor folk that may my carol hear

(The bells ring single and the bells ring clear),

See! God’s one child had hardest cheer!

(Carillon, Carilla.)

Men grown hard on a Christmas morn;

The dumb beast by and a babe forlorn.

It was very, very cold when our Lord was born.

And the small child Jesus smile on you.

IV

Now these were Jews as Jews must be

(The bells ring merry and the bells ring free).

But Christian men in a band are we

(Carillon, Carilla).

Empty we go, and ill-bedight,

Singing Noël on a winter’s night.

Give us to sup by the warm firelight,

And the small child Jesus smile on you.

HILAIRE BELLOC

85.  A CHRISTMAS CAROL

THE Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,

His hair was like a light.

(O weary, weary were the world,

But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast,

His hair was like a star.

(O stern and cunning are the kings,

But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,

His hair was like a fire.

(O weary, weary is the world,

But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood at Mary’s knee,

His hair was like a crown,

And all the flowers looked up at him,

And all the stars looked down.

G. K. CHESTERTON

86.  THE CREATURES’ NOWEL

WHERE Mary keeps her court

With the humble and the high,

The little dog has sport

For he is also by.

The creatures of the earth

They have great joy and mirth

On the night of the Great Birth.

The hedgehog and the hare

Are of that Birth aware,

Their timid footsteps go,

Quick, furtive, over the snow,

They come thro’ the cold

The young Child to behold,

In the stable bare.

They have no fear there,

No hurt and no annoy,

But great bliss and joy

With the Baby Boy,

In that safe stable’s shade

With none to make afraid,

To kill or to destroy.

The lamb in his white fleece

Plays with the wolf in peace,

The leopard lies down with the kid,

The ox and the ass they bid

The lion to share their straw;

All creatures tame or wild

Are there with the Little Child;

The ox says ‘moo’ and the ass ‘hee-haw’.

R. L. GALES

87.  THE HEAVENLY NOEL

OH! what great thing is done to-night,

Or what good news has sped?

What ails the blessèd Saints in heaven,

They cannot rest in bed?

But up and down so ceaselessly

They go in joy and dread.

The gate-house all is lighted up,

Wherein Saint Peter dwells;

Saint James looks out of his great house,

All made of oyster shells;

In his good hostel by the flood

Saint Julian rings the bells.

Saint Catherine wears her silver shoes

And pearl-besprinkled gown;

Saint Barbara from her high, high tower

Upon the earth looks down;

Saint Christopher bends wondering eyes

On David’s distant town.

The Angels’ chanting sounds afar

An ancient waterfall;

They do not listen to their strain,

Nor answer to their call;

Their thoughts are on the little earth,

Not in the heavenly hall.

For there they see a lovelier thing

That is beyond the sky;

They see the little Lord of Heaven

Upon His hard bed lie;

Their hearts are filled with wonder for

The Change of the Most High.

R. L. GALES

88.  CAROL

THE Ox said to the Ass, said he, all on a Christmas night:

‘Do you hear the pipe of the shepherds a-whistling over the hill?

That is the angels’ music they play for their delight,

“Glory to God in the highest and peace upon earth, goodwill”....

Nowell, nowell, my masters, God lieth low in stall,

And the poor labouring Ox was here before you all.’

The Ass said to the Ox, said he, all on a Christmas day:

‘Do you hear the golden bridles come clinking out of the east?

Those are the three wise Mages that ride from far away

To Bethlehem in Jewry to have their lore increased....

Nowell, nowell, my masters, God lieth low in stall,

And the poor, foolish Ass was here before you all.’

DOROTHY L. SAYERS

89.  CHRISTMAS CAROL

OH, brother Juniper, come out and play:

Men should be gay on this Holy-Day.

Lo, brother Sun laughing there in the sky,

All so merrily, clear and high.

Blithe and merry are men and beasts all

In field and stall, in church and in hall.

Oh, little brother, let the fat men sneer,

We have good cheer this day o’ the year.

Oh, brother Juniper, leave ’em their scorn:

Christ is born to us this bright morn.

J. D. C. PELLOW

90.  THE OXEN

CHRISTMAS Eve, and twelve of the clock.

‘Now they are all on their knees,’

An elder said as we sat in a flock

By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where

They dwelt in their strawy pen,

Nor did it occur to one of us there

To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave

In these years! Yet, I feel,

If some one said on Christmas Eve,

‘Come; see the oxen kneel

‘In the lonely barton by yonder coomb

Our childhood used to know,’

I should go with him in the gloom,

Hoping it might be so.

THOMAS HARDY

91.  HOW FAR IS IT TO BETHLEHEM?

HOW far is it to Bethlehem?

Not very far.

Shall we find the stable-room

Lit by a star?

Can we see the little Child,

Is he within?

If we lift the wooden latch

May we go in?

May we stroke the creatures there,

Ox, ass, or sheep?

May we peep like them and see

Jesus asleep?

If we touch his tiny hand

Will he awake?

Will he know we’ve come so far

Just for his sake?

Great kings have precious gifts,

And we have nought,

Little smiles and little tears

Are all we brought.

For all weary children

Mary must weep.

Here, on his bed of straw

Sleep, children, sleep.

God in his mother’s arms,

Babes in the byre,

Sleep, as they sleep who find

Their heart’s desire.

FRANCES CHESTERTON

92.  EPIPHANY

WITH a long train of camels following them,

Laden with myrrh and frankincense and gold,

Balthasar, Gaspar, Melchior the old,

Draw near a stable door in Bethlehem,

And, bending down, each king his diadem

Lays at the feet of Him, whom they behold

Wrapped round in swaddling clothes against the cold:

The Babe that is a prince of Jesse’s stem.

