![]() We may get it wrong, but it's been part of Christmas tradition since 1760, and it's not going to change now. It was a reasonable assumption that the people being addressed weren't just gentlemen but merry gentlemen. This wasn't until 1760, in a broadsheet and again around 1780 in the collection Three New Carols for Christmas:īy the late 18th century the Tudor expression 'God rest ye merry' had long since fallen out of use. ![]() The confusion arose when the carol was first published. The proper placing of the comma is 'God rest ye merry, gentlemen'. So, how did the original meaning come to be changed? It's all about a comma. ![]() 'God Rest You Merry Gentlemen' in Our American Holidays - Christmas (ed.) by Robert Haven Schauffler (1949). "God rest you, merry gentlemen" - people have been getting it wrong since 1760. 'God Bless you, Merry Gentlemen' in English Folk-Carols, (ed.) by Cecil James Sharp (1911). "Gentlemen, may God keep you in a pleasant state." 2:193, 194 Godly Books, 1:274 God of His Fathers, The (London), 2:472 Go Down, Moses (Faulkner), 1:59, 2:7 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Walcott). What the carol's writers had in mind was: "Merry Gentlemen - let God grant you repose." What many people now understand by the expression is: 'Merry' meant 'pleasant harmonious happy'. The meaning of 'rest' was then 'keep cause to continue'. To grasp the meaning of 'God rest you merry' as understood by the Tudors we need to take the expression apart. Versions of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen include: 'God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen' in Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern, (ed. And, sorry ladies, in Tudor England you didn't often get a mention. The carol was notably referenced in Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol (1843). The carol God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen was probably written in the Tudor era, but it wasn't printed until 1760. Most people misunderstand the meaning of this title. Good felow god you saue, or o louynge frende god rest you mery. The first time that 'God rest you merry' was put into print was also from a Latin translation, this time Nicholas Udall's Floures for Latine Spekynge gathered oute of Terence: 'Rest ye merry' was used as early as 1300, in Old English, in the popular romantic tale Floris and Blauncheflur.Ī more readable version is found in the Latin dictionary Bibliotheca Eliotae, edited and published by the English Bishop Thomas Cooper in 1548:īee thou gladde: or joyfull, as the vulgare people saie Reste you mery. What's the origin of the phrase 'God rest you merry gentlemen'?Īpart from being the title of a carol, the expression 'God rest you merry gentlemen' is notable for being almost universally misunderstood.Ī clue to a proper reading of the line is that the phrases 'rest ye merry' and 'God rest ye merry' were commonplace expressions of goodwill in Medieval England. The expression is no longer used other than as the title and first line of the popular Christmas Carol. New video from Gordon Goodwin’s Little Phat Band God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen from their new Christmas EP Joyful. 'God rest you (or ye) merry gentlemen' means 'Gentlemen, may god keep you in harmony and happiness'. Gordon Goodwin - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - YouTube. Its beginning to look a lot like christmas. ![]()
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