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Christmastide.
[Illustration:
James Stephanoff, del. Ashbee & Dangerfield, lith.
PLAY BEFORE QUEEN ELIZABETH.]
CHRISTMASTIDE
its History, Festivities, and Carols.
BY WILLIAM SANDYS, F.S.A.
LONDON:
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
_SOHO SQUARE_.
LONDON: Printed by E. TUCKER, Perry’s Place, Oxford Street.
TO
WYNN ELLIS, ESQUIRE,
High Sheriff of Hertfordshire,
THE FOLLOWING WORK
IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED, AS A SMALL TRIBUTE
OF RESPECT FOR HIS PUBLIC, AND
ESTEEM FOR HIS PRIVATE
CHARACTER.
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Lithographs.
PAGE
Play before Queen Elizabeth _frontispiece_
Ushering in the Boar’s Head 30
Pageant before Henry the Eighth 66
Lord of Misrule, G. Ferrers 86
New Year’s Gifts to Queen Elizabeth 100
Temple Revels, temp. Charles the Second 130
The Wassail Bowl 134
Old Christmas Festivities 142
The Christmas Tree 152
Vignettes.
CHAP.
1 Edward the First’s Offering at the Epiphany 1
2 Froissart’s Christmas Log 23
3 Merry Carol 45
4 Archie returning his Christmas Gift 63
5 Teonge’s Twelfth Night at Sea 85
6 Charles the Second gambling at Christmas 103
7 Pepys’ Wassail Bowl 127
8 Modern Christmas Plays 145
9 Three Kings offering 159
10 Carol Singers of old 173
11 Decorating with Evergreens 199
Carols 215
A Mock Play 292
Christmas Play of St. George and the Dragon, as
represented in the West of England 298
Index to Carols 303
Index to principal matters 305
Index of References 306
Music.
A Virgin most pure 313
A Child this day is born 315
The Lord at first had Adam made 316
The first Nowell 318
This New Christmas Carol 319
God rest you, merry gentlemen 320
St. Stephen 321
God’s dear Son 323
To-morrow shall be my dancing-day 324
I saw three ships 325
Joseph was an old man 326
In those twelve days 327
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I.
IT would not be consistent with the proposed character of this
work to enlarge on the Christian dispensation, as connected with
the sacred feast of Christmas; to show Christianity as old as the
Creation; that the fall of man naturally involved his punishment;
and hence the vicarious sacrifice of our Saviour to redeem us from
sin and death. These are subjects to be entered on by those who have
had opportunities, if not of thinking more, at least of reading
more, relative to them, than the writer of these pages, whose
leisure hours are few, and whose endeavour will be to give, in as
popular and interesting a manner as his abilities will enable him,
some information respecting the mode of keeping this Holy Feast,
particularly in England, in the olden times, and in the middle ages.
The Nativity is hailed by Christians of all denominations, as the dawn
of our salvation; the harbinger of the day-spring on high; that promise
of futurity, where care, sin, and sorrow enter not, where friends long
severed shall meet to part no more; no pride, no jealousy, no self
(that besetting sin of the world) intruding. Well, then, may we observe
it with gratitude for the unbounded mercy vouchsafed to us; for the
fulfilment of the promise pronounced in the beginning of the world,
releasing us from the dominion of Satan. A promise which even the
Pagans did not lose sight of, although they confused its import, as a
glimmering of it may be traced through their corrupted traditions and
superstitious ceremonies.
Has the early dream of youth faded away purposeless?—the ambition of
manhood proved vanity of vanities? Have riches made themselves wings
and flown away? or, has fame, just within the grasp, burst like a
bubble? Have the friends, the companions of youth, one by one fallen
off from thy converse; or the prop of advancing age been removed,
leaving thee weak and struggling with the cares of life; or, has “the
desire of thine eyes” been taken from thee at a stroke? Under these and
other trials, the Christian looks to the anniversary of the Nativity
(that rainbow of Christianity) as the commemoration of the birth of
the Blessed Redeemer, who will give rest to the weary, and receive in
his eternal kingdom all those who truly trust in him. And well may His
name be called, “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace!”