And the mild Mother sees with wondering eyes

The strange, bright gems on their uplifted hands,

Their jewelled swords, and raiment of rich fur.

And, drawing near beneath the starlit skies,

A train of camels bringing from strange lands

Tribute of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

FRANCIS KEPPEL

POEMS ON CHRISTMAS MERRY-MAKING

93.  NOWELL, NOWELL, NOWELL, NOWELL

NOWELL, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell.

‘Who is there that singeth so nowell, nowell, nowell?’

‘I am here, Sir Christmas.’

‘Welcome, my lord Sir Christmas.

Welcome to us both more and less,

Come near.’ Nowell.

‘Dieu vous garde, beau sire. Tidings I you bring;

A maid hath born a Child full ying[34]

The which causeth for to sing

Nowell.

‘Christ is now born of a pure maid;

In an ox-stall he is laid:

Wherefore sing we all at a brayde[35]

Nowell.

‘Beuvez bien par tutte la company,

Make good cheer and be right merry;

And sing with us now right joyfully,

Nowell.’

[34] Young.

[35] At once.

94.  MAN, BE JOYFUL.

MAN, be joyful and mirth thou make,

For Christ is made man for thy sake.

Man, be merry, I thee rede,

But be ware what mirths thou make:

Christ is clothèd in thy weed

And He is made man for thy sake.

He came from His Father’s seat,

Into this world to be thy make;

Man, be ware how thou Him treat,

For He is made man for thy sake.

Look thou mercy ever cry,

Now and alway, rathe and late,

And He will set thee wonder high,

For He is made man for thy sake.

95.  MAKE WE MERRY

MAKE we merry, both more and less

For now is the time of Christëmas!

Let no man come into this hall,

Groom, page, nor yet marshall,

But that some sport he bring withal!

For now is the time of Christëmas!

If that he say he cannot sing,

Some other sport then let him bring,

That it may please at this feasting.

For now is the time of Christëmas!

If he say he can nought do,

Then for my love ask him no mo,

But to the stocks then let him go!

For now is the time of Christëmas!

96.  HOLLY AND IVY

HOLLY and Ivy made a great party,

Who should have the mastery

In landës where they go.

Then spake Holly, ‘I am free and jolly.

I will have the mastery

In landës where we go.’

Then spake Ivy, ‘I am loud and proud,

And I will have the mastery,

In landës where we go.’

Then spake Holly, and set him down on his knee,

‘I pray thee, gentle Ivy,

Say me no villainy,

In landës where we go.’

97.  ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA

ALLELUIA, Alleluia,

Alleluia, now sing we.

Here comes holly, that is so gent,

To please all men is his intent.

Alleluia.

But lord and lady of this hall,

Who so ever against holly call,

Alleluia.

Who so ever against holly do cry,

In a lepe[36] shall he hang full high.

Alleluia.

Who so ever against holly do sing,

He may weep and handës wring.

Alleluia.

[36] Basket.

98.  IVY CHIEF OF TREES IT IS

IVY chief of trees it is,

Veni coronaberis.

The most worthy she is in town;

He that saith other, doth amiss:

And worthy to bear the crown;

Veni coronaberis.

Ivy is soft and meek of speech,

Against all bale she is bliss;

Well is he that may her reach;

Veni coronaberis.

Ivy is green, with colour bright,

Of all trees best she is;

And that I prove well now by right.

Veni coronaberis.

Ivy beareth berries black;

God grant us all his bliss!

For there shall we nothing lack.

Veni coronaberis.

99.  NAY, IVY, NAY

NAY, ivy, nay,

It shall not be, i-wis;[37]

Let holly have the mastery,

As the manner is.

Holly stands in the hall,

Fair to behold;

Ivy stands without the door,

She is full sore a-cold.

Nay, ivy, nay, &c.

Holly and his merry men,

They dancen and they sing;

Ivy and her maidens

They weepen and they wring.

Nay, ivy, nay, &c.

Ivy hath a kybe,[38]

She caught it with the cold;

So mot they all have

That with ivy hold.

Nay, ivy, nay, &c.

Holly hath berries

As red as any rose,

The foster[39] {and} the hunter

Keep them from the does.

Nay, ivy, nay, &c.

Ivy hath berries

As black as any sloe;

There come the owl

And eat them as she go.

Nay, ivy, nay, &c.

Holly hath birdës,

A full fair flock,

The nightingale, the popinjay,

The gentle laverock.

Nay, ivy, nay, &c.

Good ivy,

What birdës hast thou?

None but the howlet

That cries ‘how, how.’

Nay, ivy, nay,

It shall not be, i-wis;

Let holly have the mastery,

As the manner is.

[37] Certainly.

[38] Chilblain.

[39] Forester.

100.  HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY

HEY, hey, hey, hey,

The boarës head is armed gay.

The boarës head in hand I bring

With garland gay in portering,

I pray you all with me to sing,

With hey, &c.

Lordës, knightës, and squïers,

Parsons, priestës, and vicars,

The boarës head is the first mess,

With hey, &c.

The boarës head, as I you say,

He takes his leave and goeth his way

Anon after the twelfth day,

With hey, &c.

101.  CAPUT APRI DEFERO

CAPUT apri defero,

Reddens laudes Domino.

The boar’s head in hand bring I,

With garlands gay and rosemary;

I pray you all sing merrily,

Qui estis in convivio.

The boar’s head, I understand,

Is the chief service in this land;

Look, wherever it be fand,

Servite cum cantico.

Be glad, lords, both more and less,

For this hath ordained our steward,

To cheer you all this Christmas,

The boar’s head with mustard.

