I.

TELL us, thou clear and heavenly tongue,
Where is the Babe that lately sprung?
Lies he the lily-banks among?

II.

Or say, if this new Birth of ours
Sleeps, laid within some ark of flowers,
Spangled with dew-light? thou canst clear
All doubts, and manifest the where.

III.

Declare to us, bright star, if we shall seek
Him in the morning's blushing cheek,
Or search the beds of spices through,

To find him out?

STAR.

No, this ye need not do;

But only come and see Him rest,

A Princely Babe, in 's mother's breast.

CHORUS.

He's seen! He's seen! why then around,

Let's kiss the sweet and holy ground;

And all rejoice that we have found

A King, before conception, crowned.

IV.

Come then, come then, and let us bring

Unto our pretty twelfth-tide King,

Each one his several offering.

CHORUS.

And when night comes we'll give him wassailing;

And that his treble honours may be seen,

We'll choose him King, and make his mother Queen.

TWELFTH NIGHT, OR KING AND QUEEN.

Now, now the mirth comes,

With the cake full of plums,

Where bean's the king of the sport here;

Beside we must know,

The pea also

Must revel as queen in the court here.

Begin then to choose,

This night as you 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 unurged will not drink,

To the base from the brink,

A health to the king and queen here.

Next crown the bowl full
With gentle lambs' 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 wet here,
Yet part ye from hence,

As free from offence,

As when ye innocent met here.

CEREMONY FOR CANDLEMAS EVE.

OWN with rosemary and bays,

Down with the mistletoe ;*

Instead of holly, now upraise

The greener box, for show.

The holly hitherto did sway;
Let box now domineer,

Until the dancing Easter-day
Or Easter's eve appear.

Then youthful box, which now hath grace
Your houses to renew,

Grown old, surrender must his place

Unto the crispèd yew.

When yew is out, then birch comes in,

And many flowers beside,
Both of a fresh and fragrant kin,

To honour Whitsuntide.

Green rushes then, and sweetest bents,

With cooler oaken boughs,

Come in for comely ornaments,

To re-adorn the house.

Thus times do shift; each thing his turn does hold;
New things succeed as former things grow old.

41

This is the first reference to the mistletoe, in its quality of a Christmas evergreen, that we have met with in the writings of our early poets.

ANOTHER CEREMONY.

Down with the rosemary, and so

Down with the bays and mistletoe ;
Down with the holly, ivy, all

Wherewith ye dressed the Christmas hall;

That so the superstitious find

No one least branch there left behind;
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected there, maids, trust to me,
So many goblins you shall see.

CEREMONY FOR CANDLEMAS DAY.

KINDLE the Christmas brand, and then

Till sunset let it burn;

Which quenched, then lay it up again,
Till Christmas next return.

Part must be kept, wherewith to tend
The Christmas log next year;
And where 't is safely kept, the fiend
Can do no mischief there.

In Herrick's time it was customary with the country people to prolong the merriment of the Christmas season until Candlemas Day-a circumstance referred to in the following couplet :

CANDLEMAS DAY.

END now the white-loaf and the pic,
And let all sports with Christmas die.