W. SHAKSPEARE. SOME say that ever 'gainst that season comes, WINTER. EDMUND SPENSER. NEXT came the chill December: Yet he, through merry feasting which he made And great bonfires, did not the cold remember; His Saviour's birth his mind so much did glad : The same wherewith Dan Jove in tender years, Chattering his teeth for cold that did him chill; In his right hand a tipped staff he held, With which his feeble steps he stayed still; For he was faint with cold, and weak with eld, That scarce his loosed limbs he able was to wield. WINTER, BEN JONSON. THOU, in the winter, hunt'st the flying hare, While all that follow, their glad ears apply To the full greatness of the cry; Or hawking at the river, or the bush, Or shooting at the greedy thrush, Thou dost with some delight the day out wear, The whilst the several seasons thou hast seen The mowed meadows, with the fleecèd sheep, The apple-harvest, that doth longer last; The hogs returned home fat from mast;* Thus Pan and Sylvan, having had their rites, And fills thy open hall with mirth and cheer, (Their rudeness then is thought no sin,) Sit mixt with loss of state, or reverence. Freedom doth with degree dispense. The fruit of the oak or beech. BOAR'S HEAD CAROL. The annexed is the only Carol on bringing in the Boar's Head that belongs to the era of Elizabeth and her successor James I. It was used before the Christmas Prince at St. John the Baptist's College, Oxford, in 1607. The engraving below is from an ancient carving, which is supposed to have been the veritable sign of the famous Boar's Head tavern in Eastcheap. BOAR'S HEAD CAROL. HE Boar is dead, Lo, here is his head: What man could have done more Than his head off to strike, Meleager like, And bring it as I do before? He living spoiled Where good men toiled, Which made kind Ceres sorry; But now, dead and drawn, Is very good brawn, And we have brought it for ye. Then set down the swineyard, The foe to the vineyard, Let Bacchus crown his fall; Let this boar's head and mustard Stand for pig, goose, and custard, And so you are welcome all. The following capital song affords an admirable contrast between the courtiers of Elizabeth, and those of her successor. The queen was opposed to the fashion then becoming prevalent, of country gentlemen spending their Christmas in London; and in a letter of the period, written by her orders, "the gentlemen of Norfolk and Suffolk are commanded to depart from London before Christmas, and repair to their counties, and there to keep hospitality among their neighbours." The country gentry, however, appear to have availed themselves of the opportunity of gratifying their hankering for a town life, when there was no imperious queen to issue her opposing commands, for we find a writer of the reign of James I. expressing himself in the following strain :-"Much do I detest that effeminacy of the most that burn out day and night in their beds, and by the fireside in trifles, gaming, or courting their yellow mistresses all the winter in a city; appearing, but as cuckoos in the spring, one time in the year to the country and their tenants, leaving the care of keeping good houses at Christmas to the honest yeomen of the country." The song is reprinted from the “Percy Reliques." It is there stated to have been taken from a black-letter copy in the Pepys' Collection. THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER. I'LL sing you an old song made by a fine old pate, And the queen's old courtier. ODL CAP 1.3 With an old lady, whose anger one word assuages, With an old study filled full of learned old books, With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks, With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks, And an old kitchen, that maintained half a dozen old cooks: Like an old courtier, &c. |