Lyr Add: NOW WE MERY, BOTH MORE AND LASSE

Subject: Lyr Add: NOW WE MERY, BOTH MORE AND LASSE
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 11:38 PM

Lyr. Add: NOW WE MERY, BOTH MORE AND LASSE

Make we mery, both more and lasse,
For now ys the tyme of Crystymas*.

1. Let no man cume into this hall,
Grome, page, nor yet marshall,
But that some sport he bring withall,
For now ys the tyme of Crystmas.

2. Yff that he say he can not syng;
Sumoder sport then lett hym bryng,
That yt may please at thys festyng,
For now ys the tyme of Crystmas.

Yff he say he can nowght do,
Then for my love aske hym no mo,
But to the stokkes then let hym go,
For now ys the time of Chrystmas.

@carol @festivities
Anon. English carol, 16th c., Balliol College, Oxford, MS 354, f. 223v. Richard Greene, ed., 1962, "A Selection of Carols," Oxford Press. No tune given.
If the man can't sing, let him do something else amusing; if he can do nothing, send him to the stocks, for now is Christmas time.
Lasse = less, Grome = groom, Yff = if. *error for Crystmas?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: NOW WE MERY, BOTH MORE AND LASSE
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Dec 03 - 11:44 PM

From Hymns and Carols of Chrismas: Now We Mery

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: NOW WE MERY, BOTH MORE AND LASSE
From: masato sakurai
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 01:32 AM

Richard Leighton Greene says in The Early English Carols, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1977, No. 11 [notes, p. 345]):

   The carol is written as if to be sung by a master of festivities or 'Lord of Misrule' with power to 'punish'. The obligation of each person present to contribute to the general entertainment is characteristic of many English holiday customs. Compare No. 10.
   stza. 1, l. 2. The marshal of a medieval hall had the duty, among others, of seating the guests at any feast. A groom served under a marshal, building the fires and performing other practical tasks in the hall. See F.J. Furnivall, ed., The Babees Book (E.E.T.S., Or. Ser., No. 32, 1868) for The Book of Curtasye, Bk. III, ll. 379-422, which deal with the marshal.
   stza. 3, l. 3. stokkes. R.J. Schorck rightly calls attention to the use of actual stocks at the order of a Lord of Misrule at Christmas (review of Robbins, Secular Lyrics, Anglia, lxxi, 1953, 356). See Chambers, M.S. i. 408-9 for instances at Oxford colleges.