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In the last days of Advent the Calabrian minstrels enter Rome, and are to be seen in every street saluting the shrines of the virgin mother with their wild music, under the traditional notion of soothing her until the birth-time of her infant at the approaching Christmas. This circumstance is related by lady Morgan, who observed them frequently stopping at the shop of a carpenter. To questions concerning this practice, the workmen, who stood at the door, said it was done out of respect to St. Joseph. The preceding engraving, representing this custom, is from a clever etching by D. Allan, a Scottish artist of great merit. In Mr. Burford's excellent panorama of the ruins of Pompeii, exhibited in the Strand, groups of these peasantry are celebrating the festival of the patron saint of the master of a vineyard. The printed "Description of the panorama says, these mountaineers are called Pifferari, and "play a pipe very similar in form and sound to the bagpipes of the Highlanders." It is added, as lady Morgan before observed, that "just before Christmas they descend from the mountains to Naples and Rome, in order to play before the pictures of the Virgin and Child, which are placed in various parts of every Italian town." In a picture of the Nativity by Raphael, he has introduced a shepherd at the door playing on the bagpipes.

Christmas Carols.

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Carol is said to be derived from cantare, to sing, and rola, an interjection of joy.* It is rightly observed by Jeremy Taylor, that "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good-will towards men," the song of the angels on the birth of the Saviour, is the first Christmas carol.

Anciently, bishops carolled at Christmas among their clergy; but it would be diverging into a wide field to exemplify ecclesiastical practices on this festival; and to keep close to the domestic usages of the season, church customs of that kind will not now be noticed.

In Mr. Brand's "Popular Antiquities," he gives the subjoined Anglo-Norman carol, from a MS. in the British Museum,† with the accompanying translation by his very learned and communicative friend, Mr. Douce; in which it will easily be

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* Bourne in Brand's Antiquities Bib. Reg. 16. E. VIII.

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Lordings, in these realms of pleasure,
Father Christinas yearly dwells;
Deals out joy with liberal measure,
Gloomy sorrow soon dispels :
Numerous guests, and viands dainty,
Fill the hall and grace the board;
Mirth and beauty, peace and plenty,
Solid pleasures here afford.

Lordings, 'tis said the liberal mind,

That on the needy much bestows, From Heav'n a sure reward shall find; From Heav'n, whence ev'ry blessing flows.

Who largely gives with willing hand,

Or quickly gives with willing heart, His fame shall spread throughout the land, His memory thence shall ne'er depart. Lordings, grant not your protection To a base, unworthy crew, But cherish, with a kind affection,

Men that are loyal, good, and true. Chace from your hospitable dwelling Swinish souls, that ever crave; Virtue they can ne'er excel in,

Gluttons never can be brave.

Lordings, Christmas loves good drinking,
Wines of Gascoigne, France, Anjou,'
English ale, that drives out thinking,
Prince of liquors old or new.
Every neighbour shares the bowl,
Drinks of the spicy liquor deep,
Drinks his fill without controul,

Till he drowns his care in sleep.
And now-by Christmas, jolly soul !
By this mansion's generous sire!
By the wine, and by the bowl,

And all the joys they both inspire! Here I'll drink a health to all.

The glorious task shall first be mine: And ever may foul luck befal

Him that to pledge me shall decline!

THE CHORUS.

Hail, father Christmas! hail to thee!
Honour'd ever shalt thou be !
All the sweets that love bestows,
Endless pleasures, wait on those
Who, like vassals brave and true,
Give to Christmas homage due.

From what has been observed of Christmas carols in another work, by the editor, a few notices will be subjoined with this remark, that the custom of singing carols at Christmas is very ancient; and though most of those that exist at the present day are deficient of interest to a refined ear, yet they are calculated to awaken

Gascoigne and Anjou, being at this time under the dominion of the English sovereigns, were not regarded as part of France,

tender feelings. For instance, one of them represents the virgin contemplating the birth of the infant, and saying, "He neither shall be clothed

in purple nor in pall, But all in fair linen,

as were babies all :

He neither shall be rock'd
in silver nor in gold,
But in a wooden cradle,

that rocks on the mould.'

