======================================================================
= Good King Wenceslas =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
"Good King Wenceslas" (Roud number 24754) is a Christmas carol that
tells a story of a tenth century Bohemian king (modern-day Czech
Republic) who goes on a journey, braving harsh winter weather, to give
alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen. The Feast of Stephen
is December 26, the Second Day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
In Eastern Christianity, it is December 27. During Wenceslas's time,
the Julian Calendar was in use. During the 900s, the day that they
called December 26 was actually December 31 according to the Gregorian
Calendar (the current calendar). And the day that they called December
27 was January 1.
During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against
the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's
footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. The legend is based
on the life of the Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (907-935), who
was not a king in his lifetime but had that status conferred on him
after his death.
In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote the lyrics in
collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore to fit the melody
of the 13th-century spring carol "Tempus adest floridum" ("Eastertime
Is Come"), which they had found in the 1582 Finnish song collection
'Piae Cantiones'. The carol first appeared in 'Carols for
Christmas-Tide', published by Novello & Co the same year.
Source legend
======================================================================
Wenceslas was considered a martyr and a saint immediately after his
death in the 10th century, when a cult of Wenceslas rose up in Bohemia
and in England. Within a few decades of Wenceslas's death, four
biographies of him were in circulation. These hagiographies had a
powerful influence on the High Middle Ages conceptualization of the
'rex iustus', or "righteous king"—that is, a monarch whose power stems
mainly from his great piety, as well as from his princely vigor.
Referring approvingly to these hagiographies, a preacher from the 12th
century wrote:
Several centuries later the legend was claimed as fact by Pope Pius
II, who himself also walked ten miles barefoot in the ice and snow as
an act of pious thanksgiving.
Although Wenceslas was, during his lifetime, only a duke, Holy Roman
Emperor Otto I (962-973) posthumously "conferred on [Wenceslas] the
regal dignity and title" and that is why, in the legend and song, he
is referred to as a "king". The usual English spelling of Duke
Wenceslas's name, 'Wenceslaus', is occasionally encountered in later
textual variants of the carol, although it was not used by Neale in
his version. Wenceslas is not to be confused with King Wenceslaus I of
Bohemia (Wenceslaus I Premyslid), who lived more than three centuries
later.
A statue of Saint Wenceslas on horseback can be found at the Wenceslas
Square, in Prague.
Tempus adest floridum
=======================
The tune is that of "Tempus adest floridum" ("Eastertime has come"), a
13th-century spring carol in 76 76 Doubled Trochaic metre, first
published in the Finnish song book 'Piae Cantiones' in 1582. 'Piae
Cantiones' is a collection of seventy-four songs compiled by Jacobus
Finno, the Protestant headmaster of Turku Cathedral School, and
published by Theodoric Petri, a young Catholic printer. The book is a
unique document of European songs intended not only for use in church,
but also schools, thus making the collection a unique record of the
late medieval period.
A text beginning substantially the same as the 1582 "Piae" version is
also found in the German manuscript collection 'Carmina Burana' as 'CB
142', where it is substantially more carnal; 'CB 142' has clerics and
virgins playing the "game of Venus" (goddess of love) in the meadows,
while in the 'Piae' version they are praising the Lord from the bottom
of their hearts. The tune has also been used for the Christmas hymn
'Mary Gently Laid Her Child', by Joseph S. Cook (1859-1933); GIA
Publications's hymnal 'Worship' uses "Tempus Adest Floridum" only for
Cook's hymn.
Neale's carol
===============
In 1853, English hymnwriter John Mason Neale wrote the "Wenceslas"
lyric, in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore, and the
carol first appeared in 'Carols for Christmas-Tide', published by
Novello & Co the same year.
The text of Neale's carol bears no relation to the words of "Tempus
Adest Floridum". In or around 1853, G. J. R. Gordon, the British envoy
and minister in Stockholm, gave a rare copy of the 1582 edition of
'Piae Cantiones' to Neale, who was Warden of Sackville College, East
Grinstead, Sussex and to the Reverend Thomas Helmore (Vice-Principal
of St. Mark's College, Chelsea).
