Tuesday, December 27, 2005

A Christmas carol

by Hilaire Belloc

Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!
A catholic tale I have to tell:
And a Christian song I have to sing
While all the bells in Arundel ring.

I pray good beef and I pray good beer
This holy night of all the year,
But I pray detestable drink to them
That give no honour to Bethlehem.

May all good fellows that here agree
Drink Audit Ale in heaven with me,
And may all my enemies go to hell!
Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!
May all my enemies go to hell!
Noel! Noel!

* * *

A Bellocose approach to the Christmas season. I promised Meredith I'd get this online: it isn't available elsewhere, that I know of.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Bellocose," brilliant. Is that your coinage?

Sheila said...

No, Chesterton used it, at least, but it may have been used by other contemporaries too.

Unknown said...

This is from Belloc's The Four Men, which I have just finished. In the book (page 243), Grizzlebeard, upon hearing the poem, says that it is blasphemous and even heretical because "at Christmas we should in particular forgive our enemies." To which the Sailor replies: "I do. This song is about those that do not forgive me."