The Hymns and Carols of Christmas

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen - Notes

Words & Music: Traditional

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:

"Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of --

"God bless you merry, gentleman! May nothing you dismay!"

"Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost."

This is one of the 89 Christmas carols now annually printed, according William Hone in 1823; he gives no further description. Dickens did not need one, since he was obviously familiar with the carol when he wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843. As such, God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is the Christmas carol of A Christmas Carol, a notable distinction indeed. Ebenezer could have saved himself quite an adventurous night — if only he had heeded these words when he first heard them.

William Studwell observed that it was most appropriate that Dickens chose this particular song, "for no other carol has had a stronger cultural effect on London and on England as a whole than the spiritual piece which infringed on Scrooge's grouch privacy." Studwell believed that London, and its Waits, were probably the source of this carol in the fertile sixteenth century.

An old broadside copy, with three other "choice carols for the Christmas holidays," was said to have been found in the 1770 Roxburgh Collection in the British Museum. It's popularity was such that William Sandys included it in his 1833 collection Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (pages 102-103). Edward Francis Rimbault also included it in his 1846 A Little Book of Carols.

Joshua Sylvestre, in 1861, wrote that "This is perhaps the greatest favorite of all the carols now sung at Christmas. The melody is homely and plaintive, and appears to touch that chord in the popular mind which more elaborate compositions appeal to in vain."

Sylvestre added that

"An antiquary many years ago thus spoke of it: "The melody of 'God rest you Merry Gentlemen' delighted my childhood, and I still listed with pleasure (as who does not) to the shivering carolist's evening chant toward the clear kitchen windows deck'd with holly, the flaring fire showing the whitened hearth and reflecting gleams of light from the surfaces of the dresser utensils."

The text given by Sylvestre was substantially the same as that given in Sandys (no surprise, since it has been hypothesized that "Joshua Sylvestre" is a pseudonym for a collaboration between William Sandys (1792-1874) and William Henry Husk (1814-1887).

Sylvestre also noted that each village seemed to possess its own variation of this carol. By the eighteenth century, as Studwell observed, variants could be found.  Originally, he wrote, the third and fourth lines were "For Jesus Christ our Savior was born upon this day" Shortly, however, a variant began to appear: "Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day." Both versions are still found today.

Husk likewise observed that "There is no carol, perhaps, so universally known as this," and that only The Seven Joys and The Sunny Bank approach it in popularity (the three frequently printed on the same broadside sheet, together with Adeste Fideles). He also noted that "As may be expected of a piece so often printed and sung in districts so widely separated there are several variations in the different copies of this carol...."

A. H. Bullen wrote in 1885 that it was "the most popular of Christmas carols."

William Chappell (1809-1888), publishing in 1855 and 1859, presented two versions of the tune.  He also wrote "I have received many others from different sources, for no carols seems to be more generally known." Both The English Carol Book, First Series (ECB) (1913) and The Oxford Book of Carols (OCB) (1928) give us two tunes; that's no surprise, since both were edited by Martin Shaw and Percy Dearmer (with R. Vaughan Williams in the latter). Interestingly, the first tune in ECB was the second tune in OCB, and vice versa.

Studwell wrote in addition to the traditional tune, there arose in the eighteenth century a variant tune based on a folk melody from Cornwall in the west of England.  He also noted another variant tune by Lewis Henry Redner (1831-1908), the composer of the original melody for "O Little Town of Bethlehem."  In general, the variants are rarely heard.

The first tune in The Oxford Book of Carols is that given by Sandys in 1833, which was a Cornwall variant which arose in the 18th century. The text from Sandys was used in the first version, and is the most commonly found version, although the editors of the OBC substituted the word "fiends" for "friends" in the 4th verse, which, they believed, was the version most generally sung.

The second tune in OBC is the traditional tune associated with the text, the so-called "London tune." The editors stated that the tune came "from a broadside printed by J. & C. Evans, Long-lane, London, some fifty years before Rimbault [1846]." Keyte and Parrott hold the opinion that the tune probably came to England from France, and is also found widely in Europe. The version printed by Bramley and Stainer, First Series (ca. 1860s, Page 1 and Page 2) repeated and popularized this tune.

Keyte and Parrott, in The New Oxford Book of Carols, give three tunes. The first is the traditional "London" tune; the second and third are said to have come from Cornwall (specifically, Ralph Dunstan's Cornish Song Book, 1929), and "the West of England." None of the three resemble the version printed in 1833 by Sandys; the 1861 Christmas-tide version by Sandys is substantially the same as that from 1833.

In sum, there seem to be several known melodies:

  1. The traditional "London" tune, which is the first tune from EBC. Keyte and Parrott identify this as "Chestnut (or Doves Figary)" from Playford's The English Dancing Master (1651), which formed the basis of the version from Bramley and Stainer, now the "standard" version which is heard. This is version two from OBC, and is used by numerous other carols according to the editors, and as listed by Rev. Ian Bradley in The Penguin Book of Carols. Rev. Bradley also reports that A. L. Lloyd has traced the tune as far back as 1580. The tune is characterized as a "luck" tune. There is also a setting from Cecil S. Sharp which is substantially similar to this tune.

