English Christmas poetry after the mid-sixteenth century is, then, individual rather than communal in its spirit; it is also a thing less of the people, more of the refined and cultivated few. The Puritanism which so deeply affected English religion was abstract rather than dramatic in its conception of Christianity, it was concerned less with the events of the Saviour's life than with Redemption as a transaction between God and man; St. Paul and the Old Testament rather than the gospels were its inspiration. Moreover, the material was viewed not as penetrated by and revealing the spiritual, but as sheer impediment blocking out the vision of spiritual things. Hence the extremer Puritans were completely out of touch with the sensuous poetry of Christmas, a festival which, as we shall see, they actually suppressed when they came into power. The singing of sacred carols by country people continued, indeed, but the creative artistic impulse was lost. True carols after the Reformation tend to be doggerel, and no doubt many of the traditional pieces printed in such collections as Bramley and Stainer's[33]{37} are debased survivals from the Middle Ages, or perhaps new words written for old tunes. Such carols as "God rest you merry, gentlemen," have unspeakably delightful airs, and the words charm us moderns by their quaintness and rusticity, but they are far from the exquisite loveliness of the mediaeval |78| things. Gleams of great beauty are, however, sometimes found amid matter that in the process of transmission has almost ceased to be poetry. Here, for instance, are five stanzas from the traditional "Cherry-tree Carol":-- "As Joseph was a-walking, He heard an angel sing: 'This night shall be born Our heavenly King. 'He neither shall be born In housen nor in hall, Nor in the place of Paradise, But in an ox's stall. 'He neither shall be clothed In purple nor in pall, But all in fair linen As wear babies all. 'He neither shall be rocked In silver nor in gold, But in a wooden cradle That rocks on the mould. 'He neither shall be christened In white wine nor red, But with fair spring water With which we were christened.'" The old carols sung by country folk have often not much to do with the Nativity; they are sometimes rhymed lives of Christ or legends of the Holy Childhood. Of the latter class the strangest is "The Bitter Withy," discovered in Herefordshire by Mr. Frank Sidgwick. It tells how the little Jesus asked three lads to play with Him at ball. But they refused:-- "'O we are lords' and ladies' sons, Born in bower or in hall; And you are but a poor maid's child, Born in an oxen's stall.' |79| 'If I am but a poor maid's child, Born in an oxen's stall, I will let you know at the very latter end That I am above you all.'