102.  NOWEL, NOWEL, NOWEL, NOWEL

NOWEL, nowel, nowel, nowel,

Tidings good I think to tell.

The boarës head that we bring here

Betokeneth a prince withouten peer

Is born this day to buy us dear.

Nowel.

A boar is a sovereign beast

And acceptable in every feast:

So mote this Lord be to most and least.

Nowel.

This boarës head we bring with song

In worship of Him that thus sprung

Of a virgin, to redress all wrong.

Nowel.

103.  PROFACE, WELCOME, WELCOME

PROFACE,[40] welcome, welcome, proface,

This time is born a child of grace,

That for us mankind hath take.

Proface.

A king’s son and an emperor

Is comen out of a maiden’s tower,

With us to dwell with great honour.

Proface.

This holy time of Christës-mass,

All sorrow and sin we should release,

And cast away all heaviness.

Proface.

The good lord of this place entere

Saith welcome to all that now appear

Unto such fare as ye find here.

Proface.

Welcome be this New Year,

And look ye all be of good cheer;

Our Lord God be at our dinnere.

Proface.

[40] i. e. proficiat, may it do you good.

104.  CHRISTMAS MERRY-MAKING

SO now is come our joyful’st feast,

Let every man be jolly;

Each room with ivy leaves is drest,

And every post with holly.

Though some churls at our mirth repine,

Round your foreheads garlands twine;

Drown sorrow in a cup of wine,

And let us all be merry.

Now all our neighbours’ chimneys smoke,

And Christmas logs are burning;

Their ovens they with baked meats choke,

And all their spits are turning.

Without the door let sorrow lie;

And, if for cold it hap to die,

We’ll bury’t in a Christmas pie,

And evermore be merry.

Now every lad is wondrous trim,

And no man minds his labour;

Our lasses have provided them

A bagpipe and a tabour;

Young men and maids, and girls and boys,

Give life to one another’s joys;

And you anon shall by their noise

Perceive that they are merry.

Rank misers now do sparing shun;

Their hall of music soundeth;

And dogs thence with whole shoulders run,

So all things there aboundeth.

The country folks themselves advance,

For crowdy-mutton’s[41] come out of France;

And Jack shall pipe, and Jill shall dance,

And all the town be merry.

Ned Squash hath fetched his bands from pawn,

And all his best apparel;

Brisk Ned hath bought a ruff of lawn,

With droppings of the barrel.

And those that hardly all the year

Had bread to eat or rags to wear,

Will have both clothes and dainty fare,

And all the day be merry.

Now poor men to the justices

With capons make their arrants,

And if they hap to fail of these,

They plague them with their warrants.

But now they feed them with good cheer,

And what they want they take in beer;

For Christmas comes but once a year,

And then they shall be merry.

Good farmers in the country nurse

The poor that else were undone;

Sour landlords spend their money worse

On lust and pride at London.

There the roysters they do play,

Drab and dice their lands away,

Which may be ours another day;

And therefore let’s be merry.

The client now his suit forbears,

The prisoner’s heart is eased;

The debtor drinks away his cares,

And for the time is pleased.

Though other purses be more fat,

Why should we pine or grieve at that?

Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat,

And therefore let’s be merry.

Hark, how the wags abroad do call

Each other forth to rambling:

And you’ll see them in the hall

For nuts and apples scrambling.

Hark, how the roofs with laughter sound!

And they’ll think the house goes round:

For they the cellar’s depth have found,

And there they will be merry.

The wenches with their wassail bowls

About the streets are singing;

The boys are come to catch the owls,

The wildmare[42] in is bringing.

Our kitchen-boy hath broke his box,

And to the dealing of the ox

Our honest neighbours come by flocks,

And here they will be merry.

Now kings and queens poor sheep-cotes have

And mate with everybody:

The honest now may play the knave,

And wise men play at noddy.[43]

Some youths will now a-mumming go,

Some others play at Rowland-ho,

And twenty other gameboys mo,

Because they will be merry.

Then wherefore in these merry days

Should we, I pray, be duller?

Ho, let us sing some roundelays,

To make our mirth the fuller.

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

[41] Fiddlers.

[42]? A see-saw.

[43] Cribbage.

105.  CEREMONIES FOR CHRISTMAS

COME, bring with a noise,

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.[44]

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.

CHRISTMAS EVE: ANOTHER CEREMONY

COME, guard this night the Christmas pie,

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.

ANOTHER

WASSAIL 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

[44] Kindling.

106.  THE WASSAIL

GIVE way, give way, ye gates, and win

An easy blessing to your bin

And basket, by our entering in.

May both with manchet[45] 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

[45] White bread.

107.  TWELFTH NIGHT

NOW, now the mirth comes

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.

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

108.  TO SIR SIMOND STEWARD

NO news of navies burnt at seas;

No noise of late-spawn’d tittyries;[46]

No closet plot, or open vent

That frights men with a parliament:

No new device or late-found trick

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’;

Of ash-heaps in the which ye use

Husbands and wives by streaks to choose;

Of crackling laurel which foresounds

A plenteous harvest to your grounds:

Of these and such-like things for shift,

We send instead of New Year’s gift.

Read then, and when your faces shine

With buxom meat and cap’ring wine,

Remember us in cups full crown’d,

And let our city-health go round,

Quite through the young maids and the men,

To the ninth number, if not ten;

Until the fired chestnuts leap

For joy to see the fruits ye reap

From the plump chalice and the cup

That tempts till it be tossed up;

Then as ye sit about your embers,

Call not to mind those fled Decembers,

But think on these that are t’ appear

As daughters to the instant year:

Sit crown’d with rosebuds, and carouse

Till Liber Pater twirls the house

About your ears; and lay upon

The year your cares that’s fled and gone.

