THE term carol, appears originally to have signified a song, joined
with a dance, a union frequently found in early religious ceremonies;
and it is used in this sense by Chaucer, Boccacio, Spenser, and others.
By some it has been derived from _cantare_, to sing, and _rola_, an
interjection of joy. It was, however, applied to joyous singing,
and thus to festive songs; and as these became more frequent at
Christmas, it has for a long time past, though not exclusively yet more
particularly, designated those sung at this feast. But strictly, it
should be applied only to those of a cheerful character, and not to the
Christmas hymn, which is of a more solemn cast; many of them, indeed,
being more suitable for Passion Week than for Christmas; and a large
and appropriate collection might be readily selected for that season,
and an interesting work made to illustrate them. In practice, however,
the word carol is applied indiscriminately to both classes, whether
cheerful or solemn.
In the earlier times, music, both instrumental and vocal, was
introduced into religious ceremonies, and was a necessary accompaniment
to all the sacred feasts and games. Jubal’s harp or organ, whatever
that instrument may have been, was doubtless, like the harp of David,
used on such occasions, and the science of music was a necessary
part of the education of many of the priesthood. In the records and
sculptures of the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and other great
nations of antiquity, and in the recent discoveries at ancient Nineveh,
we find descriptions and representations connected with it.
The Hebrews, as we know, had numerous psalms and hymns, one of the
earliest on record being that of Miriam and her companions, on the
overthrow of the Egyptians, when they celebrated the downfall of the
horse and his rider, with timbrels and with dances. The Druids had
recourse to music, and the Anglo-Saxons and Gothic nations made great
use of hymns in their public worship. Some early specimens of the
primitive music have been handed down to us, but do not impress us with
much respect for the powers of harmony of our forefathers, and their
neumes, and other obscure and imperfect methods of notation, must have
cramped them. Certain of the old chants have a pleasing solemnity,
and it has of late been much the custom to revive or to imitate them,
commencing even with the old Ambrosian chant; though, as our ancestors
considered the introduction of the Gregorian chant to have been a
great improvement on it, we may very safely be of the same opinion,
as this is really fine, and we need not here trouble ourselves with
the Lydian, Phrygian, or Dorian modes. With respect to the merits of
ancient music, our taste and skill have been so gradually improving,
that we can scarcely be judges of what—though flat, insipid, and
meaningless to us—might have given much gratification to the less
educated ears of former times. Even within the last few years, a
great advance has been made in our own musical knowledge: pieces and
composers, popular in the early part of this century, are now scarcely
known; and recollected, perhaps (if at all), with amazement at their
having ever been listened to; while works of the great masters, then
thought impracticable, and containing difficulties not understood, or
considered insuperable, are played and appreciated in most good musical
meetings. More might be said on this subject, but want of space, and
not of materials, compels a postponement, till some future opportunity.
It may be mentioned, that much curious information, respecting our
ancient national airs, with the tunes themselves, will be found in
the very interesting work on the subject, by my friend, Mr. William
Chappell, who, it is to be hoped, will, at no distant time, increase
our obligation to him, by further publication from the large store in
his possession, still unedited. Many of these airs are very pleasing,
yet simple in construction, and still remain popular after the lapse of
centuries; they are, however, much more recent than the ancient music
before referred to.
The Romans had their hymns on the calends of January, and the practice
was adopted by the early Christians, especially on their Sabbath-days
and festivals, and on the vigils of their saints. St. Paul and St.
James both refer to this custom, and Pliny the younger, in a letter
to Trajan, mentioning the Christians, says, “They were wont to meet
together on a certain day, before it was light, and sing among
themselves, alternately, a hymn to Christ, as to God.” Bishop Taylor
observes, that the well-known “Gloria in Excelsis,” sung by the angels
to the shepherds, on the night of the Nativity, is the earliest
Christmas carol. We have many carols now existing, that are founded
on the appearance of the angels to the shepherds; and the subject is
represented in several of the ancient mysteries, and occasionally in a
very familiar and homely manner.
In the Chester mysteries, for instance, the three shepherds, with
their man Trowle, who is the buffoon of the piece (though the greater
part of the play of the shepherds is of a humorous nature, comprising
the homely dialogue of rustic labourers), having eaten their supper
of sheep’s head, soused in ale, with onions, garlic, and leeks, and
other viands of like quality, and plenty of ale, are having a bout at
wrestling, where Trowle throws his masters. In the midst of their sport
the star appears, and afterwards the angels’ song is heard. They then
proceed reverently, though “rude in speech,” to Bethlehem, and make
their offerings; the first shepherd, addressing our Saviour,—
“Heale, Kinge of heaven, so hie,
Borne in a crebe,
Mankinde unto Thee
Thou haste made fullye.
