History of Christmas Carols - What Child Is This?

What Child Is This

Words & Music: English, Traditional, from the Greensleeves Melody

What child is this, who, laid to rest

On Mary's lap, is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

Haste, haste to bring him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary!

So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh,

Come peasant king to own Him,

The King of kings, salvation brings,

Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise the song on high,

The Virgin sings her lullaby:

Joy, joy, for Christ is born,

The Babe, the Son of Mary!

The lyrics were written in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix whose father was a surgeon and his middle name was an homage to the father's favorite poet, Thomas Chatterton. William wrote hymns, more than 40 of them. He was born in Bristol in June of 1837 and died in 1898 in Cheddar, Somerset, England.

He was one of more than 20 lyricists who chose the traditional melody of Greensleeves as the music for his verse. "In 1865 Englishman William Chatterton Dix wrote The Manger Throne, three verses of which became What Child Is This? In the era while Dix was writing hymns and raising a family, Christmas was not the celebration it is today. Neither was it a season where many openly celebrated the birth of Christ. Conservative Christian churches forbade gift-giving, decorating, or even acknowledging the day. These Puritan groups feared that if set aside as a special day, Christmas would become a day of pagan rituals more than a very serious time of worship. In this context, it was unusual for Dix to feel moved to write about Christ's birth, since many hymn writers of the period ignored Christmas altogether."*

"Greensleeves is an old English ballad by an unknown composer. Legend has it that King Henry VIII wrote the song about Anne Boleyn, but this is unlikely because of the style of the music. The song is written in an Italinate style which did not appear in England until after Henry's death.

Anonymous authorship is a common characteristic of the classic ballad, and "Greensleeves" is no exception to this rule. Short of the discovery of some new historical data, the history behind Greensleeves will remain a mystery." #

*http://members.tripod.com/pg4anna/Greensleeves.htm

#http://flashpages.prodigy.net/marticia/the_ballad-authorship.htm