Beginning in the late 15th century, this anonymous wassail or “good health” carol traveled with minstrel troupes all over England. It occurs in multiple period manuscripts and, not surprisingly, given the inevitability of variations in a song learned by ear and performed from memory, in multiple versions.

Mostly associated with Twelfth Night revelry, wassailing is a tradition with a long and rowdy history, alleged to date as far back as A.D. 400, though nobody actually mentions it in writing until the twelfth century.  In some areas of England, “wassailing of trees,” to ensure an abundant apple crop in the coming year, endured into the nineteenth century, at least, and involved alternately singing to the trees, beating them with sticks, and pelting them with roasted apples. Whatever the local wassailing tradition, drinking and singing generally accompanied it.

English folk singers of the 1960s and 1970s, notably Shirley Collins and Maddy Prior, have revived this particular wassail carol in their own arrangements. While the song’s refrain insists on good ale and nothing else, its verses, in tetrameter rhyming couplets, hint at the potential lavishness of the medieval English holiday menu with all its choices. In the world of this carol, at least, there is no famine. These singers are well fed enough to say no thank you to brown bread and white, to beef, bacon, mutton, tripe, eggs, venison, capon, and duck. They turn down even the offer of puddings, in favor of another round of ale.  

Bring Us in Good Ale 
by Anonymous 

Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no brown bread, for that is made of bran, 
And bring us in no white bread, there therein is no game. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no beef, for there is many bones, 
But bring us in good ale, for that goes down at once. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no bacon, for that is passing fat, 
But bring us in good ale, and give us enough of that. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no mutton, for that is often lean, 
Nor bring us in no tripes, for they be seldom clean. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no eggs, for there are many shells, 
But bring us in good ale, and give us nothing else. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no butter, for therein are many hairs; 
Nor bring us in no pig’s flesh, for that will make us boars. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no puddings, for therein is all God’s good; 
Nor bring us in no venison, for that is not for our blood. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 
 
Bring us in no capon’s flesh, for that is often dear; 
Nor bring us in no duck’s flesh, for they slobber in the mere. 
 
Bring us in good ale, good ale, bring us in good ale; 
For our Blessed Lady’s sake, bring us in good ale. 

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With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of the North Carolina poet Sally Thomas, the Sun’s associate poetry editor. Tied to the day, or the season, or just individual taste, the poems will be typically drawn from the lesser-known portion of the history of English verse. In the coming months we will be reaching out to contemporary poets for examples of current, primarily formalist work, to show that poetry can still serve as a delight to the ear, an instruction to the mind, and a tonic for the soul.