they have made the day especially their own; they are its annalists. A poet's in vitation to his mistress to enjoy the festivity, is historical; if he says to her, together let us range," he tells her for what; and becomes a grave authority to the grave antiquary. The sweetest of all British bards that sing of our customs, beautifully illustrates the May-day of England: Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morne Each flower has wept, and bow'd toward the east, Nay! not so much as out of bed; When as a thousand virgins on this day, Rise, and put on your foliage, and be seene To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and greene, Besides, the childhood of the day has kept, Against you come, some orient pearls unwept. Till Come, and receive them while the light hoops et tỉ Hangs on the dew-locks of the night And Titan on the eastern hill Retires himselfe, or else stands still you come forth, Wash, dresse, be brief in praying Come, my Corinna, come; and, comming, marke ?? Or branch; each porch, each doore, ere this, Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove; As if here were those cooler shades of love Can such delights be in the street, 3. And open fields, and we not see't? And sin no more, as we have done, by staying There's not a budding boy or girle, this day, And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth, •-1300 mɔn eduMany a kisse, both odde and even ; From out the eye, love's firinamento de Many a jest told of the keye's betraying out any gola (95{{ aniliowa arque This night, and locks pickt; yet w'are not a Maying oros vdo1972 Ja to quis sibul 36 sup Come, let us goe, while we are in our prime ord focuso moed is vis baxiw otri le bond. And take the harmlesse follie of the time, - We shall grow old apace and die Before we know our liberty. Our life is short, and our dayes run As fast away as do's the sunne; * NC 9.09-75 9.T as a vapour, or a drop of raine Once lost, can ne'r be found againe; So when or you or I are made A fable, song, or fleeting shade; All love, all liking, all delight Lies drown'd with us in endless night." Then, while time serves, and we are but decaying, Come, my Corinna, come, let's goe a Maying sd not woHerrickát 1970 utely sunk odł to suern bi angvætt I es bar dred men, women, and children followyng it, with greate devotion. And thus beyng reared up, with handkerchiefes and flagges streamyng on the toppe, they A gatherer of notices respecting our pastimes says, "The after-part of May day is chiefly spent in dancing round a tall Poll, which is called a May Poll; 13 ty of wol which being placed in a convenient part bough grounde greene of the village, stands there, as it were consecrated to the Goddesserd to it, in of Flowers, was without the least violation it, haules, then fall Bowers, and Arbours hard by it. And If they to banquet and feast, to leape and daunce aboute it, as the Heathen people did at the dedication of their Idolles, whereof this is a perfect patterne, or rather the thyng itself." -897 901 28 пoiroig at borse peh -29, 1979 I have seen the Lady of the Maycs 97.marxa 900 90 gesi gypse odt otat 98% Set in an arbour (on holy-day) ad not fire grad, zi 19913 Built by the May-pole, where the jocund swaines bie 731294 với Dance with the maidens to the bag-pipes straines, When envious night commands them to be gone, cherr Call for the merry youngsters one by one, 3 burwak toicAnd, for their well performance, soon disposes, To this a garland interwove with roses, To that a carved hooke, or well-wrought scrip; A poet, who has not versified, (Mr. *Bourne.. forget the delight I felt on first seeing a May-pole. It was on the banks of the of Cheshire, and the beautiful borders of Wales, and looked from among swelling hills down a long green valley, through which the Deva wound its wizard stream, my imagination turned all into a perfect Arcadia-One can readily ima Dee, close by the picturesque old bridge that stretches across the fiver from the quaint little city of Chester. I had already been carried back into former days by the antiquities of that venerable place; the examination of which is equal to turning over the pages of a black-letter_gine what a gay scene it must have been volume, or gazing on the pictures in in jolly old London, when the doors Froissart. The May-pole on the margin were decorated with flowering branches, of that poetic stream completed the illu- when every hat was decked with hawsion. My fancy adorned it with wreaths thorn; and Robin Hood, friar Tuck, of flowers, and peopled the green bank Maid Marian, the morris-dancers, and all with all the dancing revelry of May-day. the other fantastic masks and revellers The mere sight of this May-pole gave a were performing their antics about the glow to my feelings, and spread a charm May-pole in every part of the city. On over the country for the rest of the day; this occasion we are told Robin Hood and as I traversed a part of the fair plains presided as Lord of the May :*#1} TO«With coat of Lincoln green, and mantle too, o 1919d13y. A ..t. no. And horn of ivory mouth, and buckle bright, 1549) 615 1792 DeAnd arrows winged with peacock feathers light, And trusty bow well gathered of the yew; 1999, ubaid : "With eyes of blue of night, Shining through dusk hair, like the stars night,ov 19 cates And habited in pretty forest plight- * and there, too, in a subsequent stage of the pageant, were "The archer-men in green, with belt and bow, Feasting on pheasant, river-fowl, and swan, With Robin at their head, and Marian,!~~ Meng sub 19dt er eedt ing the May-pole and the characters fi the May-games, and therefore little will be adduced at present as to the origin of pastimes, which royalty itself delighted in, and corporations patronized. For example of these honours to the festal day, an honest gatherer of older chronicles shall relate in his own words, so much as he acquaints us with 5 szoltod "I value every custom that tends to infuse spoetical feeling into the common people, and to sweeten, and soften the rudeness of rustic manners, without destroying their simplicity. Indeed it is to the decline of this happy simplicity that the decline of this custom may be traced; and the rural dance on the green, and the homely May-day pageant, have gradually disappeared, in proportion as the peasantry have become expensive and artis ficial in their pleasures, and too knowing for simple enjoyment. Some attempts, indeed, have been made of late years, by men of both taste and learning, to rally back the popular feeling to these standards of primitive simplicity; but the time has gone by, the feeling has become chill ed by habits of gain and traffic; the country apes the manners and amusements of the town, and little is heard of May-day at present, except from the la mentations of authors, who sigh after it from among the brick walls of the city." There will be opportunity in the course of this work to dilate somewhat concern "In the moneth of May, namely on May day in the morning, every man, except impediment, would walke into the sweet meddowes and green woods, there to rejoyce their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmonie of birds, praising God in their kinde. And for example hereof, Edward Hall hath noted, that king Henry the eighth, as in the third of his reigne, and divers other yeeres, so namely in the seventh of his reigne, on May day in the morning, with queene Katharine his wife, accompanied with many lords and ladies, rode a Maying from Greenwich to the high ground of Shooters-hill where as company of tall yeomen, clothed the way, they e greene, with greene hoods, and with : they passed byooters-hillspyed a in bowes and arrowes, to the number of 200. One, being their chieftaine, was called Robin Hood, who required the king and all his company to stay and see his men shoot: whereunto the king granting, Robin Hood whistled, and all the 200 archers shot off, loosing all at once; and when he whistled againe, they likewise shot againe: their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the noise was strange and loud, which greatly delighted the king, queene, and their com pany. "Moreover, this Robin Hood desired the king and queene, with their retinue, to enter the greene wood, where, in arbours made of boughes, and deckt with flowers, they were set and served plentifully with venison and wine, by Robin Hood and his meyny, to their great contentment, and had other pageants, and pastimes; as yee may read in my said author. "I find also, that in the month of May, the citizens of London (of all estates) lightly in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joyning together, had their severall Mayings, and did fetch in May-poles, with divers warlike shewes, with good archers, morice-dancers, and other devises for pastime all the day long ; and towards the evening, they had stageplaies, and bonefires in the streets. "Of these Mayings, we read in the reign of Henry the sixth, that the alder men and sheriffes of London, being on May day at the bishop of Londous wood in the parish of Stebunheath, and having there a worshipfull dinner for themselves and other commers, Lydgate the poet, that was a monk of Bury, sent to them by a pursivant a joyfull commendation of that season, containing sixteene staves in meeter royall, beginning thus: "Mighty Flora, goddesse of fresh flowers, which clothed hath the soyle in lusty green, Made buds to spring, with her sweet showers, by influence of the sunne shine, To doe pleasance of intent full cleane, unto the states which now sit here, Hath Ver downe seat her own daughter deare, "Making the vertue, that dured in the root, Called the vertue, the vertue vegetable, for to transcend, most wholesome and most soote, Into the top, this season so agreeable: the bawmy liquor is so commendable, That it rejoyceth with his fresh moisture, man, beast, and fowle, and every creature," &c. Thus far hath our London historian conceived it good for his fellow citizens to know. Of the manner wherein a May game was anciently set forth, he who above all writers contemporary with him could best devise it has "drawn out the platform," and exhibited the pageant, as performed by the household servants and dependants of a baronial mansion in the fifteenth century. This is the scene:"In the front of the pavilion, a large square was staked out, and fenced with ropes, to prevent the crowd from pressing upon the performers, and interrupting the diversion; there were also two bars at the bottom of the inclosure, through which the actors might pass and repass, as occasion required.