{"id":10506,"date":"2014-09-29T15:33:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T15:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=10506"},"modified":"2014-09-29T15:33:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T15:33:26","slug":"the-mistletoe-bough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/the-mistletoe-bough\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mistletoe Bough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by LoiS-sez<\/a><\/p>\n

This is actually a ballad with lyrics by Thomas Haynes Bayly. I’ve never been able to find the music by Sir Henry Bishop, but I use the refrain for my own re-telling as it’s said to be based on a traditional legend. <\/em><\/p>\n

The mistletoe hung in the castle hall,
\nThe holly branch shone on the old oak wall;
\nAnd the baron’s retainers were blithe and gay,
\nAnd keeping their Christmas<\/a> holiday.
\nThe baron beheld with a father’s pride
\nHis beautiful child, young Lovell’s bride;
\nWhile she with her bright eyes seemed to be
\nThe star of the goodly company.
\nOh, the mistletoe bough.
\nOh, the mistletoe bough.<\/p>\n

“I’m weary of dancing now,” she cried;
\n“Here, tarry a moment \u2014 I’ll hide, I’ll hide!
\nAnd, Lovell, be sure thou’rt first to trace
\nThe clew to my secret lurking-place.”
\nAway she ran \u2014 and her friends began
\nEach tower to search, and each nook to scan;
\nAnd young Lovell cried, “O, where dost thou hide?
\nI’m lonesome without thee, my own dear bride.”
\nOh, the mistletoe bough.
\nOh, the mistletoe bough.<\/p>\n

They sought her that night, and they sought her next day,
\nAnd they sought her in vain while a week passed away;
\nIn the highest, the lowest, the loneliest spot,
\nYoung Lovell sought wildly \u2014 but found her not.
\nAnd years flew by, and their grief at last
\nWas told as a sorrowful tale long past;
\nAnd when Lovell appeared the children cried,
\n“See! the old man weeps for his fairy bride.”
\nOh, the mistletoe bough.
\nOh, the mistletoe bough. <\/p>\n

At length an oak chest, that had long lain hid,
\nWas found in the castle \u2014 they raised the lid,
\nAnd a skeleton form lay mouldering there
\nIn the bridal wreath of that lady fair!
\nO, sad was her fate! \u2014 in sportive jest
\nShe hid from her lord in the old oak chest.
\nIt closed with a spring! \u2014 and, dreadful doom,
\nThe bride lay clasped in her living tomb!
\nOh, the mistletoe bough.
\nOh, the mistletoe bough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributed by LoiS-sez This is actually a ballad with lyrics by Thomas Haynes Bayly. I’ve never been able to find the music by Sir Henry Bishop, but I use the refrain for my own re-telling as it’s said to be based on a traditional legend. The mistletoe hung in the castle hall, The holly branch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":26,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}