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 yo 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.