-Six young men first entered the square, clothed in jerkins of leather, with axes upon their shoulders like woodmen, and their heads bound with large garlands of ivy-leaves, intertwined with sprigs of hawthorn. Then followed six young maidens of the village, dressed in blue kirtles, with garlands of primroses on their heads, leading a fine sleek cow decorated with ribbons of värious colours, interspersed with flowers; and the horus of the animal were tipped with gold. These were succeeded by six foresters, equipped in green tunics, with hoods and hosen of the same colour; each of them carried a bugle-horn attacked to a baldrick of silk, which he sounded as he passed the barrier. After them came Peter Lanaret, the baron's chief falconer, who personified Robin Hood; he was attired in a bright grass-green tunic, fringed with gold; his hood and his hosen were parti-coloured, blue and white; he had a large garland of rosebuds on his head, a bow bent in his hand, a sheaf of arrows at his girdle, and a bugle-born depending from a baldrick of light blue tarantine, embroidered with silver; he had also a sword and a dagger, the hilts of both being richly embossed with gold.-Fabian, a page, as Little John, walked at his right hand; and Cecil Cellerman the butler, as Will Stukely, at his left. These, with ten others of the jolly outlaw's attendants who followed, were habited in green garments, bearing their bows bent in their hands, and their arrows in their girdles. Then came two maidens, in orange-coloured kirtles with white courtpies, strew ing flowers, followed immediately by the Maid Marian, elegantly habited in a watchet-coloured tunic reaching to the ground; over which she wore a white linen rochet with loose sleeves, fringed with silver, and very neatly plaited; her girdle was of silver baudekin, fastened with a double bow on the left side; her long flaxen hair was divided into many ringlets, and flowed upon her shoulders; the top part of her head was covered with a net-work cawl of gold, upon which was placed a garland of silver, ornamented with blue violets. She was supported by two bride-maidens, in sky-coloured rochets girt with crimson girdles, wearing garlands upon their heads of blue and white violets. After them came four other females in green courtpies, and garlands of violets and cowslips. Then Sampson the smith, as Friar Tuck, carrying a huge quarter-staff on his shoulder; and Morris, the mole-taker, who represented Much the miller's son, having a long pole with an inflated bladder attached to one end. And after them the May pole, drawn by eight fine oxen, decorated with scarfs, ribbons, and flowers of divers colours; and the tips of their horns were embellished with gold. The rear was closed by the hobby-horse and the dragon.- -When the May-pole was drawn into the square, the foresters sounded their horns, and the populace expressed their pleasure by shouting incessantly until it reached the place assigned for its elevation and during the time the ground was preparing for its reception, the barriers of the bottom of the inclosure were opened for the villagers to approach, and adorn it with ribbons, garlands, and flowers, as their inclination prompted them. The pole being sufficiently onerated with finery, the square was cleared from such as had no part to perform in the pageant; and then it was elevated amidst the reiterated acclamations of the spectators. The woodmen and the milk maidens danced around it according to the rustic fashion; the measure was played by Peretto Cheveritte, the baron's chief minstrel, on the bagpiper accompanied with the pipe and tabour, performed by one of his associates. When the dance was finished, Gregory the jester, who undertook to play the hobby-horse, came forward with his appropriate equipment, and, frisking up and down the square without restriction, imitated the galloping, curvetting, ambling, trotting, and other paces of a horse, to the infinite satisfaction of the lower classes of the spectators. He was followed by Peter Parker, the baron's ranger, who personated a dragon, hissing, yelling, and shaking his wings with wonderful ingenuity; and to complete the mirth, Morris, in the character of Much, having small bells attached to his knees and elbows, capered here and there between the two monsters in the form of a dance; and as often as he came near to the sides of the inclosure, he cast slily a handful of meal into the faces of the gaping rustics, or rapped them about their heads with the bladder tied at the end of his pole. In the mean time, Sampson, representing Friar Tuck, walked with much gravity around the square, and occasionally let fall his heavy staff upon the toes of such of the crowd as he thought were approaching more forward than they ought to do; and if the sufferers cried out from the sense of pain, he addressed them in a solemn tone of voice, advising them to count their beads, say a paternoster or two, and to beware of purgatory. These vagaries, were highly palatable to the populace, who announced their delight by repeated plaudits and loud bursts of laughter; for this reason they were continued for a considerable length of time: but Gregory, beginning at last to faulter in his paces, ordered the dragon to fall back: the well-nurtured beast, being out of breath, readily obeyed, and their two companions followed their example; which concluded, this part of the pastime. Then the archers set up a target at the lower part of the green, and made trial of their skill in a regular succession. Robin Hood and Will Stukely excelled their comrades; and both of them lodged an arrow in the centre circle of gold, so near to each other that the difference could not readily |