The Boar's Head, That We Bring Here

For Christmas

Alternate Title: The Exeter Boar's Head Carol

Words: English Traditional, Temp. Henry VII or VIII

 Music: Richard Smert, 15^th Century
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF

Source: William Henry Husk, Songs of the Nativity (London: John Camden Hotten, 1868)

Version Six of Seven From Husk
See generally Boar's Head Carols

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Tidings good I think to tell.

1. A boar's head, that we bring here,
Betokeneth a prince without peer
Is born this day¹ to buy us dear,
    Noel.

2. A boar is a sovereign beast,
And acceptable in every feast;
So might this Lord be to most² and least,
    Noel.

3. The boar's head we bring with song,
In worship of Him that thus sprung
Of³ a Virgin to redress all wrong;
    Noel.

Note:

1. Or to-day. Return

2. Greatest. Return

3. Or From. Return

Husk's Note:

This carol is contained in a manuscript, formerly in the possession of Ritson, the antiquary, but now preserved amongst the additional manuscripts in the British Museum, which was written in the reign of Henry VIII [1491-1547]. In addition to the words, the manuscript gives the music written for the carol, by a composer named Richard Smert, called elsewhere in the same manuscript, "Ricard Smert de Plymptre." This is in two parts (soprano and alto), with a chorus of three parts (soprano and two altos), and has been printed in John Stafford Smith's "Musica Antiqua," i. 22. The name of the author of the words is not recorded. Ritson, who printed the carol in his "Ancient Songs and Ballads," says, "Nowel, Nowel (the old French name for Christmas), and a great cry at that period, was the usual burden to these sort of things. It was likewise the name of this sort of composition, which is equally ancient and popular. Books of carols were cried about the streets of Paris in the thirteenth century. "Noel, Noel, à moult grant cris.'"

Sheet music from Edmonstoune Duncan, The Story of the Carol (London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., 1911), pp. 188-189 (with thanks to Dr. John Speller)

In this version, the first line of the first verse reads:
"The boar's head that I bring here."

This Carol was first printed by Ritson from an ancient MS. in his possession, now deposited in the British Museum. The composition in all probability is of the reign of Henry VIII. As before stated, Nowel, or Noel, is the old French name for Christmas, and was the usual burden for Carols of this kind.

Note that Hugh Keyte, an editor of The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) believes that "Joshua Sylvester" is a pseudonym for a collaboration between William Sandys (1792-1874) and William Henry Husk (1814-1887). See Appendix 4.

Also found in Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), pp. 258-9.
Rickert gives the title as "In Die Natavitatis"

Rickert gives the heading of In Die Nativitatis, followed by
    “Temp. Henry VII or VIII”

Rickert gives “Nowell” for “Noel.”

Also found in Richard Greene, ed., A Selection of English Carols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962, #33, pp. 91-2.

Editor's Note: See The Borys Hede That We Bryng Here.