And let the russet swains the plough

And harrow hang up resting now;

And to the bagpipe all address,

Till sleep takes place of weariness.

And thus, throughout, with Christmas plays

Frolic the full twelve holidays.

ROBERT HERRICK

[46] An early club of Mohocks.

109.  SONG

NOW winter nights enlarge

The number of their hours;

And clouds their storms discharge

Upon the airy towers.

Let now the chimneys blaze

And cups o’erflow with wine,

Let well-tuned words amaze

With harmony divine.

Now yellow waxen lights

Shall wait on honey love,

While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights,

Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense

With lovers’ long discourse,

Much speech hath some defence,

Though beauty no remorse.

All do not all things well;

Some measures comely tread,

Some knotted riddles tell,

Some poems smoothly read.

The summer hath his joys,

And winter his delights;

Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,

They shorten tedious nights.

THOMAS CAMPION

110.  SONG

TO shorten winter’s sadness,

See where the nymphs with gladness

Disguisèd all are coming

Right wantonly a-mumming.

Fa la.

Whilst youthful sports are lasting

To feasting turn our fasting;

With revels and with wassails

Make grief and care our vassals.

Fa la.

For youth it well beseemeth

That pleasure he esteemeth;

And sullen age is hated

That mirth would have abated.

Fa la.

UNKNOWN.

111.  THE DAMSEL DONN’D HER KIRTLE SHEEN

THE damsel donn’d her kirtle sheen;

The hall was dress’d with holly green;

Forth to the wood did merry-men go,

To gather in the mistletoe.

Then open’d wide the baron’s hall

To vassal, tenant, serf and all;

Power laid his rod of rule aside,

And ceremony doff’d his pride.

The heir with roses in his shoes

That night might village partner choose;

The lord underogating share

The vulgar game of post-and-pair.

All hail’d with uncontroll’d delight

And general voice the happy night

That to the cottage as the crown

Brought tidings of salvation down.

The fire with well-dried logs supplied

Went roaring up the chimney wide;

The huge hall-table’s oaken face,

Scrubb’d till it shone, the day to grace,

Bore then upon its massive board

No mark to part the squire and lord.

Then was brought in the lusty brawn

By old blue-coated serving-man;

Then the grim boar’s head frown’d on high,

Crested with bay and rosemary.

Well can the green-garb’d ranger tell

How, when, and where the monster fell,

What dogs before his death he tore,

And all the baiting of the boar.

The wassail round, in good brown bowls,

Garnish’d with ribbons, blithely trowls.

There the huge sirloin reek’d; hard by

Plum-porridge stood and Christmas pie;

Nor fail’d old Scotland to produce

At such high-tide her savoury goose.

Then came the merry masquers in

And carols roar’d with blithesome din;

If unmelodious was the song

It was a hearty note and strong.

Who lists may in their mumming see

Traces of ancient mystery;

White shirts supplied the masquerade,

And smutted cheeks the visors made:

But oh! what masquers richly dight

Can boast of bosoms half so light!

England was merry England when

Old Christmas brought his sports again.

’Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale,

’Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;

A Christmas gambol oft could cheer

The poor man’s heart through half the year.

SIR WALTER SCOTT

112.  WINTER WAS NOT UNKIND

WINTER was not unkind because uncouth;

His prison’d time made me a closer guest,

And gave thy graciousness a warmer zest,

Biting all else with keen and angry tooth:

And bravelier the triumphant blood of youth

Mantling thy cheek its happy home possest,

And sterner sport by day put strength to test,

And custom’s feast at night gave tongue to truth.

Or say hath flaunting summer a device

To match our midnight revelry, that rang

With steel and flame along the snow-girt ice?

Or when we hark’t to nightingales that sang

On dewy eves in spring, did they entice

To gentler love than winter’s icy fang?

ROBERT BRIDGES

113.  BALLADE OF CHRISTMAS GHOSTS

BETWEEN the moonlight and the fire

In winter twilights long ago,

What ghosts we raised for your desire,

To make your merry blood run slow!

How old, how grave, how wise we grow!

No Christmas ghost can make us chill,

Save those that troop in mournful row,

The ghosts we all can raise at will!

The beasts can talk in barn and byre

On Christmas Eve, old legends know.

As year by year the years retire,

We men fall silent then I trow,

Such sights hath memory to show,

Such voices from the silence thrill,

Such shapes return with Christmas snow,—

The ghosts we all can raise at will.

Oh, children of the village choir,

Your carols on the midnight throw!

Oh, bright across the mist and mire,

Ye ruddy hearths of Christmas glow!

Beat back the dread, beat down the woe,

Let’s cheerily descend the hill;

Be welcome all, to come or go,

The ghosts we all can raise at will!

Envoy

Friend, sursum corda, soon or slow

We part, like guests who’ve joyed their fill;

Forget them not, nor mourn them so,

The ghosts we all can raise at will,

ANDREW LANG

114.  CHRISTMAS EVE

Basil. Sandy. Brian. Menzies.

Sandy.

IN holly hedges starving birds

Silently mourn the setting year.

Basil.

Upright like silver-plated swords

The flags stand in the frozen mere.

Brian.

The mistletoe we still adore

Upon the twisted hawthorn grows.

Menzies.

In antique gardens hellebore

Puts forth its blushing Christmas rose.

Sandy.

Shrivelled and purple, cheek by jowl,

The hips and haws hang drearily.

Basil.

Rolled in a ball the sulky owl

Creeps far into his hollow tree.

Brian.

