A Righte Merrie Christmasse Part 28

We have heard of hunting the wren in the Isle of Man; the same custom obtains in the south of Ireland, only it takes place on St. Stephen's day. There is a tradition which is supposed to account for this animosity against this pretty and harmless little bird. In one of the many Irish rebellions a night march was made by a body of rebels on a party of royalists, and when, about dawn of day, they neared the sleeping out-posts, a slumbering drummer was aroused by a tapping on his drum; and, giving the alarm, the rebels were repulsed. The tapping was caused by a wren pecking at the crumbs left on the drum-head after the drummer's last meal. Henceforward a grudge was nursed against the wren, which has existed until now.

The "wren boys" go round, calling at houses, either having a dead wren in a box, or hung on a holly bush, and they sing a song:--

The Wran, the Wran, the king of all birds, On St. Stephen's day she's cotched in the furze; Although she's but wee, her family's great, So come down, Lan'leddy, and gie us a trate.

Then up wi' the kettle, an' down wi' the pan, An' let us ha' money to bury the Wran.

Croker, in his _Researches in the South of Ireland_ (p. 233), gives us more of this song:--

The Wren, the Wren, the King of all birds, St. Stephen's day was caught in the furze; Although he is little, his family's great, I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.

My box would speak if it had but a tongue, And two or three shillings would do it no wrong; Sing holly, sing ivy--sing ivy, sing holly, A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy.

And, if you draw it of the best, I hope in Heaven your soul may rest; But, if you draw it of the small, It won't agree with the Wren boys at all, etc. etc.

"A small piece of money is usually bestowed on them, and the evening concludes in merrymaking with the money thus collected."

CHAPTER XXVII

St. John's Day--Legend of the Saint--Carols for the Day--Holy Innocents--Whipping Children--Boy Bishops--Ceremonies connected therewith--The King of c.o.c.kney's Unlucky Day--Anecdote thereon--Carol for the Day.

The 27th December is set apart by the Church to commemorate St. John the Evangelist. Googe, in his translation of Naogeorgus, says:--

Next _John_ the sonne of _Zebedee_ hath his appoynted day, Who once by cruell tyraunts will, constrayned was, they say, Strong poyson up to drinke, therefore the Papistes doe beleeve That whoso puts their trust in him, no poyson them can greeue.

The wine beside that hallowed is, in worship of his name, The priestes doe giue the people that bring money for the same.

And, after, with the selfe same wine are little manchets made, Agaynst the boystrous winter stormes, and sundrie such like trade.

The men upon this solemne day do take this holy wine, To make them strong, so do the maydes, to make them faire and fine.

In explanation of this I may quote from Mrs. Jameson's _Sacred and Legendary Art_ (ed. 1857, p. 159): "He (St. John) bears in his hand the sacramental cup, from which a serpent is seen to issue. St.

Isidore relates that at Rome an attempt was made to poison St. John in the cup of the sacrament; he drank of the same, and administered it to the communicants without injury, the poison having, by a miracle, issued from the cup in the form of a serpent, while the hired a.s.sa.s.sin fell down dead at his feet. According to another version of this story the poisoned cup was administered by order of the Emperor Domitian.

According to a third version, Aristodemus, the high priest of Diana at Ephesus, defied him to drink of the poisoned chalice, as a test of the truth of his mission. St. John drank unharmed--the priest fell dead."

Wright gives two very pretty carols for St. John's day.

TO ALMYGHTY G.o.d PRAY FOR PEES.

_Amice Christi Johannes._

O glorius Johan Evangelyste, Best belovyd with Jhesu Cryst, _In Cena Domini_ upon hys bryst _Ejus vidisti archana._

Chosen thou art to Cryst Jhesu, Thy mynd was never cast frome vertu; Thi doctryne of G.o.d thou dydest renu, _Per ejus vestigia._

Cryst on the rod, in hys swet pa.s.syon, Toke the hys moder as to hyr sone; For owr synnes gett grace and pardon, _Per tua sancta merita._

O most n.o.bble of evangelystes all, Grace to owr maker for us thou call, And off swetenesse celestyall, _Prebe n.o.bis pocula._

And aftur the cowrs of mortalite, In heven with aungels for to be, Sayyng Ozanna to the Trinitye.

_Per seculorum secula._

PRAY FOR US, THOU PRYNCE OF PES.

_Amici Christi, Johannes._

To the now, Crystys der derlyng, That was a mayd bothe old and 3yng, Myn hert is sett for to syng _Amici Christi, Johannes._

For he was so clene a maye, On Crystys brest aslepe he laye, The prevyteys of hevyn ther he saye.

_Amici Christi, Johannes._

Qwhen Cryst beforne Pilate was browte, Hys clene mayd forsoke hym nowte, To deye with hym was all hys thowte, _Amici Christi, Johannes._

Crystys moder was hym betake, Won mayd to be anodyris make, To help that we be nott forsake, _Amici Christi, Johannes._

On 28th December the Holy Innocents, or the children slain by order of Herod, are borne in mind. Naogeorgus says of this day:--

Then comes the day that calles to minde the cruell _Herode's_ strife, Who, seeking Christ to kill, the King of everlasting life, Destroyde the little infants yong, a beast unmercilesse, And put to death all such as were of two yeares age or lesse.

