Lordlings, list, for we tell you true,
Christmas loves the jolly crew,
That cloudy care defy:
His liberal board is deftly spread,
With manchet loaves and wastel bread,
His guests with fish and flesh are led,
Nor lack the stately pye.
Lordlings, it is our host’s command,
And Christmas joins him hand in hand,
To drain the brimming bowl;
And I’ll be foremost to obey—
Then pledge me, sirs, and drink away
For Christmas revels here to-day
And sways without controul.
Now wassel to you all! and merry may you be,
And foul that wight befall, who drinks not health to me.
There were anciently great doings in the halls of the inns of court at Christmas time. At the Inner-Temple early in the morning, the gentlemen of the inn went to church, and after the service they did then “presently repair into the hall to breakfast with brawn, mustard, and malmsey.” At the first course at dinner, was “served in, a fair and large Bore’s head upon a silver platter with minstralsye.”[422]
The Boar’s Head.
With our forefathers a soused boar’s head was borne to the principal table in the hall with great state and solemnity, as the first dish on Christmas-day.
In the book of “Christmasse Carolles” printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1521, are the [words] sung at this “chefe servyce,” or on bringing in this the boar’s head, with great ceremony, as the first dish: it is in the next column.
A Carol bryngyng in the Boar’s Head
Caput Apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino.