THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER. With an old hall, hung about with pikes, guns, and bows, With old swords and bucklers, that had borne many shrewd blows, And an old frieze coat, to cover his worship's trunk hose, copper nose: With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come, With an old falconer, huntsman, and a kennel of hounds, That never hawked, nor hunted, but in his own grounds; Who, like a wise man, kept himself within his own bounds, And when he died gave every child a thousand good pounds: Like an old courtier, &c. But to his eldest son his house and land he assigned, And the king's young courtier. Like a flourishing young gallant, newly come to his land, With a new-fangled lady, that is dainty, nice, and spare, With a new-fashioned hall, built where the old one stood, Hung round with new pictures, that do the poor no good, With a fine marble chimney, wherein burns neither coal nor wood, And a new smooth shovelboard, whereon no victuals e'er stood: Like a young courtier, &c. THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER. With a new study, stuft full of pamphlets and plays, And a new chaplain, that swears faster than he prays, With a new buttery hatch, that opens once in four or five days, And a new French cook, to devise fine kickshaws, and toys: Like a young courtier, &c. With a new fashion, when Christmas is drawing on, # With a new gentleman-usher, whose carriage is complete, meat, With a waiting-gentlewoman, whose dressing is very neat, Like a young courtier, &c. With new titles of honour bought with his father's old gold, The custom of Mumming, which appears to have prevailed during the middle ages throughout the Christmas season, had its origin in some similar amusement forming a portion of the revels of the ancient Saturnalia. Several of the old chroniclers have left us descriptions of the most celebrated of these entertainments in which our kings and princes have taken part. The earliest account that has been preserved is of a grand mumming performed by the citizens of London, in 1377, for the entertainment of the young prince Richard, son of the Black Prince. On this occasion, one hundred and thirty citizens disguised as emperors, popes, and cardinals, with knights and their more humble esquires, all wearing vizors and well mounted, and attended by numerous torchbearers, rode to the palace of the young prince at Kennington to the sound of trumpets, sackbuts, and other music. Games at dice were played, followed by feasting and dancing, "which jolitie being ended, the mummers were again made to drink and then departed in order as they came." While the higher classes thus disported themselves, the lower orders were content with an humble imitation of the magnificent pageantry of these entertainments. They went from house to house with their faces blackened with soot and bedaubed with paint-the men frequently attired in female costume, and the women in costume of the other sex when they made merry amongst their friends and neighbours who provided them with good store of Christmas cheer. |