One of the oldest English Christmas carols is “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” having its origins at least as far back as the 15th century. An early version of this carol is found in an anonymous manuscript, dating from the 1650s. It contains a slightly different version of the first line from that found in later texts, with the first line “Sit ye merry gentlemen.” While almost everyone is familiar with it, few pronounce it correctly as a result of confusion over the punctuation. It all depends on where the comma is placed! Most people probably read it as if the comma comes after “ye,” with the result that we sing “God rest ye … merry gentlemen,” as if these merry gentlemen are weary and need rest. But the correct reading is “God rest ye merry … gentlemen.”
Placing the comma after the word “merry” means that we are singing an old English literary expression in the use of two archaic words, specifically “rest” and “merry.” The word “rest” meant to keep or settle into a lasting condition, and the adjective “merry” had a wider meaning of prosperous, pleasant or joyful in early modern English. The sentence could possibly be rewritten as “God give you peace, gentlemen” or “God grant you joy, gentle ones.” So when we sing, we should pause briefly after the word “merry,” as we are actually speaking to these gentlemen! And some variants give the pronoun in the first line as “ye” instead of “you,” 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.
Carols were extremely popular by the 16th century (the era of the Reformation). Rather than starting out as church music, they were closer to being folk songs, expressions of a joyful faith by the common people, sing not in church but in village holiday festivals. And originally they were sung for a variety of occasions, not just Christmas. But in 1647 the Puritan English Parliament officially abolished the celebration of Christmas, and all other festivals, as being too worldly and pagan. It was 150 years before the practice of carol singing was revived in England. Queen Victoria enjoyed them, and urged that they be used once again. Soon the English clergy were teaching them to their congregations. “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” was one of these. Its lively tune appropriately reflects the joy and celebration prompted by news of the Savior’s birth. The angel told the shepherds his message was “good tidings of great joy,” and they realized it was so. After they had visited the manger in Bethlehem, they “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20).
The hymn was first put into print in 1760 but made available to a wider audience when William B. Sandy included a version of it in his 1833 publication, “Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern.” It has since been added to various hymnals and carol books. “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” is written with an upbeat melody and speaks of the birth of Jesus in markedly joyful terms. During the 15th century, most religious songs were quite somber and dark and offered little inspiration or joy, so this song may have shocked church leaders, but it certainly inspired the people. Crossing the ocean to both Europe and America, the carol later became a favorite throughout the Christian world, and it is still sung in much the same way as it was hundreds of years ago.
The song was famously referred to in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” In the quotation below from the classic book, Ebenezer Scrooge chases away a Christmas caroler as he tries to sing the song in front of his house. “…at the first sound of ‘God bless you merry, gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!’ Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.” Happily, by the end of the story, Scrooge has found the joy of the carol springing up in his own heart.
Eminent British hymnologist Erik Routley (1939-1982) classified this song and “The First Noel” as “ballad-carols.” Rather than the standard hymn meters – Short (6686), Common (8686), and Long (8888) – “God Rest You Merry” employs longer three-line stanzas and a refrain associated with many folk ballads. Unlike “The First Noel,” this carol features only the adoration of the shepherds in Luke 2 and not the appearance of the Magi in Matthew’s account.
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1858) included “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” in his popular 1912 work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, “Fantasia on Christmas Carols,” a collage of Christmas folksongs, most of which were collected in southern England by Vaughan Williams and the famous folksong scholar Cecil Sharp (1859-1924), sometimes called the founding father of the folksong revival in England. Stanzas of “God Rest You Merry” are featured throughout the work, sometimes “mashed up” with other carols. The rousing orchestral and choral climax features the following stanza, a conventional New Year’s salutation echoed softly by a baritone soloist in the final bars:
God bless the ruler of this house and long may he reign;
many happy Christmases may live to see again.
God bless our generation who live both far and near
and we wish you a happy new year.
This stanza is usually omitted from hymnals, as it speaks more to a domestic Christmas celebration in the dwelling of the Lord of the Manor. The “New Oxford Book of Carols” (1992) describes this version of the carol as a “luck-visit song,” or a song sung by carolers when visiting a house.
Having been passed along for so many centuries, it would be impossible to say definitively that we have the original lyrics, but here are the stanzas most commonly found in hymnals today. The sequence of stanzas, like a number of other Christmas songs, follows the gospel narrative of the nativity story. Each stanza concludes with the refrain that mimics the angel’s announcement that this good news would bring great joy.
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy; O tidings of comfort and joy.
Stanza 1 begins by addressing these gentlemen, with the wish (if the comma is placed correctly!) that God would settle them in a lasting condition with a permanent spirit of happiness. While there is much in life to cause them – and us – dismay, the gospel is more than able to overcome that depressed spirit. All we need to do is to remember who Jesus is and what He came to do for us in His incarnation and atonement and resurrection. What better thing could we wish upon someone than that they more fully appreciate how we have been delivered from Satans’ power!
God rest you merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day
to save us all from Satan’s pow’r when we were gone astray.
