To drive the cold winter away
All hail to the days that merit more praise
Than all the rest of the year
And welcome the nights that double delights
As well for poor as for peer
Good fortune attend each merry man’s friend
That doth but the best that he may
Forgetting old wrongs in carols and songs
To drive the cold winter away
This time of the year is spent in good cheer
Kind neighbours together meet
To sit by the fire with friendly desire
Each other in love to greet
Old grudges forgot are put in the pot
All sorrows aside they lay
The old and the young doth carroll his song
To drive the cold winter away
When Christmas tide comes in like a bride
With holly and ivy clad
Twelvedays of the year much mirth and good cheer
In ev’ry household is had
The country guise is then to devise
Some gambol of Christmas play
Whereas the young men do best that they can
To drive the cold winter away
Whereas the young men do best that they can
To drive the cold winter away
All hail to the days that merit more praise
Than all the days of the year
And welcome the nights of double delights
As well for poor as for peer
When the king come home in peace again
Though for a time you saw Whitehall
with cobwebs hanging on the wall,
Instead of silk and silver brave,
As formerly it used to have;
In ev’ry room the sweet perfume
Delightful for a princely train
The which you may see when the time it shall be
That the king comes home in peace again
Full forty years the royal crown
Hath been his father’s and his own;
And is there any more than he
Hath right unto that sovereignty
Then who better may the sceptre sway,
Than he that hath such right to reign?
The hopes for our peace, for the wars shall cease
When the king come home in peace again.
When all these things to pass shall come,
Then farewell musket, pike and drum,
The lamb shall with the lion feed,
That were a happy time indeed.
Oh let all pray that we may see the day
That peace may govern Charles’ swane
For then I can tell all things will be well
When the king enjoys his own again
for then I can tell that all things will be well
When the king enjoys his own again