Carols for Christmas-tide/Toll! toll! because there ends

by John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore

XII.
"Toll! Toll! because there ends."

It Is a custom at Dewsbury in Yorkshire, to toll the passing bell on Christmas Eve at three o'clock in the afternoon. This is called The Devil's Knell; and is intended to signify that when "Christ was born, the Devil died:" a striking though exaggerated way of representing the truth that the Birth of our Lord gave the death-blow to the Empire of Satan.

1.Toll! toll! Because there ends to-night,
An Empire old and vast:

An Empire of unquestion'd right
O'er present and o'er past.

Toll!
Stretching wide from East to West,
Ruling over ev'ry breast,
Each nation, tongue, and caste.

2.Toll! toll! Because a Monarch dies,
Whose tyrant statutes ran

From polar snows to tropic skies,
From Greenland to Japan:

Toll!
Crowded cities, lonely glens,
Oceans, mountains, shores, and fens,
All own'd him Lord of man.

3.Toll! Toll! Becausse that Monarch fought
Right fiercely for his own;

And utmost craft and valour brought,
Before he was o'erthrown:

Toll!
He the Lord, and man the slave:
His the Kingdom of the grave,
And all its dim unknown.

4.Joy! Joy! Because a Babe is born,
Who, after many a toil,

The scorner's pride shall laugh to scorn,
And work the Foiler's foil:

Joy!
God, as Man, the earth hath trod:
Therefore man shall be as God,
And reap the Spoiler's spoil!