Heale, kinge! borne in a mayden’s bower,
Profittes did tell thou shouldest be our succore,
Thus clarkes doth saye.
Lor, I bringe thee a bell;
I praie Thee save me from hell,
So that I may with Thee dwell,
And serve thee for aye.”
The second Shepherd presents a flagon with a spoon, and the third a
cap, but finishes his speech with some degree of pathos.
“This gueifte, Sonne, I bringe Thee is but small,
And though I come the hyndmoste of all,
When Thou shall them to Thy blesse call,
Good Lorde, yet thinke on me.”
Well may we say, seeing how small our gifts are, “Good Lord, yet think
on me.”
In the second century, Telesphorus refers to the Christians celebrating
public worship, on the night of the Nativity, and then solemnly singing
the angels’ hymn, because in the same night, Christ was declared to
the Shepherds by an angel; and in the early times of Christianity
the bishops were accustomed to sing hymns on Christmas Day among
their clergy. Aurelius Prudentius, towards the end of the fourth
century, wrote a divine hymn or carol in Latin, which is still extant;
but, besides that it consists of twenty-nine stanzas, it is not of
sufficient general interest to be printed here.
The Bretons were very similar in manners and language to the
inhabitants of Britain, many of them having had the same origin, and
being, in fact, a colony from our island. The Cornouaille of Bretagne,
however, must not be confounded with our province of that name by the
well-wishers of the latter, because the romance writers do not speak
in such terms of some of their knights as their friends might have
desired.
There is a Breton song, said to be as old as the fifth century,
arranged as a dialogue between a Druid and a scholar, which is similar
in idea and construction to the carol beginning, “In those twelve
days,” and to that called ‘Man’s Duty,’ though the twelve subjects
given are quite different from those in the carols, and refer to some
druidical superstitions. It is called ‘Ar Rannou,’ or ‘Les Series,’ and
is in the “dialecte de Cornouaille.” The early missionaries engrafted
on this a poem or song of the same construction, where the twelve
subjects were connected with the Christian religion, and agree much
with those in the carols, which there is fair reason to suppose may
have been taken from this early poem. These subjects are,—one God;
two Testaments; three Patriarchs; four Evangelists; five books of
Moses; six water-vessels at Cana of Galilee; seven Sacraments; eight
Beatitudes; nine degrees of Angels; ten Commandments; eleven stars
that appeared to Joseph; twelve Apostles. The hymn itself is in Latin,
and at the end of each verse all the previous subjects are repeated in
the style of the ‘House that Jack built,’ an example to which I refer
simply from its being so well known, the style itself being of great
antiquity, and taken originally from an old Hebrew hymn, of which some
particulars, with a translation, may be found in Halliwell’s ‘Nursery
Rhymes of England;’ but the butcher, the ox, the dog, and the cat, with
the other characters mentioned there, have all a mystical meaning. The
last verse of the old Latin hymn may be given as a specimen:—
“....Die mihi quid duodecim?
....Duodecim Apostoli;
Undeim stellæ
A Josepho visæ:
Decem mandate Dei,
Novem angelorum chori,
Octo beatitudines;
Septem sacramenta;
Sex hydriæ positæ
In Cana Galileæ;
Quinque libri Moysis,
Quatuor Evangelistæ,
Tres Patriarchæ,
Duo testamenta;
Unus est Deus,
Qui regnat in Cœlis.”
In the fourth century, St. Ambrose introduced the chant known by his
name, at Milan, of which he was the bishop, and some reformation took
place in church music; and when the Gregorian chant was composed,
about two centuries later, a still greater advance was made. The
Anglo-Saxons, after their conversion, preserved their fondness for
religious music, it being a common practice in their guilds that
each member should sing two psalms daily, one for the dead, and the
other for the living members. Particular hymns were appropriated to
particular feasts; the Nativity, therefore, especially had its own.
When the Anglo-Normans obtained the government, they equally encouraged
music, and introduced greater pomp into their ceremonies.
In the twelfth century, or sooner, the monks composed legends in verse,
of the lives of the saints, &c., for the proper holidays; and religious
pieces suited to the time, with appropriate hymns, were recited at
Christmas; some Latin hymns of this description of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, being still extant.
King John, in 1201, gave 25_s._ to the clerks who chanted “Christus
vincit” before him on Christmas Day; and these spiritual songs were
gradually introduced into the palace, and private houses, together with
others for the same purpose, of a lighter description, which were found
acceptable, and thus the carol had its origin.
