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| It's that time, again!!! It's Tudor Trivia Tuesday!!! |
1) Wassailing is derived from the ancient phrase 'Waes-hael” meaning “To your health”. The salutation would seem to be Welsh in origin though it was so common throughout the Celtic and Saxon world that it is not possible to be sure. The traditional reply was “dringail” meaning “Drink to your health!”
2) The following entry is to be found in the Northumberland
Household Book (1512):
Item. My Lord useth and accustomyth to gyfe yerely [give
yearly] if his Lordship kepe [keep] a Chapell and be at home, them of his
Lordschipes Chapell if they do play the play of the Nativite uppon Cristenmes
day in the mornnynge in my Lords Chapell befor his Lordship — xx.s [20
shillings]
3) The second chorus of the Boar’s Head Carol describes the
traditional second course of the Christmas feast in a great hall:
Then comes in the second course with
great pride,
The cranes, the herons, the bitterns,
by their side
The partridges, the plovers, the
woodcock, and the snipe ;
Larks in hot stew for the ladies to
pick :
Good drink, also, luscious and fine,
Blood of Allemaine, romnay and wine.
With Hey!
4) During the Christmas Season a Lord if Misrule was
appointed from among the English monarch’s servants. One of many descriptions
is given by John Stowe in his Survey of London.
At the feast of Christmas, there was in the king's house,
wheresoever he was lodged, a Lord of
Misrule, or Master of merry disports, and the like had ye in the house of
honour or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal. Amongst the which the
mayor of London, and either of the sheriffs, had their several Lords of
Misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or offence, who should make the
rarest pastimes to delight the beholders.
5) The King, however, was not the only notable to have a
Lord of Misrule. The Inns of Court had their own version as did the Lord Mayor
of London. The Earl of Northumberland also makes provision, circa 1512, for payment
to his own:
Item. My Lorde useth and accustomyth to gyf yerely when his
Lordschippe is home and hath an Abbot of Miserewll (Misrule) in Cristynmas in
his Lordschippis House uppon New-Yers-day in reward — xx.s
6) The antiphon O Sapientia, was sung in the church
every day, while English churches were Catholic, from St. Ado’s Day, December
16, until Christmas Eve.
|
O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodisti, attingens a fine usque
ad finem, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam
prudentiae. |
O wisdom, that from the mouth of the Most High, touches all throughout
creation, bravely and sweetly ordering all things: come to teach us the way
of prudence. |
7) On this day, St. Thomas’ Day, December 21, the poor in
cities and villages went “a-gooding” or “Thomasing,” begging small gifts of
Christmas treats. Some claim to find no reference to the custom before the 18th
century. Many fewer claim it was common custom in the time of Shakespeare but
give no citations.
8) In his Hesperides, Robert Herrick gives a picture
of the Yule log tradition as it was practiced in the early 17th
century.
Come bring, with a noise,
My merrie, merrie boys,
The Christmass Log to the firing;
While my good dame she
Bids ye all be free,
And drink to your heart's desiring.
With die last year's Brand
Light the new Block, and
For good successe in his spending,
On your psaltries play,
That sweet luck may
Come while the Log is a tending.
9) In his 1570 translation of Naogeorgus’ The Popish
Kingdom, Barnabe Googe gives us the following description of Christmas day:
Three masses every priest doth sing
upon that solemne day,
With offrings unto every one, that so
the more may play.
This done, a woodden childe in clowtes
[tattering cloth] is on the aultar set,
About the which both boyes and gyrles
do daunce and trymly jet;
And Carrols sing in prayse of Christ,
and, for to helpe them heare,
The organs aunswere every verse with
sweete and solemne cheare.
The priestes do rore aloude; and round
about the parentes stande,
To see the sport, and with their voyce do helpe them and
their hande.
Googe’s translation was intended to drive such practices out
of Puritan England where they still persisted in various places. In early Tudor
Catholic times they would have been common.
10) ‘THE HARD FROST of 1564 gave the citizens of London an
opportunity of keeping Christmas on the ice. An old chronicler says: “From 21st
December, 1564, a hard frost prevailed, and on new year's eve, people went over
and alongst the Thames on the ise from London Bridge to Westminster. Some
plaied at the football as boldlie there, as if it had been on the drie land;
divers of the Court, being then at Westminster shot dailie at prickes set upon
the Thames, and tradition says, Queen Elizabeth herself walked upon the ise.
The people both men and women, went on the Thames in greater numbers than in
any street of the City of London. On the third daie of January, 1565, at night
it began to thaw, and on the fifth there was no ise to be seene between London
Bridge and Lambeth, which sudden thaw caused great floods, and high waters,
that bore downe bridges and houses and drowned Manie people in England.”’
Dawson, William Francis. Christmas; Its Origin and
Associations. 138.
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