When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson's saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw ;

ADDRESSED TO SIR ROBERT WROTII.

(BEN JONSON.)

Tuol', in the winter, hunt’st the flying hare,

More for thy exercise, than fare ; While all that follow, their glad cars apply

To the full greatness of the cry: Or hawking at the river, or the bush,

Or shooting at the greedy thrush,
Thou dost with some delight the day out wear,

Although the coldest of the year!
The whilst the several seasons thou hast seen

Of flow’ry fields, of copses green,
The mowed meadows, with the fleecèd sheep,

And feasts that either shearers keep;
The ripened ears, yet humble in their height,

And furrows laden with their weight; The apple-harvest, that doth longer last ;

The hogs returned home fat from mast; The trees cut out in log, and those boughs made

A fire now, that lent a shade!
Thus Pan and Sylvan, having had their rites,

Comus puts in for new delights,
And fills thy open hall with mirth and cheer,

As if in Saturn's reign it were ;
Apollo's harp, and Hermes' lyre resound,

Nor are the Muses strangers found : The rout of rural folk come thronging in,

(Their rudeness then is thought no sin, Thy noblest spouse affords them welcome grace ;

And the great heroes of her race Sit mixt with loss of state, or reverence.

Freedom doth with degree dispense.

BOAR'S HEAD CAROL.

The jolly wassail walks the often round,
And in their

cups

their cares are drowned.

The annexed is the only Carol on bringing in the Boar’s Head that belongs to the era of Elizabeth and her successor James I. It was used before the Christmas Prince at St. John the Baptist's College, Oxford, in 1607.

The following capital song affords an admirable contrast between the courtiers of Elizabeth, and those of her successor. The queen was opposed to the fashion then becoming prevalent, of country gentlemen spending their Christmas in London; and in a letter of the period, written by her orders, “ the gentlemen of Norfolk and Suffolk are

commanded to depart from London before Christmas, and repair to
their counties, and there to keep hospitality among their neighbours.”
The country gentry, however, appear to have availed themselves of the
opportunity of gratifying their hankering for a town life, when there was
no imperious queen to issue her opposing commands, for we find a writer
of the reign of James I. expressing himself in the following strain :-
“Much do I detest that effeminacy of the most that burn out day and
night in their beds, and by the fireside in trifles, gaming, or courting
their yellow mistresses all the winter in a city ; appearing, but as
cuckoos in the spring, one time in the year to the country and their
tenants, leaving the care of keeping good houses at Christmas to the
honest yeomen of the country.”

This song is reprinted from the Percy Reliques. It is there stated to
have been taken from a black-letter copy in the Pepys collection.

THE OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER.

I'll sing you an old song made by a fine old pate,
Of a worshipful old gentleman who had a great estate,
That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate,
And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate:

Like an old courtier of the queen's,
And the queen's old courtier.

With an old lady, whose anger one word assuages,
That every quarter paid their old servants their wages,
And never knew what belonged to coachmen, footmen, nor

pages,
But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges:

Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old study filled full of learned old books,
With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his

looks,
With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks,
And an old kitchen, that maintained half a dozen old cooks:

Like an old courtier, &c.

With an old hall, hung about with pikes, guns, and bows,
With old swords and bucklers, that had borne many

shrewd blows,
And an old frieze coat, to cover his worship's trunk hose,
And a cup of old sherry, to comfort his copper nose :

Like an old courtier, &c.

With a good old fashion, when Christmas was come,
To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum,
With good cheer enough to furnish every old room,
And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb :

Like an old courtier, &c.