Following the recent media nonsense speculating that mistletoe traditions are on the wane, I thought about documenting various evidence to the contrary – not least the constant presence of mistletoe in book titles (lots of mistletoe-themed murder mysteries (!) and romances, in equal measure) , TV and film titles/themes (romance again, and, bizarrely, murder mysteries again) and in seasonal songs (romance only, I’ve not spotted any mistletoe murder songs yet). The whole gamut of that lot seems to be on the increase not a decline! Which suggests a vibrant mistletoe tradition.
For the songs I’m writing a short series of posts about a few of them in, roughly, chronological order. This is the first of those, starting way back in the 19th century, as the mistletoe song tradition is long-established. Almost as long established as the mistletoe kissing tradition which, as a universal concept, only became popular from the early-mid 19th century onwards. Mistletoe themed songs were certainly around back then.
The earliest well-known mistletoe song dates from the 1830s when The Mistletoe Bough, by Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839) became popular. It still is in some circles (see video below). It is a lament on the theme of the mistletoe bride, a horror story of a bride who, when playing hide and seek on her wedding day, got locked in a trunk and wasn’t discovered until decades later. Curiously the song makes no mention of any kissing tradition, merely remarking that mistletoe hung in the castle hall. As did holly, though the holly was on the castle wall. This suggests a tradition of hanging mistletoe differently i.e. above an open space. As we do for the kissing custom. But the song doesn’t actually mention kissing – possibly because the 1830s were just before the kissing custom became well-known.
It isn’t a particularly cheerful song! Here are the first two verses, the skeletal bride doesn’t appear until later in the song:
The mistletoe hung in the old castle hall
The holly branch shone on the old oak wall
The baron’s retainers were blithe and were gay
A-keeping their Christmas holiday
The baron beheld with a father’s pride
His beautiful child, young Lovell’s bride
She with the bright eyes was destined to be
The star of the goodly company
Oh, the mistletoe bough
Oh, the mistletoe bough
“I’m weary of dancing, of dancing,” she cried
“Here tarry a moment, I’ll hide, I’ll hide
And Lovell, be sure you’re the first one to trace
The clue to my secret hiding place”
Away then she ran and their friends all began
Each tower to search and each stairway to scan
Lovell he cried, “Oh, now where does thou hide
I’m lonely without thee, my own dear bride”
Oh, the mistletoe bough
Oh, the mistletoe bough
Here’s a recent performance from the Royal Hotel, Dungworth, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The singer is Will Noble.
The story in the song is, actually, a complete invention. Bayly took an existing European tradition of a lost bride as the basis of the story. The mistletoe bit was, probably, added by him as a romantic suggestion, implying he was aware of the kissing tradition even if was unstated. For more about the whole episode and tradition see the mistletoe diary entry from 4th December 2012.
Later songs – and there were many – were rather more upbeat, celebrating the pleasure of mistletoe, not tragedy. Some were dances, such as the 1890s Polka du Gui, or the Mistletoe Polka to English speakers. That was by Paul Decourcelle, aka Heinrich Tellam, a popular composer in his day. I came across the music for this recently in a volume of The Strand Musical Magazine from 1895 – the first page is shown below. I haven’t found a performance of this online yet, but there are other mistletoe polkas – I’ll say more about one of those in Song blog#2.