The book was entirely unknown in England at that time. As a member of
the Tractarian Oxford Movement, Neale was interested in restoring
Catholic ceremony, saints days, and music back into the Anglican
church. The gift from G. J. R. Gordon gave him the opportunity to use
medieval Catholic melodies for Anglican hymn writing.
In 1849 he had published 'Deeds of Faith: Stories for Children from
Church History' which recounted legends from Christian tradition in
Romantic prose. One of the chapters told the legend of St Wenceslas
and his footsteps melting the snow for his page:
:"My liege," he said, "I cannot go on. The wind freezes my very blood.
Pray you, let us return."
"Seems it so much?" asked the King. "Was not His journey from Heaven a
wearier and a colder way than this?"
:Otto answered not.
"Follow me on still," said S. Wenceslaus. "Only tread in my footsteps,
and you will proceed more easily."
:The servant knew that his master spoke not at random. He carefully
looked for the footsteps of the King: he set his own feet in the print
of his lord's feet.
For his 1853 publication 'Carols for Christmas-tide', he adapted his
earlier prose story into a poem, and together with the music editor
Thomas Helmore added the words to the melody in 'Piae Cantiones',
adding a reference to Saint Stephen's Day (26 December), making it
suitable for performance on that Saint's Day.
The hymn's lyrics take the form of five eight-line stanzas in
four-stress lines. Each stanza has an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme. Lines 1,
3, 5, and 7 end in single-syllable (so-called masculine) rhymes, and
lines 2, 4, 6, and 8 with two-syllable ("feminine") rhymes. (In the
English tradition, two-syllable rhymes are generally associated with
light or comic verse, which may be part of the reason some critics
have demeaned Neale's lyrics as "doggerel".)
In the music the two-syllable rhymes in lines 2, 4, and 6 (e.g.
"Stephen/even", "cruel/fuel") are set to two half-notes (British
"minims"), but the final rhyme of each stanza (line 8) is spread over
two full measures, the first syllable as two half-notes and the second
as a whole note ("semi-breve")—so "fuel" is set as "fu-" with two
half-notes and "-el" with a whole-note. Thus, unusually, the final
musical line differs from all the others in having not two but three
measures of 4/4 time.
Some academics are critical of Neale's textual substitution. H. J. L.
J. Massé wrote in 1921:
Why, for instance, do we tolerate such impositions as "Good King
Wenceslas?" The original was and is an Easter Hymn...it is marked in
carol books as "traditional", a delightful word which often conceals
ignorance. There is nothing traditional in it as a carol.
A similar sentiment is expressed by the editors (Percy Dearmer, Martin
Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams) in the 1928 'Oxford Book of Carols',
which is even more critical of Neale's carol:
This rather confused narrative owes its popularity to the delightful
tune, which is that of a Spring carol. . . . Unfortunately Neale in
1853 substituted for the Spring carol this 'Good King Wenceslas', one
of his less happy pieces, which E. Duncan goes so far as to call
"doggerel", and Bullen condemns as "poor and commonplace to the last
degree". The time has not yet come for a comprehensive book to discard
it; but we reprint the tune in its proper setting . . . not without
hope that, with the present wealth of carols for Christmas, 'Good King
Wenceslas' may gradually pass into disuse, and the tune be restored to
spring-time.
Elizabeth Poston, in the 'Penguin Book of Christmas Carols', refers to
the song as the "product of an unnatural marriage between Victorian
whimsy and the thirteenth-century dance carol". She goes on to say
that Neale's "ponderous moral doggerel" does not fit the lighthearted
dance measure of the original tune, and that if performed in the
correct manner it "sounds ridiculous to pseudo-religious words". A
similar development has occurred with the song "O Christmas Tree," the
tune of which has been used for "Maryland, My Maryland," "The Red
Flag," and other unrelated songs.
By contrast, Brian Scott, quoting from 'The Oxford Book of Carols' its
criticism and hope that the carol would "pass into disuse", argues:
"Thankfully, they were wrong", for the carol "still reminds us that
the giving spirit of Christmas should not happen just on that day. . .
