Unknown writer

Make Me Merry Both More and Less

Summary


"Make Me Merry Both More and Less" is a boisterous medieval Christmas poem that captures the rowdy spirit of a great hall celebration. Every guest who enters must bring a song or some other sport to entertain the feast — or face a humorous punishment in the stocks. With its rollicking refrain "For now is the time of Christmas," the poem pulses with communal joy, seasonal obligation, and the gleeful threat that laziness will not be tolerated at Yuletide.

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Make me merry both more and less,
For now is the time of Christymas!

Let no man come into this hall,
Groom, page, not yet marshall,
But that some sport he bring withal!
For now is the time of Christmas!

A medieval man singing at a Christmas feast in a candlelit hall, illustrating Make Me Merry Both More and Less.

If that he say, he cannot 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 naught do,
Then for my love ask him no mo!
But to the stocks then let him go!
For now is the time of Christmas!

Credits

Unknown writer composed this poem during the medieval period in England, likely as a festive hall song performed during Christmas celebrations. It belongs to a tradition of Middle English carols that combined religious joy with rowdy communal entertainment, and its repeated refrain suggests it was sung aloud by a group rather than read quietly alone.
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