The season of Christmas, however, was not only set apart for sacred
observance, but soon became a season of feasting and revelry; so much
so, that even our sumptuary laws have recognised it, and exempted
it from their operation. When Edward the Third, in his tenth year,
endeavoured to restrain his subjects from over luxury in their meals,
stating that the middle classes sought to imitate the great in this
respect, and thus impoverished themselves, and became the less able
to assist their liege lord, he forbade more than two courses, and two
sorts of meat in each, to any person, except in the great feasts of the
year, namely, “La veile et le jour de Noël, le jour de Saint Estiephne,
le jour del an renoef (New Year’s Day), les jours de la Tiphaynei et de
la Purification de Nostre Dame,” &c.
A cheerful and hospitable observance of this festival being quite
consistent with the reverence due to it, let us—after having as our
first duty repaired to the house of our Lord, to return humble thanks
for the inestimable benefits now conferred—while preparing to enter
into our own enjoyments, enable, as far as in our power, our dependants
and poorer brethren, to participate in the earthly comforts, as they do
in the heavenly blessings of the season. Remember the days of darkness
will come, and who can say how soon, how suddenly? and if long and
late to some, yet will they surely come, when the daughters of music
are laid low, then the remembrance of a kindly act of charity to our
neighbour will soothe the careworn brow, and smooth the restless pillow
of disease. “Go,” then, “your way; eat the fat and drink the sweet, and
send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is
holy unto our Lord.”
A great similarity exists in the observances of the return of the
seasons, and of other general festivals throughout the world; and
indeed the rites and ceremonies of the various pagan religions have, to
a great extent, the marks of a common origin; and the study of popular
antiquities involves researches into the early history of mankind, and
their religious ceremonies.
Immediately after the deluge, the religion of Noah and his family was
pure; but a century had scarcely elapsed before it became perverted
among some of his descendants. That stupendous pagan temple, the Tower
of Babel, was built, and the confusion of tongues, and dispersion of
mankind, followed. As the waves of population receded farther from the
centre, the systems of religion—except with the chosen people—got
more and more debased, and mingled with allegories and symbols. But
still, even the most corrupt preserved many allusions to the fall of
man, and his redemption; to the deluge, and the deliverance by the
ark; and to a future state. Thus, whether in China, Egypt, India,
Africa, Scandinavia, in the rites of Vitzliputzli in Mexico, and of
Pacha Camac, in Peru, among the Magi, the Brahmins, the Chaldæans, the
Gymnosophists, and the Druids, the same leading features may be traced.
It has even been supposed, that amongst a chosen race of the priests,
some traditionary knowledge of the true religion prevailed, which they
kept carefully concealed from the uninitiated.
One of the greatest festivals was that in celebration of the return
of the sun; which, at the winter solstice, began gradually to regain
power, the year commenced anew, and the season was hailed with
rejoicings and thanksgivings. The Saxons, and other northern nations,
kept a feast on the 25th of December, in honour of Thor, and called it
the _Mother-Night_, as the parent of other nights; also _Mid-Winter_.
It was likewise called _Gule_, _Gwyl_, _Yule_, or _Iul_, and half
a dozen similar names, respecting the meaning of which learned
antiquaries differ: Gebelin and others stating they convey the idea
of revolution or wheel; while others, equally learned, consider the
meaning to be festival, or holy-day. _Gwyl_ in Welsh, and _Geol_
in Saxon, both signify a holy-day; and as _Yule_, or _I-ol_, also
signifies ale, an indispensable accompaniment of Saxon and British
feasts, they were probably convertible terms. The word _Yule_ may be
found in many of our ancient metrical romances, and some of the old
mysteries, as applied to Christmas, and is still so used in Scotland,
and parts of England. The word _Gala_ would seem to have a similar
derivation. The curious in these matters may, however, refer to the
learned Hickes’s two folios, Gebelin’s nine quartos, and Du Cange’s
ten folios, and other smaller works, and satisfy their cravings after
knowledge.
