Vulgar words in A Righte Merrie Christmasse - The Story of Christ-Tide (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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The Waits--Their origin--Ned Ward on them--Corporation Waits--York Waits (17th century)--Essay on Waits--Westminster Waits--Modern Waits 63 CHAPTER IX Christ-tide Carols--The days of Yule--A Carol for Christ-tide--"Lullaby"--The Cherry-tree Carol--Dives and Lazarus 70 CHAPTER X Christmas Eve--Herrick thereon--The Yule Log--Folk-lore thereon--The Ashen Faggot--Christmas Candles--Christmas Eve in the Isle of Man--Hunting the Wren--Divination by Onions and Sage--A Custom at Aston--"The Mock"--Decorations and Kissing Bunch--"Black Ball"--Guisers and Waits--Ale Posset 75 CHAPTER XI Christmas Eve in North Notts--Wassailing the Fruit Trees--Wassail Songs--Wassailing in Sussex--Other Customs--King at Downside College--Christ-tide Carol--Midnight Mass--The Manger--St. Francis of Assisi 84 CHAPTER XII Decorating with Evergreens--Its Origin and Antiquity--Mistletoe in Churches--The permissible Evergreens--The Holly--"Holly and Ivy"--"Here comes Holly"--"Ivy, chief of Trees"--"The Contest of the Ivy and the Holly"--Holly Folk-lore--Church Decorations--To be kept up till Candlemas day 91 CHAPTER XIII Legends of the Nativity--The Angels--The Birth--The Cradles--The Ox and Ass--Legends of Animals--The Carol of St. Stephen--Christmas Wolves--Dancing for a Twelve-months--Underground Bells--The Fiddler and the Devil 97 CHAPTER XIV The Glastonbury Thorn, its Legend--Cuttings from it--Oaks coming into leaf on Christmas day--Folk-lore--Forecast, according to the days of the week on which Christmas falls--Other Folk-lore thereon 105 CHAPTER XV Withholding Light--"Wesley Bob"--Wassail Carol--Presents in Church--Morris Dancers--"First Foot"--Red-haired Men--Lamprey Pie--"Hodening"--Its Possible Origin--The "Mari Lhoyd" 111 CHAPTER XVI Curious Gambling Customs in Church--Boon granted--Sheaf of Corn for the Birds--Crowning of the Cock--"The Lord Mayor of Pennyless Cove"--"Letting in Yule"--Guisards--Christmas in the Highlands--Christmas in Shetland--Christmas in Ireland 117 CHAPTER XVII Ordinance against out-door Revelry--Marriage of a Lord of Misrule--Mummers and Mumming--Country Mummers--Early Play--Two modern Plays 125 CHAPTER XVIII A Christmas jest--Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas--Milton's Masque of Comus--Queen Elizabeth and the Masters of Defence 138 CHAPTER XIX The Lord of Misrule--The "Emperor" and "King" at Oxford--Dignity of the Office--Its abolition in the City of London--The functions of a Lord of Misrule--Christmas at the Temple--A grand Christmas there 143 CHAPTER XX A riotous Lord of Misrule at the Temple--Stubbes on Lords of Misrule--The Bishops ditto--Mumming at Norwich 1440--Dancing at the Inns of Court--Dancing at Christmas--The Cushion Dance 155 CHAPTER XXI Honey Fairs--Card-playing at Christmas--Throwing the Hood--Early Religious Plays--Moralities--Story of a Gray's Inn Play--The first Pantomime--Spectacular drama--George Barnwell--Story respecting this Play 162 CHAPTER XXII Profusion of Food at Christ-tide--Old English Fare--Hospitality--Proclamations for People to spend Christ-tide at their Country Places--Roast Beef--Boar's Head--Boar's Head Carol--Custom at Queen's College, Oxon.--Brawn--Christmas Pie--Goose Pie--Plum Pudding--Plum Porridge--Anecdotes of Plum Pudding--Large one--Mince Pies--Hackin--Folk-lore--Gifts at Christ-tide--Yule Doughs--Cop-a-loaf--Snap-dragon 169 CHAPTER XXIII The First Carol--Anglo-Norman Carol--Fifteenth-Century Carol--"The Twelve Good Joys of Mary"--Other Carols--"A Virgin most Pure"--Carol of Fifteenth Century--"A Christenmesse Carroll" 180 CHAPTER XXIV Christmas Gifts forbidden in the City of London--Charles II.
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Philemon's cottage was turn'd into gold, Into gold, for harbouring Jove: Rich men their houses up for to keep, For to keep, might their greatness move; But, in the city, they say, they do live, Where gold by handfulls away they do give;-- I'll away, And thither, therefore, I purpose to pass, Hoping at London to find the Golden Ass.
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The Christ is lying on straw between the ox and ass, Mary and Joseph bending over Him; the shepherds are kneeling in adoration, and the angels, hovering above, are supposed to be singing the _gloria in excelsis_.
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Before his death he celebrated the sacred Birth-night in the woods, where a stable had been prepared with an ox and an ass, and a crib for an altar.
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CHAPTER XIII Legends of the Nativity--The Angels--The Birth--The Cradles--The Ox and Ass--Legends of Animals--The Carol of St. Stephen--Christmas Wolves--Dancing for a Twelve-months--Underground Bells--The Fiddler and the Devil.
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The ox and ass are indispensable accessories to a picture of the Nativity, and it is said that their introduction rests on an old tradition mentioned by St. Jerome, and also on a text of prophecy: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib.
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The popular idea of the Lord of Misrule is that he was a buffoon; but this is far from being the case.
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Babylon's whore Rak'd from the grave, and bak'd by hanches, then Serv'd up in _coffins_ to unholy men: Defil'd with superstition like the Gentiles Of old, that worship'd onions, roots, and lentils.