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If Christmas day, the truth to say,

Fall upon a Wednesday,

There shall be a hard winter and strong,
With many hideous winds among.

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The summer merry and good shall be,
And that year wheat in great plenty ;
Young folk shall die that year also,
And ships at sea shall have great woe.
Whatever child that day born is,

He shall be doughty and gay, I wis.

And wise and crafty also of deed,
And find many in clothes and bread.

If Christmas day on Thursday be,
A windy winter you shall see;
Windy weather in each week,
And hard tempests strong and thick.
The summer shall be good and dry,
Corn and beasts shall multiply;
That year is good lands for to till;
Kings and princes shall die by skill.
If a child that day born should be,
It shall happen right well for thee-
Of deeds he shall be good and stable,
Wise of speech and reasonable.
Whoso that day goes thieving about,
He shall be punished without doubt;
And if sickness that day betide,
It shall quickly from thee glide.

If Christmas day on a Friday be,
The first of winter hard shall be,
With frost and snow and with great flood,

But the end thereof it shall be good.

Again, the summer shall be good also;
Folk in their eyes shall have great woe;
Women with child, beasts, and corn

Shall multiply, and be lost none.
The child that is born on that day,

Shall live long, and lecherous be alway.
Who stealeth ought shall be found out,
If thou be sick it lasteth not.

SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING CHRISTMAS DAY.

If Christmas day on Saturday fall,
That winter's to be dreaded by all;
It shall be so full of great tempest,
That it shall slay both man and beast;
Great store shall fail of fruit and corn,
And old folk die many a one.

What woman that day of child doth travel,
She shall give birth in great peril ;
And children born that day, by faith,
In half a year shall meet with death.
The summer shall be wet and ill;
Thou shalt suffer if thou aught steal;
Thou diest if sickness do thee take.

II.

F Christmas day on the Sunday be,
A troublous winter ye shall see,

Mingled with waters strong;

Good there shall be without fable,
For the summer shall be reasonable,
With storms at times among.

Wines that year shall all be good,
The harvest shall be wet with flood,
Pestilence fall on many a country;

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Ere that sickness shall have past,
And while great tempests last,

Many young people dead shall be.

Princes that year with iron shall die,
There shall be changing of many lords high,

Amongst knights great debate,

Many tidings shall come to men,
Many wives shall be weeping then,
Both of poor and great estate.

The faith shall then be hurt truly,
For divers points of heresy

That shall then appear,
Through the tempting of the fiend,
And divers matters unkind

Shall bring great danger near.

Cattle shall thrive, one and the other,
Save oxen, they shall kill each other;
And some beasts they shall die;
Both fruit and corn will not be good,
Apples will be scarce for food,

And ships shall suffer on the sea.

That year on Monday, without fearing
All things well thou may'st begin,

They shall be profitable;

Children that on this day are born,
I'faith shall mighty be and strong,

Of wit full reasonable.

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"GET Ivy and Holly and deck up thine house,

And take this same brawn to seethe and to souse.
Provide us good cheer, for thou know'st the old guise:
Old customs, that good be, let no man despise.
At Christmas be merry and thankful withal,

And feast thy poor neighbours, the great with the small,
Yea, all the year long, to the poor let us give:
God's blessing to follow us while we do live."

DIVISION II.

TUSSER.

CHRISTMAS POEMS OF THE ELIZABETHAN ERA.

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E now enter upon that era which was a period of transition, not merely as regards our national religion, but likewise as regards our national literature. The Reformation, and the introduction of printing had begun to produce their fruits, and, amongst other changes that were taking place, somewhat of the barbarism of our national manners, was in process of eradication. And it was fitting that such should be the case under the auspices of a female sovereign, who, although she possessed but little of the gentleness of her sex, yet brought her influence to bear in refining the manners of her courtiers, and with no other object beyond the gratification of her own vanity, converted them into so many beaux chevaliers, who did homage to her person, more perhaps because she was a woman, than by reason of her position as a queen. Among the many changes that were effected, none were, perhaps, more apparent than in the festive entertainments of the time. Some idea of the ceremony observed on these occasions may be formed from the following code of instructions for the guidance of a nobleman's household:

"On Christmas day, service in the church ended, the gentlemen presently repair into the hall to breakfast, with brawn, mustard, and malmsey.

"At dinner, the butler, appointed for the Christmas, is to see the tables covered and furnished; and the ordinary butlers of the house are decently to set bread, napkins, and trenchers, in good form, at every table; with spoons and knives. At the first course is served in a fair and large boar's head, upon a silver platter, with minstrelsy.

"Two 'servants' are to attend at supper, and to bear two fair torches of

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