The feast of the birth of Mithras was held by the Romans on the 25th
of December, in commemoration of the return of the sun; but the most
important heathen festival, at this period of the year, was the
_Saturnalia_, a word which has since become proverbial for high-jinks,
and all manner of wild revelry. The origin seems to be unknown, but
to have been previous to the foundation of Rome, and to have had some
reference to the happy state of freedom and equality in the golden age
of Saturn, whenever that era of dreams existed; for, when we go back
to the olden times, no matter how far, we find the archæologists of
that age still looking back on their older times: and so we are handed
back, not knowing where to stop, until we stumble against the Tower of
Babel, or are stopped by the prow of the Ark, and then decline going
any farther.
The Greeks, Mexicans, Persians, and other great nations of antiquity,
including of course the Chinese, who always surpassed any other
country, had similar festivals. During the Saturnalia among the Romans,
which lasted for about a week from the 17th of December, not only were
masters and slaves on an equality, but the former had to attend on
the latter, who were allowed to ridicule them. Towards the end of the
feast a king or ruler was chosen, who was invested with considerable
powers, and may be supposed to be intimately connected with our Lord of
Misrule, or Twelfth Night King,—presents also were mutually given, and
public places decked with shrubs and flowers. The birth of our Saviour
thus took place at that time of the year, already marked by some of the
most distinguished feasts. And why should it not have been so? We know
that, at whatever period of the year it took place, it would have been,
for Christians, “The Feast of Feasts;” and it is surely no derogation
to imagine, that it was appointed at this time as the fulfilment of all
feasts, and the culmination of festivals. The rising of the Christian
Sun absorbed in its rays the lesser lights of early traditions,
and it has continued to illuminate us with its blended brilliancy.
Abercrombie, in his work on the Intellectual Powers, has some able
remarks on the value of an unbroken series of traditional testimony
or rites, especially as applicable to Christianity. “If the events,
particularly, are of a very uncommon character, these rites remove any
feeling of uncertainty which attaches to traditional testimony, when it
has been transmitted through a long period of time, and, consequently,
through a great number of individuals. They carry us back, in one
unbroken series, to the period of the events themselves, and to the
individuals who were witnesses of them. The most important application
of the principle, in the manner now referred to, is in those
observances of religion which are intended to commemorate the events
connected with the revelation of the Christian faith. The importance
of this mode of transmission has not been sufficiently attended to by
those who have urged the insufficiency of human testimony, to establish
the course of events which are at variance with the common course of
nature.”
During the Commonwealth, some of the Puritan party endeavoured to show
that the 25th of December was not really the Birth of our Saviour, but
that it took place at a different time of the year. Thomas Mockett, in
‘Christmas, the Christian’s Grand Feast,’ has collected the principal
statements corroborative of this view—arguments they cannot be called;
and after all, his conclusion is nothing more than, be the 25th of
December the right day or not, Christians were not bound to keep it
as a feast, because the supreme authority of the land, and ordinances
of both Houses of Parliament, had directed otherwise. Parliament,
however, cannot control the day of the Nativity, though it can do a
great deal; having, on one occasion, according to tradition, nearly
passed an act against the growth of poetry (an enactment perhaps not
much wanted at present), though this was said to have been a clerical
error; and, at another time, after inflicting a punishment of fourteen
years’ transportation, gave half to the king and half to the informer;
this, as may be supposed, was subsequently repealed. If, however, it
is safe to say anything against Parliament, even of two hundred years
since, without fear of the pains and penalties of contempt, it might
be presumed that, like the patient in the ‘Diary of a Physician,’ they
had “turned heads.” Dr. Thomas Warmstry, in ‘The Vindication of the
Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ,’ published three years previous to
Mockett’s tract, gives satisfactory replies to the objections made by
the Puritans, and seems to have embodied the arguments against them,
considering it sufficient for us that the Church has appointed the 25th
of December for our great feast.
