Wassailer’s Song

Summary


Wassailer's Song is a boisterous Christmas wassailing poem that captures the spirit of the old English tradition of going door to door singing for drink and good cheer. Revellers toast the household's horse, mare, and cow, wishing the master and mistress a happy new year and a fine Christmas pie. They call to the maids to open the door and demand the butler bring his very best bowl — or face a comic curse if he dares offer anything less.

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Wassail! wassail! all over the town,
Our toast it is white, and our ale it is brown;
Our bowl is made of a maplin tree;
We be good fellows all; — I drink to thee.

Here’s to our horse, and to his right ear,
God send master a happy new year;
A happy new year as e’er he did see, —
With my wassailing bowl I drink to thee.

Wassailers holding a wooden bowl at a farmhouse door on a winter night, illustrating Wassailer's Song

Here’s to our mare, and to her right eye,
God send our mistress a good Christmas pie;
A good Christmas pie as e’er I did see, —
With my wassailing bowl I drink to thee.

Here’s to our cow, and to her long tail,
God send our master us never may fail
Of a cup of good beer: I pray you draw near,
And our jolly wassail it’s then you shall hear.

Be here any maids? I suppose here be some;
Sure they will not let young men stand on the cold stone!
Sing hey O, maids! come trole back the pin,
And the fairest maid in the house let us all in.

Come, butler, come, bring us a bowl of the best;
I hope your soul in heaven will rest;
But if you do bring us a bowl of the small,
Then down fall butler, and bowl and all.

Credits

Robert Southwell SJ was a late 16th-century English Jesuit priest and poet, celebrated for verse that often wove Catholic devotion with vivid, accessible imagery. This particular song belongs to the festive wassailing tradition, in which singers visited neighbours at Christmas and New Year to exchange toasts and blessings for the household and its animals.