great comfort of the beholders, at last it came to the women’s table, where likewise commandment was giuen, 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 neuer 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 rule, as to “No Song no Supper,” with some modifications, must have been prevalent at this time; for in the old ballad, called, “The Pedigree, Education, and Marriage of Robin Hood, with Clorinda, Queen of Titbury Feast,” being one of the oldest of the Robin Hood set, the Squire at Gamwel-Hall says, on his feast given on Christmas-day,
— 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.
Now mustard and braun, roast beef and plumb-pies,
Were set upon every table, &c.[1]
In the year 1630 appeared “Slatyr’s Psalms,” intended for “Christmas Carolls.” These, and similar collections, were probably encouraged by the Puritan party, who, we have before seen, endeavoured to abolish the observance of Christmas, (when they were in power) while their opponents supported those of a lighter description. Several writers of this period, even during the height of “civil dudgeon,” mention the practice of singing carols.
Sir Thomas Overbury (who died in 1613), in his character of the Franklin, talks of “the wakeful! ketches on Christmas eve;” and a few years after this,
- ↑ Collection of Old Ballads. Lond. 1723, p. 69.