Whether the Apostles celebrated this day, although probable, is not
capable of proof; but Clemens Romanus, about the year 70, when some
of them were still living, directs the Nativity to be observed on the
25th of December. From his time to that of Bernard, the last of the
Fathers, A.D. 1120, the feast is mentioned in an unbroken series; a
tract, called ‘Festorum Metropolis,’ 1652, naming thirty-nine Fathers,
who have referred to it, including Ignatius, Cyprian, Athanasius,
Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrosius, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Bede; besides
historians and more modern divines. ‘The Feast of Feasts,’ 1644,
also contains many particulars of the celebration during the earlier
centuries of Christianity. About the middle of the fourth century, the
feasting was carried to excess, as may have been the case occasionally
in later times; and Gregory Nazianzen wars against such feasting, and
dancing, and crowning the doors, so that the temporal rejoicing seems
to have taken the place of the spiritual thanksgiving. In the same
age there occurred one of those acts of brutality, which throughout
all ages have disgraced humanity. The Christians having assembled
in the Temple at Nicomedia, in Bithynia, to celebrate the Nativity,
Dioclesian, the tyrant, had it inclosed, and set on fire, when about
20,000 persons are said to have perished; the number, however, appears
large.
The early Christians, of the eastern and western Churches, slightly
differed in the day on which they celebrated this feast: the Easterns
keeping it, together with the Baptism, on the 6th of January, calling
it the Epiphany; while the Westerns, from the first, kept it on the
25th of December; but in the fourth century the Easterns changed
their festival of the Nativity to the same day, thus agreeing with
the Westerns. The Christian epoch was, it is said, first introduced
into chronology about the year 523, and was first established in
this country by Bede. New Year’s Day was not observed by the early
Christians as the Feast of the Circumcision, but (excepting by some
more zealous persons, who kept it as a fast) with feasting, songs,
dances, interchange of presents, &c., in honour of the new year;
though the bishops and elders tried to check these proceedings, which
were probably founded in some measure on the Roman feast of the
double-faced Janus, held by them on this day. According to Brady, the
first mention of it, as a Christian festival, was in 487; and it is
only to be traced from the end of the eleventh century, under the title
of the Circumcision; and was not generally so kept until included in
our liturgy, in 1550; although, from early times, Christmas Day, the
Nativity, and Twelfth Day, were the three great days of Christmas-tide.
Referring to the probability, that the feasting on New Year’s Day
might have been derived from the feast of Janus, it must be observed,
that some of the early Christians, finding the heathens strongly
attached to their ancient rites and customs, which made it difficult
to abolish them (at least until after a considerable lapse of time),
took advantage of this feeling, and engrafted the Christian feasts on
those of the heathen, first modifying and purifying them. The practice
may have been wrong, but the fact was so. Thus, Gregory Thaumaturgus,
bishop of Neocæsarea, who died in 265, instituted festivals in honour
of certain Saints and Martyrs, in substitution of those of the
heathens, and directed Christmas to be kept with joy and feasting, and
sports, to replace the _Bacchanalia_ and _Saturnalia_. Pagan temples
were converted into Christian churches; the statues of the heathen
deities were converted into Christian saints; and papal Rome preserved,
under other names, many relics of heathen Rome. The Pantheon was
converted into a Romish church, and Jupiter changed to St. Peter.
When Pope Gregory sent over St. Augustin to convert Saxon England, he
directed him to accommodate the ceremonies of the Christian worship as
much as possible to those of the heathen, that the people might not be
too much startled at the change; and, in particular, he advised him
to allow the Christian converts, on certain festivals, to kill and
eat a great number of oxen, to the glory of God, as they had formerly
done to the honour of the devil. St. Augustin, it appears, baptized no
fewer than 10,000 persons on the Christmas day next after his landing
in 596, and permitted, in pursuance of his instructions, the usual
feasting of the inhabitants, allowing them to erect booths for their
own refreshment, instead of sacrificing to their idols,—objecting
only to their joining in their dances with their pagan neighbours.
Thus several of the pagan observances became incorporated with the
early Christian festivals; and to such an extent, that frequent
endeavours were made, by different Councils, to suppress or modify
them; as, in 589, the songs and dances, at the festivals of Saints,
were prohibited by the Council of Toledo, and by that of Chalon, on the
Saone, in 650. In after times, the clergy still found it frequently
requisite to connect the remnants of pagan idolatry with Christianity,
in consequence of the difficulty they found in suppressing it. So,
likewise, on the introduction of the Protestant religion, some of the
Roman Catholic ceremonies, in a modified state, were preserved; and
thus were continued some of the pagan observances. In this manner may
many superstitious customs, still remaining at our great feasts, and in
our games and amusements, be accounted for.
