God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay;
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came,
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same,
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

“Fear not then,” said the Angel,
“Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour
Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan’s power and might.”
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding
In tempest, storm and wind,
And went to Bethlehem straightway
The Son of God to find.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

And when they came to Bethlehem
Where our dear Saviour lay,
They found Him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His Mother Mary kneeling down,
Unto the Lord did pray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is another ancient carol that predates the early modern era of carols. If the late 19th century is considered to be the start of “classic Christmas” as we understand it today (in the UK at least) then the “early modern period” would be the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This is when new hymns and carols were being written by the founders of non-conformist, evangelical denominations aiming to meet the spiritual needs of ordinary working people, in a more accessible form than the Church of England offered.

There’s a lot that could be written about the social history of Christmas but I won’t go into that now.Suffice to say that God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was first published in the mid-17th century in a collection of “three new Christmas carols,” and then included in one of the first general collection of carols published in 1833. By 1843 it was known well enough for Charles Dickens to quote it in A Christmas Carol; you can find the reference to it in the first chapter, just before Scrooge complains about Bob Cratchit not working on Christmas Day.

I’ve noticed that with several of these carols there are significant variations in the words between sources, the number of verses, and the tune to which they’re sung. In most cases this is because there is no definitive original version, or author/composer, and they’ve existed in an oral tradition. The different denominations could adjust the words for their own congregations, and there would be regional variations deriving from local dialects.

This version of God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen is longer than I remember, and I think some of the verses I remember are composites of the ones above. It’s a bit hazy because each year I’d encounter at least three or four different hymn books depending on where I was. My “regular” hymn book was Presbyterian, but if went to my grandparents’ church (where my own parents had grown up) it would be a Methodist hymn book. At school there was another hymn book for assembly which I suppose was non-denominational, but for the school’s carol concert we’d all troop off to the parish church where we used the Anglican hymn book. (Who knew what the Catholic hymn book might have contained in comparison?)

Merry Christmas

Header image: Christmas in London by Wallpapersafari.com

Footer image: Christmas in London from Sylvia Miller on Pinterest