God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (also known as God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen) is an English traditional Christmas carol. The melody is in Aeolian mode. It was published by William B. Sandys in 1833, although the author is unknown.[1]
Like so many early Christmas songs, this carol was written as a direct reaction to the music of the fifteenth century church, in Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas. However, in the as-yet earliest known publication of the carol on a circa 1760 broadsheet, it is described as a "new Christmas carol,"[2] suggesting its origin is actually in the mid-18th century. It appeared again among "new carols for Christmas" in another 18th-century source, a chapbook believed to be printed between 1780-1800.[3]
It is referred to in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, 1843: "...at the first sound of — 'God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!'— Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost."
This carol also is featured in the second movement of the Carol Symphony by Victor Hely-Hutchinson.
Lyrics
There is some confusion today about the meaning of the first line, which seems archaic to our ears. It is usually given today as "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", with a comma after the word "merry", so does not refer to "merry gentlemen". "Rest" here denotes "keep or make." The claim that "merry" once meant "mighty," and is so used here is not supported by the Oxford English Dictionary, which gives 16 definitions of the word, some going back to the 10th century, all having to do with pleasure or enjoyment. In both of the 18th-century instances, "you" was used instead of "ye," suggesting that the latter may be a modern insertion to make the carol sound more quaintly archaic.
The carol exists in a wide variety of versions, some with differing numbers of verses. No attempt is made here to detail the variants; rather the reader is referred to the Hymns and Carols of Christmas analysis of a nine-verse version. However, for historical comparison, the first verses of the earliest-known versions are given below.
Circa 1760 (from "Three New Christmas Carols," Printed and Sold at the Printing-Office on Bow Church-Yard, London):
God rest you merry, Gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Savior
Was born upon this Day.
To save us all from Satan's power,
When we had gone astray.
O' tidings of comfort and joy.
Comfort and joy.
Circa 1780-1800 (from "Three new carols for Christmas," Wolverhampton, printed by J. Smart):
[Punctuation reproduced from the original—in this instance there is no comma after "merry."]
God rest you merry Gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay;
Remember Christ our Saviour,
Was born on Christmas-day;
To save our souls from Satan's power,
Which long time had gone astray:
This brings Tidings of Comfort and Joy.
In the UK, the de facto baseline reference version is that adopted by Carols for Choirs, OUP, (1961):
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Notes
- ^ Carols.org God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen lyrics
- ^ "Three new Christmas carols." [London], [1760?]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale.
- ^ "Three new carols for Christmas. 1. God rest you merry gentlemen, &c. 2. Good Christian people pray give ear. 3. Let all good Christian people here." Wolverhampton, [between ca. 1780 and 1800?]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale.
Further reading
- The New Oxford Book of Carols, ed. Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 527
- Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, Ace Collins (Zondervan, 2001).
External links
- Arrangements for Piano and Voice from Cantorion.org
- This hymn on Hymns Without Words
- This hymn on The Hymns and Carols of Christmas
- This hymn on Oremus
- Audio sample of the song performed by the German choir Outta Limits
- Discussion of lyrics and grammar of the first line by Catherine Osborne