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"THE season of the Boar is from the Nativity
Till the Purification of our Lady so free.
For at the nativity of our Lady sweet,
He may find where he goeth under his feet,
Both in woods and fields, corn and other fruit,
When he after food maketh any suit:

Crabs and oak corns and nuts there they grow,

Haws and hips and other things enow:
That till the Purification lasteth as ye see,
And maketh the boar in season to be;
For while that fruit may last,

His time is never past."

THE BOOK OF ST. ALBANS, (1460.)

THERE is no more interesting, and, by the way, no more hacknied, feature connected with the celebration of Christmas in the olden time, than the custom of bringing in the Boar's Head with minstrelsy. The Carol for this purpose, discovered on the solitary leaf remaining of a

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volume of Christmas Carols, printed by Wynkin de Worde, has, since first brought to light, been printed and reprinted in every account of Christmas with which we are familiar. And certainly there is something very picturesque in the incident itself, as well as honour, we may presume, attaching to those who took part in it, for we find that Henry II., at the coronation of his eldest son," served him at the table as sewer,* bringing up the boar's head with trumpets before it, according to the manner.Ӡ

The five subsequent Carols have in their day played their part, times without number, in this ceremony; and on the very occasion above referred to, there is no doubt but that one or the other of them was chaunted forth between the flourishes of the herald's trumpets, when the proud Plantagenet did duty as sewer to his rebellious son. It is not merely at regal banquets, however, that these Carols have been in request. The boar's head was the first dish served up at table in every baronial hall throughout the country at the Christmas feast; and on such occasions we may be certain there was no lack of amateur or professional minstrels to do becoming honour to a ceremony of so much importance. In all of the following Carols, the old spelling has been modernised, and other trifling liberties have been taken, to render the text intelligible.

I.

(From Mr. T. Wright's manuscript.)

TIDINGS I bring you for to tell

What in wild forest me befel,
When I in with a wild beast fell,
With a boar so bryme.‡

A boar so bryme that me pursued,
Me for to kill so sharply moved,

That brymly beast so cruel and rude,
There tamed I him,

And reft from him both life and limb.

Truly, to show you this is true,

His head I with my sword did hew,
To make this day new mirth for you-
Now eat thereof anon.

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BOAR'S HEAD CAROLS.

Eat, and much good do it you;
Take you bread and mustard thereto.
Joy with me that this I have done,

I pray you be glad every one,
And all rejoice as one.

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(From a manuscript in the British Museum.")

NOWEL, Nowel, Nowel, Nowel,

Tidings good I think to tell.

The boar's head, that we bring here,
Betokeneth a prince without peer

Is born to-day to buy us dear,

Nowel.

MS. Addit., No. 5665, fol. 5, ro.

The boar he is a sovereign beast,

And acceptable at every feast;

So might this lord be to greatest and least,

Nowel.

This boar's head we bring with song,

In worship of Him that thus sprung

From a virgin to redress all wrong;

III.

Nowel.

(From Mr. Wright's manuscript.)

AT the beginning of the meat

Of a boar's head ye shall eat,

And in the mustard ye shall whet;
And ye shall sing before ye go.

Welcome be ye that are here,

Ye shall all have right good cheer,

And also a right good fare;

And ye shall sing before ye go.

Welcome be ye every one,

For

ye shall sing all right anon ;

Hey! you sure that ye had done?

And ye shall sing before ye go.

The following is perhaps the most ancient of all the Boar's Head Carols. It is preserved in a manuscript of the fifteenth century, and was first printed in the "Reliquiæ Antiquæ," to which publication it was communicated by Sir Frederic Madden. The second part of this old Carol furnishes us with a minute description of the viands that formed the second course at a Christmas feast. They certainly make some amends for the poverty of the first portion of the banquet, and we may presume that when these dishes were served up the dinner commenced in good earnest. In spite of the invitations contained in these Carols to partake of the "first mess," the Boar's Head, we anticipate, was little

18

BOAR'S HEAD CAROLS.

else but a show dish; for, in all of the allusions to it, mention is only made of one head being served at each feast, though, even were the number greater, it could hardly have been sufficient to have yielded a mouthful a-piece to the numerous guests who were generally present at these entertainments. Between the courses the minstrels played and sang-the jesters discharged their smartest jokes, and practised their most extravagant antics; and, we dare say, not unfrequently was the famous Dance of Fools performed at this particular juncture, before the attention of the guests was directed to the more exciting business which was so soon to follow.

IV.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

The boar's head is armèd gay.

The boar's head in hand I bring,
With garlands gay encircling,*
I pray you all with me to sing,
With Hey!

Lords, knights, and squires,
Parsons, priests, and vicars,
The boar's head is the first mess,†

With Hey!

The boar's head, as I now say,
Takes its leave and goes away,
Goeth after the Twelth day,
With Hey!

Then comes in the second course with great pride,
The cranes, the herons, the bitterns, by their side,
The partridges, the plovers, the woodcocks, and the snipe,

Larks in hot show, for the ladies to pick,

Good drink also, luscious and fine,

Blood of Allemaine, romnay, and wine,

With Hey!

"Porttoryng" in the original-a word not explained in any glossary. + That is, "the first dish."

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