Sir Christmas
Words and Music: English Traditional
Source: Henry Vizetelly, Christmas With The Poets (London: David Bogue, 1851), who notes that this carol is found among the Additional MSS at the British Museum, No. 5665, fol 6. vo.
Versions
I Am Here, Syre Christmasse -
Sandys, 1833
I am here, syre Crystesmass - Thomas
Wright, 1841
Sir Christmas - Vizetelly, 1851; Sylvester, 1861
I Am
Here, Sir Christhismas - Husk, 1868
I Am Here, Sir Christemas - Rickert,
1910
Nowel, Nowel, Nowel, Nowel,
Who is there, that singeth so Nowel
Nowel, Nowel?
1. I am here, Sir Christmas
Welcome, my lord Sir Christmas,
Welcome to all both more and less;1
Come near Nowel.
2. God be with you, Sir, tidings I you bring,
A maid hath born a child full young,
The which causeth me to sing.
Nowel.
3. Christ is now born of a pure maid,
In an ox stall he is laid,
Wherefore sing we all at abraid,2
Nowel.
4. Drink you all right heartily,
Make good cheer and be right merry,
And sing with us now joyfully,
Nowel.
Notes from Mr. Vizetelly:
1. Great and small. Return
2. Suddenly, or loudly. Return
Also found in Joshua Sylvester, A Garland of Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern (London: John Camden Hotten, 1861)
An ancient MS. in the British Museum furnishes the following Carol, which, in olden times, would appear to have been the initiatory welcome to the festivities of the season. The religious allusions, intermixed with invitations to partake of the good things of this life, mark the age of hearty hospitality and honest enjoyment, before Puritanism came into fashion.
Note that Sylvester uses "Noel" rather than "Nowel." The footnotes in Sylvester are identical to Vizetelly's.
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.
