What Child Is This? An Overview of the Song
What child is this? one of the most moving and beautiful Victorian carols, can trace its history back farther than the days of the infamous Henry VIII. Though the song was registered to a Richard Jones in 1580, legend has it that the notorious King Henry might have even written the original lyrics himself as he courted Anne Boleyn. the song’s association with King Henry was forever tied to “Greensleeves” when William Shakespeare used it in the play The Merry Wives of Windsor.
What Child Is This? Melody comes from the Middle Ages and Before Henry VIII
The haunting melody, often associated with guitar or harpsichord solos, most likely predates Henry VIII by hundreds of years. As an ancient English folk song, there have been more than twenty different known lyrics associated with it throughout history and many more might have been lost. First published in 1652, the melody became even more popular than the lyrics associated with Henry VIII
For much of its early life, the tune known as “Greensleeves” was associated with pubs as a popular drinking song. Although God is mentioned in a closing verse of the best-known lyrics, nothing about the song closely resembled a religious piece; it was simply one of the era’s most popular folk songs. By the nineteenth century “Greensleeves” was almost as beloved as “God Save the Queen.” Even without its association with Christmas and “What Child Is This,” “Greensleeves” would probably still be a well-known tune in England today. Yet it was with different lyrics that the world fully embraced the British Tune.
William Chatterton Dix – A Christian and English Poet
William Chatterton Dix was assuredly not thinking about “Greensleeves” when he sat down with pen and paper to record his thoughts of Christmas in 1865. Dix was an insurance man by trade, but a poet at heart. Serious about his writing, he studied other poets, read classic literature, and spent a great deal of time in college working on his creative craft.
The Englishman was even named after Chatterton, one of England’s greatest poets. Dix’s father, who insisted that William be Christened with the scribe’s name, had once written a biography of the poet and encouraged his son to follow in the footsteps of his hero.
Born in Somerset, England, in 1837 during a time when few adventurous folks migrated more than fifty miles from their place of birth. Dix found himself manager of a marine insurance company in Glasgow, Scotland, by the time he was twenty-five. Though in charge of some of his company’s most important accounts and eventually the head of a growing family, Dix still found time to write. Many correctly accused him of pursuing poetry as his passion and his job as a sideline venture.
Dix’s writing embraced a wide range of thoughts and subjects. It lacked much focus, however, until tragedy struck. A near-fatal illness robbed him of his strength and confined the man to bed for many months. As he lay near death, he often reflected on his faith.
Reading his Bible and studying the works of respected theologians, Dix reaffirmed his belief in not only Christ as Savior but in the power of God to move in his own life. Not long after regaining his strength, an inspired Dix produced some of the greatest hymns ever written by an English layman. Songs by Dix such as “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!” and “As with Gladness, Men of Old,” are still being sung all around the world today.
In The 19th Century Christmas still had Pagan Roots
In the era while Dix was writing hymns and raising a family, Christmas was not the commercial 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. Other churches held services but were also intent on the day being reserved for only a 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.
Dix Decides to Write of the Nativity
There is no record of why Dix decided to write of the first Christmas, nor did he share with his friends and family how the poem he penned was written quickly in a single session. Yet the writer’s Christmas work, entitled “The Manger Throne,” quickly emerged as his most memorable effort.
The song’s powerful words presented a unique view of the birth of Christ. While the baby was the focal point of the song, the viewpoint of the writer seemed to be that of an almost confused observer. In a stroke of brilliance, Dix imagined visitors to the humble manger wondering who the child was that lay before them. Employing this special perspective, the author wove a story of the child’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. Each verse also answered with a triumphant declaration of the infant’s divine nature.
Dix published “The Manger Throne” in England just as the U.S. Civil War was ending. Perhaps because of the fragile state of America’s collective spirit, bruised and torn by four years of fighting. “The Manger Throne” was quickly imported from Britain to the United States and became a well-known Christmas poem in both the North and South.
Dix’s Lyrics become Coupled with Greensleeves Melody
Yet while it was used in church services and printed in magazines and newspapers, it wasn’t until an unknown Englishman coupled Dix’s lyrics with the melody “Greensleeves” that the carol became immensely popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Unlike many others who penned lyrics to no-famous holiday classics, Dix, who died in 1898, lived long enough to see “The Manger Throne” become the much beloved Christmas carol “What Child Is This?”
Though Dix’s inspired words are now recognized as some of the most concise yet powerful ever used in a hymn, it is in reality the old English tune “Greensleeves,” with the advent of radio and recording, that allowed “What Child is This?” to continue to grow in popularity.
Once the unique melody is heard, “Greensleeves” is seldom forgotten. Soulfully touching and beautiful when sung a cappella or accompanied by a lone guitar, it is also awe-inspiring and soaring when arranged for a cathedral choir or an orchestra. Perhaps that is why William Dix’s song remains as one of the most beloved and remembered of all Christmas Carols.
