Crown Winter with green,
And give him good drink
To physic his spleen
Or ever he think.

His mouth to the bowl,
His feet to the fire;
And let him, good soul,
No comfort desire.

So merry he be,
I bid him abide:
And merry be we
This good Yuletide.

Poem XXVI in Book IV of 'The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges' Geo. Bell & Sons, London, 1890 p.83

The Bodleian Library has recently discovered a long missing musical MS of a score by George Butterworth containing a setting of this short poem by Robert Bridges. The score is on display at Weston Library, Oxford from 14 - 18 December 2016.

What's on at the Bodleian Library

A world premiere performance of the song was broadcast on the BBC Radio 3 In Tune programme on Monday 12 Dec 2016, sung by John Lee, with piano accompaniment fron Guy Newbury.
The performance is available for listening here on the BBC iPlayer at 39:40 minutes into the programme.

(Ignore the list of tracks played in the programme on the BBC web page which names the singer as John Lee Hooker!)

Matthew