Dem
47
GOP
53
For today's entry, we've taken inspiration from a well-known (but somewhat old) Internet meme. We took the first couple of lines from a dozen songs associated with this time of year—some of them Christmas songs, some not; some of them "classic" songs, some contemporary—and translated them into Elizabethan English. The puzzle is to figure out what song was the basis for each translation. For example, if we gave you this:
I truly cannot tarry; Sweet, 'tis bitter cold without.
I must needs take my leave; Sweet, 'tis bitter cold without.
You would maybe recognize that as an Elizabethanization of this:
I really can't stay; Baby, it's cold outside
I've got to go away; Baby, it's cold outside
And so, the correct answer would be "Baby, It's Cold Outside."
All we need is the song title, not the artist (especially since many of these were recorded by multiple artists). And today, Google is fair game if you need to look up the meaning of an archaic word.
And now, let us hence:
1. O, the winds without are dreadful,
Yet the fire within maketh me joyous.
2. Tolling tintinnabulum, tolling tintinnabulum—Ah! The rhythm of tolling tintinnabulum!
The tintinnabulum doth swing and—Yea!—also dost ring
3. "Come!", they didst proclaim, pa rum pum pum pum
A newly wrought monarch to behold, pa rum pum pum pum
4. Santa, thou sweet babe, prithee slip a furred mantle 'neath the tree for me;
I have been a most virtuous maid.
5. Still night, hallow'd night,
All is hush'd, all is aglow.
6. Cover thy pate—Lo! Chanukah approacheth,
Such mirth and excit'ment-ukah, to make merry for Chanukah.
7. Thou art a churlish wight—verily, a knave art thou
Thou art as huggable as a prickly plant, as winsome as a serpent of the watery deep
8. So this be Yuletide, and what hast thou wrought?
Another year hath ended, and a new one hath but begun.
9. Old Hiems, with his black and icy crown, was a blithe and merry spirit,
With a pipe of maize, and a proboscis of button wrought, and twain eyes of ember.
10. The snow doth gleam as white upon the mountain's height,
As all who pass on foot go untrack'd
11. My heart longeth for a Yuletide clad in white,
E'en as those I knew in days of yore.
12. 'Twas the four and twentieth of December upon Hollis Avenue after night's fall,
When I espied a gentleman reclining with his hound in the village green.
You can submit your answers here! (Z)