Lyrics
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gathering winter fuel.
'Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?'
'Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence,
By Saint Agnes' fountain.'
'Bring me food and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither,
You and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.'
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together,
Through the cold wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.
'Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger,
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.'
'Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread now in them boldly,
You shall find the winter's rage freeze your blood less coldly.'
In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, while God's gifts possessing,
You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.
Public domain hymn text (1853). Words by John Mason Neale.
The Story Behind the Hymn
John Mason Neale wrote the English words to 'Good King Wenceslas' in 1853, setting his new text to TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, a considerably older spring carol tune from the 1582 Finnish and Swedish collection Piae Cantiones.
Unlike most Christmas carols, the song contains no reference to the Nativity at all, instead telling a legend about a real historical tenth-century Duke of Bohemia known for his charitable care for the poor.
Its later verses turn the story into a small, complete drama: the king and his page set out with food and fuel, the page falters in the bitter cold, and the king instructs him to walk literally in his own footsteps.
The carol's closing image, the page finding the ground where the king had walked mysteriously warmed, turns a simple act of charity into something closer to a small miracle, and draws a direct moral for 'Christian men' from it.
Some later music critics have been openly critical of the carol's somewhat clumsy narrative structure compared to Neale's more polished translations of ancient hymns, though its popularity with the public has remained largely unaffected.
