Drive the Cold Winter Away (In Praise of Christmas)

DESCRIPTION: "All hail to the days that merit more praise Than all of the rest of the year...." The singer bids rejoicing come in for the Chritmas season. Various Christmas activities are detailed, each intended to "drive the cold winter away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: Christmas party nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 293-297, "Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 5, "The Praise of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN67, "All hayle to the dayes"
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 193-195, "Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 173, (no title, but called "Drive the cold winter away" in the notes) (1 tune)
DT, DRIVCOLD ALLHAIL*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 341-344, 'A pleasant Countrey new Ditty: merrily shewing how To Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1 text)
ST Log293 (Full)
Roud #V9375
SAME TUNE:
O fain would I marry/[Title missing] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2003)
I often have known/The father hath beguil'd the sonne (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1311)
All you which lay clame/Hang Pinching (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN154)
Come, come my brave gold/Gathergood the Father and Scattergood the son [missing title from Stat. Reg. Entry, Apr. 9, 1638] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN569)
Be merry, my hearts, and call for your quarts/A Health to all Good=Fellows (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN383)
To all my good Friends these presents I send/A New Song, called Jacke Dove's Resolution (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2630)
When Phoebus did Rest (tune listed in the copy in Ashton)
NOTES [44 words]: The Oxford Book of Carols credits the first two verses to D'Urfey. Though D'Urfey was the first to print these stanzas, the existence of the song in the Pepysian collection casts the usual doubts on these authorship claims. Playford also published the tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Log293

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