The Boare Is Dead

On Bringing Boar's Head, Used Before Christmas Prince, At St. John Baptist's College, Oxford, Christmas, 1607

Compare:
The Boare is dead - Thomas Wright (1841)
The Boar Is Dead (Husk, 1868)

See: Boar's Head Carols

Source: William Sandys, Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (London: Richard Beckley, 1833)

1. The Boare is dead,
Loe, heare is his head,
    What man could haue done more
Then his head of to strike,
Meleager like,
    And bring it as I doe before?

2. He liuinge spoyled
Where good men toyled,
    Which made kind Ceres Sorrye;
But now, dead and drawne,
Is very good brawne,
    And wee haue brought it for y^u.

3. Then sett downe y^e Swinyard,
The foe to y^e Vineyard,
    Lett Bacchus crowne his fall,
Lett this Boares-head and mustard
Stand for Pigg, Goose, and Custard,
    And so y^u are welcome all.

Sheet Music from William Wallace Fyfe, Christmas: It's Customs And Carols (London: James Blackwood, 1863), pp. 177-178.
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF

Sandys' Note:

From The Christmas Prince, reprint, London, 1816, p. 24.

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