.." Jeremy Summerly and Nicolas Bell of the British Museum also
strongly rebut Dearmer's 20th century criticism, noting: "it could
have been awful, but it isn't, it's magical . . . you remember it
because the verse just works".
Textual comparison
======================================================================
!|Neale's "Good King Wenceslas" (1853) !|"Tempus adest floridum"
('Piae Cantiones', PC 74) !|English translation of PC 74 by Percy
Dearmer (1867-1936) !|"Tempus adest floridum" ('Carmina Burana', CB
142) !|English translation of CB 142 by John Addington Symonds (1884)
Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen, When the
snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even; Brightly shone the
moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel, When a poor man came in
sight, gath'ring winter fuel. Tempus adest floridum, surgunt namque
flores Vernales in omnibus, imitantur mores Hoc quod frigus laeserat,
reparant calores Cernimus hoc fieri, per multos labores. Spring has
now unwrapped the flowers, the day is fast reviving, Life in all her
growing powers towards the light is striving: Gone the iron touch of
cold, winter time and frost time, Seedlings, working through the
mould, now make up for lost time. Tempus adest floridum, surgunt
namque flores vernales mox; in omnibus immutantur mores. Hoc, quod
frigus laeserat, reparant calores; Cernimus hoc fieri per multos
colores. Now comes the time of flowers, and the blossoms appear; now
in all things comes the transformation of Spring. What the cold
harmed, the warmth repairs, as we see by all these colours.
"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling, Yonder
peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?" "Sire, he lives a
good league hence, underneath the mountain; Right against the forest
fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain." Sunt prata plena floribus, iucunda
aspectu Ubi iuvat cernere, herbas cum delectu Gramina et plantae
hyeme quiescunt Vernali in tempore virent et accrescunt. Herb and
plant that, winter long, slumbered at their leisure, Now bestirring,
green and strong, find in growth their pleasure; All the world with
beauty fills, gold the green enhancing, Flowers make glee among the
hills, set the meadows dancing Stant prata plena floribus, in quibus
nos ludamus! Virgines cum clericis simul procedamus, Per amorem
Veneris ludum faciamus, ceteris virginibus ut hoc referamus! The
fields in which we play are full of flowers. Maidens and clerics,
let us go out together, let us play for the love of Venus, that we
may teach the other maidens.
"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither: Thou
and I shall see him dine, when we bear them thither." Page and
monarch, forth they went, forth they went together; Through the rude
wind's wild lament and the bitter weather. Haec vobis pulchre
monstrant Deum creatorem Quem quoque nos credimus omnium factorem O
tempus ergo hilare, quo laetari libet Renovato nam mundo, nos novari
decet. Through each wonder of fair days God Himself expresses; Beauty
follows all His ways, as the world He blesses: So, as He renews the
earth, Artist without rival, In His grace of glad new birth we must
seek revival. "O dilecta domina, cur sic alienaris? An nescis, o
carissima, quod sic adamaris? Si tu esses Helena, vellem esse Paris!
Tamen potest fieri noster amor talis." "O my chosen one, why dost
thou shun me? Dost thou not know, dearest, how much thou art loved?
If thou wert Helen, I would be Paris. So great is our love that it
can be so."
"Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger; Fails
my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer." "Mark my footsteps,
good my page; Tread thou in them boldly: Thou shalt find the winter's
rage Freeze thy blood less coldly." Terra ornatur floribus et multo
decore Nos honestis moribus et vero amore Gaudeamus igitur tempore
iucundo Laudemusque Dominum pectoris ex fundo. Earth puts on her
dress of glee; flowers and grasses hide her; We go forth in charity—
brothers all beside her; For, as man this glory sees in th'awakening
season, Reason learns the heart's decrees, hearts are led by reason
In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted; Heat was
in the very sod which the saint had printed. Therefore, Christian
men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing, Ye who now will bless the
poor, shall yourselves find blessing.
Other versions
======================================================================
* William Lloyd Webber included "Good King Wenceslas" as one of his
'Songs without Words'.
* Bing Crosby first covered the song on his 1949 album 'Christmas
Greetings', and later with Ella Fitzgerald.
