Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 6

Father--not more old than thou?

Mother--younger, can it be?

Older, younger is the Son, Younger, older, she than he."{27}

Even in dour Scotland, with its hatred of religious festivals, some kind of carolling survived here and there among Highland folk, and a remarkable and very "Celtic" Christmas song has been translated from the Gaelic by Mr. J. A. Campbell. It begins:--

"Sing hey the Gift, sing ho the Gift, Sing hey the Gift of the Living, Son of the Dawn, Son of the Star, Son of the Planet, Son of the Far [twice], Sing hey the Gift, sing ho the Gift."{28}

[Ill.u.s.tration:

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT: THE REST BY THE WAY

MASTER OF THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY (ALSO ATTRIBUTED TO JOACHIM PATINIR)

(_Vienna: Imperial Gallery_)]

[Ill.u.s.tration:

SINGING "VOM HIMMEL HOCH" FROM A CHURCH TOWER AT CHRISTMAS.

_By Ludwig Richter._]

Before I close this study with a survey of Christmas poetry in England after the Reformation, it may be interesting to follow the developments in Protestant Germany. The Reformation gave a great impetus to German religious song, and we owe to it some of the finest of Christmas hymns.

It is no doubt largely due to Luther, that pa.s.sionate lover of music and folk-poetry, that hymns have practically become the liturgy of German Protestantism; yet he did but give typical expression to the natural instincts of his countrymen for song. Luther, though a rebel, was no Puritan; we can hardly call him an iconoclast; he had a conservative mind, which only gradually became loosened from its old attachments. His was an essentially artistic nature: "I would fain," he said, "see all arts, especially music, in the service of Him who has given and created them," and in the matter of hymnody he continued, in many respects, the mediaeval German tradition. Homely, kindly, a lover of children, he had a deep feeling for the festival of Christmas; and not only did he translate into German "A solis ortus cardine" and "Veni, redemptor 71 gentium,"

but he wrote for his little son Hans one of the most delightful and touching of all Christmas hymns--"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her."

"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, Ich bring euch gute neue Mar, Der guten Mar bring ich so viel, Davon ich singen und sagen will.

Euch ist ein Kindlein heut gebor'n Von einer Jungfrau auserkor'n, Ein Kindelein so zart und fein, Das soll eu'r Freud und Wonne sein.

Merk auf, mein Herz, und sich dort hin: Was liegt doch in dem Kripplein drin?

Wess ist das schone Kindelein?

Es ist das liebe Jesulein.

Ach Herr, du Schopfer aller Ding, Wie bist du worden so gering, Da.s.s du da liegst auf durrem Gras, Davon ein Rind und Esel a.s.s?

Ach, mein herzliebes Jesulein, Mach dir ein rein sanft Bettelein, Zu ruhen in mein's Herzens Schrein, Da.s.s ich nimmer vergesse dein.

Davon ich allzeit frohlich sei, Zu springen, singen immer frei Das rechte Lied dem Gottessohn Mit Herzensl.u.s.t, den sussen Ton."[29]{29}

72 "Vom Himmel hoch" has qualities of simplicity, directness, and warm human feeling which link it to the less ornate forms of carol literature. Its first verse is adapted from a secular song; its melody may, perhaps, have been composed by Luther himself. There is another Christmas hymn of Luther's, too--"Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar"--written for use when "Vom Himmel hoch" was thought too long, and he also composed additional verses for the mediaeval "Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ."

"Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, Da.s.s du Mensch geboren bist Von einer Jungfrau, das ist wahr, Des freuet sich der Engel Schar.

_Kyrieleis!_

Des ew'gen Vaters einig Kind Jetzt man in der Krippe find't, In unser armes Fleisch und Blut Verkleidet sich das ewig Gut.

_Kyrieleis!_ 73

Den aller Weltkreis nie beschloss, Der lieget in Marie'n Schoss; Er ist ein Kindlein worden klein, Der alle Ding' erhalt allein.

_Kyrieleis!_"[30]{31}

The first stanza alone is mediaeval, the remaining six of the hymn are Luther's.

The Christmas hymns of Paul Gerhardt, the seventeenth-century Berlin pastor, stand next to Luther's. They are more subjective, more finished, less direct and forcible. Lacking the finest qualities of poetry, they are nevertheless impressive by their dignity and heartiness. Made for music, the words alone hardly convey the full power of these hymns. They should be heard sung to the old chorales, ma.s.sive, yet sweet, by the l.u.s.ty voices of a German congregation. To English people they are probably best known through the verses introduced into the "Christmas Oratorio," where the old airs are given new beauty by Bach's marvellous harmonies. The tone of devotion, one feels, in Gerhardt and Bach is the same, immeasurably greater as is the genius of the composer; in both there is a profound joy in the Redemption begun by the Nativity, a robust faith joined to a deep sense of the mystery of suffering, and a keen sympathy with childhood, a tender fondness for the Infant King.

