volume of Christmas Carols, printed by Wynkin de Worde, has, since first brought to light, been printed and reprinted in every account of Christmas with which we are familiar. And certainly there is something very picturesque in the incident itself, as well as honour, we may presume, attaching to those who took part in it, for we find that Henry II., at the coronation of his eldest son," served him at the table as sewer, bringing up the boar's head with trumpets before it, according to the manner."† The five subsequent Carols have in their day played their part, times without number, in this ceremony; and on the very occasion above referred to, there is no doubt but that one or the other of them was chaunted forth between the flourishes of the herald's trumpets, when the proud Plantagenet did duty as sewer to his rebellious son. It is not merely at regal banquets, however, that these Carols have been in request. The boar's head was the first dish served up at table in every baronial hall throughout the country at the Christmas feast; and on such occasions we may be certain there was no lack of amateur or professional minstrels to do becoming honour to a ceremony of so much importance. In all of the following Carols, the old spelling has been modernised, and other trifling liberties have been taken, to render the text intelligible. The boar he is a sovereign beast, And acceptable at every feast; So might this lord be to greatest and least; The following is perhaps the most ancient of all the Boar's Head Carols. It is preserved in a manuscript of the fifteenth century, and was first printed in the "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," to which publication it was communicated by Sir Frederic Madden. The second part of this old Carol furnishes us with a minute description of the viands that formed the second course at a Christmas feast. They certainly make some amends for the poverty of the first portion of the banquet, and we may presume that when these dishes were served up the dinner commenced in good earnest. In spite of the invitations contained in these Carols to partake of the "first mess," the Boar's Head, we anticipate, was little BOAR'S HEAD CAROLS. else but a show dish; for, in all of the illusions to it, mention is only made of one head being served at each feast, though, even were the number greater, it could hardly have been sufficient to have yielded a mouthful a-piece to the numerous guests who were generally present at these entertainments. Between the courses the minstrels played and sang-the jesters discharged their smartest jokes, and practised their most extravagant antics; and, we dare say the famous Dance of Fools was not unfrequently performed at this particular juncture, before the attention of the guests was directed to the more exciting business which was so soon to follow. Then comes in the second course with great pride, The cranes, the herons, the bitterns, by their side, The partridges, the plovers, the woodcocks, and the snipe, Larks in hot show, for the ladies to pick, Good drink also, luscious and fine, Blood of Allemaine, romnay, and wine, With Hey! "Porttoryng" in the original a word not explained in any glossary. That is, "the first dish." Good brewed ale and wine, I dare well say, And the umbles of the doe and all that ever comes in. Capons well baked, with knuckles of the roe, Raisons and currants, and other spices too, With Hey! The following is the Carol previously referred to as having been preserved on a single leaf of a book of Carols, printed by Wynkin de Worde. It is there entitled, "A Carol, brynging in the Bore's Head." The first verse is evidently a mere variation of that in the preceding song. V. Caput Apri defero Reddens laudes Domino. HE boar's head in hand bring I, Qui estis in convivio. |
