Nedham in his ‘History of the Rebellion,’ 1661, alluding to the times before the Commonwealth, says—
“Gone are those golden days of yore,
When Christmas was a high day;
Whose sports we now shall see no more,
’Tis turn’d into Good Friday.”
In ‘The Old and Young Courtier,’ printed in 1670, we have comparisons between the times of Elizabeth and the then modern times, including the following lines as to Christmas,—
“With a good old fashion, when Christmasse was come,
To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum,
With good chear enough to furnish every old roome,
And old liquor, able to make a cat speak, and man dumb.
Like an old courtier of the queen’s,
And the queen’s old courtier.”
then comes the contrast,—
“With a new fashion, when Christmas is drawing on,
On a new journey to London, straight we all must begone,
And leave none to keep house, but our new porter, John,
Who relieves the poor with a thump on the back with a stone.
Like a young courtier of the king’s,
And the king’s young courtier.”
In “‘Time’s Alteration; or, the Old Man’s Rehearsal,’ what brave dayes he knew a great while agone, when his old cap was new,” there is much in the same strain,—
“Black jacks to every man
Were fill’d with wine and beer;
No pewter pot nor can
In those days did appear:
Good cheer in a nobleman’s house
Was counted a seemly show;
We wanted no brawn nor souse,
When this old cap was new.“
But, ‘Old Christmas Returned,’ probably written at the time of the Restoration and prior to the last-named ballads, gives a more favourable view, and welcomes the return of Christmas.