The bore’s head in hande bring I,
With garlandes gay and rosemary,
I pray you all synge merely,
Qui estis in convivio.
The bore’s head, I understande,
Is the chefe servyce in this lande
Loke wherever it be fande
Servite cum Cantico.
Be gladde, lords, both more and lasse,
For this hath ordayned our stewarde
To chere you all this Christmasse,
The bore’s head with mustard.
The Boar’s Head at Christmas.
“With garlandes gay and rosemary.”
Warton says, “This carol, yet with many innovations, is retained at Queen’s-college, in Oxford.” It is still sung in that college, somewhat altered, “to the common chant of the prose version of the psalms in cathedrals;” so, however, the rev. Mr. Dibdin says, as mentioned before.
Mr. Brand thinks it probable that Chaucer alluded to the custom of bearing the boar’s head, in the following passage of the “Franklein’s Tale:”—
“Janus sitteth by the fire with double berd,
And he drinketh of his bugle-horne the wine,
Before him standeth the brawne of the tusked swine.”