v. sc. 3), it was impossible to make the people sleep on May-morning,
and (_Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act i. sc. 1) that they rose up early to
observe May day.
“If thou lovest me then,
Steal forth thy father’s house to-morrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town,
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee.”
And again:
“No doubt they rise up early to observe
The rite of May.”--Act. iv. sc. 1.
_May-dew._--This was held of singular virtue in former times, and thus
in the _Morning Post_ of 2nd May, 1791, we are told that the day before,
being the First of May, according to annual and superstitious custom, a
number of persons went into the fields and bathed their faces with the
dew on the grass, under the idea that it would render them beautiful.
Pepys on a certain day in May makes this entry in his _Diary_: “My wife
away, down with Jane and W. Hewer to Woolwich, in order to a little ayre
and to lie there to-night, and so to gather May-dew to-morrow morning,
which Mrs. Turner hath taught her is the only thing in the world to wash
her face with.”
_May-games._--When Christianity, says Soane (_Curiosities of
Literature_, p. 230), found its way into Britain, the same mode would
seem to have been adopted in regard to the May-games by the wise
liberality of the first missionaries that we see them employing in so
many other cases. Conceding to the prejudices of the people, they did
not attempt to root out long established characters, but invested them
with another character as bees close in with wax the noxious substance
they are unable to remove. Thus in course of time the festival was not
only diverted from its original intention, but even the meaning of its
various symbols was forgotten. It degenerated into a mere holiday, and
as such long continued to be the delight of all ages and of all classes,
from king and queen upon the throne to the peasant in his cottage. Thus,
for example, Henry VIII. appears to have been particularly attached to
the exercise of archery and the observance of May. “Some short time
after his coronation,” says Hall (_Vit. Henry VIII._, fol. vi. 6), “he
came to Westminster with the Queen and all their train. And on a time
being there, his Grace, the Earls of Essex, Wiltshire, and other
noblemen, to the number of twelve, came suddenly into the Queen’s
chamber, all apparelled in short coats of Kentish Kendal, with hoods on
their heads, and hosen of the same, every one of them his bow and
arrows, and a sword and buckler, like outlaws or Robin Hood’s men;
whereof the Queen, the ladies, and all others there, were abashed, as
well for the strange sight, as also for their sudden coming; and after
certain dances and pastimes made, they departed.”
Stow, too, in his _Survey of London_ (1603, 4to, p. 99) has the
following:--“In the moneth of May, namely on May-day in the morning,
every man, except impediment, would walke into the sweete meadows and
greene woods, there to rejoyce their spirites with the beauty and savour
of sweete flowers, and with the harmony of birds praysing God in their
kind; and for example hereof Edward Hall hath noted that K. Henry the
Eighth, as in the 3 of his reigne and divers other years, so namely on
the seventh of his reigne on May day in the morning, with Qween Katheren
his wife, accompanied with many lords and ladies, rode a-maying from
Greenwitch to the high ground of Shooter’s hill, where as they passed by
the way they espied a company of tall yeomen clothed all in greene, with
greene whoodes and with bowes and arrowes, to the number of 100. One
being their chieftaine was called Robin Hoode, who required the king and
his companie to stay and see his men shoote, whereunto the king
graunting, Robin Hoode whistled, and all the 200 archers shot off,
losing all at once, and when he whistled againe, they likewise shot
againe; their arrowes whistled by craft of the head, so that the noyse
was strange and loude, which greatly delighted the king, queene, and
their companie.”
It may seem strange, remarks Soane, that Robin Hood should be so
prominent a figure in a festival which originated long before he was
born, since we first find mention of him and his forest companions in
the reign of King John, while the floral games of England, as we have
seen, had their rise with the Druids. The sports of Robin Hood were most
probably first instituted for the encouragement of archery, and it is
not surprising if a recreation so especially connected with summer and
the forest, was celebrated at the opening of the year--the opening, that
is, so far as it related to rural sports and pleasures. By degrees it
would become blended with the festival already existing, and in a short
time, from its superior attraction, it would become the principal
feature of it.
Douce, in his _Illustrations of Shakespeare_ (vol. ii. p. 454), says the
introduction of Robin Hood into the celebration of May probably
suggested the addition of a king or lord of May. Soane, however, takes a
very different view, being of opinion that the custom of electing a Lord
and Lady of the May in the popular sports existed at a far earlier
period--long indeed before the time of Robin Hood’s introduction--at the
same time supporting his statement from a command given in the synod at
Worcester, A. D. 1240, Canon 38, “Ne intersint ludis inhonestis, nec
sustineant ludos fieri de rege et regina.” For an interesting account of
the Robin Hood games see Strutt’s novel, _Queen Hoo Hall_ (quoted in
_Book of Days_, vol. i. p 580). Consult also Ritson’s _Collection of
Poems_ relating to Robin Hood (1853), and Brand’s _Pop. Antiq._ 1849,
vol. i. pp. 247-272.
