"Nay, Ivy! nay, it shall not be, I wys;
Let Holy hafe the maystry, as the manner ys.
"Holy stond in the halle, fayre to behold;
Ivy stond without the dore: she ys ful sore a cold.
Nay, Ivy! etc.
"Holy and hys mery men they dawnsyn and they syng.
Ivy and hur maydenys they wepyn and they wryng.
Nay, Ivy! etc.
"Ivy hath a lyve; she laghtyt with the cold:
So mot they all hafe that wyth Ivy hold.
Nay, Ivy! etc.
"Holy hat berys as rede as any rose,
The foster the hunters kepe hem from the doos.
Nay, Ivy! etc.
"Ivy hath berys as blake as any slo;
Ther com the oule and ete hym as she goo.
Nay, Ivy! etc.
"Holy hath byrdys a ful fayre flok,
The Nyghtyngale, the Poppingy, the gayntyl Lavyrok.
Nay, Ivy! etc.
"Good Ivy, what byrdys ast thou?
Non but the howlet that kreye 'How, how!'
Nay, Ivy! nay, hyt shal not, etc."
We had some thoughts of modernizing the orthography, and very slightly the diction, of this curious old ballad; but it reads best in its own quaint garb, and even those of our friends who are not in the habit of perusing ancient writings will find scarcely any difficulty in making it out.
The rosemary, besides its rich fragrance, and probably because thereof, was supposed to possess many occult virtues, and was used for the sake of one or other of them on occasions both of rejoicing and of mourning. It was believed to clear the head, to strengthen the memory, and to make touching appeals to the heart. For these reasons it was borne both at weddings and at funerals. Herrick says:—
"Grow for two ends, it matters not at all,
Be 't for my bridal or my burial."
"There's rosemary," says Ophelia; "that's for remembrance: pray you, love, remember;" and the custom of decking the corpse with this flower, as well as that of flinging its sprigs into the grave, would naturally spring out of this touching superstition. Its presence at bridals would seem to suggest that it was dedicated to hope as well as to memory. We have in Shakspeare's play of "Romeo and Juliet" allusions to the use of this herb on both of these important but very different occasions, which allusions are affecting from the application of both to the same young girl. The first, which refers to the joyous celebration, occurs in an interview between Romeo and the Nurse of Juliet, in which arrangements are making for the secret marriage, where the garrulous old woman observes, as hinting at Juliet's willingness, "She hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it." The second is in that scene in which Juliet is supposed to be dead:
"Friar. Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
Capulet. Ready to go, but never to return!"
And is inserted amongst the holy father's exhortations to resignation:—
"Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse; and, as the custom is,
In all her best array bear her to church."
Independently of the beautiful suggestion to remembrance which is made by its enduring perfume, that precious perfume itself would recommend this herb, for reasons less fine, as "strewings fitt'st for graves." The fact of its being in bloom at this season would naturally introduce the rosemary, with all its fine morals, into the Christmas celebrations; and such customs as that which prescribed that the wassail-bowl should be stirred with a sprig of this plant before it went round amongst friends, seem to have a very elegant reference to its secret virtues ("that's for remembrance," perhaps), and suggest that the revellings of the season in those old times were mingled with the best and most refined feelings of our nature.
But the mistletoe, the mystic mistletoe, where is the man whose school-boy days are gone by, in whom that word conjures up no merry memories?