In abbeys and cathedrals dim

The birth of Christ is acted o’er;

The kings of Cologne worship Him,

Balthazar, Jasper, Melchior.

Menzies.

And while our midnight talk is made

Of this and that and now and then,

The old earth-stopper with his spade

And lantern seeks the fox’s den.

Sandy.

Oh, for a northern blast to blow

These depths of air that cream and curdle!

Basil.

Now are the halcyon days, you know;

Old Time has leapt another hurdle:

And pauses as he only may

Who knows he never can be caught.

Brian.

The winter solstice, shortest day

And longest night, was past, I thought.

Basil.

Oh yes! but fore-and-aft a week

Silent the winds must ever be,

Because the happy halcyons seek

Their nests upon the sea.

Brian.

The Christmas-time! the lovely things

That last of it! Sweet thoughts and deeds!

Sandy.

How strong and green old Legend clings

Like ivy round the ruined creeds!

Menzies.

A fearless, ruthless, wanton band,

Deep in our hearts we guard from scathe,

Of last year’s log a smouldering brand

To light at Yule the fire of faith.

Brian.

The shepherds in the field at night

Beheld an angel glory-clad,

And shrank away with sore affright.

‘Be not afraid,’ the angel bade.

‘I bring good news to king and clown,

To you here crouching on the sward;

For there is born in David’s town

A Saviour which is Christ the Lord.

‘Behold the Babe is swathed, and laid

Within a manger.’ Straight there stood

Beside the angel all arrayed

A heavenly multitude.

‘Glory to God,’ they sang; ‘and peace,

Good pleasure among men.’

Sandy.

The wondrous message of release!

Menzies.

Glory to God again!

Brian.

Again! God help us to be good!

Basil.

Hush! hark! without; the waits, the waits!

With brass, and strings, and mellow wood.

Menzies.

A simple tune can ope heaven’s gates!

Sandy.

Slowly they play, poor careful souls,

With wistful thoughts of Christmas cheer,

Unwitting how their music rolls

Away the burden of the year.

Basil.

And with the charm, the homely rune,

Our thoughts like childhood’s thoughts are given,

When all our pulses beat in tune

With all the stars of heaven.

Menzies.

Oh cease! Oh cease!

Sandy.

Ay; cease, and bring

The wassail bowl, the cup of grace.

Brian.

Pour wine, and heat it till it sing,

With cloves, and cardamums and mace.

Brian.

Hush! hark! the waits far up the street!

Basil.

A distant, ghostly charm unfolds,

Of magic music wild and sweet,

Anomes and clarigolds.

JOHN DAVIDSON

115.  NOW HAVE GOOD DAY!

NOW have good day, now have good day!

I am Christmas, and now I go my way!

Here have I dwelt with more and less

From Hallow-tide till Candlemas!

And now must I from you hence pass,

Now have good day!

I take my leave of King and Knight,

And Earl, Baron, and Lady bright;

To wilderness I must me dight.

Now have good day!

And at the good Lord of this hall

I take my leave, and of guestës all.

Methinks I hear Lent doth call.

Now have good day!

And at every worthy officer,

Marshall, panter, and butler,

I take my leave as for this year.

Now have good day!

Another year I trust I shall

Maken merry in this hall!

If rest and peace in England may fall!

Now have good day!

But oftentimes I have heard say

That he is loth to part away,

That often biddeth ‘have good day’!

Now have good day!

Now fare ye well, all in fere![47]

Now fare ye well for all this year!

Yet for my sake make ye good cheer!

Now have good day!

UNKNOWN

[47] Company.

LATIN HYMNS

116.  PUER NATUS IN BETHLEHEM

PUER natus in Bethlehem,

Unde gaudet Jerusalem.

Hic jacet in praesepio,

Qui regnat sine termino.

Cognovit bos et asinus

Quod puer erat Dominus.

Reges de Sabâ veniunt,

Aurum, thus, myrrham offerunt.

Intrantes domum invicem

Novum salutant principem.

De matre natus virgine

Sine virili semine;

Sine serpentis vulnere

De nostro venit sanguine;

In carne nobis similis

Peccato sed dissimilis;

Ut redderet nos homines

Deo et sibi similes.

In hoc natali gaudio

Benedicamus Domino:

Laudetur sancta Trinitas,

Deo dicamus gratias.

117.  HEU QUID JACES STABULO

HEU quid jaces stabulo

Omnium Creator,

Vagiens cunabulo,

Mundi reparator?

Si rex, ubi purpura,

Vel clientum murmura,

Ubi aula regis?

Hic omnis penuria,

Paupertatis curia,

Forma novae legis.

Istuc amor generis

Me traxit humani,

Quod se noxâ sceleris

Occidit profani.

His meis inopiis

Gratiarum copiis

Te pergo ditare;

Hocce natalitio,

Vero sacrificio

Te volens beare.

O te laudum millibus

Laudo, laudo, laudo;

Tantis mirabilibus

Plaudo, plaudo, plaudo:

Gloria, sit gloria,

Amanti memoria

Domino in altis:

Cui testimonia

Dantur et praeconia

Coelicis a psaltis.

JOHN MAUBURN

118.  ADESTE FIDELES

ADESTE fideles,

Laeti triumphantes,

Venite, venite in Bethlehem;

Natum videte,

Regem angelorum,

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

Deum de Deo,

Lumen de Lumine,

Gestant puellae viscera,

Deum verum,

Genitum non factum;

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

En, grege relicto

Humiles ad cunas

Vocati pastores approperant;

Et nos ovanti

Gradu festinemus,

Venite, adoremus Dominum,

Stella duce, Magi

Christum adorantes,

Aurum, thus, et myrrham dant munera;

Jesu infanti

Corda praebeamus:

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

Aeterni Parentis

Splendorem aeternum

Velatum sub carne videbimus,

Deum infantem

Pannis involutum;

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

Pro nobis egenum

Et faeno cubantem

Piis foveamus amplexibus;

Sic nos amantem

Quis non redamaret?