_Morris-dance._--It is supposed to be of Moorish origin, and to be
derived to us from Spain. Hence its name. The principal characters of it
generally were Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Scarlet, Stokesley, Little John,
the Hobby Horse, the Bavian or Fool, Tom the Piper with his pipe and
tabor, the Dragon, of which we have no mention before 1585. The number
of characters varied much at different times and places. See Brand’s
_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. pp. 247-270, and _Book of Days_, vol i. pp.
630-633.
_Maypoles._--The earliest representation of an English maypole is that
published in the _Variorum_ Shakespeare, and depicted on a window at
Betley in Staffordshire, then the property of Mr. Tollet, and which he
was disposed to think as old as the time of Henry VIII. The pole is
planted in a mound of earth, and has affixed to it St. George’s
red-cross banner, and a white pennon or streamer with a forked end. The
shaft of the pole is painted in a diagonal line of black colour upon a
yellow ground, a characteristic decoration of all these ancient
maypoles, as alluded to by Shakespeare in his _Midsummer Night’s Dream_,
where it gives point to Hermia’s allusion to her rival Helena as, “a
painted maypole.”--_Book of Days_, vol. i. p. 575.--See Brand’s _Pop.
Antiq._ 1849, pp. 234-247.
It was, says Hone (_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 556), a great object
with some of the more rigid reformers to suppress amusements, especially
maypoles; and these idols of the people were taken down as zeal grew
fierce, and put up as it grew cool, till, after various ups and downs,
the favourites of the populace were by the Parliament, on the 6th April,
1644, thus provided against: “The Lords and Commons do further order and
ordain that, all and singular maypoles that are or shall be erected,
shall be taken down and removed by the constables, bossholders,
tithing-men, petty constables, and churchwardens of the parishes where
the same be, and that no maypole be hereafter set up, erected, or
suffered to be set up within this kingdom of England or dominion of
Wales; the said officers to be fined five shillings weekly till the said
maypole be taken down.” Accordingly down went all the maypoles that were
left. The restoration of Charles II. however was the signal for their
revival. On the very 1st of May afterwards, in 1661, the maypole in the
Strand was reared with great ceremony and rejoicing. A contemporary
writer (in _Cities Loyalty Displayed_, 1661, 4to) speaking of it, says,
“This tree was a most choice and remarkable piece; ’twas made below
Bridge, and brought in two parts up to Scotland Yard, near the King’s
Palace, and from thence it was conveyed, April 14th, to the Strand to be
erected [nearly opposite Somerset House]. It was brought with a streamer
flourishing before it, drums beating all the way, and other sorts of
musick; it was supposed to be so long that landsmen (as carpenters)
could not possibly raise it; (Prince James, the Duke of York, Lord High
Admiral of England, commanded twelve seamen off aboord to come and
officiate the business, whereupon they came and brought their cables,
pullies, and other tacklins, with six great anchors); after this was
brought three crowns borne by three men bare-headed, and a streamer
displaying all the way before them, drums beating, and other musick
playing; numerous multitudes of people thronging the streets with great
shouts and acclamations all day long. The maypole then being joyned
together, the crown and cane with the King’s arms richly gilded was
placed on the head of it. This being done, the trumpets did sound, and
in four hours space it was advanced upright, after which being
established fast in the ground, six drums did beat, and the trumpets did
sound; again great shouts and acclamations the people give that it did
ring throughout all the Strand. After that came a morris-dance finely
deckt, with purple scarfs in their half-shirts with a tabor, and pipe,
the ancient musick, and danced round about the maypole, and after that
danced the rounds of their liberty. Upon the top of this famous standard
is likewise set up a royal purple streamer, about the middle of it is
placed four crowns more, with the King’s arms likewise; there is also a
garland set upon it of various colours of delicate rich favours, under
which is to be placed three great lanthorns, to remain for three
honours; that is, one for Prince James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral
of England; the other for the Vice-Admiral; and the third for the
rear-Admiral: these are to give light in dark nights, and to continue so
long as the pole stands, which will be a perpetual honour for
seamen.”--See _The Town_, Leigh Hunt (1859, p. 161).
The author of a pamphlet entitled _The Way to Things by Words, and Words
by Things_, considers the maypole in a curious light. We gather from
him, says Brand (_Pop. Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 245), that our ancestors
held an anniversary assembly on May-day, and that the column of May
(whence our maypole) was the great standard of justice in the
Ey-commons, or fields of May. Here it was the people, if they saw
cause, deposed or punished their governors, their barons, and their
kings. The judge’s bough or wand (now discontinued, and only faintly
represented by a trifling nosegay), and the staff or rod of authority in
the civil and in the military (for it was the mace of civil power, and
the truncheon of the field-officers), are both derived from hence.
A mayor, he says, received his name from this May, in the sense of
lawful power; the crown--a mark of dignity and symbol of power, like the
mace and sceptre--was also taken from the May, being representative of
the garland or crown, which when hung on the top of the May or pole, was
the great signal for convening the people; the arches of it, which
spring from the circlet and meet together at the mound or round bell,
being necessarily so formed, to suspend it to the top of the pole. The
word maypole, he observes, is a pleonasm; in French it is called singly
_Mai_.
