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IT

was, and still my care is,
To worship ye, the Larès,
With crowns of greenest parsley,

And garlic chives not scarcely;
For favours here to warm me,

And not by fire to harm me;
For gladding so my hearth here

With inoffensive mirth here;

That while the Wassail bowl here

With North-down ale doth trowl here,

No syllable doth fall here,

To mar the mirth at all here.

For which, O chimney-keepers!

I dare not call ye sweepers,

So long as I am able

To keep a country table,

Great be my fare, or small cheer,

I'll eat and drink up all here.

THE WASSAIL BOWL.

ADDRESSED TO HIS FRIEND JOHN WICKES.

NEXT will I cause my hopeful lad,
If a wild apple can be had,

To crown the hearth;

Larr thus conspiring with our mirth ;

Then to infuse

Our browner ale into the cruise,

A NEW YEAR'S GIFT.

Which sweetly spiced, we 'll first carouse Unto the genius of the house;

Then the next health to friends of mine,
Loving the brave Burgundian wine,
High sons of pith,

Whose fortunes I have frolicked with,
Such as could well

Bear up the magic bough and spell,
And dancing 'bout the mystic thyrse,
Give up the just applause to verse.

To those, and then again to thee
We'll drink, my Wickes; until we be
Plump as the cherry,

Though not so fresh, yet full as merry
As the cricket,

The untamed heifer, or the pricket ;*
Until our tongues shall tell our ears,
We're younger by a score of years:

Thus, 'till we see the fire less shine From th' embers than the kitling's eyne, We'll still sit up,

Sphering about the Wassail cup

To all those times

Which gave me honour for my rhymes: The coal once spent, we 'll then to bed, Far more than night bewearièd.

The buck in his second year.

1

SENT TO SIR SIMEON STEWARD.

No news of navies burnt at seas:

No news of late-spawned titteries;
No closet plot or open vent,

That frights men with a Parliament :
No new device or late-found trick,
To read by th' stars the kingdom's sick ;
No gin to catch the state, or wring
The free-born nostrils of the king,

We send to you; but here a jolly
Verse crowned with ivy and with holly;
That tells of winter's tales and mirth,
That milk-maids make about the hearth,
Of Christmas sports, the Wassail bowl,
That's tossed up after Fox-i'th'hole ;*
Of Blind-man's-buff, and of the care
That young men have to shoe the mare;
Of twelfth-tide cake, of peas and beans,†
Wherewith ye make those merry scenes,
When as ye choose your king and queen,
And cry out "Hey for our town green."
Of ash-heaps, in the which ye use
Husbands and wives by streaks to choose :
Of crackling laurel, which fore-sounds
A plenteous harvest to your grounds;
Of these, and such like things, for shift,
We send instead of new-year's gift.

Read then, and when your faces shine

With bucksome meat and cap'ring wine,

A very old game: those who took part in it hopped on one leg, and beat each other with leathern thongs, with a view, we presume, of forcing the raised leg to touch the ground.

+ It was formerly the custom to place a bean and a pea in the Twelfth Cake, and the person who obtained the piece containing the former was chosen king, and the latter, queen, of the evening. See the poem on page 85.

A SPELL.

Remember us in cups full crowned,

And let our city health go round,

Quite through the young maids and the men,
To the ninth number, if not ten,

Until the firèd chestnuts leap

For joy to see the fruits ye reap,
From the plump chalice and the cup

That tempts till it be tossèd up.
Then as ye sit about your embers,
Call not to mind those fled Decembers;
But think on these, that are t' appear,

As daughters to the instant year;

Sit crowned with rose-buds, and carouse,
Till Liber Pater twirls the house

About your ears, and lay upon

The year, your cares, that's fled and gone.

And let the russet swains the plough

And harrow hang up resting now;

And to the bag-pipe all address

Till sleep takes place of weariness.

And thus, throughout, with Christmas plays,
Frolic the full twelve holydays.

The following refers to a custom that prevailed in Devonshire, and other cider counties, of throwing the dregs of the Wassail-bowl, on the eve of twelfth-day, against the stems of the best bearing fruit trees. Further particulars respecting this singular practice are given in the next section.

A SPELL.

WASSAIL the trees, that they may bear
You many a plum and many a pear;
For more or less fruit they will bring,

As you do give them wassailing.

I.

TELL us, thou clear and heavenly tongue,

Where is the Babe that lately sprung?
Lies he the lily-banks among?

II.

Or say, if this new Birth of ours

Sleeps, laid within some ark of flowers,
Spangled with dew-light? thou canst clear
All doubts, and manifest the where.

III.

Declare to us, bright star, if we shall seek
Him in the morning's blushing cheek,
Or search the beds of spices through,

To find him out?

STAR.

No, this ye need not do;

But only come and see Him rest,

A Princely Babe, in 's mother's breast.

CHORUS.

He's seen! He's seen! why then around,

Let's kiss the sweet and holy ground;

And all rejoice that we have found

A King, before conception, crowned.

IV.

Come then, come then, and let us bring

Unto our pretty twelfth-tide King,

Each one his several offering.

CHORUS.

And when night comes we'll give him wassailing ;

And that his treble honours may be seen,

We'll choose him King, and make his mother Queen.

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