The theatrical exhibitions at this season, of which the subjects were
originally taken from the Holy Scriptures, as they gradually ripened
into maturity, also occasionally had songs incidental to them. The
angels’ song to the Shepherds, in the Towneley mysteries, may be taken
as a carol.
“Herkyn, hyrdes, awake, gyf lovyng ye shalle,
He is borne for youre sake, Lorde perpetualle;
He is comen to take and rawnson you alle,
Youre sorowe to slake, Kyng imperialle,
He behestys;
That chyld is borne
At Bethlehem this morne,
Ye shalle fynde Hym beforne
Betwix two bestys.“
In the Coventry pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, towards the
beginning of the fifteenth century, there are three songs which are
in the nature of carols. One, by the women, is a lullaby song, on our
infant Saviour, beginning, “Lully lulla, thou littell tine’ child,”
and referring to Herod’s wrath. One by the Shepherds is short, and may
serve as an example.
“As I out rode this endenes (last) night,
Of thre ioli sheppardes I saw a sight,
And all a bowte there fold a star shone bright,
They sange terli terlow,
So mereli the sheppards ther pipes can blow.”
In the same pageant one of the prophets says—
“Novellis, novellis of wondrfull mrvellys,
Were ’hy and defuce vnto the heryng,
Asse scripture tellis these strange novellis to you I bryng.”
One of the earliest known carols, however, in our island, is the
Anglo-Norman one, of the thirteenth century, first printed in Douce’s
‘Illustrations of Shakespeare,’ with a free translation, which is not
only of a cheerful, but of a festive nature, giving the
“....host’s command,
And Christmas joins him hand in hand,
To drain the brimming bowl.”
It is in effect a Christmas drinking song.
Edward the Fourth had regulations for the singing of songs before him
at Christmas, by the clerks and children of his chapel, and the custom
of singing songs had now become general. In some of the early ones,
scraps of Latin were introduced, probably from the Christmas hymns,
which they were intended in a great measure to supersede; as, for
example, from additional MS., 5665, British Museum, about the time of
Henry the Eighth, which contains several others.
“Now make us ioye in this feste,
In quo xpûs natus est,
A patre unigenitus,
iij zong maydens cam till us,
Syng we to hym and say well come,
Veni Redemptor gentium.
Agnoscat omne seculum,
A bryzth sterre iij kyngs made come,
A solis ortus cardine,
So myzthi a lord ys non as he,
Veni Redemptur omniu gentium.“
Others, again, were in a simple, familiar style, adapted to the
hearths of our unsophisticated ancestors; a style, by the by, we
may soon expect to see again, if the taste for mediævalism and
præ-Raphaelism extends much more, and we shall have a modern ode to
parliament, beginning—
“Sit you merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.”
In the fifteenth century, the Low Countries had their carols, similar
to the English; in some cases, even the subjects being the same, and
equally adapted to the simplicity of their hearers. Several examples of
these are given by Hoffman, in the second part of his Horæe Belgicæe;
and I must here express my thanks to Mr. Thoms, who will, _no doubt_,
convey them safely to the editor of that very useful publication,
‘Notes and Queries,’ for the kind loan of this book.
There is a story on record, of a terrible plague at Goldsberg, in 1553,
which carried off above 2500 persons, leaving not more than twenty-five
housekeepers alive in the place. The plague having abated, one of the
few survivors went, on Christmas Eve, to the lower ring, and sang a
carol, according to old custom; he was gradually joined by others, to
excite each other to thanksgiving; and thence arose a custom for the
people to assemble in large numbers, at the upper and lower ring, on
Christmas morning, to sing carols, beginning with, “Unto us this day a
child is born.”
In the time of Henry the Seventh, after the introduction of the
wassail, a good song, that is, no doubt, a carol, was to be given
in answer to the steward’s cry of wassail, by those belonging to
the chapel; and when the king held his state on other occasions, at
Christmas, the carol was introduced. The reward given to the children
of the chapel, for singing “Gloria in excelsis,” appears to have been
usually 40_s._; and, in the seventh year of his reign, there is a
payment of £1 to Newark, for making of a song, probably a carol. In the
‘Northumberland Household Book,’ the reward to the singers varies from
6_s._ 8_d._ to 20_s._ On Christmas Day, 1521, the Princess Mary gave
10_s._ to John Sentone, and other clerks, of the college of Windsor,
singing before her. William Cornyshe, a musician of those days, was
paid 13_s._ 4_d._ for setting a carol; but scanty reward, even if he
was only arranging any well-known tune; but the price of a collection
was low in proportion, for at St. Mary-at-Hill, in 1537, Sir Mark had
only 3_s._ 4_d._ for ‘Carolls for Christmas,’ being five square books.