Not to multiply instances at present, let it suffice that in a MS. at the British Museum there is "A song on the holly and the ivy," beginning,

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Nay, my nay, hyt shal not be I wys, Let holy hafe the maystry, as the maner ys : "Holy stond in the hall, fayre to behold, Ivy stond without the dore, she ys ful sore acold. Nay my nay," &c. "Holy, & hys mery men, they dawnsyn and they syng,

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Ivy and hur maydyns, they wepyn & they "Nay my nay," &c.

wryng.

The popularity of carol-singing occasioned the publication of a duodecimo volume in 1642, intituled, "Psalmes or Songs of Sion, turned into the language, and set to the tunes of a strange land. By William) S(latyer), intended for Christmas carols, and fitted to divers of the most noted and common but solemne tunes, every where in this land familiarly used and knowne." Upon the copy of this book in the British Museum, a former possessor has written the names of some of the tunes to which the author designed them to be sung: for instance, Psalm 6, to the tune of Jane Shore; Psalm 19, to Bur. Forster's Dreame; Psalm 43, to Crimson Velvet; Psalm 47, to Garden Greene; Psalm 84, to The fairest Nymph of the Valleys; &c.

In a carol, still sung, called "Dives and Lazarus," there is this amusing account: "As it fell it out, upon a day,

Rich Dives sicken'd and died,
There came two serpents out of hell,

His soul therein to guide.

"Rise up, rise up, brother Dives,

And come along with me,
For you've a place provided in hell,
To sit upon a serpent's knee."

However whimsical this may appear to the reader, he can scarcely conceive its ludicrous effect, when the "serpent's

*Harl. Coll. 53 16.

knee" is solemnly drawn out to its utmost length by a Warwickshire chanter, and as solemnly listened to by the well-disposed crowd, who seem, without difficulty, to believe that Dives sits on a serpent's knee. The idea of sitting on this knee was, perhaps, conveyed to the poet's mind by old wood-cut representations of Lazarus seated in Abraham's lap. More anciently, Abraham was frequently drawn holding him up by the sides, to be seen by Dives in hell. In an old book now before me, they are so represented, with the addition of a devil blowing the fire under Dives with a pair of bellows.

Carols begin to be spoken of as not belonging to this century, and few, perhaps, are aware of the number of these compositions now printed. The editor of the Every Day Book has upwards of ninety, all at this time, published annually. This collection he has had little opportunity of increasing, except when in the country he has heard an old woman singing an old carol, and brought back the carol in his pocket with less chance of its escape, than the tune in his head.

Mr. Southey, describing the fight "upon the plain of Patay," tells of one who fell, as having

"In his lord's castle dwelt, for many a year, A well-beloved servant: he could sing Carols for Shrove-tide, or for Candlemas, Songs for the wassel, and when the boar's head Crown'd with gay garlands, and with rose

mary,

Smoak'd on the Christmas board."

Joan of Arc, b. x. 1. 466.

These ditties, which now exclusively enliven the industrious servant-maid, and the humble labourer, gladdened the festivity of royalty in ancient times. Henry VII, in the third year of his reign, kept hisChristmas at Greenwich: on the twelfth night, after high mass, the king went to the hall, and kept his estate at the table; in the middle sat the dean, and those of the king's chapel, who, immediately after the king's first course, sang a carall." Granger innocently observes, that "they that fill the highest and the lowest classes of human life, seem in many respects to be more nearly allied than even themselves imagine. A skilful anatomist would find little or no difference in dissecting the body of a king, and that of the meanest of his subjects; and a judicious philo

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Leland, Collect. vol. iv. p. 237.

