From medieval religious carols to this 1893 Christmas card, carols communicate to the common folk the message and merriment of the season. Mary lulling her baby to sleep (“Lullay, Lullow: I Saw a Swete Semly Syght”), while “doubting Joseph” carols expressed a husband’s concerns over the paternity of his wife’s child, a favorite theme of medieval mystery plays.Īccessible and tuneful, Christmas carols have remained a lively populist music through the centuries. But Nativity figures are also portrayed as ordinary human beings:
In medieval religious carols, Mary is popularly depicted as the new Eve (“Nova! Nova!”) or identified with the rose (“There Is No Rose of Such Vertu”). When the Franciscans arrived in England early in the 13th century, they began composing in English for the native population-the carol “A Child Is Boren Amonges Man” dates from before 1350.
The saint and his order of friars wrote devotional poems in the vernacular set to popular folk music, as a way of teaching the secular public about Christ. It’s said he began the custom of creating a crib in Italian churches during the Christmas season, around which children would sing and maybe dance. 1181-1226) is credited with playing a key role in bringing carols into the House of God. We may get it wrong, but it's been part of Christmas tradition since 1760, and it's not going to change now.St. It was a reasonable assumption that the people being addressed weren't just gentlemen but merry gentlemen. This wasn't until 1760, in a broadsheet and again around 1780 in the collection Three New Carols for Christmas:īy the late 18th century the Tudor expression 'God rest ye merry' had long since fallen out of use. The confusion arose when the carol was first published. The proper placing of the comma is 'God rest ye merry, gentlemen'. So, how did the original meaning come to be changed? It's all about a comma. "God rest you, merry gentlemen" - people have been getting it wrong since 1760. "Gentlemen, may God keep you in a pleasant state."
What the carol's writers had in mind was: "Merry Gentlemen - let God grant you repose." What many people now understand by the expression is: 'Merry' meant 'pleasant harmonious happy'. The meaning of 'rest' was then 'keep cause to continue'. To grasp the meaning of 'God rest you merry' as understood by the Tudors we need to take the expression apart. And, sorry ladies, in Tudor England you didn't often get a mention. The carol God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen was probably written in the Tudor era, but it wasn't printed until 1760. Most people misunderstand the meaning of this title. Good felow god you saue, or o louynge frende god rest you mery. The first time that 'God rest you merry' was put into print was also from a Latin translation, this time Nicholas Udall's Floures for Latine Spekynge gathered oute of Terence: 'Rest ye merry' was used as early as 1300, in Old English, in the popular romantic tale Floris and Blauncheflur.Ī more readable version is found in the Latin dictionary Bibliotheca Eliotae, edited and published by the English Bishop Thomas Cooper in 1548:īee thou gladde: or joyfull, as the vulgare people saie Reste you mery. What's the origin of the phrase 'God rest you merry gentlemen'?Īpart from being the title of a carol, the expression 'God rest you merry gentlemen' is notable for being almost universally misunderstood.Ī clue to a proper reading of the line is that the phrases 'rest ye merry' and 'God rest ye merry' were commonplace expressions of goodwill in Medieval England. The expression is no longer used other than as the title and first line of the popular Christmas Carol. 'God rest you (or ye) merry gentlemen' means 'Gentlemen, may god keep you in harmony and happiness'. The sayings of Nicholas Udall What's the meaning of the phrase 'God rest you merry gentlemen'?.
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