To them the sinfull wretchesse crie, and earnestly do pray, To get them pardon for their faultes, and wipe their sinnes away.

The Parentes, when this day appeares, do beate their children all, (Though nothing they deserve), and servaunts all to beating fall, And Monkes do whip eche other well, or else their Prior great, Or Abbot mad, doth take in hande their breeches all to beat: In worship of these Innocents, or rather, as we see, In honour of the cursed King, that did this crueltee.

In the Rev. John Gregorie's pamphlet, _Episcopus Puerorum in die Innocentium_ (1683, p. 113), he says: "It hath been a Custom, and yet is elsewhere, to whip up the Children upon _Innocents' day_ morning, that the memory of this Murther might stick the closer, and, in a moderate proportion, to act over again the cruelty in kind."

By the way, the Boy Bishop went out of office on Innocents' day, and the learned John Gregorie aforesaid tells us all about him. "The _Episcopus Choristarum_ was a Chorister Bishop chosen by his Fellow Children upon St. Nicholas Day.... From this Day till _Innocents' Day_ at night (it lasted longer at the first) the _Episcopus Puerorum_ was to bear the name and hold up the state of a _Bishop_, answerably habited with a _Crosier_, or _Pastoral Staff_, in his hand, and a _Mitre_ upon his head; and such an one, too, some had, as was _multis Episcoporum mitris sumptuosior_ (saith one), very much richer than those of Bishops indeed.

"The rest of his Fellows from the same time being were to take upon them the style and counterfeit of Prebends, yielding to their Bishop no less than Canonical obedience.

"And look what service the very Bishop himself with his Dean and Prebends (had they been to officiate) was to have performed. The very same was done by the Chorister Bishop and his Canons upon the Eve and Holiday." Then follows the full ritual of his office, according to the Use of Sarum; and it was provided, "That no man whatsoever, under the pain of _Anathema_, should interrupt, or press upon these Children at the Procession spoken of before, or in any part of their _Service_ in any ways, but to suffer them quietly to perform and execute what it concerned them to do.

"And the part was acted yet more earnestly, for _Mola.n.u.s_ saith that this Bishop, in some places, did receive Rents, Capons, etc., during his year; And it seemeth by the statute of _Sarum_, that he held a kind of Visitation, and had a full correspondency of all other State and Prerogative.... In case the Chorister Bishop died within the Month, his Exequies were solemnized with an answerable glorious pomp and sadness. He was buried (as all other Bishops) in all his Ornaments, as by the Monument in stone spoken of before,[83] it plainly appeareth."

[Footnote 83: A stone monument of a boy bishop found in Salisbury Cathedral.]

Hone, in his _Every-Day Book_ (vol. i. pp. 1559-60), gives a facsimile of this monument from Gregorie's book, and says: "The ceremony of the boy bishop is supposed to have existed, not only in collegiate churches, but in almost every parish in England. He and his companions walked the streets in public procession. A statute of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary Overy, in 1337, restrained one of them to the limits of his own parish. On December 7, 1229, the day after St.

Nicholas' Day, a boy bishop in the chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, said vespers before Edward I. on his way to Scotland, who made a considerable present to him, and the other boys who sang with him. In the reign of King Edward III, a boy bishop received a present of nineteen shillings and sixpence for singing before the king in his private chamber on Innocents' day. Dean Colet, in the statutes of St. Paul's School, which he founded in 1512, expressly ordains that his scholars should, every Childermas Day,[84]

'come to Paulis Churche, and hear the Chylde Bishop's Sermon; and, after, be at hygh ma.s.se, and each of them offer a penny to the Chylde-Bishop; and with them, the maisters and surveyors of the Scole.'"

[Footnote 84: The Anglo-Saxons called Innocents' day Childe-ma.s.s or Childer-ma.s.s.]

By a proclamation of Henry VIII., dated 22nd July 1542, the show of the boy bishop was abrogated, but in the reign of Mary it was revived with other Romish ceremonials. A flattering song was sung before that queen by a boy bishop, and printed. It was a panegyric on her devotion, and compared her to Judith, Esther, the Queen of Sheba, and the Virgin Mary.

The accounts of St. Mary at Hill, London, in the 10th Henry VI., and for 1549 and 1550, contain charges for boy bishops for those years. At that period his estimation in the Church seems to have been undiminished; for on 13th November 1554 the Bishop of London issued an order to all the clergy of his diocese to have boy bishops and their processions; and in the same year these young sons of the old Church paraded St. Andrew's, Holborn, and St. Nicholas, Olaves, in Bread Street, and other parishes. In 1556 Strype says that "the boy bishops again went abroad, singing in the old fashion, and were received by many ignorant but well-disposed persons into their houses, and had much good cheer."

Speaking of the Christmas festivities at Lincoln's Inn, Dugdale[85]

says: "Moreover, that the _King of c.o.c.kneys_, on _Childerma.s.s_ Day, should sit and have due service; and that he and all his officers should use honest manner and good Order, without any wast or destruction making, in Wine, Brawn, Chely, or other Vitaills."

[Footnote 85: _Orig. Jur._, p. 246.]