One would gladly multiply this small fee by a good round figure, to get
hold of these five square books now.
Few of the oldest song tunes had much melody, and there are probably
none extant beyond the fifteenth century; but here I must again refer
to Mr. Chappell’s valuable collection of English airs.
Church music was cultivated in the sixteenth century, by clergy and
laity, and secular music was also in request. The pious puritans, both
in England and Scotland, used to unite their rhapsodies to popular song
tunes (as has been done in modern times), frequently preserving a few
lines at the commencement. Luther himself composed some appropriate
hymns of thanksgiving for Christmas.
There are some collections of old carols and songs, with the music,
of the early part of the sixteenth century, or somewhat earlier, in
the British Museum, but not of a popular description, or of interest,
except to the musical antiquary; and some of the old psalm tunes,
as the Bristol, Salisbury, and Kenchester, have a similarity to the
graver style of old carol tunes. Tusser, who prescribes jolly carols
for Christmas, mentions one to be sung to the tune of King Solomon.
Several of the existing carol tunes are very pleasing, and are of
considerable antiquity; one or two of them, according to repute, having
been known in Cornwall for three hundred years and upwards; and some of
the northern tunes are, probably, equally old, though the age may be a
little overstated. The natives of Cornwall have been famous for their
carols from an early date. Scawen says, they had them at several times,
especially at Christmas, which they solemnly sang, and sometimes used
in their churches after prayers, the burthen of them being “Nowell,
nowell, good news, good news, of the gospel.”
Henry the Eighth, and his children, being skilled in music, and
keeping also the Christmas feast with great magnificence, carol
singing flourished; and Latin hymns being abolished at the time of
the Reformation, the carols became still more in vogue, and were sung
throughout the kingdom. At the grand Christmasses, at the Inns of
Court, the master of the revels was, after dinner and supper, to sing a
carol or song, and command other gentlemen to sing with him; but it is
to be assumed that he selected such “other gentlemen” as could respond
properly to his call. The Roman Catholics observed the custom equally
with the Reformed church.
“And carols sing in prayse of Christ, and for to help them heare,
The organs answere every verse with sweete and solemne cheare.”
The carols at this time seem to have been of two descriptions: one of a
serious sort, sung commonly in churches, and through the streets, and
from house to house, as they were in Shakespeare’s time, ushering in
the Christmas morning; and the other of a more convivial nature, and
adapted to feasting. The festive carols were sung by the company, or
by itinerant minstrels, that went round for the purpose, to the houses
of the wealthy: some of them were called wassail songs. Those of the
religious or grave style were getting out of use in private houses,
until the time of the puritans, who, when they began to strive for
the mastery, tried to bring them back, in substitution of the lighter
ones, and subsequently endeavoured to abolish the latter altogether. As
early as 1596, one of them says, that superstition and idolatry were
entertained, which appeared in keeping of festival days, bonfires,
pilgrimages, singing of carols at Yule.
The carol, beginning,
“All you that are to mirth inclined,”
was written by the well-known Thomas Deloney, at the end of the
sixteenth century. In the former part of the seventeenth century,
carols continued in great repute, and were introduced at all the
feasts, even those of the higher ranks; and Bishop Andrews, in a sermon
on the Nativity, in 1619, celebrates it as glorious in all places, as
well at home with carols, as in the church with anthems.
At the celebrated feast of the ‘Christmas Prince,’ at St. John’s
College, Oxford, in 1607, the boar’s head was ushered in with a
peculiar carol, of which there were several connected with this
important dish, and all the company joined in it by way of chorus.
There is an amusing anecdote of carol singers of this date, in
‘Pasquil’s Jests,’ 1609, which may as well be given in the words of the
original.
“_A Tale of a Merry Christmas Carroll, sung by women._
“There was sometime an old knight, who being disposed to make himselfe
merry in a Christmas time, sent for many of his tenants, and poore
neighbors, with their wives, to dinner; when, having made meat to be
set on the table, would suffer no man to drinke, till he that was
master ouer his wife should sing a carroll, to excuse all the company.