The practice of decorating churches and houses with evergreens,
branches, and flowers, is of very early date. The Jews used them at
their Feast of Tabernacles, and the heathens in several of their
ceremonies, and they were adopted by the Christians. Our Saviour
Himself permitted branches to be used as a token of rejoicing, upon
His triumphal entry to Jerusalem. It was natural, therefore, that at
Christmas time, when His Birth, and the fulfilment of the promise to
fallen man, were celebrated, that this symbol of rejoicing should be
resorted to. Some of the early Councils, however, considering the
practice somewhat savoured of paganism, endeavoured to abolish it;
and, in 610, it was enacted, that it was not lawful to begirt or adorn
houses with laurel, or green boughs, for all this practice savours of
paganism. In the earlier carols the holly and the ivy are mentioned,
where the ivy, however, is generally treated as a foil to the holly,
and not considered appropriate to festive purposes.
“Holly and Ivy made a great party,
Who should have the mastery
In lands where they go.
Then spake Holly, I am friske and jolly,
I will have the mastery
In lands where they go.”
But in after times it was one of the plants in regular use. Stowe
mentions holme, ivy, and bays, and gives an account of a great storm
on Candlemas Day, 1444, which rooted up a standard tree, in Cornhill,
nailed full of holme and ivy for Christmas, an accident that by some
was attributed to the evil spirit. Old Tusser’s direction is “Get
ivye and hull (holly) woman deck up thine house.” The misletoe—how
could Shakespeare call it the “baleful misletoe?”—was an object of
veneration among our pagan ancestors in very early times, and as it
is probable it was the golden branch referred to by Virgil, in his
description of the descent to the lower regions, it may be assumed to
have been used in the religious ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans.
His branch appears to have been the misletoe of the oak, now of great
rarity, though it is found on many other trees. It was held sacred by
the Druids and Celtic nations, who attribute to it valuable medicinal
qualities, calling it _allheal_ and _guidhel_, and they preferred,
if not selected exclusively, the misletoe of the oak. Vallancey says
it was held sacred because the berries as well as the leaves grow in
clusters of three united to one stalk, and they had a veneration for
the number three; his observation, however, is incorrect as to the
leaves, which are in pairs only. The Gothic nations also attached
extraordinary qualities to it, and it was the cause of the death of
their deity Balder. For Friga, when she adjured all the other plants,
and the animals, birds, metals, earth, fire, water, reptiles, diseases,
and poison, not to do him any hurt, unfortunately neglected to exact
any pledge from the misletoe, considering it too weak and feeble to
hurt him, and despising it perhaps because it had no establishment of
its own, but lived upon other plants. When the gods, then, in their
great assembly, amused themselves by throwing darts and other missiles
at him, which all fell harmless, Loke, moved with envy, joined them
in the shape of an old woman, and persuaded Hoder, who was blind, to
throw a branch of misletoe, and guided his hand for the purpose; when
Balder, being pierced through by it, fell dead. The Druids celebrated
a grand festival on the annual cutting of the misletoe, which was held
on the sixth day of the moon nearest their new year. Many ceremonies
were observed, the officiating Druid being clad in white, with a golden
sickle, and received the plant in a white cloth. These ceremonies kept
alive the superstitious feelings of the people, to whom no doubt the
Druids were in the habit of dispensing the plant at a high price; and
as late as the seventeenth century, peculiar efficacy was attached
to it, and a piece hung round the neck was considered as a safeguard
against witches. In modern times it has a tendency to lead us towards
witches of a more attractive nature; for, as is well known, if one can
by favour or cunning induce a fair one to come under the misletoe he
is entitled to a salute, at the same time he should wish her a happy
new year, and present her with one of the berries for good luck; each
bough, therefore, is only laden with a limited number of kisses, which
should be well considered in selecting one. In some places people try
lots by the crackling of the leaves and berries in the fire.