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

Cantet nunc hymnos.

Chorus angelorum,

Cantet nunc aula caelestium:—

Gloria

In excelsis Deo:

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

Ergo qui natus

Die hodierna,

Jesu, tibi sit gloria

Patris aeterni

Verbum caro factum!

Venite, adoremus Dominum.

119.  CORDE NATUS EX PARENTIS

CORDE natus ex Parentis

Ante mundi exordium,

Alpha et oo cognominatus,

Ipse fons et clausula

Omnium quae sunt, fuerunt,

Quaeque post futura sunt

Saeculorum saeculis.

Ecce quem vates vetustis

Concinebant saeculis,

Quem prophetarum fideles

Paginae spoponderant,

Emicat promissus olim,

Cunctaque collaudent Deum

Saeculorum saeculis.

O beatus ortus ille,

Virgo cum puerpera

Edidit nostram salutem

Feta sancto Spiritu,

Et puer Redemptor orbis

Os sacratum protulit

Saeculorum saeculis.

Psallat altitudo caeli,

Psallant omnes angeli,

Quicquid est virtutis usquam

Psallat in laudem Dei;

Nulla linguarum silescat,

Vox et omnis personet

Saeculorum saeculis.

Te senes, et te juventus,

Parvulorum te cohors,

Turba matrum, virginumque

Simplices puellulae,

Voce concordes pudicis

Perstrepant concentibus

Saeculorum saeculis.

Tibi, Christe, sit cum Patre

Agioque Spiritu,

Hymnus, melos, laus perennis,

Gratiarum actio,

Honor, virtus, et victoria,

Regnum, aeternaliter

Saeculorum saeculis.

PRUDENTIUS

120.  AVE JESU, DEUS MAGNE

AVE Jesu, Deus magne

Ave Puer, mitis agne,

Ave Deus, homo nate

In praesepi reclinate!

O potestas, O egestas.

O majestas Domini!

O majestas, quidnon praestas homini?

Ut me pauperem ditares,

Ut me perditum salvares,

Jaces pannis involutus,

Omni ope destitutus.

O potestas, &c.

Inter bruta quam abjectus

Vagis, patris O dilectus!

Judex summe, verus Deus,

Propter me fis homo reus!

O potestas, &c.

O mi Jesu, cor devotum

Post te trahe, sume totum,

Igne tuo sancto ure,

Ah ah penitus combure.

O potestas, &c.

Procul vanas hinc amores

Procul malos arce mores,

Tuis meos aptos finge,

Aeterno me nexu stringe

O potestas, &c.

121.  NOWELL, NOWELL, NOWELL

NOWELL, nowell, nowell, nowell,

Missus est ad virginem angelus Gabriel.

Angelum misit suum Deus omnipotens,

Ut unicum per filium ejus salvetur gens.

Virgo ave, clamat ille, O Maria clemens,

Concipies et paries, virgo semper manens.

Virgo clam tremescit, nam mira valde audit,

Eam cui est ille missus confortavit.

Altissimi Patris tui virtus obumbravit,

Cui per flamen sacrum gramen in te seminavit.

Virgo clemens semper tremens ad verba angeli,

Cui flamen consolamen dat responsum illi,

Miti voce dicens, Ecce ancilla Domini,

Et secundum tuum verbum, ita fiat mihi.

Virgo Deum genuit verbum, quem alit cum cura,

Mirus Pater, mira Mater, mira Genitura;

Parit virgo solo verbo contra carnis jura,

Perseverante post et ante virgine pura.

Nobis natus, nobis datus, quem virgo lactavit,

Atque gregi, sic sub lege cunctaque creavit,

Miti corde nos a sorde moriendo lavit;

Miserere plebi tuae, Jhesu fili Davit.

Virgo pin, O Maria, pura ut lilia

Sponsa Dei, soror ei, mater et filia,

Tu Hunc ores, viatores ut fugiant vilia,

Et nos trahant huc quo gaudent sanctorum milia.

O Pater qui genuisti Hunc ab initio,

Et dedisti gentes Isti, pregaudens sacrificio,

Hic cum venit quos redemit sanguinis precio

Judicare, fac vitare nos a supplicio.

INDEX OF AUTHORS

- Beaumont, Sir John, 31.

- Beaumont, Joseph, 46, 47.

- Belloc, Hilaire, 84.

- Bolton, Edmund, 30.

- Bridges, Robert, 83, 112.

- Byrom, John, 59.

- Campion, Thomas, 109.

- Chesterton, Frances, 91.

- Chesterton, G. K., 85.

- Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 62-4.

- Crashaw, Richard, 41-3.

- Davidson, John, 114.

- Doddridge, Philip, 60.

- Domett, Alfred, 68.

- Donne, John, 27.

- Drummond, William, 32, 33.

- Dunbar, William, 22.

- Fletcher, Giles, 35, 36.

- Gales, R. L., 86, 87.

- Hall, Joseph, 28.

- Hardy, Thomas, 90.

- Hawker, R. S., 75, 76.

- Heber, Reginald, 65.

- Herbert, George, 39.

- Herrick, Robert, 37, 38, 105-8.

- Hopkins, Gerard, 78.

- Horne, Herbert P., 80.

- Image, Selwyn, 79.

- J., M., 48.

- Jonson, Ben, 29.

- Keppel, Francis, 92.

- Kingsley, Charles, 70.