Great nicenesse there was, who should bee the musician, now the cuckow
time was so farre off. Yet, with much adoe, looking one upon another,
after a dry hemme or two, a dreaming companion drew out as much as hee
durst, towards an ill-fashioned ditty. When, having made an end, to the
great comfort of the beholders, at last it came to the woman’s table,
where, likewise, commandment was given, that there should no drinke be
touched till she that was master ouer her husband had sung a Christmas
carroll; whereupon they fell all to such a singing, that there was
never heard such a catterwalling peece of musicke; whereat the knight
laughed heartely, that it did him halfe as muche good as a corner of
his Christmas pie.”
This jolly old knight might have been a descendant of the squire of
Gamwell Hall, in the time of Robin Hood (who Mr. Hunter has lately
brought down a little from his supposed aristocratic birth, and cleared
from the mist of poetic legend)—for he is made to say,
“....Not a man here shall taste my _March_ beer,
Till a Christmas carol he does sing;
Then all clapt their hands, and they shouted and sung,
Till the hall and the parlour did ring.”
Sir Thomas Overbury, who died in 1613, in his description of a
Franklin, says, he kept the “wakefull ketches” on Christmas Eve, with
other observances, yet held them no relics of popery; other writers of
the same age also refer to them. As the rule of the puritans advanced,
and the time of the Commonwealth approached, endeavours were made,
as stated in a former page, to suppress all observances of Christmas;
and carol singing would naturally share the same fate, and join
therefore in the struggle to avoid absolute destruction. In ‘Festorum
Metropolis,’ 1652, it is stated, “As for our songs and carrols,
brethren, they are collected and composed out of the Scriptures,
containe matter of instruction and edification, they implant the
history and benefits of Christ’s birth in the minds of poor ignorant
people; and oftentimes he is taken by a song that will flye a sermon.”
They were still preserved in private, and in remote places, and old
Christmas, in his visit to Devonshire, before mentioned, names the
carols and pleasant songs as part of the amusements of the evening.
Warmstry, also, in his ‘Vindication of Christmas,’ in answer to an
objection, whether the feast might not be a remnant of the Saturnalia,
and whether the carols might not arise from the hymn to Ceres, during
that feast called [Greek: ioulos], says “_Christmasse Kariles_, if they
be such as are fit for the time, and of holy and sober composures, and
used with Christian sobriety and piety, they are not unlawfull, and may
be profitable, if they be sung with grace in the heart.” An observation
that may well be remembered in the present times, in answer to any
objectors.
Warton mentions two celebrated itinerant ballad, and therefore
doubtless carol, singers, about the middle of this century, called
Outroaringe Dick and Wat Wimbars, who occasionally made 20_s._ a day,
by attending fairs and meetings; but they must have been of earlier
date, as they are mentioned also in ‘Kind Hart’s Dreame,’ by Henry
Chettle, in 1592; their gains, therefore, taking into account the
difference of value in money, were large, and such as would tempt many
a modern carol-singer, as well as some members of a recently reformed
learned profession, anxiously looking for any respectable life-boat to
save them from sinking.
After the Restoration, the people gladly returned to their amusements
without restraint, and from the reaction, in many instances perhaps,
went into the opposite extreme and indulged in too much conviviality.
Carol singing was renewed with increased zeal.
“Carols and not minc’d meat make Christmas pies,
’Tis mirth, not dishes, sets a table off;
Brutes and phanaticks eat and never laugh.”
It so continued down to the present century, when it apparently began
to abate; but it will be unnecessary to give any references to prove
the continuance of such a custom, when, to a certain extent, it exists
at present, though this and other observances are much shorn of their
honours. Many of us will recollect when at Christmas time every street
of any note had its carol singers, with their bundle of various carols,
whereas now scarcely one vagrant minstrel can be found throughout the
town, brass bands having blown them out; but there is still some demand
for the carols, and specimens of broadside carols may be procured from
the printers of this class of literature, in St. Andrew’s Street,
Monmouth Court, Long Lane, and elsewhere.
In Birmingham also, and other large manufacturing towns, and other
neighbourhoods where the practice of carol singing is retained, popular
editions of the style called chap-books, as well as broadsides may
be found; several of them of considerable antiquity, handed down
for many generations, and frequently illustrated by woodcuts of the
most grotesque nature in point of execution and design. Many of us
will also recollect when carols were sung in the country, not only
in the farm-houses, in mansions, and baronial halls, but likewise in
churches—as Heath says, was the custom, in Scilly, in the middle of
last century—and this with much propriety and right feeling.
“If unmelodious was the song,
It was a hearty note and strong.”