* 'The Beatles' Christmas Record' (1963) featured several renditions
of the carol.
* In 1984, Mannheim Steamroller recorded an electronic synthesizer
arrangement of the carol for their first Christmas album.
* R.E.M. recorded a version of the song for their 'Christmas '89'
holiday single.
* The song's tune was re-worked by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on
their track "Christmas Jazz", from their 2004 CD 'The Lost Christmas
Eve'.
* It was covered by English folk duo Blackmore's Night on their 2006
album 'Winter Carols'.
* It was covered by Canadian Celtic singer Loreena McKennitt on her
1995 EP 'A Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season', and reissued on
her 2008 album 'A Midwinter Night's Dream'.
* In 2013, The Piano Guys made a piano-cello instrumental cover of
this song for 'A Family Christmas', their Christmas studio album.
* Mel Tormé covered the song on his 1992 'Christmas Songs' album.
* The Count Basie Orchestra recorded a Sammy Nestico Big Band
Arrangement of the song, re-named to 'Good Swing Venceslas', on their
2015 Album 'A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas'.
* Child Bite covered the song in their 2018 anthology Burnt Offerings.
* Tenth Avenue North opened their 2017 Christmas album, 'Decade The
Halls', with the song, setting it to 1920s era music.
* Rob Halford, vocalist of metal band Judas Priest, covered the song
on his 2019 Christmas album, 'Celestial'.
* The song is included on 'We Three Kings (The Roches album),' the
sixth studio album by the folk trio The Roches, released in 1990 on
MCA Records.
* The song is included in Relient K's Christmas Album 'Let It Snow,
Baby... Let It Reindeer' under the title, "Good King Wenceslas"
* Millennial Choirs and Orchestras included "Good King Wenceslas" in
their 2020 album 'Star of Wonder'.
In popular culture
======================================================================
* Walt Kelly's 'Pogo' cartoon strip spoofs the song as "Good King
Sauerkraut" and "Good King Winkelhoff".
*In the film 'Love Actually', Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) sings
the carol at the home of three small girls to explain his presence
there while he is knocking on doors randomly searching for his love
interest.
*In the British show 'Miranda', Penny plays the song on the piano with
altered lyrics.
*In the Scottish film 'Filth', Dr Rossi sings the song with altered
lyrics.
*Two 'Doctor Who' episodes have referenced the song. In the first
episode of the 1975 series "Genesis of the Daleks", the Doctor and his
companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry find themselves in the middle of
a minefield on the Dalek home planet Skaro. The Doctor turns to them
and says, "Follow me and tread in my footsteps." Sarah Jane looks at
Harry and remarks, "Good King Wenceslas." In the 2007 Christmas
special entitled "Voyage of the Damned", an alien tour guide on board
an alien spaceship replica of the 'Titanic' mistakenly believes that
Good King Wenceslas is the current monarch of the United Kingdom while
explaining Earth's history.
*In the television special 'A Muppet Family Christmas', Gonzo sings
this song.
*In the movie 'The Muppet Christmas Carol', Bean Bunny sings this song
to Scrooge. An instrumental rendition of the song is also played
during the opening credits.
*In the 1987 film 'Dragnet', LAPD Detective 'Pep Streebeck' closes his
eyes and starts singing this song during a high-speed chase when told
to "think about Christmas" by his partner, Detective Joe Friday.
*In Telltale's story driven videogame 'The Walking Dead: Season Two'
the character Sarita sings the carol in the second episode titled "A
House Divided". Sarita talks about the meaning of the song with a
young girl named Sarah as they decorate a massive christmas tree in
the ski lodge.
*In the Discworld book 'Hogfather', the carol is slightly 'twisted'
during a scene when Death, while acting as the Hogfather, encounters a
king trying to give a beggar his feast as an act of charity, even
though the beggar keeps protesting that he doesn't actually want any
of the king's rich food. Death criticizes the king's actions as simply
wanting to be praised on Hogswatch night as he has never shown any
concern for the beggar before nor will so in the future. Having forced
the king out, Death leaves the beggar with a smaller meal of plainer
food that is nevertheless more to the beggar's tastes.
*Buford and Baljeet sing this song with altered lyrics in 'A Phineas
and Ferb Family Christmas'.
*The song is begun by guests of 'The Simpsons' in "White Christmas
Blues". Marge, who doesn't like second verses of Christmas carols,
remarks this one creeps her out from the beginning and leaves the room
to listen to a blender.
*In the 1983 movie, 'A Christmas Story', the song is played by the
Salvation Army Band outside of Higbee's Department Store.
*In 'The Polar Express', the song is played briefly in one scene where
the Polar Express passes the Herpolsheimer's store and in another
scene, where the hobo sings it while playing the hurdy-gurdy.
*The setting of Gene Wolfe's novel 'The Devil in a Forest' is based on
the second verse of the carol, which is given as the epigraph to the
book.
*The 1987 BBC radio play 'Crisp and Even Brightly,' by Alick Rowe, is
a comedic re-telling of the story in the carol, starring Timothy West
as Wenceslas, and featuring a page called Mark and other characters
not found in the carol.
*On the 'Will & Grace' season 6 episode "All About Christmas Eve",
Karen sings the song with both Jack and Will to a bellman at her suite
at the Palace Hotel.
*On the 'Big Bang Theory' episode "The Santa Simulation", Sheldon
sings the song while playing 'Dungeons & Dragons' with Leonard,
Howard and Stuart, so that his character in the game can avoid danger.
Sheldon insists on singing the entire song, even though he only needs
to sing the first verse to complete his task.
*In a blooper reel of the fourth season of TV series 'Game of
Thrones', Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) and Nicolaj Coster-Waldau
(Jaime Lannister) start singing and dancing to the carol when entering
the throne room during Tyrion's trial.
*In an episode of 'The Colbert Report', Colbert sings the song with
Michael Stipe and Mandy Patinkin.
*In the 'Porridge' Christmas Special, "No Way Out", Norman Stanley
Fletcher and his fellow inmates sing the carol - until they are hushed
by Mr. Mackay. In place of "When a poor man came in sight gathering
winter fuel" comes: "When a Scotsman came in sight hollerin'...".
*Comedian John Finnemore wrote a sketch for his 'Souvenir Programme'
based on the carol, in which the poor man criticises King Wenceslas
for bringing unnecessary fuel and flesh, and for making his page carry
them in the cold weather.
*In an episode of 'Hogan's Heroes', several of the POWs loudly and
repeatedly rehearse the song in order to distract the guards from the
covert activities of the rest of the team.
*At the ironic ending of Frederik Pohl's science fiction novel 'Jem',
human colonists on a faraway planet developed the habit of celebrating
Christmas by taking off their clothes and engaging in a wild orgy,
their copulations accompanied by a chorus of the planet's enslaved
indigenous beings singing "Good King Wenceslas", whose Christian
significance was long forgotten.
*The song was parodied by the British children's television programme,
'Horrible Histories'. In this version, carol singers attempt to give a
more historically accurate portrayal of the king, including a line
about his murder.
*The song is parodied by Peter Schickele (aka P. D. Q. Bach) as 'Good
King Kong', though the melody quickly diverges from the original.
*The Song Is Parodied By Butthole Surfers as "Good King Wencenslaus"
on their Single with the same name.
See also
======================================================================
* List of Christmas carols
Literature
======================================================================
* Scott, Brian (2015). 'But Do You Recall? 25 Days of Christmas Carols
and the Stories Behind Them', Anderson,
External links
======================================================================
* Free arrangements for
[http://cantorion.org/music/10/Good+King+Wenceslas piano] and
[http://cantorion.org/music/53/Good+King+Wenceslas voice] from
'Cantorion. org'
* Gumpoldus Mantuanus Episcopus [0967-0985]:
[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0967-0985__Gumpoldus_Mantuanus_Episcopus__Vita_Vencezlavi_Ducis_Bohemiae__MLT.pdf.html
Vita Vencezlavi Ducis Bohemiae]. 'The Life of King Wenceslas' Latin
text by Migne Patrologia Latina, Vol. 135, col. 0919 - 0942C.
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Wenceslas