may god rest ye merry gentlemen lyrics band arrangement

In old English, the third person singular in the present added -TH instead of modern -S, so 'he loves you' was 'he loveth thee' /hi: l ʊv ɪ θ ði:/.ĭEFACE= (Old English) Surpass, eclipse, outshine. TIDE= (Old English) Time: 'tide of Christmas' = Christmastide = Christmas time.ĭOTH= /dʌ θ / (Old English) Does. WITH BROTHERHOOD= With the feeling that we are all brothers and sisters and so we love each other.ĮMBRACE= Hold, hug, put your arms around a person. PRAISES= Expressions of admiration (or of adoration to God). LAY= (lie-lay-lain) To be in a horizontal position, resting on a surface. In colloquial AmE we can also use 'mighty' meaning 'very', e.g., ' that's mighty interesting' = 'that's very interesting'. (but in modern English we can still say MIGHTY=Powerful). VIRGIN BRIGHT= (hyperbaton) bright Virgin (bright = shining glorious, splendid). LET NOTHING YOU AFFRIGHT= (hyperbaton) Let nothing frighten you, let nothing make you afraid. AFFRIGHT= (Old English) To frighten, to cause you fear, to make you afraid. FEAR NOT= (Old fashioned) Don't be afraid. Shepherdess).īETHLEHEM= /b e θl ɪhem/ The name of the town where Jesus was born. SHEPHERDS= /ʃ ep ə* dz/ The man who takes care of the sheep (fem. GONE ASTRAY= If you go astray you get lost or you take the wrong path.īLESSED= /bl esɪd/ Holy, saint, worthy of worship. SATAN= The devil the personification of sin and evil. We can find many hyperbatons in this song. A hyperbaton is a figure of speech that uses deviation from normal or logical word order to produce an effect. In poetry we can often find hyperbatons like this. LET NOTHING YOU DISMAY= Let nothing dismay you. An old surviving expression with the same 'present subjunctive tense' is ' God save the queen' (= May God protect the queen) or 'God bless you'. It is in the subjunctive mood (not in use in modern English) and is used to express a desire.

The verb REST here is not a present (in that case it would be ' God rests ye').

GOD REST YE MERRY= (Old fashioned) may God rest you merrily, may God make you feel happy and relaxed. But under the influence of I-ME (and the old singular THOU-THEE) people thought it should be YOU-YE, which is a mistake it was YE-YOU. In fact the title is wrong, it should be 'God rest you merry', because in Old English YE was the form of subject plural and YOU the form of object plural, later YE disappeared and now we use YOU for both forms in singular and plural.

May god rest ye merry gentlemen lyrics band arrangement