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Article ARRIVALS, SURVIVALS, AND REVIVALS. ← Page 2 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Arrivals, Survivals, And Revivals.
Christmas illustrates my title as being—and I speak it reverently—a perfect trinity : n arrival , a survival , and a revival . Yes , — " though our mortal summers to such length of years , may come , As the many-Avintered crow that leads the clanging rookery home , "—__ , always hail Christmas happily , heartily , gleefully , as an arrival . The jolly old boy is al fresh . He has taken no ill effects from the immense deal of nonsense that has
ways been talked about him . He has poked his goodly old head up through masses of over-• shehning gush . He has from time to time gone heavily to grass ; but has always contrived to come up smiling . Sometimes he has been surfeited , sometimes he has been starved . Poor old fellow , hehas had to steer his bark at one time a point or two to starboard to weather the Scylla Scrooge ; at another he has had to port hard , and SAving round by a hair ' s breadth to avoid being engulfed in the Oharybdis Fezzywig . But he has always
come up to time—see how conveniently I drop my nautical and resume my pugilistic metaphor when it suits me !—and his arrival has ever been g ladsome for the hearty , the honest , the genial , of all ages and years . Well now , is not this a survival also ? Think of the attacks made from time to time upon this ancient Institution . It has been proscribed by Act of Parliament ; it has been denounced by fanatics ; it has been derided by utilitarian philosophers . True , the veteran has
•—— " seen the rare times when the Christmas chimes , Were a merry , merry sound to hear , When the squire ' s wide hall and the cottage small Were filled with good English cheer "but he has beheld periods , too , when the occupants of the said halls and hovels had to do their Christmas spiriting very gingerly . There Avere days you know when Corporal Eght-the-battle-of-faith Dobbsand Sergeant Walk-in-the-ligbt Higginswould prowl
, , about the purlieus of Tudor mansion house and thatch-roofed homestead , Avith their squads of crop-eared musqueteers , eavesdropping if perchance the strains of " Cuckolds come dig , " or " The King shall enjoy his OAVH again , " should mingle Avith the notes of " God rest ye merry gentlemen , " or cheery " Green-sleeves and pudding pies . " Dreary clays , my masters , when the round-headed rulers of the furtive revellers did
" Fat pig and goose itself oppose , And blasphemed custards through the nose , " when they would " Quarrel with minced pies , and disparage Their best and dearest friend , plum porridge . " - Well , well , Father Christmas survived all that , and as for the jolly old fellow ' s revival '
when the King did enjoy his own again—when turkey ancl chine , and fat rump smoked once more on every " honest" felloAv ' s board , and the veriest churl of a sour-faced Roundhead dared not refuse to drink— -and on his marrow-bones too—confusion to old Bowley ' s enemies in a brimming bumper of the best—why has not that delirious bouleversemenfc been said and sung time and again ? It Avas the best of times—it was the Avorst of tunes—that time of the most happy ancl lorious Piestoration : buton the Avholethere
g , , , ja something not altogether Christmassy about tbe associations of that reactionary Saturnalia . The reek of the plum pudding copper in that revival mingles with an unpleasant savour , as of Ketch's quartering caldron , and the sound of the joy bells , clanging through the air from a thousand rocking steeples , is not without association Avith the shnk of the blacksmith ' s hammer , as he knocks off the fetters of Harrison , Axtell , and peters in the press yard of Newgate , ere they start on their last fatal " expedition , "
going up Holborn Hill in a cart" to seal Avith their blood " the good old cause " ' neath we triple beam at Tybum . But as Hamlet says " Something too much of this . " Turn Ave now to a period Avhen the „ , fenrour of political passion had to a great degree subsided , when , in even those old OAV and slow " days of the national church establishment , 'twas still " merry in hall "hen beards wagged all at the hallowed season " Wherein our Saviour ' s birth is celebrated . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Arrivals, Survivals, And Revivals.
Christmas illustrates my title as being—and I speak it reverently—a perfect trinity : n arrival , a survival , and a revival . Yes , — " though our mortal summers to such length of years , may come , As the many-Avintered crow that leads the clanging rookery home , "—__ , always hail Christmas happily , heartily , gleefully , as an arrival . The jolly old boy is al fresh . He has taken no ill effects from the immense deal of nonsense that has
ways been talked about him . He has poked his goodly old head up through masses of over-• shehning gush . He has from time to time gone heavily to grass ; but has always contrived to come up smiling . Sometimes he has been surfeited , sometimes he has been starved . Poor old fellow , hehas had to steer his bark at one time a point or two to starboard to weather the Scylla Scrooge ; at another he has had to port hard , and SAving round by a hair ' s breadth to avoid being engulfed in the Oharybdis Fezzywig . But he has always
come up to time—see how conveniently I drop my nautical and resume my pugilistic metaphor when it suits me !—and his arrival has ever been g ladsome for the hearty , the honest , the genial , of all ages and years . Well now , is not this a survival also ? Think of the attacks made from time to time upon this ancient Institution . It has been proscribed by Act of Parliament ; it has been denounced by fanatics ; it has been derided by utilitarian philosophers . True , the veteran has
•—— " seen the rare times when the Christmas chimes , Were a merry , merry sound to hear , When the squire ' s wide hall and the cottage small Were filled with good English cheer "but he has beheld periods , too , when the occupants of the said halls and hovels had to do their Christmas spiriting very gingerly . There Avere days you know when Corporal Eght-the-battle-of-faith Dobbsand Sergeant Walk-in-the-ligbt Higginswould prowl
, , about the purlieus of Tudor mansion house and thatch-roofed homestead , Avith their squads of crop-eared musqueteers , eavesdropping if perchance the strains of " Cuckolds come dig , " or " The King shall enjoy his OAVH again , " should mingle Avith the notes of " God rest ye merry gentlemen , " or cheery " Green-sleeves and pudding pies . " Dreary clays , my masters , when the round-headed rulers of the furtive revellers did
" Fat pig and goose itself oppose , And blasphemed custards through the nose , " when they would " Quarrel with minced pies , and disparage Their best and dearest friend , plum porridge . " - Well , well , Father Christmas survived all that , and as for the jolly old fellow ' s revival '
when the King did enjoy his own again—when turkey ancl chine , and fat rump smoked once more on every " honest" felloAv ' s board , and the veriest churl of a sour-faced Roundhead dared not refuse to drink— -and on his marrow-bones too—confusion to old Bowley ' s enemies in a brimming bumper of the best—why has not that delirious bouleversemenfc been said and sung time and again ? It Avas the best of times—it was the Avorst of tunes—that time of the most happy ancl lorious Piestoration : buton the Avholethere
g , , , ja something not altogether Christmassy about tbe associations of that reactionary Saturnalia . The reek of the plum pudding copper in that revival mingles with an unpleasant savour , as of Ketch's quartering caldron , and the sound of the joy bells , clanging through the air from a thousand rocking steeples , is not without association Avith the shnk of the blacksmith ' s hammer , as he knocks off the fetters of Harrison , Axtell , and peters in the press yard of Newgate , ere they start on their last fatal " expedition , "
going up Holborn Hill in a cart" to seal Avith their blood " the good old cause " ' neath we triple beam at Tybum . But as Hamlet says " Something too much of this . " Turn Ave now to a period Avhen the „ , fenrour of political passion had to a great degree subsided , when , in even those old OAV and slow " days of the national church establishment , 'twas still " merry in hall "hen beards wagged all at the hallowed season " Wherein our Saviour ' s birth is celebrated . "