- Lang, Andrew, 113.

- Mauburn, John, 117.

- Meynell, Alice, 82.

- Milton, John, 40.

- Morris, William, 72-4.

- Neale, J. M., 69.

- Patmore, Coventry, 77.

- Pellow, J. D. C., 89.

- Prudentius, 119.

- Rossetti, Christina, 71.

- Sayers, Dorothy L., 88.

- Scott, Sir Walter, 111.

- Sherburne, Sir Edward, 51.

- Southwell, Robert, 23-6.

- Stevenson, R. L., 81.

- Tate, Nahum, 56.

- Taylor, Jeremy, 44, 45.

- Tennyson, Alfred, 67.

- Unknown, 1-21, 52-5, 93-103, 110,

- 115, 116, 118, 120, 121.

- Vaughan, Henry, 49, 50.

- Vere, Aubrey de, 66.

- Watts, Isaac, 57, 58.

- Wesley, Charles, 61.

- Wither, George, 34, 104.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

NO.

Adeste fideles,

118

A frosty Christmas Eve,

83

All after pleasures as I rid one day,

39

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, now sing we,

97

All this time this song is best,

13

And art Thou come, blest Babe, and come to me?

55

A shape, like folded light, embodied air,

75

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,

23

As Joseph was a-walking,

3

As on the night before this happy morn,

35

Ave Jesu, Deus magne,

120

Ave maris stella,

16

Awake, glad heart, get up and sing!

50

Awake, my soul, and come away,

45

Behold a silly tender Babe,

24

Between the moonlight and the fire,

113

Be we merry in this feast,

11

Bright Babe! whose awful beauties make,

43

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning!

65

But art Thou come, dear Saviour? hath Thy love,

52

Can I not sing but Hoy!

9

Caput apri defero,

101

Christians, awake, salute the happy morn,

59

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock,

90

Christ was born on Christmas day,

69

Come, bring with a noise,

105

Come, guard this night the Christmas pie,

105

Come to your heaven, you heavenly quires!

25

Come we shepherds whose blest sight,

41

Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!

79

Corde natus ex Parentis,

119

Dormi, Jesu! mater ridet,

64

Eya, Jesus hodie,

15

Fair eastern star, that art ordained to run,

31

Given, not lent,

82

Give way, give way, ye gates, and win,

106

God rest you merry, gentlemen,

19

Happy crib, that wert alone,

51

Hark! how all the welkin rings,

61

Hark, the glad sound! the Saviour comes,

60

Heaven’s golden-wingèd herald late he saw,

42

Herdmen hend, Dread ye no thing,

8

Heu quid jaces stabulo,

117

Hey, hey, hey, hey,

100

Holly and Ivy made a great party,

96

How far is it to Bethlehem?

91

Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber,

58

Immensity, cloistered in thy dear womb,

27

Immortal Babe, who this dear day,

28

In holly hedges starving birds,

114

In numbers, and but these few,

38

In the bleak mid-winter,

71

I saw three ships come sailing in,

21

I sing of a maiden,

2

I sing the birth was born to-night,

29

It chanced upon the merry merry Christmas eve,

70

It is the longest night in all the year,

74

It was the calm and silent night,

68

Ivy chief of trees it is,

98

Let folly praise that fancy loves,

26

Like as the fountain of all light created,

47

Lodged in an inn,

53

Lullay, my liking, my dear son, my sweeting,

6

Make we merry both more and less,

95

Man, be joyful and mirth thou make,

94

Man, be merry as bird on berry,

12

Mater, ora filium,

14

Nay, ivy, nay,

99

Noël, Noël, Noël, Noël,

17

No news of navies burnt at seas,

108

Nowel, nowel, nowel, nowel, Tidings good,

102

Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell, Missus est,

121

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Who is there,

93

Now have good day, now have good day!

115

Now is Christëmas ycome,

4

Now, now the mirth comes,

107

Now winter nights enlarge,

109

Of a rose, a lovely rose,

18

Oh, brother Juniper, come out and play,

89

Oh! what great thing is done to-night,

87

On a winter’s night long time ago,

84

O than the fairest day, thrice fairer night!

33

Outlanders, whence come ye last?

73

Proface, welcome, welcome, proface,

103

Puer natus in Bethlehem,

116

Remember, O thou man,

20

Rorate Coeli desuper!

22

Run, shepherds, run, where Bethlehem blest appears,

32

Saint Stephen was a clerk,

7

Say, did his Sisters wonder what could Joseph see,

77

She gave with joy her virgin breast,

63

Shepherds, rejoice, lift up your eyes,

57

So now is come our joyful’st feast,

104

Sweet baby, sleep! What ails my dear?

34

Sweet, harmless live{r}s! on whose holy leisure,

49

Sweet music, sweeter far,

30

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,

85

The damsel donn’d her kirtle sheen,

111

The Ox said to the Ass, said he, all on a Christmas night,

88

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand,

81

The shepherds went their hasty way,

62

The time draws near the birth of Christ,

67

They leave the land of gems and gold,

66

This endris night,

5

This is the month, and this the happy morn,

40

To Bethlem did they go, the shepherds three,

72

To shorten winter’s sadness,

110

Waes-hael for knight and dame!

76

Wake, what unusual light doth greet,

80

Wash your hands, or else the fire,

105

Wassail the trees, that they may bear,

105

Welcome Yule, thou merry man,

1

What sweeter music can we bring,

37

When Christ was born of Mary free,

10

Where is this blessed Babe,

44

Where Mary keeps her court,

86

While shepherds watch’d their flocks by night,

56

Who can forget—never to be forgot,

36

Why does the frowning winter smile,

48

Wild air, world-mothering air,

78

Winter was not unkind because uncouth,

112

With a long train of camels following them,

92

Wonder’s birthday,

46

Yet if his majesty our sovereign Lord,

54

Transcriber’s Notes:

Antiquated spellings or ancient words were preserved.

Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.

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Table of Contents

A BOOK OF CHRISTMAS VERSE

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

EARLY CAROLS

1. WELCOME YULE

2. I SING OF A MAIDEN

3. AS JOSEPH WAS A-WALKING

4. NOW IS CHRISTËMAS YCOME

5. THIS ENDRIS NIGHT

6. LULLAY, MY LIKING, MY DEAR SON

7. SAINT STEPHEN WAS A CLERK

8. THE SHEPHERDS’ OFFERINGS

9. CAN I NOT SING BUT HOY!

10. WHEN CHRIST WAS BORN OF MARY FREE

11. BE WE MERRY IN THIS FEAST

12. MAN, BE MERRY AS BIRD ON BERRY

13. ALL THIS TIME THIS SONG IS BEST

14. MATER, ORA FILIUM

15. EYA, JESUS HODIE

16. AVE MARIS STELLA

17. NOËL, NOËL, NOËL, NOËL

18. OF A ROSE, A LOVELY ROSE

TRADITIONAL CAROLS

19. GOD REST YOU MERRY, GENTLEMEN

20. REMEMBER, O THOU MAN

21. I SAW THREE SHIPS

LATER POEMS AND CAROLS

22. ON THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST

23. THE BURNING BABE

24. NEW PRINCE, NEW POMP

25. NEW HEAVEN, NEW WAR

26. A CHILD MY CHOICE

27. NATIVITY

28. FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

29. A HYMN ON THE NATIVITY OF MY SAVIOUR

30. THE SHEPHERDS’ SONG

31. OF THE EPIPHANY

32. THE ANGELS

33. THE SHEPHERDS

34. A ROCKING HYMN

35. GLORIA IN EXCELSIS

36. WHO CAN FORGET?

37. A CHRISTMAS CAROL

38. AN ODE ON THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR

39. CHRISTMAS

40. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY

41. A HYMN OF THE NATIVITY

42. SATAN’S SIGHT OF THE NATIVITY

43. A HYMN FOR THE EPIPHANY

44. HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

45. HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

46. CHRISTMAS DAY

47. SONNET XXV

48. ON THE NATIVITY OF OUR SAVIOUR

49. THE SHEPHERDS

50. CHRIST’S NATIVITY

51. AND THEY LAID HIM IN A MANGER

52. AT THE SIGN OF THE HEART

53. LODGED IN AN INN

54. YET IF HIS MAJESTY OUR SOVEREIGN LORD

55. AND ART THOU COME, BLEST BABE?

56. SONG OF THE ANGELS AT THE NATIVITY

57. SHEPHERDS, REJOICE

58. A CRADLE SONG

59. A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

60. A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

61. A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

62. THE SHEPHERDS WENT THEIR HASTY WAY

63. FROM OTTFRIED’S PARAPHRASE OF THE GOSPEL

64. THE VIRGIN’S CRADLE HYMN

65. BRIGHTEST AND BEST OF THE SONS OF THE MORNING!

66. THEY LEAVE THE LAND OF GEMS AND GOLD

67. CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR BELLS

68. THE FIRST CHRISTMAS EVE

69. CHRIST WAS BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY

70. A CHRISTMAS CAROL

71. A CHRISTMAS CAROL

72. MASTERS, IN THIS HALL

73. OUTLANDERS, WHENCE COME YE LAST?

74. SIR GALAHAD, A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY

75. AISHAH SCHECHINAH

76. KING ARTHUR’S WAES-HAEL

77. REGINA COELI

78. MARY MOTHER OF DIVINE GRACE, COMPARED TO THE AIR WE BREATHE

79. A MEDITATION FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

80. A MORNING SONG FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

81. CHRISTMAS AT SEA

82. UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN

83. NOEL: CHRISTMAS EVE, 1913

84. NOËL

85. A CHRISTMAS CAROL

86. THE CREATURES’ NOWEL

87. THE HEAVENLY NOEL

88. CAROL

89. CHRISTMAS CAROL

90. THE OXEN

91. HOW FAR IS IT TO BETHLEHEM?

92. EPIPHANY

POEMS ON CHRISTMAS MERRY-MAKING

93. NOWELL, NOWELL, NOWELL, NOWELL

94. MAN, BE JOYFUL.

95. MAKE WE MERRY

96. HOLLY AND IVY

97. ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA

98. IVY CHIEF OF TREES IT IS

99. NAY, IVY, NAY

100. HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY

101. CAPUT APRI DEFERO

102. NOWEL, NOWEL, NOWEL, NOWEL

103. PROFACE, WELCOME, WELCOME

104. CHRISTMAS MERRY-MAKING

105. CEREMONIES FOR CHRISTMAS

106. THE WASSAIL

107. TWELFTH NIGHT

108. TO SIR SIMOND STEWARD

109. SONG

110. SONG

111. THE DAMSEL DONN’D HER KIRTLE SHEEN

112. WINTER WAS NOT UNKIND

113. BALLADE OF CHRISTMAS GHOSTS

114. CHRISTMAS EVE

115. NOW HAVE GOOD DAY!

LATIN HYMNS

116. PUER NATUS IN BETHLEHEM

117. HEU QUID JACES STABULO

118. ADESTE FIDELES

119. CORDE NATUS EX PARENTIS

120. AVE JESU, DEUS MAGNE

121. NOWELL, NOWELL, NOWELL

INDEX OF AUTHORS

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE