THE HOBBY-HORSE.the hobby-horse.
Jonson's "The Fortunate Isles, and Their Union," a masque designed for the Court, was presented on Twelfth Night, 1626; and "Love's Triumph through Callipolis" (a masque invented by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones) was presented at Court in 1630.
The Lord of Misrule
also made merry at Christmas at this period; but it sometimes happened that when he went forth with his band of merry men, they got into trouble. An instance of this, which occurred in 1627, is recorded in one of Meade's letters to Sir Martin Stuteville. The letter is worth reprinting as an illustration of the manners of the age, and as relating to what was probably the last Lord of Misrule elected by the barristers. Meade writes:—"On Saturday the Templars chose one Mr. Palmer their Lord of Misrule, who, on Twelfth-eve, late in the night, sent out to gather up his rents at five shillings a house in Ram-alley and Fleet Street. At every door they came to they winded the Temple-horn, and if at the second blast or summons they within opened not the door, then the Lord of Misrule cried out, 'Give fire, gunner!' His gunner was a robustious Vulcan, and the gun or petard itself was a huge overgrown smith's hammer. This being complained of to my Lord Mayor, he said he would be with them about eleven o'clock on Sunday night last; willing that all that ward should attend him with their halberds, and that himself, besides those that came out of his house, should bring the watches along with him. His lordship, thus attended, advanced as high as Ram-alley in martial equipage: when forth came the Lord of Misrule, attended by his gallants, out of the Temple-gate, with their swords all armedin cuerpo. A halberdier bade the Lord of Misrule come to my Lord Mayor. He answered, No! let the Lord Mayor come to me! At length they agreed to meet halfway: and, as the interview of rival princes is never without danger of some ill accident, so it happened in this: for first, Mr. Palmer being quarrelled with for not pulling off his hat to my Lord Mayor, and giving cross answers, the halberds began to fly about his ears, and he and his company to brandish their swords. At last being beaten to the ground, and the Lord of Misrule sore wounded, they were fain to yield to the longer and more numerous weapon. My Lord Mayor taking Mr. Palmer by theshoulder, led him to the Compter, and thrust him in at the prison-gate with a kind of indignation; and so, notwithstanding his hurts, he was forced to lie among the common prisoners for two nights. On Tuesday the King's attorney became a suitor to my Lord Mayor for their liberty: which his lordship granted, upon condition that they should repay the gathered rents, and do reparations upon broken doors. Thus the game ended. Mr. Attorney-General, being of the same house, fetched them in his own coach, and carried them to the court, where the King himself reconciled my Lord Mayor and them together with joining all hands; the gentlemen of the Temple being this Shrovetide to present a Mask to their majesties, over and besides the King's own great Mask, to be performed at the Banquetting-house by an hundred actors."
We get other glances at
The Christmas Festivities in the 17th Century
through contemporary writers of the period. Nicholas Breton,[70]writing in merry mood, says: "It is now Christmas, and not a cup of drink must pass without a carol; the beasts, fowl, and fish come to a general execution, and the corn is ground to dust for the bakehouse and the pastry: cards and dice purge many a purse, and the youth show their agility in shoeing of the wild mare: now, good cheer, and welcome, and God be with you, and I thank you:—and against the New Year provide for the presents:—The Lord of Misrule is no mean man for his time, and the guests of the high table must lack no wine: the lusty bloods must look about them like men, and piping and dancing puts away much melancholy: stolen venison is sweet, and a fat coney is worth money: pit-falls are now set for small birds, and a woodcock hangs himself in a gin: a good fire heats all the house, and a full alms-basket makes the beggar's prayers:—the maskers and the mummers make the merry sport, but if they lose their money their drum goes dead: swearers and swaggerers are sent away to the ale-house, and unruly wenches go in danger of judgment; musicians now make their instruments speak out, and a good song is worth the hearing. In sum it is a holy time, a duty in Christians for the remembrance of Christ and custom among friends for the maintenance of good fellowship. In brief I thus conclude it: I hold it a memory of the Heaven's love and the world's peace, the mirth of the honest, and the meeting of the friendly. Farewell."
In 1633, William Prynne, a Puritan lawyer, published his "Histriomastix," against plays, masques, balls, the decking of houses with evergreens at Christmas, &c., for which he was committed to the Tower, prosecuted in the Star Chamber, and sentenced to pay a fine to the King of £5,000, to be expelled from the University of Oxford, from the Society of Lincoln's Inn, andfrom his profession of the law; to stand twice in the pillory, each time losing an ear; to have his book burnt before his face by the hangman; and to suffer perpetual imprisonment: a most barbarous sentence, which Green[71]says, "showed the hard cruelty of the Primate."
Milton's masque of "Comus" was produced the following year (1634) for performance at Ludlow Castle, in Shropshire, which was the seat of government for the Principality of Wales, the Earl of Bridgewater being then the Lord President, and having a jurisdiction and military command that comprised the English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford and Shropshire. Ludlow Castle was to the Lord President of Wales of that period what Dublin Castle is to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the present day; and, as hospitality was one of the duties of the Lord President's office, the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater gave a grand entertainment to the country people, in which the masque of "Comus" was an important feature. The music was composed by the eminent musician Henry Lawes, and the masque was adapted for performance by the family of the earl and countess, who then had ten children—eight daughters and two sons.
It is quite refreshing to think of the author of "Paradise Lost," with his friend Lawes, the musician, among the country dancers, listening to the song of the attendant spirit:—
"Back, shepherds, back; enough your playTill next sun-shine holiday:Here be, without duck or nod,Other trippings to be trodOf lighter toes, and such court guiseAs Mercury did first deviseWith the mincing Dryades,On the lawns, and on the leas."
"Back, shepherds, back; enough your playTill next sun-shine holiday:Here be, without duck or nod,Other trippings to be trodOf lighter toes, and such court guiseAs Mercury did first deviseWith the mincing Dryades,On the lawns, and on the leas."
"But Milton was a courtier when he wrote the Masque at Ludlow Castle," says Charles Lamb, "and still more of a courtier when he composed the 'Arcades'" (a masque, or entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby, at Harefield, by some noble persons of her family). "When the national struggle was to begin, he becomingly cast these varieties behind him."
From "Archæologia" (vol. xviii. p. 335), we learn that "Richard Evelyn, Esq., High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1634, held a splendid Christmas at his mansion at Wotton, having a regular Lord of Misrule for the occasion: and it appears it was then the custom for the neighbours to send presents of eatables to provide for the great consumption consequent upon such entertainments. The following is a list of those sent on this occasion: two sides of venison, two half brawns, three pigs, ninety capons, five geese, six turkeys, fourrabbits, eight partridges, two pullets, five sugar loaves, half a pound of nutmeg, one basket of apples, two baskets of pears."
Hone[72]states that "in the ninth year of King Charles I. the four Inns of Court provided a Christmas mask, which cost £2,400, and the King invited a hundred and twenty gentlemen of the four Inns to a mask at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday following." And Sandys says that on the 13th December, 1637, a warrant under Privy Seal was issued to George Kirke, for £150 to provide masking apparel for the King; and on the 1st of the same month Edmund Taverner had a warrant for £1,400 towards the charge of a mask to be presented at Whitehall the next Twelfth Night. A similar sum for a similar purpose was granted to Michael Oldisworth on the 3rd of January, 1639.
In connection with the entertainments at the Inns of Court, Sandys mentions that by an order, 17th November, 4th Charles I., all playing at dice, cards, or otherwise was forbidden at Gray's Inn, except during the 20 days in Christmas.
As indicating the prolongation of the Christmas revels at this period, it is recorded that in February, 1633, there was a celebrated masque, called "The Triumph of Peace," presented jointly by the two Temples, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn, which cost the Societies about £20,000. Evelyn, in his "Memoirs," relates, that on the 15th December, 1641, he was elected one of the Comptrollers of the Middle Temple revellers, "as the custom of ye young students and gentlemen was, the Christmas being kept this yeare with greate solemnity"; but he got excused.
An order still existed directing the nobility and gentry who had mansions in the country "to repair to them to keep hospitality meet to their degrees;" for a note in Collier's History states that Sir J. Astley, on the 20th of March, 1637, in consequence of ill-health, obtained a license to reside in London, or where he pleased, at Christmas, or any other times; which proves such license to have been requisite.
At this period noblemen and gentlemen lived like petty princes, and in the arrangement of their households copied their sovereign, having officers of the same import, and even heralds wearing their coat of arms at Christmas, and other solemn feasts, crying largesse thrice at the proper times. They feasted in their halls where many of the Christmas sports were performed. When coals were introduced the hearth was commonly in the middle, whence, according to Aubrey, is the saying, "Round about our coal-fire." Christmas was considered as the commemoration of a holy festival, to be observed with cheerfulness as well as devotion. The comforts and personal gratification of their dependants were provided for by the landlords, their merriment encouraged, and their sports joined. The working man looked forward to Christmas as the time which repaid his former toils; and gratitude for worldly comforts thenreceived caused him to reflect on the eternal blessings bestowed on mankind by the event then commemorated.
SERVANTS' CHRISTMAS FEAST.servants' christmas feast.
Of all our English poets, Robert Herrick, a writer of the seventeenth century, has left us the most complete contemporary picture of the Christmas season. He was born in Cheapside, London, and received his early education, it is supposed, at Westminster School, whence he removed to Cambridge, and after taking his M.A. degree in 1620, left Cambridge. He afterwards spent some years in London in familiar intercourse with the wits and writers of the age, enjoying those "lyric feasts" which are celebrated in his "Ode to Ben Jonson":—
"Ah Ben!
Say how or when
Shall we, thy guests
Meet at those lyric feasts
Made at the Sun,
The Dog, the Triple Tun;
Where we such clusters had
As made us nobly wild, not mad?
And yet each verse of thine
Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine.
In 1629 he accepted the living of Dean Prior, in Devonshire, where he lived as a bachelor Vicar, being ejected by the Long Parliament, returning on the Restoration under Charles the Second, and dying at length at the age of eighty-four. He was buried in the Church at Dean Prior, where a memorial tablet has latterly been erected to his memory. And it is fitting that he should die and be buried in the quiet Devonshire hamlet from which he drew so much of his happiest inspiration, and which will always be associated now with the endless charm of the "Hesperides."
In "A New Year's Gift, sent to Sir Simeon Steward," included in his "Hesperides," Herrick refers to the Christmas sports of the time, and says:—
"No new device or late-found trick- - - - -We send you; but here a jollyVerse crowned with ivy and with holly;That tells of winter's tales and mirth,That milk-maids make about the hearth,Of Christmas sports, the Wassail bowl,That's tossed up after Fox-i'-th'-hole;Of Blind-man's-buff, and of the careThat young men have to shoe the Mare;Of Twelfth-tide cake, of peas and beans,Wherewith ye make those merry scenes,When as ye choose your king and queen,And cry out, 'Hey for our town green.'Of ash-heaps in the which ye useHusbands and wives by streaks to choose:Of crackling laurel, which fore-soundsA plenteous harvest to your grounds;Of these, and such like things, for shift,We send instead of New-year's gift.Read then, and when your faces shineWith bucksome meat and cap'ring wine,Remember us in cups full crowned,And let our city's health go round,Quite through the young maids and the men,To the ninth number, if not ten,Until the firèd chestnuts leapFor joy to see the fruits ye reap,From the plump chalice and the cupThat tempts till it be tossèd up.Then as ye sit about your embers,Call not to mind those fled Decembers;But think on these, that are t' appear,As daughters to the instant year;Sit crowned with rose-buds and carouse,TillLiber Patertwirls the houseAbout your ears, and lay uponThe year, your cares, that's fled and gone.And let the russet swains the ploughAnd harrow hang up resting now;And to the bagpipe all addressTill sleep takes place of weariness.And thus, throughout, with Christmas plays,Frolic the full twelve holy-days."
"No new device or late-found trick- - - - -We send you; but here a jollyVerse crowned with ivy and with holly;That tells of winter's tales and mirth,That milk-maids make about the hearth,Of Christmas sports, the Wassail bowl,That's tossed up after Fox-i'-th'-hole;Of Blind-man's-buff, and of the careThat young men have to shoe the Mare;Of Twelfth-tide cake, of peas and beans,Wherewith ye make those merry scenes,When as ye choose your king and queen,And cry out, 'Hey for our town green.'Of ash-heaps in the which ye useHusbands and wives by streaks to choose:Of crackling laurel, which fore-soundsA plenteous harvest to your grounds;Of these, and such like things, for shift,We send instead of New-year's gift.Read then, and when your faces shineWith bucksome meat and cap'ring wine,Remember us in cups full crowned,And let our city's health go round,Quite through the young maids and the men,To the ninth number, if not ten,Until the firèd chestnuts leapFor joy to see the fruits ye reap,From the plump chalice and the cupThat tempts till it be tossèd up.Then as ye sit about your embers,Call not to mind those fled Decembers;But think on these, that are t' appear,As daughters to the instant year;Sit crowned with rose-buds and carouse,TillLiber Patertwirls the houseAbout your ears, and lay uponThe year, your cares, that's fled and gone.And let the russet swains the ploughAnd harrow hang up resting now;And to the bagpipe all addressTill sleep takes place of weariness.And thus, throughout, with Christmas plays,Frolic the full twelve holy-days."
Sir Isaac Newton's Birth, on Christmas Day,
at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, was the most important Christmas event of the memorable year which saw the outbreak of the Civil War (1642). In the year of the Restoration he entered Cambridge, where the teaching of Isaac Barrow quickened his genius for mathematics, and from the time he left College his life became a series of wonderful physical discoveries. As early as 1666, he discovered the law of gravitation, but it was not till the eve of the Revolution that his "Principia" revealed to the world his new theory of the universe.
The Customs of Christmastide in the Seventeenth Century.
"A Christmas Carol," by George Wither, a well-known poet of this period, contains many allusions to the customs of Christmastide:—
So, now is come our joyful'st feast;Let every man be jolly;Each room with ivy leaves is drest,And every post with holly.Though some churls at our mirth repine,Round your foreheads garlands twine;Drown sorrow in a cup of wine,And let us all be merry.Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke,And Christmas blocks are burning;Their ovens they with baked meats choke,And all their spits are turning.Without the door let sorrow lie;And if for cold it hap to die,We'll bury 't in a Christmas pie,And ever more be merry.Now every lad is wondrous trim,And no man minds his labour;Our lasses have provided themA bag-pipe and a tabour;Young men and maids, and girls and boys,Give life to one another's joys;And you anon shall by their noisePerceive that they are merry.Rank misers now do sparing shun;Their hall of music soundeth;And dogs thence with whole shoulders run,So all things there aboundeth.The country folks themselves advanceWith crowdy-muttons[73]out of France;And Jack shall pipe, and Jill shall dance,And all the town be merry.Ned Squash hath fetched his bands from pawn,And all his best apparel;Brisk Nell hath bought a ruff of lawnWith droppings of the barrel;And those that hardly all the yearHad bread to eat, or rags to wear,Will have both clothes and dainty fare,And all the day be merry.Now poor men to the justicesWith capons make their errants;And if they hap to fail of these;They plague them with their warrants;But now they feed them with good cheer.And what they want they take in beer;For Christmas comes but once a year,And then they shall be merry.Good farmers in the country nurseThe poor that else were undone;Some landlords spend their money worse,On lust and pride at London.There the roys'ters they do play,Drab and dice their lands away,Which may be ours another day;And therefore let's be merry.The client now his suit forbears,The prisoner's heart is eased:The debtor drinks away his cares,And for the time is pleased.Though other purses be more fat,Why should we pine or grieve at that?Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat,And therefore let's be merry.Hark! how the wags abroad do callEach other forth to rambling:Anon you'll see them in the hallFor nuts and apples scrambling.Hark! how the roofs with laughter sound!Anon they'll think the house goes round,For they the cellar's depth have found,And there they will be merry.The wenches with their wassail bowlsAbout the streets are singing;The boys are come to catch the owls,The wild mare in is bringing.Our kitchen-boy hath broke his box,[74]And to the dealing of the oxOur honest neighbours come by flocks,And here they will be merry.Now kings and queens poor sheep cotes have,And mate with everybody;The honest now may play the knave,And wise men play the noddy.Some youths will now a mumming go,Some others play at Rowland-hoAnd twenty other gambols mo,Because they will be merry.Then wherefore in these merry daysShould we, I pray, be duller?No, let us sing some roundelays,To make our mirth the fuller.And, whilst thus inspired we sing,Let all the streets with echoes ring,Woods and hills, and everything,Bear witness we are merry.
So, now is come our joyful'st feast;Let every man be jolly;Each room with ivy leaves is drest,And every post with holly.Though some churls at our mirth repine,Round your foreheads garlands twine;Drown sorrow in a cup of wine,And let us all be merry.
Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke,And Christmas blocks are burning;Their ovens they with baked meats choke,And all their spits are turning.Without the door let sorrow lie;And if for cold it hap to die,We'll bury 't in a Christmas pie,And ever more be merry.
Now every lad is wondrous trim,And no man minds his labour;Our lasses have provided themA bag-pipe and a tabour;Young men and maids, and girls and boys,Give life to one another's joys;And you anon shall by their noisePerceive that they are merry.
Rank misers now do sparing shun;Their hall of music soundeth;And dogs thence with whole shoulders run,So all things there aboundeth.The country folks themselves advanceWith crowdy-muttons[73]out of France;And Jack shall pipe, and Jill shall dance,And all the town be merry.
Ned Squash hath fetched his bands from pawn,And all his best apparel;Brisk Nell hath bought a ruff of lawnWith droppings of the barrel;And those that hardly all the yearHad bread to eat, or rags to wear,Will have both clothes and dainty fare,And all the day be merry.
Now poor men to the justicesWith capons make their errants;And if they hap to fail of these;They plague them with their warrants;But now they feed them with good cheer.And what they want they take in beer;For Christmas comes but once a year,And then they shall be merry.
Good farmers in the country nurseThe poor that else were undone;Some landlords spend their money worse,On lust and pride at London.There the roys'ters they do play,Drab and dice their lands away,Which may be ours another day;And therefore let's be merry.
The client now his suit forbears,The prisoner's heart is eased:The debtor drinks away his cares,And for the time is pleased.Though other purses be more fat,Why should we pine or grieve at that?Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat,And therefore let's be merry.
Hark! how the wags abroad do callEach other forth to rambling:Anon you'll see them in the hallFor nuts and apples scrambling.Hark! how the roofs with laughter sound!Anon they'll think the house goes round,For they the cellar's depth have found,And there they will be merry.
The wenches with their wassail bowlsAbout the streets are singing;The boys are come to catch the owls,The wild mare in is bringing.Our kitchen-boy hath broke his box,[74]And to the dealing of the oxOur honest neighbours come by flocks,And here they will be merry.
Now kings and queens poor sheep cotes have,And mate with everybody;The honest now may play the knave,And wise men play the noddy.Some youths will now a mumming go,Some others play at Rowland-hoAnd twenty other gambols mo,Because they will be merry.
Then wherefore in these merry daysShould we, I pray, be duller?No, let us sing some roundelays,To make our mirth the fuller.And, whilst thus inspired we sing,Let all the streets with echoes ring,Woods and hills, and everything,Bear witness we are merry.
The preceding poem was evidently written by Wither before the Civil War troubles of the reign of Charles the First had interfered to damp the national hilarity, or check the rejoicings at the festive season of Christmas.
The Defeat of the Royalists,
the overthrow of the monarchy, and the changes resulting therefrom at Christmastide are alluded to in "The Complaint of Christmas, written after Twelftide, and printed before Candlemas, 1646," by old John Taylor, the Water Poet, who says: "All the liberty and harmless sports, the merry gambols, dances and friscols, with which the toiling ploughman and labourer once a year were wont to be recreated, and their spirits and hopes revived for a whole twelvemonth, are now extinct and put out of use, in such a fashion as if they never had been. Thus are the merry lords of bad rule at Westminster; nay, more, their madness hath extended itself to the very vegetables; senseless trees, herbs, and weeds, are in a profane estimation amongst them—holly, ivy, mistletoe, rosemary, bays, are accounted ungodly branches of superstition for your entertainment. And to roast a sirloin of beef, to touch a collar of brawn, to take a pie, to put a plum in the pottage pot, to burn a great candle, or to lay one block the more in the fire for your sake, Master Christmas, is enough to make a man to be suspected and taken for a Christian, for which he shall be apprehended for committing high Parliament Treason and mighty malignancy against the general Council of the Directorian private Presbyterian Conventicle."
With the success of the Parliamentarians, certain changes came in the ruling manners of the age; but
The Attempt to Abolish Christmas Day
was, of course, a signal failure. The event commemorated made it impossible for the commemoration to cease. Men may differ as to the mode of celebration, but the Christ must and will be celebrated.
"In 1642," says Sandys, "the first ordinances were issued to suppress the performance of plays, and hesitation was expressed as to the manner of keeping Christmas. Some shops in London were even opened on Christmas Day, 1643, part of the people being fearful of a Popish observance of the day. The Puritans gradually prevailed, and in 1647 some parish officers were committed for permitting ministers to preach upon Christmas Day, and for adorning the church. On the 3rd of June in the same year, it was ordained by the Lords andCommons in Parliament that the feast of the Nativity of Christ, with other holidays, should be no longer observed, and that all scholars, apprentices, and other servants, with the leave and approbation of their masters, should have such relaxation from labour on the second Tuesday in every month as they used to have from such festivals and holy days; and in Canterbury, on the 22nd of December following, the crier went round by direction of the Mayor, and proclaimed that Christmas Day and all other superstitious festivals should be put down, and a market kept upon that day."
In describing "The First Christmas under the Puritan Directory," theSaturday Review(December 27, 1884) says:—"It must have been taken as a piece of good luck by the Parliamentary and Puritanical masters of England, or, as they would have said, as 'a providence,' that the Christmas Day of 1645 fell upon a week-day. It was the first Christmas Day after the legislative abolition of the Anglican Prayer-book and the establishment of 'the Directory' in its stead; and, if it had fallen upon a Sunday, the Churches must have been opened. A 'Sabbath' could not be ignored, even though it chanced to be the 25th of December. There can be small doubt that, if the Presbyterian and Independent preachers who held all the English parishes subject to the Parliament had been obliged to go into the pulpits on the 25th of December 1645, they would again have irritated the masses of the people by ferociously 'improving the occasion.' The Parliament had not the courage to repeat the brutal experiment of the previous year. It was easy to abolish the feast by an ordinance; but it was risky to insist by an ordinance that the English people and English families should keep the dearest and most sacred of their festivals as a fast. The rulers knew that such an ordinance would not be obeyed. They resolved simply to ignore the day, or treat it as any ordinary Thursday. Doubtless many of the members kept up some sort of celebration of the old family festival in their own private houses. But the legislators marched solemnly to the Lower House, and the 'divines' marched as solemnly to the Assembly in the Jerusalem Chamber, affecting to take no notice of the unusual aspect of the shops and streets, which everywhere bore witness to the fact that there was a deep and fundamental estrangement between 'the State' and 'the people,' and that the people were actually keeping the festival which the 'Synod' had declared to be profane and superstitious, and which the Parliament to please the Scots, the Nonconformists, and the Sectaries, had abolished by law. 'Notwithstanding the Ordinance,' wrote a Member of the House of Commons, the Erastian Whitelock, in his 'Memorials,' 'yet generally this day, in London, the shops were shut and the day observed.' The Christmas number of theMercurius Academicus(December 25 to 31, 1645), states that General Browne, who was a Presbyterian zealot, 'proclaimed' the abolition ofChristmas Day at Abingdon, and 'sent out his warrants for men to work on that day especially.' ... The Parliamentary newspaper,The Weekly Account, (LIII. week, 1645), has the bald record: 'Thursday, Decemb. 