From the pagan Saturnalia and Lupercalia probably were derived those
extraordinary but gross, and as we should now consider them, profane
observances, the Feast of Asses and the Feast of Fools, with other
similar burlesque festivals. In the early ages of Christianity, there
were practices at the beginning of the year of men going about dressed
in female attire or in skins of beasts, causing occasionally much
vice and debauchery; but the regular Feast of Asses and Feast of
Fools were not apparently fully established until the ninth or tenth
century; a period when it was considered a sufficient qualification
for a priest, if he could read the Gospels and understand the Lord’s
Prayer. All sorts of buffooneries and abominations were permitted at
these representations; mock anthems and services were sung; an ass,
covered with rich priestly robes, was gravely conducted to the choir,
and provided from time to time with drink and provender, the inferior
clergy, choristers, and people dancing round him and imitating his
braying; while all sorts of impurities were committed, even at the holy
altar. A hymn was sung, commencing—
Orientis partibus
Adventavit asinus;
Pulcher et fortissimus,
Sarcinis aptissimus.
Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez;
Belle bouche rechignez;
Vous aurez du foin assez.
Et de l’avoine à planter.
Lentus erat pedibus,
Nisi foret baculus,
Et cum in clunibus
Pungeret aeuleus.
and after several verses in this strain, finishing with—
Hez va! hez va! hez va, hez!
Bialx Sire Asnes car allez;
Belle bouche car chantez.
On the mock mass being completed, the officiating priest turned to
the people and said, “Ite missa est,” and brayed three times, to which
they responded by crying or braying out, Hinham, Hinham, Hinham. This
festival is said to have been in commemoration of the flight to Egypt;
but there was one kept at Rouen in honour of Balaam’s ass, where the
performers, if they may be so called, walked in procession on Christmas
Day, representing the prophets and others, as David, Moses, Balaam,
Virgil, &c., just as General Wolfe may now be seen as a party in the
Christmas play of St. George and the Dragon. Many attempts were made
from the twelfth to the end of the sixteenth century to suppress these
licentious abuses of sacred things; and although by that time they were
abolished in the churches, yet they were continued by the laity, and
our modern mummers probably have their origin from them. A pupil of
Gassandi, writing to him as late as 1645, mentions having seen in the
church at Aix, the Feast of Innocents (which was of a similar nature)
kept by the lay brethren and servants in the church, dressed in ragged
sacerdotal ornaments, with books reversed, having large spectacles,
with rinds of scooped oranges instead of glasses. Louis the Twelfth,
in the early part of the sixteenth century, ordered the representation
of the gambol of the ‘Prince des Sots’ and the ‘Mère sotte,’ in which,
according to a note to Rabelais, liv. i, c. 2, ed. 1823, Julius the
Second and the Court of Rome were represented. This was about the time
probably when the principality of Chauny wishing to have some swans
(_cignes_) for the waters ornamenting their town, unluckily wrote to
Paris for some _cinges_ (singe being then written with a _c_), and
in due time received a wagonful of apes. They could, therefore, have
readily proffered their scribe as the prince des sots, excepting
that it takes a wise man to make a good fool. At Angers, there was
an old custom called Aquilanneuf, or Guilanleu, where young persons
went round to churches and houses on the first of the year, to collect
contributions, nominally to purchase wax in honour of the Virgin, or
the patron of the church, crying out, _Au gui menez Rollet Follet, tiri
liri mainte du blanc et point du bis_; they had a chief called _Roi
Follet_, and spent their money in feasting and debauchery. An order was
made by the synod there, in 1595, which stopped the practice in the
churches, but another, in 1668, was necessary to modify and restrain it
altogether.
Feasts of this description were not much in vogue in England, though
they were introduced, as we find them prohibited at Lincoln, by Bishop
Grosthead, in the time of Henry the Third; but towards the end of the
following century they were probably abolished. There are traces of
the fool’s dance, where the dancers were clad in fool’s habits, in the
reign of Edward the Third. A full account of these strange observances
may be found in Ducange, and in Du Tilliot’s Mémoires de la Fête des
Foux.
