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III.

HERE comes Holly, that is so gent,*
To please all men is his intent.
Alleluia !

But Lord and Lady of this hall,
Whosoever against Holly call.

Alleluia!

Whosoever against Holly doth cry,
In a lepet he shall hang full high.
Alleluia !

Whosoever against Holly doth sing,
He may weep, and his hands wring.
Alleluia !

1

!

IV.

Ivy, chief of trees, it is

Veni coronaberis.

The most worthy is she in town;

He who says other, says amiss; Worthy is she to bear the crown; Veni coronaberis.

Ivy is soft, and meek of speech,

Against all woe she bringeth bliss ; Happy is he that may her reach;

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SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING CHRISTMAS DAY.

Ivy is green, of colour bright,

Of all trees the chief she is;
And that I prove will now be right;
Veni coronaberis.

Ivy, she beareth berries black;

God grant to all of us his bliss!

For then we shall nothing lack;
Veni coronaberis.

Superstitions regarding Christmas Day.

THE following poems are, perhaps, more curious than interesting. They afford, however, some idea of the superstitious dread with which the advent of Christmas Day must have been regarded in those times, not merely by the vulgar, but by all classes of our forefathers, for the Francis Moores and Raphaels of the fifteenth century, found even kings willing believers in their extravagant predictions. From the allusion in each verse of the first poem to the risks that those who steal subject themselves to, one would almost suppose thieving to have been the fashionable vice of the age, practised alike by both rich and poor, and that there was great need of such injunctions against it.

Both of these poems are from the same Harleian MS. in the British Museum.*

I.

ORDINGS, all of you I warn,

If the day that Christ was born

Fall upon a Sunday,

The winter shall be good I say,

But great winds aloft shall be;

The summer shall be fair and dry.

No. 2252, fols. 153-4, vo.

By kind skill and without loss,
Through all lands there shall be peace,
Good time for all things to be done,
But he that stealeth shall be found soon;
What child that day born may be,

A great lord he shall live to be.

If Christmas day on Monday be,

A great winter that year you'll see,

And full of winds, both loud and shrill;
But in the summer, truth to tell,
Stern winds shall there be and strong,
Full of tempests lasting long;

While battles they shall multiply;

And great plenty of beasts shall die.
They that be born that day I ween,
They shall be strong each one and keen;
He shall be found that stealeth ought;
Though thou be sick thou diest not.

If Christmas day on Tuesday be,

That year shall many women die,
And that winter grow great marvels;
Ships shall be in great perils;

That year

shall kings and lords be slain, And many other people near them.

A dry summer that year shall be,

As all that are born therein may see;

They shall be strong and covetous.

If thou steal aught, thou losest thy life,

For thou shalt die through sword or knife ;

But if thou fall sick, 't is certain,

Thou shalt turn to life again.

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SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING CHRISTMAS DAY.

If Christmas day, the truth to say,

Fall upon a Wednesday,

There shall be a hard winter and strong,
With many hideous winds among.

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The summer merry and good shall be,
And that year wheat in great plenty ;
Young folk shall die that year also,
And ships at sea shall have great woe.
Whatever child that day born is,
He shall be doughty and gay, I wis,

And wise and crafty also of deed,
And find many in clothes and bread.

If Christmas day on Thursday be,
A windy winter you shall see;
Windy weather in each week,
And hard tempests strong and thick.
The summer shall be good and dry,
Corn and beasts shall multiply;
That year is good lands for to till;
Kings and princes shall die by skill.
If a child that day born should be,
It shall happen right well for thee-
Of deeds he shall be good and stable,
Wise of speech and reasonable.
Whoso that day goes thieving about,
He shall be punished without doubt ;
And if sickness that day betide,
It shall quickly from thee glide.

If Christmas day on a Friday be,
The first of winter hard shall be,
With frost and snow and with great flood,

But the end thereof it shall be good.
Again, the summer shall be good also ;
Folk in their eyes shall have great woe;
Women with child, beasts, and corn
Shall multiply, and be lost none.

The child that is born on that day,

Shall live long, and lecherous be alway."

Who stealeth ought shall be found out,

If thou be sick it lasteth not.

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