Each succeeding year shows a falling-off in the number of houses
where the practice is now admitted; and in many parts the carols are
scarcely heard at all, people getting too refined, or—too good(?); the
extreme west and north, and some of the manufacturing districts, being
the most likely places to hear them, as they were, in former times,
among the yeomanry of our land. The custom exists also in Ireland and
Wales, there being many carols in the Welch language, some of which
are of ancient date, and others recent; one David Jones, of Rhuddlan,
having died about twenty years since, who for fifty-three successive
years, sang at the church there, a new carol of his own composing every
Christmas; a worthy poet laureat of his parish.
The practice of singing carols on the Continent is of ancient date.
Crysostom, the unfortunate youth in Don Quixote, “was such a great man
at composing couplets, that he made carols for Christmas Eve, and plays
for the Lord’s Day, which were represented by the young men in our
village; and every body said they were tip-top.”
The Spaniards, before their country got into so much confusion, used,
in most respectable families, to set up a _nacimiento_, which was a
rude imitation of rocks, with baby houses, &c., and clay figures,
representing the Nativity, the Shepherds, the ox, and ass, kneeling to
the Holy Infant, with Joseph and Mary in a ruinous stable. They had
numerous collections of carols, and parties used to meet, dancing,
reciting speeches, and singing carols to the sound of the zambomba,
an instrument formed by stretching a piece of parchment, slightly
covered with wax, over the mouth of an earthen jar, with a slender reed
fixed in the centre, from which a sound was produced something like
the tambourine, when rubbed by the finger. The only refreshments were
Christmas cakes, called _oxaldres_, and sweet wines, and home-made
liquors.
In France, the custom of carol singing was of very early date, and
there are many collections of them, including several in the _patois_,
or provincial dialect. They are called noël, or nouel, and sometimes
nuel, derived evidently from the same source, as novell or nowell, used
in some of our old carols, and references to Christmas, as in Chaucer,
for instance.
“Janus sit by the fuyr with double berd,
And drynketh of his bugle horn the wyn;
Biforn him stont the braun of toskid swyn,
And nowel crieth every lusty man.”
The term is, however, sometimes used in the sense of news or tidings.
Some writers have derived it from natalis, as signifying a cry of joy
at Christmas, but this seems a doubtful etymology. It may have the
same origin as yule, or gule, but it was not absolutely confined to
Christmas time, though it was probably borrowed from its use then. It
was frequently used as a sort of burden to carols. In a carol, or hymn,
by Herrade de Landsberg, Abbess of Hohenbourg, as early as the twelfth
century, saluting the holy “crêche,” or manger, she sings,
“Leto leta concio
Cinoël resonat tripudio,
Cinoël hoc in natalitio,
Cinoël, cinoël,
Noël, noël, noël,
Noël, noël, noël, noël, &c.”
In Normandy it is called nuel. In Burgundy the people pronounce noé for
noël. A priest at Dijon, wishing to avoid this error, fell into the
opposite extreme, and in one of his discourses repeated three or four
times, “l’Arche de noël, et le patriarche Noé.” The Poitevins write
nau; and in la vielle Bible des noëls, is found “chanter no.” Rabelais
talks of “les beaulx et joyeulx noelz, en langaige poitevin,” and
quotes the two last lines of the following commencement of one sung in
Poitou, within the last twenty years, if not still.
“An sainct nau,
Chanteray sans point m’y feindre,
Je n’en daignerois rien craindre,
Car le jour est ferian,
Nau, nau, nau.”
Many early instances occur of its use as a cry of joy; as at the
baptism of Charles the Sixth, of France, in December, 1368; the entry
of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, with his sister, into Paris, in 1429; and
the entry into Paris of Charles the Seventh, in 1437, where the people
proclaimed their delight with loud shouts of noël.
“Ce jour vint le Roy à Verneuil,
Où il fut receu à grand joye
Du peuple joyeux à merveil,
En criant Noël par la voye.”
On the entry of Henry the Fifth into Rouen, in January, 1419, though
this was about Christmas time, and on his return to London, he was
received with cries of “Nowell! nowell!” and so afterwards, when
the English Regent went through Paris in state, in 1428, “on crioit
haultement nouel!” and again on the proclamation of Henry the Sixth.
The ancient French customs were in many respects similar to those of
England, having a common origin; and Christmas was considered, in like
manner, a great time for feasting and rejoicing. In the old poem, of
the date of 1400, or thereabouts, called the “Bataille de Karesme
et de charnage,” Karesme has on his side all the fishes, both sea
and fresh-water—being a decided advocate of temperance—vegetables,
cheese, milk, &c.; Charnage has the animals, birds, &c. The battle is
fierce, and the issue doubtful, when night separates the combatants;
but Karesme, hearing that Noël was approaching, with considerable
succour to his enemy, makes peace on certain terms, by advice of his
council.
