CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES 263
evolved by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. All this is
admirably dealt with in Sir E. K. Chambers' fascinating volume,
The Medieval Stage, where the development of the various
elements which went to the making of the medieval play are
analysed and discussed. To the lord and his dependents, how-
ever, the strange history behind the Christmas festivities or the
setting of the Midsummer watch were mysteries of which they
knew or suspected nothing. Christmas, to them, was a brief
respite in the yearly cycle of events, bringing its central and
heavenly message, but also bringing much that was of the earth
earthy. The villager, gaping admiringly at the pranks and
buffoonery of the mummers' play, or joining in the choruses of
the songs, or taking part in the dispute between the holly and
the ivy, in which the young men and women of the village all took
sides, forgot for a while the fatigues of the autumn and the ardours
of the coming spring.
The spirit of the festival is well caught by a carol:
Make we merry both more and less,
For now is the time of Christmas !
Let no man come into this hall,
Groom, page, nor yet marshall,
But that some sport he bring withal!
For now is the time of Christmas !
If that he say he can not sing,
Some other sport then let him bring!
That it may please at this feasting
For now is the time of Christmas!
If he say he can nought do,
Then for my love ask him no mo!
But to the stocks then let him go!
For now is the time of Christmas P-
So from time to time throughout the year the great religious
festivals gave the peasant a few hours of pleasure making: the
ceremonies connected with Easter would enthral him with such
dramatic incidents as crawling to the Cross on the Good Friday,
or the rending of the veil which had hidden the sanctuary
throughout Lent; or perhaps, if he were near some great Abbey
1 A. W. Pollard, Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, 86. More and less = rich
and poor. See also Chambers and Sidgwick, Early English Lyrics t232 ff. and
R. L. Greene, The Early English Carols > 4ff. for other examples.