Now, Now, The Mirth Comes - The Hymns and Carols of Christmas

Wassail!
Christmas Poetry By Robert Herrick
Give Way, Give Way, Ye Gates, And Win
The Wassaile
Source: William Sandys, Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (London: Richard Beckley,
1833)
ive way, give way, ye gates, and win
An easie blessing to your bin 16 G
And basket, by our entring in.
2. May both with manchet 17 stand repleat,
Your larders, too, so hung with meat,
That thou a thousand, thousand eat. 18
3. Yet ere twelve moones shall whirl about
Their silv'rie spheres, ther's none may doubt
But more's sent in then was serv'd out.
4. Next, may your dairies prosper so,
As that your pans no ebbe may know;
But if they do, the more to flow.
5. Like to a solemne sober stream,
Bankt with all lilies, and the cream
Of sweetest cowslips filling them.
6. Then may your plants be prest with fruit,
Nor bee or hive 19 you have be mute,
But sweetly sounding like a lute.
16. Or: kin.
17. A small loaf of fine wheaten bread. The founder of the Hospital of St. Cross, near
Winchester, directed that every stranger calling should receive a manchet of bread and a cup
of ale; a custom which is, it is believed, still kept up. [1868]
18. Or: That thereof them and folk may eat.
19. Or: beehive.
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