God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", also known as "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), and is listed as no. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is also known as "Tidings of Comfort and Joy," and by other variant incipits.

History

An early version of this carol is found in an anonymous manuscript, dating from the 1650s.. At page 291, Brown notes that "the main part of the collection, that is, what is transcribed between pages 1 and 119, was put together in a few years in the early 1650s". It contains a slightly different version of the first line from that found in later texts, with the first line "Sit yo^w merry gentlemen" (also transcribed "Sit you merry gentlemen" and "Sit yo^u merry gentlemen").

The earliest known printed edition of the carol is in a broadsheet dated to c. 1760. A precisely datable reference to the carol is found in the November 1764 edition of the ''Monthly Review''. Some sources claim that the carol dates as far back as the 16th century. Others date it later, to the 18th or early 19th centuries.The 19th century would be an impossibly late date, since three copies of 18th century provenance are physically attested, and linguistics mandate that the first lyrics were written in the 17th century.

Although there is a second tune known as 'Cornish', in print by 1833 and referred to as "the usual version" in the 1928 '' Oxford Book of Carols'', this version is seldom heard today. The better-known traditional English melody is in the minor mode; the earliest printed edition of the melody appears to be in a rondo arrangement for fortepiano by Samuel Wesley, which was already reviewed in 1815. Soon after, it appeared in a parody published in 1820 by William Hone. It had been associated with the carol since at least the mid-18th century, when it was recorded by James Nares in a hand-written manuscript under the title "The old Christmas Carol". Hone's version of the tune differs from the present melody in the third line. The full current melody was published by Chappell in 1855.

An article in the March 1824 issue of ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' complains that, in London, no Christmas carols are heard "excepting some croaking ballad-singer bawling out 'God rest you, merry gentlemen', or a like doggerel".
The carol is referred to in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. It is also quoted in George Eliot's 1861 novel ''Silas Marner''.

Lyrics

The following version of the first verse is found in a manuscript dating from the early 1650s:

A later version is found in ''Three New Christmas Carols'', dated c. 1760. Its first verse reads:

The historic meaning of the phrase "God rest you merry" is 'may God grant you peace and happiness'; the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' records uses of this phrase from 1534 onwards. It appears in Shakespeare's play ''As You Like It'' and the phrase "rest you merry" appears in ''Romeo and Juliet;'' both plays date from the 1590s. The ditransitive use of the verb ''rest'' in the sense "to keep, cause to continue, to remain" is typical of 16th- to 17th-century language. However, in the present day, ''merry'' is often misinterpreted as an adjective modifying ''gentlemen''. Etymonline.com notes that the first line "often is mispunctuated" as "God rest you, merry gentlemen" because in contemporary language, ''rest'' has lost its use "with a predicate adjective following and qualifying the object" (''Century Dictionary''). This is the case already in the 1775 variant, and is also reflected by Dickens' replacement of the verb ''rest'' by ''bless'' in ''A Christmas Carol''.

Some variants give the pronoun in the first line as '' ye'' instead of ''you'',"God Rest Ye, Merry Christians" in Mildred Gauntlett, ''Fifty Christmas Carols'' (London, 1906)
p. 39
!-- in this google books scan accidentally appended to M. Hawke, The Epwell Hunt; Or, Black Collars in the Rear (Three Poems), 1840-->
The use of ''ye'' may go back to alternative words written by Dinah Craik (1826–1887) given in Charles Lewis Hutchins, ''Carols Old and Carols New'' (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916) with the title ''God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen''. This particular version has the incipit ''God rest you merry, gentlemen'', but verses 2 and 3 begin ''God rest ye little children'' and ''God rest ye all good Christians'', respectively. in a pseudo-archaism. In fact, ''ye'' would never have been correct, because ''ye'' is a subjective (nominative) pronoun only, never an objective (accusative) pronoun.

A variant text was printed in 1775 in ''The Beauties of the Magazines, and Other Periodical Works, Selected for a Series of Years''. This text was reproduced from a song-sheet bought from a caroler in the street. This version is shown here alongside the version reported by W. B. Sandys (1833) and the version adopted by ''Carols for Choirs'' (OUP, 1961), which has become the ''de facto'' baseline reference in the UK.

Melody

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soprano = \relative c'

alto = \relative c'

tenor = \relative c

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Musical settings

*Gustav Holst includes the carol in his 1910 choral fantasy ''Christmas Day''.
*The third movement of Victor Hely-Hutchinson's ''Carol Symphony'' (1927) is a scherzo on the tune of ''God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen''.

Versions by popular music artists

* American singer Bing Crosby recorded a version on June 8, 1942, which was released that same year on one side of a 10" 78 rpm shellac record and was later included in his 1945 compilation, ''Merry Christmas''.
* American rock band Steve Miller Band plays a snippet on the song "Good Morning" from the album '' Number 5'' (1970)
* American singer Mariah Carey, on her 1994 album ''Merry Christmas'', released on the international edition as a bonus track
* A remix of the song composed by Lee Jackson, titled "God Rest Ye, Deadly Gentlemen" appears in the 1995 video game ''Rise of the Triad''. The song was later remade by Andrew Hulshult for the 2013 remaster.
* American country singer Garth Brooks (2000)
* American rock band Boston (2002), as "God Rest Ye Metal Gentlemen", released online and on a special tour edition of the album '' Life, Love & Hope''.
* British rock band Jethro Tull, on ''The Jethro Tull Christmas Album'' (2003)
* The Canadian band Barenaked Ladies and singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, on the 2004 album '' Barenaked for the Holidays''
* American contemporary Christian band MercyMe (2006)
* A heavy metal version of the song was recorded in 2008 by Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Rudy Sarzo, and Simon Wright in 2008 for the album '' We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year''.
* American smooth jazz gospel singer Tim Bowman (2010)
* The cast of ''Glee'' (2010)
* Scottish singer Annie Lennox recorded a version of the song which was included on her 2010 album '' A Christmas Cornucopia''
* American metalcore band August Burns Red (2011)
* Irish singer Hozier performed a cover on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in 2015.
* American a-capella band Pentatonix, on the 2016 album '' A Pentatonix Christmas'', and on the soundtrack of the 2018 animated film adaptation of ''The Grinch''
* Christian band Tenth Avenue North with Sarah Reeves (2016)
* American violinist Lindsey Stirling, on the 2022 album '' Snow Waltz''
* American singer Debbie Gibson on her 2022 album '' Winterlicious''
* American band The Milk Carton Kids on their 2024 album ''Christmas in a Minor Key''
* American punk rock band Bad Religion, on their 2013 EP ''Christmas Songs''

See also

* List of Christmas carols

References

Further reading

*''The New Oxford Book of Carols'', ed. Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 527

{{DEFAULTSORT:God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
Christmas carols
1760s songs
18th-century hymns
Songs about Jesus
Hymns in The New English Hymnal
Works based on the New Testament