Stanza 2 begins to tell the nativity story, taking us to Bethlehem. That was where the “blessed Babe” was born and placed in a manger by Mary and Joseph. In Sandys’s collection this was slightly modified. “In Bethlehem, in Jewry” in Sandys’s publication was changed to “Judah.” There is an editorial comment at the end of the stanza: “his Mother Mary did nothing take in scorn.” While we cannot be sure of Mary’s emotional state, this phrase seems to indicate that she had no difficulty at all with the long and uncomfortable journey to Bethlehem made under duress as a result of the occupying Roman authorities, rejection by owners of inns for lodging even though her condition was obviously dire, or their final accommodations in a probably-filthy stable. Luke 2 is silent on Mary’s personal feelings until verse 19, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (KJV).
In Bethlehem, in Judah, this blessed Babe was born,
And laid within a manger upon this blessed morn.
The which His Mother Mary did nothing take in scorn. [Refrain]
Stanza 3 turns our attention to the “blessed angel” who appeared in the evening sky to announce the Savior’s birth to the shepherds there. Who were these “certain shepherds?” Historian Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889) wrote in his classic “The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah” that at this time of year, the only shepherds remaining in the fields would have been those watching over sheep destined to be sacrificed in the temple. If that is so, how appropriate that the birth of heaven’s sacrificial lamb was first announced in the presence of such sheep!
From God our heav’nly 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. [Refrain]
Stanza 4 reports the words pronounced by that angel, before heavenly host burst into sight, singing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). The passage reminds us that every time angels appeared to human beings in Scripture, the result was not excitement, but terror! And so the assuring words are pronounced, “Fear not.” As Satan’s power was mentioned in the first stanza, we sing it again now in the joyful reminder that Jesus came to set us free from that bondage.
“Fear not,” then said the angel, “Let nothing you affright;
this day is born a Savior of a pure virgin bright,
to free all those who trust in Him from Satan’s pow’r and might.” [Refrain]
Stanza 5 then goes on to recount the joy the shepherds found as they tried to digest that incredible annunciation. It is a bit of poetic imagination that suggests that they left their sheep on a night of “tempest, storm, and wind,” but we can be sure that if such natural interferences had been present, they would not have prevented these men from rushing “straightway” to find that “blessed Babe.”
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, this blessed Babe to find. [Refrain]
Stanza 6 brings us to the sight which greeted them on their arrival. We have seen it hundreds of times over our lifetimes in stable creches and films. Once again, poetic imagination joins literary freedom in suggesting that so soon after delivery, this young mother was physically able to kneel beside that manger! Whether or not there were oxen so near the newborn, it is certainly believable that Mary would have praying, thanking God for the safe delivery of her firstborn, and for the provision of shelter that night, not to mention the amazing things she sensed would come in the days ahead, based on the angel’s announcement to her nine months earlier.
And when they came to Bethlehem where our dear Savior lay,
They found Him in a manger where oxen feed on hay
His Mother Mary kneeling down unto the Lord did pray. [Refrain]
Stanza 7 is then addressed no longer to those gentlemen, but now to all who have come in faith to the Lord in a manger, and now on His throne. As we wish that God would settle (“rest”) these gentlemen in lasting joyful adoration, so we now wish that same thing for all. The stanza expresses three hopes: 1) that we would all join our hearts and voices in praise to Him, 2) that we would embrace one another “with true love and brotherhood,” and 3) that the special beauty of “this holy tide of Christmas” would “deface” (perhaps meaning “replace”) all other seasons. The Episcopal “Hymnal 1982”has changed this line to “this holy tide of Christmas / doth bring redeeming grace,” ending on a note of redemption rather than condemnation.
Now to the Lord sing praises all you within this place,
and with true love and brotherhood each other new embrace;
this holy tide of Christmas all other doth deface. [Refrain]
Historically, two tunes have been associated with this text. The first possible printed version of the commonly known version GOD REST YOU MERRY was a London instrumental variation by Samuel Wesley (1757-1834), the younger son of Charles Wesley (1707-1788), titled “The Christmas Carol, Varied as a Rondo, for the Piano Forte.” It appears that the work was composed in the second decade of the nineteenth century, as a review of it was published in 1815. There are rhythmic variations from the sung version, and the third phrase of the stanza is significantly different from the familiar carol.
“The Oxford Book of Carols”(London, 1928) provides two tunes (Nos. 11 and 12). The first version, virtually unknown this side of the Atlantic, is cited as the “usual version” and identified by Eric Routley as “Cornish.” This was the tune identified by Sandys in his collection. The second version, the one popularly sung today, is listed “as sung in the London streets” in 1928. The London tune was collected by E. F. Rimbault (1816-1876), a London organist, and first printed in the 1846 “A Little Book of Christmas Carols, with Ancient Melodies to which they are Sung in Various Parts of the Country.” The melody as we know it was standardized over time in several publications, a customary process for establishing the commonly known version of a folk tune.
The date of the publication in 1846 may indicate that the less familiar Cornish tune was the melody used in Dickens’s first production of his 1843 “The Christmas Carol.” On the other hand, if the commonly known version was being “sung in the London streets” during the decades previous to the publication of the play, then this version may have been used in the performance. From 1919 through 1957, the first two carols sung at the famous Nine Lessons and Carols held on Christmas Eve at King’s College, Cambridge, were “Once in Royal David’s City” and “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen.”
Here is a link to the song from a Christmas Eve service at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.