they have made the day especially their own; they are its annalists. A poet's invitation to his mistress to enjoy the festivity, is historical; if he says to her, together let us range," he tells her for

VOL. I.

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
Upon her wings presents the God unshorne.
See how Aurora throwes her faire
Fresh-quilted colours through the aire;
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see
The dew bespangling herbe and tree.

Each flower has wept, and bow'd toward the east,
Above an houre since, yet you not drest,

Nay! not so much as out of bed;

When all the birds have matteyns seyd,
And sung their thankfull hymnes; 'tis sin,
Nay, profanation to keep in,

When as a thousand virgins on this day,
Spring sooner then the lark, to fetch in May.

Rise, and put on your foliage, and be seene
To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and greene,
And sweet as Flora. Take no care

For jewels for your gowne or haire;
Feare not, the leaves will strew
Gemms in abundance upon you;

Besides, the childhood of the day has kept,
Against you come, some orient pearls unwept.

Come, and receive then while the light
Hangs on the dew-locks of the night:
And Titan on the eastern hill

Retires himselfe, or else stands still

Till you come forth. Wash, dresse, be brief in praying:
Few beads are best, when once we goe a Maying.

Come, my Corinna, come; and, comming, marke
How each field turns a street, each street a parke

Made green, and trimm'd with trees; see how
Devotion gives each house a bough,

Or branch; each porch, each doore, ere this,
An arke, a tabernacle is,

Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove;
As if here were those cooler shades of love
Can such delights be in the street,
And open fields, and we not see't?
Come, we'll abroad, and let's obay
The proclamation made for May:

And sin no more, as we have done, by staying
dut, my Corinna, come, let's goe a Maying.

There's not a budding boy or girle, this day,
But is got up, and gone to bring in May.
A deale of youth, ere this, is come
Back, and with white-thorn laden home.
Some have dispatcht their cakes and creame
Before that we have left to dreame;

And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted troth,
And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth:
Many a green gown has been given;

Many a kisse, both odde and even;
Many a glance, too, has been sent
From out the eye, love's firmament;

273

A gatherer of notices respecting our pastimes says, "The after-part of Mayday is chiefly spent in dancing round a tall Poll, which is called a May Poll; which being placed in a convenient part of the village, stands there, as it were consecrated to the Goddess of Flowers, without the least violation offer'd to it, in the whole circle of the year." ."* One who was an implacable enemy to popular sports relates the fetching in of the May" from the woods. "But," says he, "their cheefest jewell they bring from thence is their Maie poole, whiche they bring home with greate veneration, as thus. They have twentie or fourtie yoke of oxen, every oxe havyng a sweete nosegaie of flowers tyed on the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie poole, which is covered all over with flowers and hearbes, bounde rounde aboute with stringes, from the top to the bottome, and sometyme painted with variable colours, with two or three hun

Herrick.

dred men, women, ana children follow-
yng it, with greate devotion. And thus
beyng reared up, with handkerchiefes and
flagges streamyug on the toppe, they
strawe the grounde aboute, binde greene
boughes about it, sett up Sommer haules,
Bowers, and Arbours hard by it. And
then fall they to banquet and feast, to
leape and daunce aboute it, as the Hea-
then people did at the dedication of their
Idolles, whereof this is a perfect patterne
or rather the thyng itself."

The May-pole is up,
Now give me the cup;
I'll drink to the garlands around it,
But first unto those

Whose hands did compose
The glory of flowers that crown'd it.
Herrick.

Another poet, and therefore no opponent to homely mirth on this festal day, so describes part of its merriment as to make a beautiful picture :—

I have seen the Lady of the May
Set in an arbour (on a holy-day)

Built by the May-pole, where the jocund swaines
Dance with the maidens to the bag-pipes straines,
When envious night commands them to be gone,
Call for the merry youngsters one by one,
And, for their well performance, soon disposes,
To this a garland interwove with roses,

To that a carved hooke, or well-wrought scrip;
Gracing another with her cherry lip;

To one her garter; to another, then,
A handkerchiefe, cast o'er and o'er again;
And none returneth emptie that hath spent
His paines to fill their rural merriment.

A poet, who has not versified, (Mr.
Washington Irving,) says, "I shall never

Browne's Pastorals

forget the delight I felt on first seeing a May-pole. It was on the banks of the

• Stubbes

Dee, close by the picturesque old bridge that stretches across the river from the quaint little city of Chester. I had aiready 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 volume, or gazing on the pictures in Froissart. The May-pole on the margin of that poetic stream completed the illuson. My fancy adorned it with wreaths of flowers, and peopled the green bank with all the dancing revetry of May-day. The mere sight of this May-pole gave a glow to my feelings, and spread a charm over the country for the rest of the day; and as I traversed a part of the fair plains

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-
gine what a gay scene it must have been
in jolly old London, when the doors
were decorated with flowering branches,
when every hat was decked with haw-
thorn; and Robin Hood, friar Tuck,
Maid Marian, the morris-dancers, and alí
the other fantastic masks and revellers
were performing their antics about the
May-pole in every part of the city. On
this occasion we are told Robin Hood
presided as Lord of the May -
"With coat of Lincoln green, and mantle too,
And horn of ivory mouth, and buckle bright,
And arrows winged with peacock feathers light,
And trusty bow well gathered of the yew;

“whilst near him, crowned as Lady of the May, maid Marian,
"With eyes of blue,

Shining through dusk hair, like the stars of night,
And habited in pretty forest plight-

His green-wood beauty sits, young as the dew:

ing the May-pole and the characters ir.
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 ex-
ample 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 :-

" and there, too, in a subsequent stage of the pageant, were
"The archer-men in green, with belt and bow,
Feasting on pheasant, ver-fowl, and swan,
With Robin at their head, and Marian.
"I value every custom that tends to
Infuse poetical feeling into the common
people, and to sweeten and soften the
rudeness of rustic manners, without de-
stroying 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
Lomely May-day pageant, have gradually
d sappeared, in proportion as the pea-
santry have become expensive and arti-
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 stand-
ards 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 amuse-
ments 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 they passed by the way, they espyed a company of tall yeomen, clothed all in greene, with greene hoods, and with

oowes 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 ponefires in the streets.

"Of these Mayings, we read in the reign of Henry the sixth, that the aldermen 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 sent 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 various colours, interspersed with flowers; and the horns 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 attack ed to a baldrick of silk, which he sounded as he passed the barrier. After them came Peter Lanaret, the baron's chie 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, biue and white; he had a large garland of rose buds on his head, a bow bent in his hand

a

a sheaf of arrows at his girdle, and a bugle-hom depending from a baldrick of bght 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 Stakely, 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, strewing flowers, followed immediately by the Maid Marian, elegantly habited in watchet-coloured tunic reaching to the ground; over which she wore a white Imen 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 Maypole, 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 bagpipes accompanied
with the pipe and tabour, performed by
one of his associates. When the dance
was finished, Gregory the jester, who un-
dertook to play the hobby-horse, came
forward with his appropriate equipment,
and, frisking up and down the square
without restriction, imitated the gallop-
ing, curvetting, ambling, trotting, and
other paces of a horse, to the infinite sa-
tisfaction of the lower classes of the spec-
tators. 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 cha-
racter of Much, having small bells attach-
ed 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 mea¬
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 obey-
ed, 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