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sopher would discover a surprising conformity in discussing the nature and qualities of their minds."*

The earliest collection of Christmas carols supposed to have been published, is only known from the last leaf of a volume printed by Wynkn de Worde, in the year 1521. This precious scrap was picked up by Tom Hearne ; Dr. Rawlinson purchased it at his decease in a volume of tracts, and bequeathed it to the Bodleian library. There are two carols upon it: one, "a caroll of huntynge," is reprinted in the last edition of Juliana Berners' "Boke of St. Alban's ;" the other,

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a caroll, bringing in the bore's head," is in Mr.Dibdin's "Ames," with a copy of it as it is now sung in Queen's-college, Oxford, every Christmas-day. Dr. Bliss, of Oxford, also printed on a sheet for private distribution, a few copies of this and Ant. a Wood's version of it, with notices concerning the custom, from the hand-writings of Wood and Dr. Rawlinson, in the Bodleian library. Ritson, in his ill-tempered "Observations on Warton's History of English Poetry," (1782, 4to. p. 37,) has a Christmas carol upon bringing up the boar's head, from an ancient MS. in his possession, wholly different from Dr. Bliss's. The "Bibliographical Miscellanies," (Oxford, 1813, 4to) contains seven carols from a collection in one volume in the possession of Dr. Cotton, of Christchurch-college, Oxford, "imprynted at London, in the Powltry, by Richard Kele, dwellyng at the longe shop vnder saynt Myldrede's Chyrche," probably " between 1546 and 1552:"I had an opportunity of perusing this exceedingly curious volume, which is supposed to be unique, and has since passed into the hands of Mr. Freeling. There are carols among the Godly and Spiritual Songs and Balates, in "Scottish Poems of the sixteenth century,” (1801, 8vo.); and one by Dunbar, from the Bannatyne MS. in "Ancient Scottish Poems." Others are in Mr. Ellis's edition of Brand's "Popular Antiquities," with several useful notices. Warton's "History of English Poetry" contains much concerning old carols. Mr. Douce, in his " Illustrations of Shakspeare," gives a specimer. of the carol sung by the shepherds, on the birth of Christ, in one of the Coventry plays. There is a sheet of carols headed thus: "CHRISTUS NATUS EST: Christ is born;" with a wood-cut, 10 inches high,

Biog. Hist. Engl. ed. 1804, vol. iv. p. 336.

by 8 inches wide, representing the stable at Bethlehem; Christ in the crib, watched by the virgin and Joseph; shepherds kneeling; angels attending; a man playing on the bagpipes; a woman with a basket of fruit on her head; a sheep blea ing, and an ox lowing on the ground; a raven croaking, and a crow cawing on the hay-rack; a cock crowing above them; and angels singing in the sky. The animals have labels from their mouths, bearing Latin inscriptions. Down the side of the wood-cut is the following account and explanation: "A religious man, inventing the conceits of both birds and beasts, drawn in the picture of our Saviour's birth, doth thus express them: the cock croweth, Christus natus est, Christ is born. The raven asked, Quando? When? The crow replied, Hac nocte, This night. The ox cryeth out, Ubi? Ubi? Where? where? The sheep bleated out, Bethlehem, Bethlehem. A voice from heaven sounded, Gloria in Excelsis, Glory be on high. London: printed and sold by J. Bradford, in Little Britain, the corner house over against the Pump, 1701. Price One Penny." This carol is in the possession of Mr. Upcott.

The custom of singing carols at Christinas prevails in Ireland to the present

time. In Scotland, where no church feasts have been kept since the days of John Knox, the custom is unknown. In Wales it is still preserved to a greater extent, perhaps, than in England; at a former period, the Welsh had carols adapted to most of the ecclesiastical festivals, and the four seasons of the year, but in our times they are limited to that of Christmas. After the turn of midnight at Christmaseve, service is performed in the churches, followed by the singing of carols to the harp. Whilst the Christmas holidays continue, they are sung in like manner in the houses, and there are carols especially adapted to be sung at the doors of the houses by visiters before they enter. Lffyr Carolan, or the book of carols, contains sixty-six for Christmas, and five summer carols; Blodeugerdd Cymrii, or the "Anthology of Wales," contains fortyeight Christmas carols, nine summer carols, three May carols, one winter carol, one nightingale carol, and a carol to Cupid. The following verse of a carol for Christmas is literally translated from the first mentioned volume. The poem was written by Hugh Morris, a celebrated songwriter during the commonwealth, and until the early part of the reign of William III :

"To a saint let us not pray, to a pope let us not kneel;
On Jesu let us depend, and let us discreetly watch
To preserve our souls from Satan with his snares;
Let us not in morning invoke any one else."

