A Righte Merrie Christmasse Part 2

The courtier, sure good deeds will not scorn, Nor will he see poor Christmas forlorn?

Well a day!

Since none of these good deeds will do, Christmas had best turn courtier too, Well a day, etc.

Pride and luxury they do devour, Do devour house keeping quite; And soon beggary they do beget, Do beget in many a knight.

Madam, forsooth, in her coach must wheel Although she wear her hose out at heel, Well a day!

And on her back wear that for a weed, Which me and all my fellows would feed.

Well a day, etc.

Since pride came up with the yellow starch, Yellow starch--poor folks do want, And nothing the rich men will to them give, To them give, but do them taunt; For Charity from the country is fled, And in her place hath nought left but need; Well a day!

And corn is grown to so high a price, It makes poor men cry with weeping eyes.

Well a day, etc.

Briefly for to end, here do I find, I do find so great a vocation, That most great houses seem to attain, To attain a strong purgation; Where purging pills such effects they have shew'd, That forth of doors they their owners have spued; Well a day!

And where'er Christmas comes by, and calls, Nought now but solitary and naked walls.

Well a day, etc.

Philemon's cottage was turn'd into gold, Into gold, for harbouring Jove: Rich men their houses up for to keep, For to keep, might their greatness move; But, in the city, they say, they do live, Where gold by handfulls away they do give;-- I'll away, And thither, therefore, I purpose to pa.s.s, Hoping at London to find the Golden a.s.s.

I'll away, I'll away, I'll away, for here's no stay.

A little light upon this ballad may possibly be found in a letter from John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton (21st December 1627):--"Divers lords and personages of quality have made means to be dispensed withall for going into the Country this Christmas according to the proclamation; but it will not be granted, so that they pack away on all sides for fear of the worst."

As we are now getting near the attempted suppression of Christmas under the Puritan _regime_, it may be as well to notice the extreme licence to which the season's holiday and festivities had reached--and perhaps a more flagrant case than the following can scarcely be given.

On 13th January 1626 the Commissioners of the Navy write to the Duke of Buckingham that they have received information from persons who have been on board the _Happy Entrance_ in the Downs, and the _Nonsuch_ and _Garland_ at Gore-end, that for these Christmas holidays, the captains, masters, boatswains, gunners, and carpenters, were not aboard their ships, nor gave any attendance to the service, leaving the ships a prey to any who might have a.s.saulted them. The Commissioners sent down clothes for the sailors, and there were no officers to take charge of them, and the pressed men ran away as fast as the Commissioners sent them down. If they had beaten up and down, they might have prevented the loss of two English ships taken by the Dunkirkers off Yarmouth.

This, naturally, was a state of things which could not be allowed, and on January 15 the Duke of Buckingham wrote to Sir Henry Palmer as to the officers and men quitting their ships at Christmas time, and called upon him "presently to repair on board his own ship, and to charge the officers of all the ships composing his fleet, not to depart from their ships without order."

CHAPTER IV

Attempts of Puritans to put down Christ-tide--Att.i.tude of the people--Preaching before Parliament--"The Arraignment, etc., of Christmas."

As soon as the Puritans became at all powerful, their iconoclastic zeal naturally attacked Christmas, and the Scotchmen, such as Baillie, Rutherford, Gillespie, and Henderson, in the Westminster a.s.sembly of Divines, tried in 1643 to get the English observance of Christmas abolished--but they only succeeded so far as coming to a resolution that whilst preaching on that day, "withal to cry down the superst.i.tion of that day." Next year they were happier in their efforts, as is shortly told in _Parliamentary History_, December 19, 1644. "The lords and commons having long since appointed a day for a Fast and Humiliation, which was to be on the last Wednesday in every Month, it happening to fall on Christmas day this month, the a.s.sembly of Divine sent to acquaint the lords with it: and, to avoid any inconveniences that might be by some people keeping it as a Feast, and others as a Fast, they desired that the Parliament would publish a Declaration the next Lord's day in the Churches of London and Westminster; that that day might be kept as it ought to be, that the whole kingdom might have comfort thereby. The houses agreed to this proposal, and directed the following Ordinance to be published; which bore this t.i.tle--

"AN ORDINANCE FOR THE BETTER OBSERVATION OF THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.

"Whereas some doubts have been raised whether the next Fast shall be celebrated, because it falleth on the day which, heretofore, was usually called the Feast of the Nativity of our Saviour; the lords and commons do order and ordain that public notice be given, that the Fast appointed to be kept on the last Wednesday in every month, ought to be observed until it be otherwise ordered by both houses; and that this day particularly is to be kept with the more solemn humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sins and the sins of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending the memory of Christ, into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights; being contrary to the life which Christ himself led here upon earth, and to the spiritual life of Christ in our souls; for the sanctifying and saving whereof Christ was pleased both to take a human life, and to lay it down again.

