Tuesday, December 20, 2005
God Rest You Merry
I just want to take a moment and correct the grammar of a song that we have most likely long since lost the meaning of.
Frequently, we will see the title of this familiar Christmas carol as "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen," which compounds errors obscuring the original message. First of all, we tend to think of rest as a synonym for repose or relax. However, several centuries ago when this song was written, the word could also be used to mean "keep" or "cause to stay." Secondly, the word merry brings to mind something jolly and jovial, but in reality it originally meant "mighty" or "strong." Think Robin Hood's Merry Men...
Now on to the grammar. It should read, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen." It is not suggesting that God should provide respite for these gay (in the Shakespearean sense) gentlemen. No, it is saying in essence, "God Keep You Mighty." In fact, Shakespeare himself was familiar with this construct - employing it in As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet, along with "rest you fair" in The Merchant of Venice and "rest you happy" in Antony and Cleopatra.
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Frequently, we will see the title of this familiar Christmas carol as "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen," which compounds errors obscuring the original message. First of all, we tend to think of rest as a synonym for repose or relax. However, several centuries ago when this song was written, the word could also be used to mean "keep" or "cause to stay." Secondly, the word merry brings to mind something jolly and jovial, but in reality it originally meant "mighty" or "strong." Think Robin Hood's Merry Men...
Now on to the grammar. It should read, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen." It is not suggesting that God should provide respite for these gay (in the Shakespearean sense) gentlemen. No, it is saying in essence, "God Keep You Mighty." In fact, Shakespeare himself was familiar with this construct - employing it in As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet, along with "rest you fair" in The Merchant of Venice and "rest you happy" in Antony and Cleopatra.
Thus, the first error was in moving the comma. The second was in replacing the word "you" with the word "ye." Making the incorrect assumption that the "merry gentlemen" are the object of God's "rest," and perhaps (wrongly) thinking that "ye" was accusative, someone changed it from "you" to "ye". Wrong on two accounts, since the English language has never come to agree on nominative, accusative and dative for the second person singular pronoun. So now that you know what the song really means, you can sing with gusto this season:
God rest you merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;
To save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy;
O tidings of comfort and joy.
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