minstrel: carol lyric double meanings

[Lisa and Ken Theriot]

Toni wrote:

[Hello, I'm interested in finding out what some of the
words to Somerset Wassail really mean.  I've been told
they either have a political or salacious meaning.]

Not according to Cecil Sharp, who is usually given as the "collector" of
this one.  He says:

	"The old custom of wassail singing still survives in many parts
of England, though it is fast dying out.  The ceremony is performed on
January 5, i.e., the eve of Epiphany.  It is of Saxon origin, the word
"wassail" (accent on the last syllable) meaning "be of good health,"
from A.-S. <wes>'be', and <hal>'whole' or 'hale'.  The cup "made of the
good old ashen tree" takes us back to the period when all common
domestic vessels were of wood.  In early times there was an
ecclesiastical edict against the use of wooden vessels for the Holy
Communion.
	Sir James Ramsay, in his _Foundations of England_(volume ii),
quotes an old Saxon "toasting-cry" from Wace, the Anglo-Norman poet
(d.1180).  The Chronicler says that the following lines were sung in the
English camp on the eve of the Battle of Hastings:

Bublie crient e/ weissel,
E laticome e/ drencheheil
Drinc Hindrewart e/ Drintome
Drinc Helf, e/ drink tome.

This, according to Sir James Ramsay, may be translated thus:

Rejoice and wassail,
Let it come (pass the bottle) and drink health
Drink backwards and drink to me
Drink half and drink empty.

For other versions, see "Somersetshire Wassail" (_A Garland of Country
Song_, no. 20), _Sussex Songs_(no.3) and _The Besom Maker_(p.9).  For a
Gloucestershire version, see _English Folk Carols_(no.21)."


Though there are many folk songs with double meanings, I think most of
the wassailing songs are just a bunch of the lads looking for some free
food and drink, often suggesting that the listeners are better off
financially than the poor singers ("O Maid, with your silver-headed pin"
contrasted with the singers' wooden bowls).  The Gloucestershire version
works its way through blessing the farm animals ("Dobbin" for example,
is a generic English name for a horse like we might use "Fido" for a
dog), wishing the master prosperity, followed loudly by the suggestion
that he share such prosperity with the singers.  I think you can take
the words pretty much at face value, but if you'd rather, I can make
something up...


Adelaide