On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Seven swans a-swimming
Four calling birds, three French hens,
Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree.
In the Eulogy published as part of the first folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare “the Swan of Avon”.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Six geese a-laying,
Four calling birds, three French hens,
Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree.
Ah geese. A most seasonal bird, first domesticated around four thousand years ago and the Christmas roast of choice for many (although turkey has a longer history than you might think – apparently Henry VIII was the first British monarch to have turkey for Christmas).*
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Five gold rings,
Four calling birds, three French hens,
Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree.
The obvious thing to talk about here is marriage – and I’m never one to shirk the obvious!
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Four calling birds, three French hens,
Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree.
Do you know what calling birds are? It’s not exactly a recognised species – the original rhyme apparently included “colly birds”. Colly was another word for black – coal-ey? – and the origin of the sheepdog name also.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Three French hens,
Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree.
Most Frenchmen in Shakespeare are not the good guys – probably a function of the role of the French in English history. It seems nations nearest geographically, much like siblings closest in age, are most likely to squabble with one another. There are even the typical insults – Shakespeare uses French as a particularly damning epithet repeatedly.
One the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,
Two turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree
Turtledoves have been associated with lovers since biblical times – as the Song of Solomon goes “the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land”.
Hello everyone and apologies for my continued absence – I have been moving house, which has put a definite crimp in both my theatre-going and my blogging. Normal service will be resumed in January – or possibly even slightly abnormal service, since I’m going to at least five Shakespeare productions next month!
desperatelyseekingcymbeline 