The practice of singing carols in France, in the language of the
country, is of very early date, and had its origin, probably, as early
as the time when the people ceased to understand or to use Latin,
the Christmas hymns previously having been in that language. In “Les
crieries de Paris,” of the end of the thirteenth century, par Guillaume
de la Villeneuve, appears, “Noël, noël, à moult granz cris;” meaning
collections of noëls, of which it is said, that the Duc de la Vallière
had a valuable manuscript collection of the fourteenth century. The
editor of ‘Noël Burguignon,’ in 1720, mentions a volume that had come
to his hands, containing three collections of old noëls, printed at
Paris, in Gothic letters, of which the first two were without date;
the first containing the noël mentioned by Rabelais; the third was
dated 1520, composed by “_feu Maître Lucas le Moigne, en son vivant
Curé de S. George de Pui-la-Garde, au diocese de Poitou._” He also
mentions an old noël in the time of Louis the Twelfth, to the tune
of “_A vous point vu la Perronelle?_” Brunet gives the title of a
collection printed at Lyon, about 1520, containing one in the patois of
that province, which would appear to be different from that by Lucas le
Moigne.
About 1540, Clement Marot made his celebrated version of the psalms
into French rhyme, which were sung to popular tunes, and adopted by the
French court; and some were probably introduced at Christmas, as well
as the noëls. About the same time, Calvin introduced the psalms into
his congregation at Geneva, and Sternhold and Hopkins brought out their
version in England, “with apt notes to sing them withall.”
In the same century was a collection of “Noëls vieux et nouveaux.”
Pasquier, in his work on France, published in 1643, says, “En ma
ieunesse c’estoit une coustume que l’on ausit tournée en cérémonie,
de chanter tous les soirs presque en chaque famille des noüels, qui
estoient chansons spirituelles faites en l’honneur de nostre Seignor.
Lesquelles on chante encores en plusieurs Eglises pendant que l’on
célèbre la grand messe le iour de noüel, lors que le prestre reçoit
les offrandes. Or cette allegresse manifesta encores hors les Eglises;
parce que le peuple n’auoit moyen plus ouvert pour denoter sa ioye,
que de crier en lieu public noüel, quand il vouloit congratuler à un
Prince.” In 1610, appeared ‘Melanges de la musique de Eustaché du
Caurroy, maistre de la musique de la Chappelle du Roy,’ which contains
some noëls, of one of which Burney has given the music; and it is said
that the greater part of the noëls sung in France are gavots and other
airs, which Du Caurroy composed for Charles the Ninth. The well-known
air, ‘Charmante Gabrielle,’ was also a Christmas hymn. In ‘Recueil
de Poètes Gascons, première partie, contenant les œuvres de Pierre
Goudelin de Toulouse,’ Amsterdam, 1700, are some carols. There are
upwards of twenty different collections in the patois. In 1699, was
a collection by Le Sieur Nicolas Saboly. In 1701, one was published
at Dijon, in the dialect of the province, which at first gave some
offence, from the freedom of the compositions; but the naïveté of the
patois, which also prevented their being perfectly understood, saved
them. There were subsequent editions of these. In 1720, the fourth
edition of ‘Noël Bourgignon de Gui Barôzai,’ was published, containing
thirty-four noëls, and two chansons, with the music to each, and an
ample glossary; and there was a subsequent edition in 1736. There is
also a recent edition by Fertiault, at Paris, in 1842. Many of these
are written in a vein of burlesque humour, quite out of character with
the subject, and in a very free and irreverent style. In the seventh
noël, the salutation of the Virgin by the angel, is quite in the manner
of a _petit maître_.
“Po lai fenétre el antri,
Et peù de queique distance,
Ai li fi lai reverance,
Car el étó bén épri.
Dei vo gar, mai chére aimie,
Dit-i d’ene douce voi, &c.”
The effect of the salutation reminds one of the old lines,
“Gaude Virgo, Mater Christi,
Quæ per aurem concepisti.”
and of a similar conceit in Molière’s ‘Ecole des Maris.’ There is some
buffoonery introduced into the fourteenth of the Coventry plays, as
gross as this, but which was adapted to the rude audiences of its time;
and the language of the buffoons of the piece, Primus and Secundus
Detractator, forms an exception to its general gravity and seriousness.
The fifth noël, amongst other things, introduces the adoration and
offering of the Three Kings, in the following manner.
