The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120141   Message #2630290
Posted By: Joe_F
12-May-09 - 05:49 PM
Thread Name: Origins: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Subject: RE: Origins: God rest ye Merry Gentlemen
In early modern English (e.g., in the King James Bible), "ye" is nominative & "you" objective. Thus, it's "God rest you" but "O come, all ye faithful". So recently as the 19th century, Julia Ward Howe got that right: "As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal" (she was archaizing, of course).