With the succeeding translation of a Welsh wassail song, the observer of manners will, perhaps, be pleased. In

Welsh, the lines of each couplet, repeated inversely, still keep the same sense.

A Carol for the Eve of St. Mary's Day.

This is the season when, agreeably to custom,
That it was an honour to send wassail
By the old people who were happy
In their time, and loved pleasure;

And we are now purposing

To be like them, every one merry:

Merry and foolish, youths are wont to be,

Being reproached for squandering abroad.

I know that every mirth will end

Too soon of itself;

Before it is ended, here comes

The wassail of Mary, for the sake of the time:

N

place the maid immediately.

In the chair before us;

Here the master or mistress of the house was called on by name to afficlete,

And let every body in the house be content that we May drink wassail to virginity,

To remember the time, in faithfulness,

When fair Mary was at the sacrifice,
After the birth to her of a son,

Who delivered every one, through his good will
From their sins, without doubt.

Should there be an inquiry who made the carol,
He is a man whose trust is fully on God,
That he shall go to heaven to the effulgent Mary,
Towards filling the orders where she also is.

In the rage for "collecting" almost every thing, it is surprising that "collectors" have almost overlooked carols as a class of popular poetry. To me they have been objects of interest from circumstances which occasionally determine the direction of pursuit. The wood-cuts round the annual sheets, and the melody of "God rest you merry gentlemen," delighted my childhood; and I still listen with pleasure to the shivering carolist's evening chant towards the clean kitchen window decked with holly, the flaring fire showing the whitened hearth, and reflecting gleams of light from the surfaces

of the dresser utensils.

Davies Gilbert, Esq. F. R. S. F. A. S. &c. has published "Ancient Christmas carols, with the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the west of Eng

land."

<< Mr. Gilbert says, that on Christmas-day these carols took the place of psalms in all the churches, especially at afternoon service, the whole congregation joining and at the end it was usual for the parish clerk, to declare in a loud voice, his wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year."

In "Poor Robin's Almanac," for 1695, there is a Christmas carol, which is there called, "A Christmas Song," beginning

thus:

Now thrice welcome, Christmas,
Which brings us good cheer,
Minced-pies and plumb-porridge,
Good ale and strong beer;
With pig, goose, and capon,
The best that may be,
So well doth the weather
And our stomachs agree.
Observe how the chimneys
Do smoak all about,
The cooks are providing

For dinner, no doubt;
But those on whose tables
No victuals appear,
O, may they keep Lent

All the rest of the year'

With holly and ivy

THOMAS EVANS.

So green and so gay; We deck up our houses As fresh as the day. With bays and rosemary And laurel compleat, And every one now

Is a king in conceit.

So much only concerning carols for the present. But more shall be said hereon Every-Day Book live, and retain his faculin the year 1826, if the editor of the ties to that time. He now, however, earin every part of England, to collect every nestly requests of every one of its readers carol that may be singing at Christmas time in the year 1825, and convey these with accounts of manners and customs carols to him at their earliest convenience, peculiar to their neighbourhood, which urges and solicits this most earnestly and are not already noticed in this work. He anxiously, and prays his readers not to forget that he is a serious and needy suitor. They see the nature of the work, and he hopes that any thing and every thing that they think pleasant or recommunicating to him without delay. markable, they will find some means of The most agreeable presents he can receive at any season, will be contributions and hints that may enable him to blend useful information with easy and cheerful amusement.

CUSTOMS ON

Christmas Eve.

Mr. Coleridge writing his "Friend,” from Ratzeburg, in the north of Germany, mentions a practice on Christmaseve very similar to some on December the 6th, St. Nicholas'-day. Mr. Coleridge says, "There is a Christmas custom here which pleased and interested me. The children make little presents to their parents, and to each other, and the parents to their children. For three or four

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