25. The Commons sate in a Grand Committee concerning the privileges of members of their House.' The news in the Tuesday paper,The Kingdome's Weekly Intelligencer(No. 152), is equally thin: 'Thursday, Decemb. 25, vulgarly known by the name of Christmas Day, both Houses sate. The House of Commons more especially debated some things in reference to the privileges of that House, and made some orders therein.' ... The Presbyterian and Independent divines spent Christmas Day in the 'Synod' of Westminster. December the 25th, 1645, was entered in their minutes as 'Session 561.' ... The City newspaper of that period,Mercurius Civicus, or London's Intelligencer, in what we may call its Christmas number (No. 135, December 18 to December 24, 1645), printed an article explaining to the citizens of London the absurdity, if not the impiety, of keeping Christmas Day. Every good citizen was expected to open his shop as usual on the coming Thursday, and compel his apprentices to keep behind the counter. The City newspaper stated, that it was more probable that the Saviour was born in September than in December, and quotes 'a late reverend minister's opinion, that God did conceale the time when Christ was borne, upon the same reason that He tooke away the body of Moses, that they might not put an holinesse upon that day.' If the apprentices want a holiday, 'let them keep the fift of November, and other dayes of that nature, or the late great mercy of God in the taking of Hereford, which deserves an especiall day of thanksgiving.' The mass of the English folk meanwhile protested by all such ways as were open to them against the outlandish new religion which was being invented for them. TheMercuricus Civicuscomplained that, 'Many people in these times are too much addicted to the superstitious observance of this day, December 25th, and other saints days, as they are called.' It was asked in a 'Hue and Cry after Christmas,' published anonymously at the end of the year 1645, 'Where may Christmas be found?' The answer is, 'In the corner of a translator's shop, where the cobbler was wont so merrily to chant his carols.'The Moderate Intelligencer, which devoted itself to 'impartially communicating martiall affaires,' in its forty-third number (December 25, 1645, to January 1, 1646), expressed itself as scandalized at the zeal with which the English people, in spite of Parliament and the Assembly, had kept their Christmas. Social phenomena lay beyond the usual ken of the military chroniclers; but 'we shall only observe,' they wrote, 'the loathnesse of the People to part with it, which certainly argues a greater adoration than should have been. Hardly forty shops were open within the lines upon that day. The State hath done well to null it out of this respect, as Mosesdid the Brazen Serpent.' The Scriptural knowledge of the Puritan military newsmen was curiously at fault; they evidently confounded Moses with Hezekiah, unless they substituted the lawgiver for the king, because they thought it unwise to represent the King as the foe of idolatry. The traditional scorn of the Pharisee for the common people which know not the law comes out in the ironical passage with which the 'martiall' organ concludes its reference to the distressing social symptom; 'Sure if there were an ordinance for recreation and labour upon the Lord's Day, or Sabbath (like the prelatical Book of Sports), these would want no observers. Unwillingness to obey, in a multitude, argues generally the goodnesse of a law, readinesse the contrary, especially in those laws which have anything of religion in them.' Hence the puritanical tyrants thought the observation of Christmas Day should be visited in future years with more severe penalties. A few days after Christmas a pamphlet was issued under the title of 'The Arraignment, Conviction, and Imprisonment of Christmas.' A letter from a 'Malignant scholar' in Oxford, where Christmas had been observed as usual, to 'a Malignant lady in London,' had contained the promise or threat, according to the pamphleteer, that the King would shortly appear in London, and restore to his poor people their old social and religious liberties. 'We shall soon be in London, and have all things as they were wont.' There was small chance, six months after Naseby, of the fulfilment of the prediction. The puritanical pamphleteer, however, owns that it would be welcome to 'every 'prentice boy,' because the return of the King would have meant the return of a free Christmas, which he sorely missed. 'All popish, prelatical, Jesuitical, ignorant, Judaical, and superstitious persons,' said he, 'ask after the old, old, old, very old grey-bearded gentleman called Christmas, who was wont to be a very familiar ghest (sic). Whoever finds him again shall be rewarded with a benediction from the Pope, a hundred oaths from the Cavaliers, forty kisses from the wanton wenches, and be made pursuivant to the next Archbishop.' 'The poor,' he added, 'are sorry for it. They go to every door a-begging, as they were wont to do, 'Good Mistress, somewhat against this good time.' Instead of going to the alehouse to be drunke, they are fain to work all the holy dayes.' Again, 'The schollars come into the hall, where their hungry stomacks had thought to have found good brawne and Christmas pie, roast-beef and plum-porridge. But no such matter. Away, ye profane! These are superstitious meats; your stomacks must be fed with sound doctrine.'"
