StoryTitle("caps", "Preparations ") ?>
From a manuscript housed
at Christ Church, Oxford
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet if His Majesty, our sovereign lord,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Should of his own accord", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Friendly himself invite,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And say \"I'll be your guest to-morrow night,\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How should we stir ourselves, call and command", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All hands to work! \"Let no man idle stand!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Set me fine Spanish tables in the hall;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "See they be fitted all;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Let there be room to eat", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And order taken that there want no meat.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "See every sconce and candlestick made bright,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That without tapers they may give a light.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Look to the presence: are the carpets spread,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The dazie o'er the head,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The cushions in the chairs,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all the candles lighted on the stairs?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Perfume the chambers, and in any case", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Let each man give attendance in his place!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thus, if a king were coming, would we do;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And 'twere good reason too;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For 'tis a duteous thing", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To show all honour to an earthly king,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And after all our travail and our cost,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But at the coming of the King of Heaven", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All's set at six and seven;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We wallow in our sin,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We entertain Him always like a stranger,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And, as at first, still lodge Him in the manger.", "") ?>
Poet("Anonymous", "17th century") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>