(by James, Reading Room Assistant)
In this blog we’d like to highlight an item and writer from the collection. Ancient English Christmas carols, 1400-1700, is a collection of Christmas songs, as well as some analysis. The songs were collected, arranged and edited by Edith Rickert and published in 1910.
One song particularly highlights that not all Christmas songs are religious. “Bring us in Good Ale” is a carol and a drinking song. In this volume it is under the Wassail category (an activity like caroling but with more drinking) where revelers would travel the town with a bowl of what we would probably call mulled wine or cider, singing (and handing out drinks) to people in exchange for small gifts.
This song celebrates a year of plenty as the singers proclaim how much food is available, though they selflessly forego it in favour of some good ale from their audience. The song helps to give an understanding that Christmas has long been a time for song, dance, and fun.
A page from the Wassail section of Rickert's book
This little blog was interesting to write as I researched Christmas traditions and drinking songs of the past. However, it has been made even more exciting by its editor, Edith Rickert, a novel writer, WWI codebreaker, and Chaucer researcher.
Edith Rickert was an American woman born in Ohio in 1871, gaining a PhD in English from the University of Chicago in 1899. She then came to Europe in 1900 and stayed for nine years. While in Europe she translated and edited medieval texts and wrote fiction. In 1909 she returned to the USA where she became an editor at the publishing house D. C. Heath and of the Ladies’ Home Journal. When the USA became involved in the First World War she was recruited to work in military intelligence at the US War Department. Here she worked with John Matthews Manly (Professor of English at the University of Chicago) as a cryptographer, breaking the Central Power’s codes and creating ones for use by the Allies.
When the war was over Rickert and Manly collaborated on several works around contemporary literature, eventually joining the University of Chicago where she became an Associate Professor of English in 1924, and later Professor of English in 1930. Once at the University, her and Manly began a gigantic project to meticulously study the works of Chaucer. They lead a team to create an eight-volume analysis of The Canterbury Tales, The Text of the Canterbury Tales in 1940. Unfortunately, Rickert died in 1938 and so never saw her life’s work completed.
So this Christmas, maybe when you’re wassailing, have a drink for Edith Rickert (or maybe read some Chaucer, she might have preferred that).
Bibliography
Books
Rickert, Edith, Ancient English Christmas Carols, 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1910) G 43 A/75
Simpson, Jacqueline and Roud, Steve, A Dictionary of English Folklore (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) Ref K 26/58
Websites
Castelow, E. (n.d.). Wassailing. Historic UK. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Wassailing/
Reveal, J. C. (n.d.). Rickert, Edith (1871–1938). Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rickert-edith-1871-1938
(2015). Guide to the Edith Rickert Papers 1858-1960. The University of Chicago Library. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.RICKERTE
(n.d.). John M. Manly (1865-1940) & Edith Rickert (1871-1938): English. The University of Chicago Library. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/university-chicago-centennial-catalogues/university-chicago-faculty-centennial-view/john-m-manly-1865-1940-edith-rickert-1871-1938-english/
(2015). Guide to the John Matthews Manly. Papers 1885-1940. The University of Chicago Library. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.MANLY