Words and Music: Unknown
Source: William Henry Husk, Songs of the Nativity (London: John Camden Hotten, 1868)
Compare: Holvyr And Heyvy Made A Gret Party (Thomas Wright, 1847)
See Notes under The Holly And The Ivy.
1. Holly and Ivy made a great party,1
Who should have the mastery
In lands where they go.
2. Then spake Holly, "I am fierce and jolly,
I will have the mastery
In lands where they go.
3. Then spake Ivy, "I am loud and proud,
And I will have the mastery
In lands where they go.
4. Then spake Holly, and set him down on his knee,
"I pray thee, gentle Ivy,
Say2 me no villany
In lands where they go.
1. Rickert notes: "Here, division into parties, i.e., contention. Return
2. Husk notes: "Essay, do." Return
Husk's Note:
The custom of decking houses with evergreens about the close of the year is of Pagan origin, and was adopted by the Christians. It long since obtained firm hold in England. In many of the Churchwarden's accounts in London parishes we meet with charges like the following: --
"Holme and Ivy at Christmas Eve, iiij d." St. Mary at Hill,
"It'm for Holly and Ivy at Christmas, ij d. ob." St. Martin Outwich, A.D. 1524.
"Paid for Holly and Ivye at Christmas, ij d." Ibid., A.D. 1525
[This] carol is from a manuscript of the fifteenth century: --
Also found in Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), p. 262. She also notes, at pages 301-2:
"The holly and ivy carols exist in various forms and in many MMS. The singing of them seems to be a survival of some sort of Nature-worship. The two plants most characteristic of the season of the year seem to have been impersonated -- holly by young men, ivy by maidens; and the poems are regularly in the form of a debate or contention as to the respective merits of each. Perhaps in the decoration of the hall the work was so apportioned, and possibly there was earlier some sort of rude drama or dance connected with the ceremony. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1779, p. 137, is mentioned a Shrovetide custom in East Kent which illustrates this old contention. The girls of a village burn a "Holly Boy" stolen from the boys; and the boys an "Ivy Girl" stolen from the girls, each in different parts of the village. The root idea seems to be whether the master or the mistress shall rule the household.
"Sandys in his Christmas Carols (1833, p. cxxii) tells a story that likewise associates this idea with Christmas. An old knight, while his guests were at table, asked that a carol be sung by the men who ruled their wives, and there was but a feeble response; but when he called upon the women who ruled their husbands, they fell all to such a singing that there was never heard such a caterwauling piece of music."
Editor's Note: See the discussion of "holly boy" and "ivy girl" in Old Shrove-tide Revels from Hone's Every Day Book (Volume 1, 1825).
