Drive the cold winter away/In Praise of Christmas
IAll hail to the days that merit more praiseThan all the rest of the year,And welcome the nights that double delightsAs well for the poor as the peer!Good fortune attend each merry man’s friend,That doth but the best that he may;Forgetting old wrongs, with carols and songs,To drive the cold winter away.II‘Tis ill for a mind to anger inclinedTo think of small injuries now;If wrath be to seek do not lend her thy cheekNor let her inhabit thy brow.Cross out of thy books malevolent looks,Both beauty and youth’s decay,And wholly consort with mirth and with sportTo drive the cold winter away.IIIThis time of the year is spent in good cheer,And neighbours together do meetTo sit by the fire, with friendly desire,Each other in love to greet;Old grudges forgot are put in the pot,All sorrows aside they lay;The old and the young doth carol this songTo drive the cold winter away.IVWhen Christmas’s tide come in like a brideWith holly and ivy clad,Twelve days in the year much mirth and good cheerIn every household is had;The country guise is then to deviseSome gambols of Christmas play,Whereat the young men do best that they canTo drive the cold winter away.