  2. The Cornwall tune of Sandys 1933, which is the second tune from EBC and the first tune in OBC.

  3. Another Cornwall tune, Dunstan's, which is the second tune in NOBC (arr. the first two lines are reminiscent of the first version above; the third line and refrain diverge).

  4. The setting from William Henry Husk, which similar to Dunstan's, has the same first two stanzas, but diverge in the third and the refrain (but differently than Dunstan's).

  5. The third setting in NOBC, which they state is an arrangement by the editors of Sandys, 1833 (in the bass clef; the treble clef notes are the harmony).

  6. A sixth tune, from Lewis H. Redner, published by Charles H. Hutchins, Carols Old And Carols New (1916)

  7. The setting of "God Bless You, All" from O. Hardwig, The Wartburg Hymnal (1918).

  8. A setting mentioned by Keyte and Parrott identified as from "the Cornish Hutchens manuscript" ('Sit You, Merry Gentlemen'); a copy was not supplied. Sandys mentions it in passing in Christmastide - Chapter 10. According to published sources, the text can be found at Oxford Bodleian Library. MS Eng. poet. b. 5. The Hutchens Manuscript, according to Keyte and Parrott, is archived in the Davies Gilbert archive, Cornwall County Record Office, Truro.

There is, of course, the comma. Hardly has a song been more beset by confusion of punctuation than this one. The correct usage is to place the comma after the word "merry" rather than before it. The meaning, of course, changes significantly depending on where it is placed. The original intent was to wish those gentlemen be merry, or, as Studwell observed, "God keep you in good spirits, gentlemen."

If the comma is placed before the word "merry," then the intent becomes to wish those merry gentlemen some rest (however appropriate the latter might be, particularly if the gentlemen have been too merry). According to Studwell, this completely misreads the tone of the carol, which is religious in content ("For Jesus Christ our Saviour / Was born on Christmas Day").

There have been numerous attempts to make this carol more gender neutral ("God Rest You Merry, Gentlefolk").  However, in the view of Rev. Ian Bradley (The Penguin Book of Carols, London: Penguin, 1999), these expenditures are misplaced, as he feels that the text is addressed not to males in general, but to the shepherds in the fields 2,000 years ago. Rev. Bradley addresses other interesting points about this carol; his review is recommended (it is not reproduced here because it is under copyright).

A large number of parodies have arisen over the years (see below), including a few which will not be reproduced on a family-safe site.  Douglas Brice reproduced a three verse parody titled "The Puritan" written by Gilbert Keith (G. K.) Chesterton (1874-1936). Other sources give the title as "A Christmas Carol," with the following verses:

God rest you merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay;
The Herald Angels cannot sing,
The cops arrest them on the wing,
And warn them of the docketing
Of anything they say.

God rest you merry gentlemen,
May nothing you dismay:
On your reposeful cities lie
Deep silence, broken only by
The motor-horn's melodious cry,
The hooter's happy bray.

So, when the song of children ceased,
And Herod was obeyed,
In his high hall Corinthian
With purple and with peacock fan,
Rested that merry gentleman;
And nothing him dismayed.

This was Chesterton's response to a statement issued by a Chief Constable declaring carol singing illegal, and morally and physically injurious.

William Chappell and Rev. Bradley also reproduce a parody written by William Hone (1780-1842), referring to Lord Robert Stewart Castlereagh [also Castelreagh] (1769-1822), the second Marquess of Londonderry:

“God rest you, merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay;
Remember we were left alive 
Upon last Christmas Day,
With both our lips at liberty,
To praise Lord Ch
For his ‘practical’ comfort and joy!”
    &c.

Note that the comma is misplaced.

According to Chappell this parody was printed in his Facetić (e.g., Facetić and Miscellanies. London: Hunt and Clarke, 1827). Several sources give the title as "A Political Christmas Carol: Set to music : to be chaunted or sung throughout the United Kingdom and the dominions beyond the seas, by all persons thereunto especially moved," and put the date of composition as circa 1820. In November 1819, Lord Castlereagh had been the author of the repressive "Six Acts," Parliament's response to incidents which took place in Manchester the preceding August (e.g., "The Peterloo Massacre").

Lord Castlereagh had been the earlier target of Hone's 1817 "Official Account of the Noble Lord's Bite!" And, in "The Political House that Jack Built" (1920), Lord Castlereagh appeared as "Derry Down Triangle"; the nickname derives from the triangular framework into which people were strapped while being whipped.

Versions

  1. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen - Version 1, William Sandys, 1833

  2. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen - Version 2, Hutchins, 1916; Words: Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

  3. God Bless You, Merry Gentlemen - Sharp, 1911

  4. God Bless You, All Good Christian Men - Hardwig, 1918 (Alt. of version 2, above)

  5. Sit You, Merry Gentlemen - A version said to be from Cornwall

Humor:

Sources

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