Christianity was introduced among the Britons at a very early period,
but there are no records, that can be considered authentic, of their
mode of keeping the feast of the Nativity, though it was doubtless
observed as one of their highest festivals. Some of the druidical
ceremonies might have been embodied, and even the use of the mysterious
misletoe then adopted, the aid of the bards called in, and ale and mead
quaffed in abundance. The great and veritable King Arthur, according to
the ballad of the “Marriage of Sir Gawaine,”—
“......a royale Christmasse kept,
With mirth and princelye cheare;
To him repaired many a knighte,
That came both farre and neare.”
This, though ancient, is certainly of a date long subsequent to the
far-famed hero; but it ought to be taken as authority, for, according
to the modern progress of antiquarianism, the farther off we live
from any given time or history, the more we know about it; the old
Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and Mediævals, knowing nothing respecting
themselves and their next door neighbours, while we are as familiar as
if we had been born and bred with them. By the same rule of remoteness,
the modern chronicler, Whistlecraft (Frere), should be taken as
authority, for the particulars of the ancient Christmas feast, on which
he humorously thus dilates:—
“They served up salmon, venison, and wild boars,
By hundreds, and by dozens, and by scores,
Hogsheads of honey, kilderkins of mustard,
Muttons, and fatted beeves, and bacon swine,
Herons and bitterns, peacocks, swan, and bustard,
Teal, mallard, pigeons, widgeons, and, in fine,
Plum-puddings, pancakes, apple-pies, and custard,
And therewithal they drank good Gascon wine,
With mead, and ale, and cider of our own,
For porter, punch, and negus were not known.”
After the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, Easter,
Whitsuntide, and Christmas, were kept as solemn festivals; the
kings living at those times in great state, wearing their crowns,
receiving company on a large scale, and treating them with great
hospitality. The Wittenagemots were also then held, and important
affairs of church and state discussed. Knowing the affection of the
early Saxons for their ale and mead, and that quaffing these from the
skulls of their enemies, while feasting from the great boar Scrymer,
was—notwithstanding the apparent sameness of the amusement—one of
their anticipated joys in a future state, we can readily imagine that
excesses frequently took place at these festivals. The wassail bowl,
of which the skull of an enemy would thus appear to have formed their
_beau idéal_, is said to have been introduced by them. Rowena, the
fair daughter of Hengist, presenting the British king, Vortigern, with
a bowl of wine, and saluting him with “Lord King Wass-heil;” to which
he answered, as he was directed, “Drinc heile,” and saluted her then
after his fashion, being much smitten with her charms. The purpose of
father and daughter was obtained; the king married the fair cup-bearer,
and the Saxons obtained what they required of him. This is said to
have been the first wassail in this land; but, as it is evident that
the form of salutation was previously known, the custom must have been
much older among the Saxons; and, indeed, in one of the histories, a
knight, who acts as a sort of interpreter between Rowena and the king,
explains it to be an old custom among them. By some accounts, however,
the Britons are said themselves to have had their wassail bowl, or
lamb’s wool—_La Mas Ubhal_, or day of apple fruit—as far back as the
third century, made of ale, sugar (whatever their sugar was), toast and
roasted crabbs, hissing in the bowl; to which, in later times, nutmeg
was added. The followers of Odin and Thor drank largely in honour
of their pagan deities; and, when converted, still continued their
potations, but in honour of the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and Saints;
and the early missionaries were obliged to submit to this substitution,
being unable to abolish the practice, which afterwards degenerated into
drinking healths of other people, to the great detriment of our own.
Strange! that even from the earliest ages, the cup-bearer should be one
of the principal officers in the royal presence, and that some of the
high families take their name from a similar office.
The feast of Christmas was kept in the same state on the Continent,
and the bishops were accustomed to send their eulogies—_Visitationis
Scripta_—on the Nativity, to kings, queens, and others of the blood
royal. But it is foreign to the purpose of this work to refer to the
customs abroad, unless it may be necessary to do so slightly, for the
purpose of illustration. It may be mentioned, however, that at this
festival, in 800, Charlemagne received from the pope, Leo the Third,
the crown of Emperor, and was hailed as the pious Augustus the Great,
and pacific Emperor of the Romans.