In theNational Magazine(1857), Dr. Doran, on "The Ups and Downs of Christmas," remarks upon the stout resistance given by the citizens of London to the order of the Puritan Parliament, that shops should be opened and churches closed on Christmas Day. "We may have a sermon on any other day," said the London apprentices, who did not always go tohear it, "why should we be deprived on this day?" "It is no longer lawful for the day to be kept," was the reply. "Nay," exclaimed the sharp-witted fellows, "you keep it yourselves by thus distinguishing it by desecration." "They declared," says Dr. Doran, "they would go to church; numerous preachers promised to be ready for them with prayer and lecture; and the porters of Cornhill swore they would dress up their conduit with holly, if it were only to prove that in that orthodox and heavily-enduring body there was some respect yet left for Christianity and hard drinking—for the raising of the holly was ever accompanied by the lifting of tankards.
"Nor was the gallant Christmas spirit less lively in the country than in the capital. At Oxford there was a world of skull-breaking; and at Ipswich the festival was celebrated by some loss of life. Canterbury especially distinguished itself by its violent opposition to the municipal order to be mirthless. There was a combat there, which was most rudely maintained, and in which the mayor got pummelled until he was as senseless as a pocket of hops. The mob mauled him terribly, broke all his windows, as well as his bones, and, as we are told, 'burnt the stoupes at the coming in of his door.' So serious was the riot, so complete the popular victory, and so jubilant the exultation, that thousands of the never-conquered men of Kent and Kentish men met in Canterbury, and passed a solemn resolution that if they could not have their Christmas Day, they were determined to have the King on his throne again."
Of the Canterbury riot an account is given in a rare tract, published in 1647 (preserved in the British Museum), and entitled—
"The Declaration of many thousands of the city of Canterbury, or county of Kent. Concerning the late tumult in the city of Canterbury, provokt by the Mayor's violent proceedings against those who desired to continue the celebration of the Feast of Christ's Nativity, 1,500 years and upwards maintained in the Church. Together with their Resolutions for the restitution of His Majestie to his Crown and dignity, whereby Religion may be restored to its ancient splendour, and the known Laws of this Kingdom maintained. As also their desires to all His Majesties loyall subjects within his Dominions, for their concurrence and assistance in this so good and pious a work."
The resolutions of the Canterbury citizens were not couched in the choicest terms, for the tract states that the two Houses of Parliament "have sate above seven years to hatch Cocatrices and Vipers, they have filled the kingdom with Serpents, bloodthirsty Souldiers, extorting Committees, Sequestrators, Excisemen; all the Rogues and scumme of the kingdom have they set on work to torment and vex the people, to rob them, and to eat the bread out of their mouthes; they have raised a causelesse and unnaturall Warre against their own Soveraigne Lord andKing, a most pious Christian Prince, contrary to their allegiance and duty, and have shed innocent blood in this Land. Religion is onely talkt of, nothing done; they have put down what is good," &c., &c. And further on the tract says:—"The cause of this so sudden a posture of defence which we have put our selves into was the violent proceedings of the Mayor of this city of Canterbury and his uncivill carriage in persuance of some petty order of the House of Commons for hindering the celebration of Christ's Nativity so long continued in the Church of God. That which we so much desired that day was but a Sermon, which any other day of the weeke was tollerable by the orders and practise of the two Houses and all their adherents, but that day (because it was Christ's birth day) we must have none; that which is good all the yeer long, yet is this day superstitious. The Mayor causing some of us to be beaten contrary to his oath and office, who ought to preserve the peace, and to that purpose chiefly is the sword of justice put into his hands, and wrongfully imprisoned divers of us, because we did assemble ourselves to hear the Word of God, which he was pleased to interpret a Ryot; yet we were unarmed, behaved ourselves civilly, intended no such tumult as afterwards we were forc'd unto; but at last, seeing the manifest wrong done to our children, servants, and neighbours, by beating, wounding, and imprisoning them, and to release them that were imprisoned, and did call unto our assistance our brethren of the county of Kent, who very readily came in to us, as have associated themselves to us in this our just and lawfull defence, and do concurre with us in this our Remonstrance concerning the King Majestie, and the settlement of the peace in this Kingdome." And the tract afterwards expresses the desire that "all his Majesties loyall subjects within his Dominions" will "readily and cheerfully concurre and assist in this so good and pious a work."
Among the single sheets in the British Museum is an order of Parliament, dated the 24th of December, 1652, directing,
"That no observation shall be had of the five and twentieth day of December, commonly called Christmas Day; nor any solemnity used or exercised in churches upon that day in respect thereof."