“Ai lai Nativitati,
Chanton, je vo suplie,
Troi Roi d’autre contai,
Moitre au estrôlôgie,
De l’anfan nôvea nai
Saivein lai prôfecie.
Ai lai Nativitai,
Chanton, je vo suplie,
De l’etoile guidai
Tô troi de compagnie,
Patire sans menai,
Gran seùte, ni meignie.
A lai Nativitai,
Chanton, je vo suplie,
L’un pris soin d’epotai,
De lai myére candie,
L’autre d’or efeignai,
E’ne bonne poignie.
Ai lai Nativitai,
Chanton, je vo suplie,
Le tier pu macherai,
Qu’ein Roi d’Etîôpie,
Prezanti po son plai
De l’ançan d’Airaibir.“
The thirteenth is a dialogue between a shepherd and his wife, and
begins in the following quaint way.
“Fanne, coraige,
Le Diale á mor,
Aipre l’oraige,
J’on le beá jor.”
The glossary contains, incidentally, some curious particulars. It
is stated to be the custom in the provinces, for the master of the
family, with his wife and children, to sing noëls; “une très grosse
buche,” called _lai suche de noei_, was put on the fire, and the
younger children were sent into the corner of the room, to pray that
the _suche_ might produce bon-bons; and on their return, packets of
sugar-plums, &c., were found near the _suche_, to whom the children
implicitly attributed the power of producing them.
There was a collection of Noëls Bourguignons, by De la Monnoye, of
which a translation into the common language of the country was
published in 1735. De la Monnoye was denounced by the priests at Dijon,
for his carols; but the translation, though it might have taken off the
sting, probably lessened the humour also.
In 1738 was published, at Troyes, ‘La Grande Bible Renouvelles de Noëls
Nouveaux,’ in four parts, containing ninety noëls, many of them of a
rude and humble description. In 1750, at Avignon, ‘Nouveaux Cantiques
Spirituels Provençaux,’ with the music; it contains some noëls,
though not exclusively confined to them. In 1785, at Paris, ‘Noëls
Nouveaux sur les Chants des Noëls anciens, notez pour en faciliter
le chant,’ par M. l’Abbé Pellegrin. In 1791, at Avignon, Recueil de
Noëls Provençaux,’ par le Sieur Peirol, Menuisier d’Avignon, nouvelle
édition. This contains forty-two noëls, besides five pieces of a
different description. They are mostly of a light and joyous nature,
and the subjects are very similar to those in our carols. In 1805,
there was a collection of noëls published at St. Malo, and another
edition in 1819, containing twenty-one noëls; and at the commencement
of the work are three pastorals, or dramatic pieces, in the style of
our old mysteries; one on the Birth of our Saviour; another on the
Adoration of the Three Kings; and the third on the Massacre of the
Innocents, where Herod orders all children under the age of _seven_
to be killed, which gives his own son, who is one of the sufferers,
an opportunity for making a speech; to this is added the regrets of
Herod for the massacre, in the form of a dialogue between himself and
the Innocents. I have also a collection of “Noëls Vieux et Nouveaux,”
of which the title-page and first two or three leaves are torn out.
In 1807, there was a collection, at Avignon, of Noëls Provençaux, by
Le Sieur Nicolas Saboly, a new edition, containing ninety. The tunes
of some of the more favourite noëls may occasionally be found in
collections of popular French airs; and among the chap books of the
day are small collections of noëls at small prices, and collections of
Spanish and German carols may be met with.
There are some curious burdens or refrains to some of the French noëls;
one will be seen in the selection given, “Turelurelu, patapatan;”
but these words are intended to represent the sounds of the flute
and tambour. They often introduce in their old songs “Lurelure,” or
something similar; indeed “Leire la, Leire lanleire,” is very ancient,
as also is “Dondon,” another refrain. “Mironton,” “Biribi,” and
“Turlututu,” are other terms, of which the explanation must be left
to wordy antiquaries. The English refrains, however, seem equally
as inexplicable as the French; unless we suppose, with some learned
expositor, that the well-known “Down derry down” has reference to the
oak, and is derived from the Druid, “Hob y deri danno;” but then how
are we to account for “Hey troly loly lo,” and “Dumble dum deary,” &c.?
In the Elizabethan age, “Hey, nonny, nonny” was somewhat a favourite,
though there were some strange burdens also at this time, that would
make us fancy that the celebrated Tarleton and Kemp must occasionally
have improvised any clinking nonsense that entered their heads, which
was afterwards printed with the songs.
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