A Christmas Carol, Sung To The King In The Presence At Whitehall
Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674), 1647
Chor. What sweeter musick can we bring,
Then a Caroll, for to sing
The Birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the Voice! Awake the String!
Heart, Eare, and Eye, and every thing
Awake! the while the active Finger
Runs division with the Singer.
From the Flourish they came to the Song
1. Dark and dull night, flie hence away,
And give the honour to this Day,
That sees December turn'd to May.
2. If we may ask the reason, say;
The why, and wherefore all things here
Seem like the Spring-time of the yeere?
3. Why do's the chilling Winters morne
Smile, like a field beset with corne?
Or smell, like to a Meade new-shorne,
Thus, on the sudden?
4. Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
'Tis He is borne, whose quickning Birth
Gives life and luster, publike mirth,
To Heaven, and the under-Earth.
Chor. We see Him come, and know him ours,
Who, with His Sun-shine, and His showers,
Turnes all the patient ground to flowers.
1. The Darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we finde a roome
To welcome Him.
2. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart,
Chor. Which we will give Him; and bequeath
This Hollie, and this Ivie Wreath,
To do Him honour; who's our King,
And Lord of all this Revelling.
The Musicall Part was composed by M. Henry Lawes.
Joshua Sylvestre, Christmas Carols - Ancient and Modern (circa 1861, reprinted A. Wessels Company, New York, 1901):
Among all our English poets, the one who has left us by far the most complete contemporary picture of the Christmas season was a country clergyman of the reign of Charles I who held a small living in a remote part of Devonshire. This was Robert Herrick, the author of "Hesperides," and of the following beautiful carol.
Note that Hugh Keyte, an editor of The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) believes that "Joshua Sylvestre" is a pseudonym for a collaboration between William Sandys (1792-1874) and William Henry Husk (1814-1887). See Appendix 4.