Referring to the celebration of Christmas Day in 1657, Evelyn says:—
"I went to London with my wife to celebrate Christmas Day, Mr. Gunning preaching in Exeter Chapel, on Micah vii. 2. Sermon ended; as he was giving us the Holy Sacrament the chapel was surrounded with soldiers, and all the communicants and assembly surprised and kept prisoners by them, some in the house, others carried away. It fell to my share to be confined to a room in the house, where yet I was permitted to dine with the master of it, the Countess of Dorset, Lady Hatton, and some others of quality who invited me. In theafternoon came Colonel Whalley, Goffe, and others from Whitehall to examine us one by one; some they committed to the Marshal, some to prison. When I came before them they took my name and abode, examined me why, contrary to the ordinance made that none should any longer observe the superstitious time of the Nativity (as esteemed by them), I durst offend, and particularly be at Common Prayers, which they told me was but the mass in English, and particularly pray for Charles Stuart, for which we had no Scripture. I told them we did not pray for Charles Stuart, but for all Christian kings, princes, and governors. They replied, in so doing we prayed for the King of Spain too, who was their enemy and a Papist; with other frivolous and ensnaring questions and much threatening, and, finding no colour to detain me, they dismissed me with much pity of my ignorance. These were men of high flight and above ordinances, and spake spiteful things of our Lord's Nativity. As we went up to receive the sacrament the miscreants held their muskets against us, as if they would have shot us at the altar, but yet suffering us to finish the office of communion, as perhaps not having instructions what to do in case they found us in that action; so I got home late the next day, blessed be God!"
Notwithstanding the adverse acts of the Puritans, however, and the suppression of Christmas observances in high places, the old customs and festivities were still observed in different parts of the country, though with less ostentation than formerly; and various publications appeared which plainly showed that the popular sentiments were in favour of the festivities. The motto of No. 37 ofMercurius Democritus, from December 22, 1652, begins:
"Old Christmas now is come to townThough few do him regard,He laughs to see them going downThat have put down his Lord."
"Old Christmas now is come to townThough few do him regard,He laughs to see them going downThat have put down his Lord."
In "The Vindication of Father Christmas," 1653, a mock complaint in the character of Father Christmas, he laments the treatment he had received for the last twelve years, and that he was even then but coolly received. "But welcome, or not welcome, I am come," he says, and then states that his "best and freest welcome was with some kinde of country farmers in Devonshire," thus describing his entertainment among them:—"After dinner we arose from the boord, and sate by the fire, where the harth was imbrodered all over with roasted apples, piping hot, expecting a bole of ale for a cooler, which immediately was transformed into warm lamb wool. After which we discoursed merily, without either prophaneness or obscenity; some went to cards; others sung carols and pleasant songs (suitable to the times), and then the poor laboring Hinds, and maid-servants, with the plow-boys, went nimbly to dancing;the poor toyling wretches being glad of my company, because they had little or no sport at all till I came amongst them; and therefore they skipped and leaped for joy, singing a carol to the tune of hey,
"Let's dance and sing, and make good chear,For Christmas comes but once a year:Draw hogsheads dry, let flagons fly,For now the bells shall ring;Whilst we endeavour to make goodThe title 'gainst a King.
"Let's dance and sing, and make good chear,For Christmas comes but once a year:Draw hogsheads dry, let flagons fly,For now the bells shall ring;Whilst we endeavour to make goodThe title 'gainst a King.
"Thus at active games, and gambols of hot cockles, shooing the wild mare, and the like harmless sports, some part of the tedious night was spent."
A DAGGER.
The National Troubles
were not brought to an end by the execution of Charles I. on the 30th of January, 1649. In addition to the rioting caused by the attempt to abolish the festival of Christmas by law, the Lord Protector (Oliver Cromwell) had to struggle against discontented republicans and also against fresh outbreaks of the Royalists; and, although able to carry on the Protectorate to the end of his own life, Cromwell was unable to secure a strong successor. He died on September 3, 1658, having on his deathbed nominated his son Richard to succeed him. Richard Cromwell was accepted in England and by the European Powers, and carried himself discreetly in his new position. A Parliament was assembled on January 17, 1659, which recognised the new Protector, but the republican minority, headed by Vane and Haselrig, united with the officers of the army, headed by Lambert, Fleetwood, and Desborough, to force him to dissolve Parliament (April 22, 1659). The Protector's supporters urged him to meet force by force, but he replied, "I will not have a drop of blood spilt for the preservation of my greatness, which is a burden to me." He signed a formal abdication (May, 1659), in return for which the restored Rump undertook the discharge of his debts. After the Restoration Richard Cromwell fled to the Continent, where he remained for many years, returning toEngland in 1680. A portion of his property was afterwards restored to him. He died at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, in 1712.
On Richard Cromwell declining to uphold the Protectorate by force of arms, the only hope of establishing a settled form of government and of saving the country from a military despotism seemed to be in the restoration of the monarchy; therefore, chiefly through the instrumentality of General Monk, Charles, the son of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, was invited to return to England. He at once responded, and entered London in triumph as Charles II., on May 29, 1660, having previously signed the declaration of Breda. By this declaration the King granted a free and general pardon to all "who within forty days after the publishing hereof shall lay hold upon this our grace and favour, and shall by any public act declare their doing so," except such as the Parliament of both houses should except.