Get Ivy And Hull

Christmas

 

Words: Thomas Tusser, 1558

 

Music: Bannochs o' barley meal, harmonized by Charles Wood
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF

Source: Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), p. 225.

See Notes under The Holly And The Ivy.

1. Get ivy and hull¹, woman, deck up thine house,
And take this same brawn for to seethe and to souse;
Provide us good cheer, for thou knowest the old guise,
Old customs that good be, let no man despise.
    At Christmas be merry and thank God of all,
    And feast thy poor neighbours, the great and the small.
    Yea, all the year long have an eye to the poor,
    And God shall send luck to keep open thy door.

2. Good fruit and good plenty do well in thy loft,
Then lay for an orchard and cherish it oft.
The profit is mickle, the pleasure is much;
At pleasure with profit few men will grutch.
    At Christmas be merry and thank God of all,
    And feast thy poor neighbours, the great and small.
    Yea, all the year long have an eye to the poor,
    And God shall send luck to keep open thy door.

For plants and for stocks lay aforehand to cast,
But set or remove them, while Twelve-tide² do last.

Notes:

1. Holly. Return

2. Christmas to Twelfth Night. Return

Sheet Music from Charles Wood and George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cambridge Carol-Book, Being Fifty-Two Songs For Christmas, Easter, And Other Seasons (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1924), #10.

Editor's Note: Rickert did not repeat the burden after the second verse; this change was found in Wood and Woodward, The Cambridge Carol-Book. Rickert did add the final two lines, without explanation.

Also found in Henry Vizetelly, Christmas With The Poets (London: David Bogue, 1851), who gives a slightly different first verse:

Get Ivy and Holly and deck up thine house,
And take this same brawn to seethe and to souse.
Provide us good cheer, for thou know'st the old guise:
Old customs, that good be, let no man despise.
At Christmas be merry and thankful withall.
And feast thy poor neighbours, the great and the small,
Yea, all the year long, to the poor let us give:
God's blessings to follow us, while we do live.

He gave this verse as an introduction to Christmas poems in the Elizabethan era, and gave no second verse.

See and play the Noteworthy Composer score if you have installed the NoteWorthy Composer Browser Plug-in Get_Ivy_And_Hull Only tested by Noteworthy for Netscape, Opera, and IE Browsers (Versions 4 or 5) In my experience, it also works with Firefox.

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