Cecil Sharp's Note 92 (1916)

No. 92. Wassail Song

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 hāl=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 é weissel,
⁠E laticome é drencheheil
⁠Drinc Hindrewart é Drintome
⁠Drinc Helf, é drinc 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).

The strong tune in the text is in the Dorian mode.