CHRISTMAS CAROLS.
"What sweeter music can we bring
Than a Carol for to sing
The Birth of this our Heavenly King?"
Some twenty or thirty years ago we should scarcely have dared to predict the resuscitation of the Christmas Carol. At that time the custom of singing carols had become little better than a respectable scheme for raising money, the miserable street-singer drawling out, in lamentable and tuneless strains (in hope of pecuniary recompense), the "good tidings," that "our Saviour He was born on Christmas Day in the morning." In villages and quiet country places, it is true, carols in some form or other have never been allowed to die out, and appear to have been cherished with no little reverence as one of the rarest delights of the "blessed Christmas Tide."
Hone, in his "Ancient Mysteries," A.D. 1823, says:—"The melody of 'God rest you, merry gentlemen,' delighted my childhood; and I still listen with pleasure to the shivering carolist's evening chaunt towards the clean kitchen window, decked with holly, the flaming fire showing the whitened hearth, and reflecting gleams of light from the surfaces of the kitchen utensils."
And Irving, too, in the "Sketch Book," A.D. 1850, describes, in his customary happy way, the carolling of village children on Christmas morning:—"While I lay musing on my pillow I heard the sound of little feet pattering outside of the door, and a whispering consultation. Presently a choir of small voices chaunted forth an old Christmas Carol."
The sheets of carols, embellished with rude cuts of the Nativity, and other events in the Life of our Blessed Saviour, still issued from Clerkenwell, the Seven Dials, and provincial towns, are becoming scarcer every year, and the race of street carolists, there can be little doubt, will, in a few years, become altogether extinct.
It is curious to note the remarkable way in which old conventional forms and traditions have been retained in the broadsides annually hawked about the streets; the arrangement of subjects, borders, and general treatment, being in many cases decidedly mediæval.
The selection of subjects is not always remarkable for aptness, nor their execution for particular brilliancy. Upon one carol sheet in my possession occur representations of "The Crucifixion," the "Return of the Soldier," the "Celebration of the Eucharist," and Two Lovers walking in green bowers, while a Fairy points to a Temple wherein the Matrimonial Alliance may be perfected. Upon another is shown a Village, a young man borne to the skies in the arms of some ethereal beauty (by sprites of all sizes and shapes), our Blessed Lord instituting the Holy Eucharist, a Family Party, and a Deathbed. Again, we have the Seven Ages, boys playing at marbles, girls gathering flowers, fiends seizing a murderer, and a congregation at worship, to illustrate "favourite carols for the present year."
The mental powers of the printer are again taxed to invent "catching" titles for his publications; and we have "The Christmas Holly," "The Star of Bethlehem," "Christmas Mirth," "Blossoms of Holiness," "The Heavenly Garland," "The Select Carolist," "The Morning Star," "The Golden Chaplet," and "The Gem, a variety of excellent carols."
The design and execution of the woodcuts are sometimes highly ludicrous; and when coloured in the "approved style," they are apt to provoke mirth rather than devotion. In many instances the ancient method of representing several subjects in one picture is preserved, e.g., the Adoration of the Angels, the Visit of the Shepherds (with regular pastoral staves), and the Magi, all occur in one engraving, the Star appearing in three places. Hone mentions the case of a printer of Moorfields, who placed so high a value on his woodcuts, that he positively refused to give up the blocks without a strict reservation of the copyright of the designs. For the amusement of his readers, Hone annexes four of these rude pictures.
It is to Mr. Davies Gilbert, the well-known antiquary, that we are primarily indebted for the revival of Christmas carolling. In A.D. 1822 Gilbert published the music of twelve favourite carols preserved in the west of England, and in the following year enlarged the collection to twenty. Mr. W. Sandys, F.S.A., brought out in A.D. 1833 a set of fourscore carols, with seventeen melodies, and some French Noëls. This valuable work, containing an abundant store of information on all customs and traditions of Yule-tide, has been since supplemented by a book by the same author on "Christmas; its History, Festivities, and Carols." Mr. Wright's reprint of mediæval and later carols, published for the Percy Society, with Dr. Rimbault's "Little Book," Mr. Parker's "Sixteen Carols," Mr. Chappell's "National Airs," and other similar works, led the public to appreciate the time-honoured custom, and to comprehend more clearly the rich store-house of melody and poetry contained in these delightsome reliques of the Christmas of our forefathers. Publishers became cognizant of a real want