"The lords ordered That the Lord Mayor of London take care that this Ordinance should be dispersed to all churches and chapels, within the line of communication and the bills of mortality. Afterwards it was made general through the kingdom; in consequence of which Christmas day was no longer observed as a Festival, by law, till the Restoration."

But the popular love of Christmas could not be done away with by restrictive legislation, as the movers therein very well knew, _teste_ Lightfoot, who, in his Journal, says "Some of our members were sent to the houses to desire them to give an order that the next Fast day might be solemnly kept, because the people will be ready to neglect it, being Christmas day."

Nor was anything neglected to repress this Christ-tide, because its keeping was inbred in the people, and they hated this sour puritanical feeling, and the doing away with their accustomed festivities. Richard Kentish told the House of Commons so in very plain language. Said he: "The people of England do hate to be reformed; so now, a prelatical priest, with a superst.i.tious service book, is more desired, and would be better welcome to the generality of England, than the most learned, laborious, conscientious preacher, whether Presbyterian or Independent. These poor simple creatures are mad after superst.i.tious festivals, after unholy holidays."

The houses of Parliament baked their pie for themselves, and deservedly had to eat it; for two red hot gospellers, Calamy and Sedgewick, preached on the iniquity of keeping Christ-tide to the Lords in Westminster Abbey; whilst in the contiguous Church of S.

Margaret, Thorowgood and Langley expatiated on the same theme to the Commons, and, as if they could not have enough of so good a thing, _all four sermons were printed by order of the Houses_.

Calamy in his sermon said, "This day is the day which is commonly called the Feast of Christ's Nativity, or Christmas Day, a day that hath hitherto been much abused in superst.i.tion and profaneness. I have known some that have preferred Christmas Day before the Lord's Day, and have cried down the Lord's Day and cried up Christmas Day. I have known those that would be sure to receive the Sacrament on Christmas Day though they did not receive it all the year after. This was the superst.i.tion of this day, and the profaneness was as great. There were some that did not play cards all the year long, yet they must play at Christmas. This year, G.o.d, by a providence hath buried this Feast in a Fast, and I hope it will never rise again. You have set out, Right Honourable, a strict Order for the keeping of it, and you are here to-day to observe your own Order, and I hope you will do it strictly."

And he finished with a prayer, in which he begged they might have grace "to be humbled, especially for the old superst.i.tion and profaneness of this Feast."

But although the English people were crushed for a time under the iron heel of the Puritan boot, they had no sympathy with their masters, nor their ways--_vide_ the rebound, immediately after Oliver Cromwell's death, and the return to the old state of things, which has never altered since, except as a matter of fashion. Yet, even then, there were protests against this effacement of Christ-tide, and many have been handed down to us, differing naturally very much in style. One really amusing one has the merit of being short: and when the reader of this book has perused it, I believe he will thank me for having reproduced it. It is--

"THE

ARRAIGNMENT

Conviction and Imprisonment

of

CHRISTMAS

On _S. Thomas Day_ last,

And

How he broke out of Prison in the Holidayes and got away, onely left his h.o.a.ry hair, and gray beard, sticking between two Iron Bars of a Window.

With

An Hue and Cry after CHRISTMAS, and a Letter from _Mr.

Woodc.o.c.k_, a Fellow in Oxford, to a Malignant Lady in LONDON.

And divers pa.s.sages between the Lady and the Cryer, about Old Christmas: And what shift he was fain to make to save his life, and great stir to fetch him back again.

With divers other Witty Pa.s.sages.

Printed by _Simon Minc'd Pye_, for _Cissely Plum-Porridge_; And are to be sold by _Ralph Fidler_, Chandler, at the signe of the _Pack of Cards_ in _Mustard-Alley_, in _Brawn Street_.

1645."

This little Tract commenced with the supposed Letter,

"Lady,

"_I Beseech you, for the love of Oxford, hire a Cryer (I will see him paid for his paines), to cry old father Christmas, and keep him with you (if you can meet with him, and stay him), till we come to London, for we expect to be there shortly, and then we will have all things as they were wont, I warrant you; hold up your spirits, and let not your old friends be lost out of your favour, for his sake, who is_

"Your ever servant,

"JO. WOODc.o.c.k.

"_Lady_--Honest Crier, I know thou knewest old Father Christmas; I am sent to thee from an honest schollar of Oxford (that hath given me many a hug and kisse in Christma.s.se time when we have been merry) to cry Christmas, for they hear that he is gone from hence, and that we have lost the poor old man; you know what marks he hath, and how to cry him.

"_Cryer_--Who shall pay me for my paines?

"_Lady_--Your old friend, _Mr. Woodc.o.c.k_, of Oxford. Wilt thou take his word?

"_Cryer_--I will cry him, I warrant you, through the Citie and Countrie, and it shall go hard but I will finde him out; I can partly ghesse who can tell some newes of him, if any people in England can, for I am acquainted with all his familiar friends. Trust me in this businesse, I will bring you word within fewe dayes.