74 The finest perhaps of Gerhardt's hymns is the Advent "Wie soll ich dich empfangen?" ("How shall I fitly meet Thee?"), which comes early in the "Christmas Oratorio." More closely connected with the Nativity, however, are the _Weihnachtslieder_, "Wir singen dir, Emanuel," "O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein ist," "Frohlich soll mein Herze springen," "Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier," and others. I give a few verses from the third:--

"Frohlich soll mein Herze springen Dieser Zeit, Da fur Freud Alle Engel singen.

Hort, hort, wie mit vollen Ch.o.r.en Alle Luft Laute ruft: Christus ist geboren.

Nun, er liegt in seiner Krippen, Ruft zu sich Mich und dich, Spricht mit sussen Lippen: La.s.set fahrn, O lieben Bruder Was euch qualt, Was euch fehlt; Ich bring alles wieder.

Susses Heil, la.s.s dich umfangen; La.s.s mich dir, Meine Zier, Unverruckt anhangen.

Du bist meines Lebens Leben; Nun kann ich Mich durch dich Wohl zufrieden geben."[31]{33}

75 One more German Christmas hymn must be mentioned, Gerhard Tersteegen's "Jauchzet, ihr Himmel, frohlocket, ihr englischen Ch.o.r.e."

Tersteegen represents one phase of the mystical and emotional reaction against the religious formalism and indifference of the eighteenth century. In the Lutheran Church the Pietists, though they never seceded, somewhat resembled the English Methodists; the Moravians formed a separate community, while from the "Reformed" or Calvinistic Church certain circles of spiritually-minded people, who drew inspiration from the mediaeval mystics and later writers like Bohme and Madame Guyon, gathered into more or less independent groups for religious intercourse.

Of these last Tersteegen is a representative singer. Here are three verses from his best known Christmas hymn:--

"Jauchzet, ihr Himmel, frohlocket, ihr englischen Ch.o.r.e, Singet dem Herrn, dem Heiland der Menschen, zur Ehre: Sehet doch da!

Gott will so freundlich und nah Zu den Verlornen sich kehren. 76

Konig der Ehren, aus Liebe geworden zum Kinde, Dem ich auch wieder mein Herz in der Liebe verbinde; Du sollst es sein, Den ich erwahle allein, Ewig entsag' ich der Sunde.

Treuer Immanuel, werd' auch in mir neu geboren; Komm doch, mein Heiland, und la.s.s mich nicht langer verloren; Wohne in mir, Mach mich ganz eines mit dir, Den du zum Leben erkoren."[32]{35}

The note of personal religion, as distinguished from theological doctrine, is stronger in German Christmas poetry than in that of any other nation--the birth of Christ in the individual soul, not merely the redemption of man in general, is a central idea.

We come back at last to England. The great carol period is, as has already been said, the fifteenth, and the first half of the sixteenth, century; after the Reformation the English domestic Christmas largely loses its religious colouring, and the best carols of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are songs of 77 feasting and pagan ceremonies rather than of the Holy Child and His Mother. There is no lack of fine Christmas verse in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods, but for the most part it belongs to the oratory and the chamber rather than the hall. The Nativity has become a subject for private contemplation, for individual devotion, instead of, as in the later Middle Ages, a matter for common jubilation, a wonder-story that really happened, in which, all alike and all together, the serious and the frivolous could rejoice, something that, with all its marvel, could be taken as a matter of course, like the return of the seasons or the rising of the sun on the just and on the unjust.

English Christmas poetry after the mid-sixteenth century is, then, individual rather than communal in its spirit; it is also a thing less of the people, more of the refined and cultivated few. The Puritanism which so deeply affected English religion was abstract rather than dramatic in its conception of Christianity, it was concerned less with the events of the Saviour's life than with Redemption as a transaction between G.o.d and man; St. Paul and the Old Testament rather than the gospels were its inspiration. Moreover, the material was viewed not as penetrated by and revealing the spiritual, but as sheer impediment blocking out the vision of spiritual things. Hence the extremer Puritans were completely out of touch with the sensuous poetry of Christmas, a festival which, as we shall see, they actually suppressed when they came into power.

The singing of sacred carols by country people continued, indeed, but the creative artistic impulse was lost. True carols after the Reformation tend to be doggerel, and no doubt many of the traditional pieces printed in such collections as Bramley and Stainer's[33]{37} are debased survivals from the Middle Ages, or perhaps new words written for old tunes. Such carols as "G.o.d rest you merry, gentlemen," have unspeakably delightful airs, and the words charm us moderns by their quaintness and rusticity, but they are far from the exquisite loveliness of the mediaeval 78 things. Gleams of great beauty are, however, sometimes found amid matter that in the process of transmission has almost ceased to be poetry. Here, for instance, are five stanzas from the traditional "Cherry-tree Carol":--

"As Joseph was a-walking, He heard an angel sing: 'This night shall be born Our heavenly King.