Alfred, as might be expected from his fine character, reverently
observed the festival. On one occasion he gave to the celebrated
Asser, by way of gift, an abbey, in Wiltshire, supposed to have been
Amesbury; another, at Barnwell, in Somersetshire; a rich silk pall,
and as much incense as a strong man could carry on his shoulder,—a
truly princely New Year’s gift. He directed Christmas to be kept for
twelve days; so that now, if not at an earlier date, the length of the
feast was defined, and the name, probably, of Twelfth-day given to the
last day of it; though, in the old Runic festivals, among the ancient
Danes, it appears to have been more correctly called the thirteenth
day, a name which would sound uncouth to our modern ears: Who would
eat any thirteenth cake? Alfred was commemorating this festival, with
his army, at Chippenham, in 878, when he was surprised by Guthrum,
and his Danes, and compelled to fly and conceal himself in the Isle
of Athelney, his power fading away for a time, even like that of a
twelfth-night king. Something similar happened a century before, when
Offa, king of Mercia, about the year 790, was completing Offa’s dyke.
The Welsh, despising the solemnity of the time, broke through, and
slew many of Offa’s soldiers, who were enjoying their Christmas. The
Danish kings kept the feast much in the same manner as the Saxons; and
there is a story told of Canute, who had many good qualities about him,
which shows the rudeness of the times, even in the royal circle, though
such a scene may even now be realized in Oriental courts. While this
monarch was celebrating his Christmas in London, A.D. 1017, Edric, earl
of Mercia, who had treacherously betrayed and deserted Ethelred and
Edmund Ironside, boasted of his services to Canute, who turned to Eric,
earl of Northumberland, exclaiming, “Then let him receive his deserts,
that he may not betray us, as he betrayed Ethelred and Edmund.” The
Norwegian immediately cut him down with his battle-axe, and his body
was thrown from a window into the Thames. Such speedy justice would
rather astonish a drawing-room now-a-days.
Dancing seems then, even as at present, to have been a favourite
Christmas amusement, and certainly in one instance was carried to an
extreme. Several young persons were dancing and singing together on
Christmas Eve, 1012, in a churchyard, and disturbed one Robert, a
priest, who was performing mass in the church. He entreated them in
vain to desist: the more he begged the more they danced, and, we may
conclude, showed him some of their best _entrechâts_ and capers. What
would, in modern times, have been a case for the police, was then
a subject for the solemn interference of the powers of the church.
Robert, as they would not cease dancing, as the next best thing, prayed
that they might dance without ceasing. So they continued without
intermission, for a whole year, feeling neither heat nor cold, hunger
nor thirst, weariness nor decay of apparel; but the ground on which
they performed not having the same miraculous support, gradually wore
away under them, till at last they were sunk in it up to the middle,
still dancing as vehemently as ever. Sir Roger de Coverley, danced down
the whole length of the Crystal Palace, would have been nothing to
this. A brother of one of the girls took her by the arm, endeavouring
to bring her away; the limb, however, came off in his hand, like Dr.
Faustus’s leg, in the hand of the countryman, but the girl never
stopped her dancing, or missed a single step in consequence. At the end
of the year Bishop Hubert came to the place, when the dancing ceased,
and he gave the party absolution. Some of them died immediately after,
and the remainder, after a profound sleep of three days and three
nights, went about the country to publish the miracle.
It was at Christmas, 1065, that Westminster Abbey was consecrated,
in the presence of Queen Edgitha, and a great number of nobles and
priests, Edward the Confessor being himself too ill to attend; and
indeed he died on the 5th of January, 1066, and was buried in the Abbey
on the following day; his tomb there, and his name of the Confessor,
given him by the priests, having caused him probably to be better known
than any particular merits of his own deserve.
A great change was now about to take place in the government of our
country: William of Normandy claimed it as his of right against Harold;
and, having power to support his claim, in the space of a few months
became King of England, placing his Norman followers in the high places
of the land.
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