Now, Now, The Mirth Comes - The Hymns and Carols of Christmas
Now, Now, The Mirth Comes - The Hymns and Carols of Christmas
Now, Now, The Mirth Comes - The Hymns and Carols of Christmas
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“<strong>Now</strong>, <strong>Now</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Mirth</strong> <strong>Comes</strong>”<br />
'His stomach to a second meal.'--No, no,<br />
Thy house, well fed <strong>and</strong> taught, can show<br />
No such crabb'd vizard: Thou hast learnt thy train<br />
With heart <strong>and</strong> h<strong>and</strong> to entertain;<br />
And by the arms-full, with a breast unhid,<br />
As the old race <strong>of</strong> mankind did,<br />
When either's heart, <strong>and</strong> either's h<strong>and</strong> did strive<br />
To be the nearer relative;<br />
Thou dost redeem those times: <strong>and</strong> what was lost<br />
Of ancient honesty, may boast<br />
It keeps a growth in thee, <strong>and</strong> so will run<br />
A course in thy fame's pledge, thy son.<br />
Thus, like a Roman Tribune, thou thy gate<br />
Early sets ope to feast, <strong>and</strong> late;<br />
Keeping no currish waiter to affright,<br />
With blasting eye, the appetite,<br />
Which fain would waste upon thy cates, but that<br />
<strong>The</strong> trencher creature marketh what<br />
Best <strong>and</strong> more suppling piece he cuts, <strong>and</strong> by<br />
Some private pinch tells dangers nigh,<br />
A h<strong>and</strong> too desp'rate, or a knife that bites<br />
Skin-deep into the pork, or lights<br />
Upon some part <strong>of</strong> kid, as if mistook,<br />
When checked by the butler's look.<br />
No, no, thy bread, thy wine, thy jocund beer<br />
Is not reserved for Trebius here,<br />
But all who at thy table seated are,<br />
Find equal freedom, equal fare;<br />
And thou, like to that hospitable god,<br />
Jove, joy'st when guests make their abode<br />
To eat thy bullocks thighs, thy veals, thy fat<br />
Wethers, <strong>and</strong> never grudged at.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pheasant, partridge, gotwit, reeve, ruff, rail,<br />
<strong>The</strong> cock, the curlew, <strong>and</strong> the quail,<br />
<strong>The</strong>se, <strong>and</strong> thy choicest vi<strong>and</strong>s, do extend<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir tastes unto the lower end<br />
Of thy glad table; not a dish more known<br />
To thee, than unto any one:<br />
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