In front of the spot now occupied by St. Mary-le-Strand anciently stood
a cross, at which, says Stow, “In the year 1294 and other times, the
justices itinerant sat without London.”
In the _British Apollo_ (1708, vol. i.) a writer says: It was a custom
among the ancient Britons, before converted to Christianity, to erect
these maypoles, adorned with flowers, in honour of the goddess Flora.
Keysler, says Mr. Borlase, thinks that the custom of the maypole took
its origin from the earnest desire of the people to see their king, who,
seldom appearing at other times, made his procession at this time of
year to the great assembly of the states held in the open air.--_Pop.
Antiq._ 1849, vol. i. p. 246.
_Chimney-sweepers._--How or when the chimney-sweepers contrived to
intrude their sooty persons into the company of the gay and graceful
Flora upon her high festival does not appear. It is certain, however,
that in London they have long observed the early days of May as an
established holiday, on which occasion they parade the streets in
parties, fantastically tricked out in tawdry finery, enriched with
strips of gilt and various coloured papers, &c. With their faces
chalked, and their shovels and brushes in hand, they caper the
“Chimney-sweeper’s Dance” to a well-known tune, considered by amateurs
as more noisy than musical. Some of the larger parties are accompanied
by a fiddle, a “Jack-in-the-Green,” and a “Lord and lady of the May.”
The “Jack-in-the-Green” is a man concealed within a frame of wickerwork
covered with leaves, flowers, &c.--Soane, _New Curiosities of
Literature_, p. 261; _Sports, Pastimes, and Customs of London_, 1847, p.
34; See _Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 583, vol. ii. p. 619.
_Milkmaid’s Dance._--On the first day of May, says a writer in the
_Spectator_ (vol. v.), “the ruddy milkmaid exerts herself in a most
sprightly manner under a pyramid of silver tankards, and, like the
virgin Tarpeia, oppressed by the costly ornaments which her benefactors
lay upon her.” These decorations of silver cups, tankards, and salvers
were borrowed for the purpose, and hung round the milk-pails, with the
addition of flowers and ribbons, which the maidens carried upon their
heads when they went to the houses of their customers, and danced in
order to obtain a small gratuity from each of them. Of late years the
plate, with the other decorations, was placed in a pyramidical form, and
carried by two chairmen upon a wooden horse. The maidens walked before
it, and performed the dance without any incumbrance. Sometimes in place
of the silver tankards and salvers they substituted a cow. The animal
had her horns gilt, and was nearly covered with ribbons of various
colours, formed into bows and roses, and interspersed with green oaken
leaves and bunches of flowers.--Strutt, _Sports and Pastimes_, 1801, b.
iv. p. 266.[44]
[44] At Baslow, in the county of Derby, the festival of kit-dressing
is, occasionally, observed. The kits or milk pails are fancifully and
tastefully decorated with ribbons, and hung with festoons of flowers
and ornaments of muslin and silk, and with gold and silver thread. The
kits are carried on the heads of the young women of the village, who,
attended by the young men and preceded by a band of music, parade the
streets, and end the day’s proceedings by a dance. _Jour. of Arch.
Assoc._ 1852, vol. vii. p. 208.
Pepys in his _Diary_, May 1st, 1667, says, “To Westminster; on the way
meeting many milkmaids, with their garlands upon their pails, dancing
with a fiddler before them, and saw pretty Nelly [Nell Gwynne] standing
at her lodgings’ door in Drury Lane in her smock sleeves and bodice,
looking upon one; she seemed a mighty pretty creature.”
In a set of prints called the _Tempest Cryes of London_, one is called
the Merry Milkmaid, whose proper name was Kate Smith. She is dancing
with her milk-pail on her head, decorated with silver cups, tankards,
and salvers borrowed for the purpose, and tied together with ribbons,
and ornamented with flowers. Misson, too, in his _Observations on his
Travels in England_, alludes to this custom. He says: On the 1st of May,
and the five and six days following, all the pretty young country girls
that serve the town with milk dress themselves up very neatly, and
borrow abundance of silver plate, whereof they make a pyramid, which
they adorn with ribbons and flowers, and carry upon their heads instead
of their common milk-pails. In this equipage, accompanied by some of
their fellow milkmaids and a bag-pipe or fiddle, they go from door to
door, dancing before the houses of their customers, in the midst of boys
and girls that follow them in troops, and everybody gives them
something.--Ozell’s _Translation_, 8vo, 1719, p. 307.
In Read’s _Weekly Times_, May 5th, 1733, occurs the following:--On
May-day the milk-maids who serve the Court danced minuets and rigadoons
before the Royal family, at St. James’s House, with great applause.
The following lines descriptive of the milkmaid’s garland are taken from
_Every Day Book_, vol. i. pp. 569, 570:--
“In London thirty years ago,
When pretty milkmaids went about,
It was a goodly sight to see
Their May-day pageant all drawn out.
Themselves in comely colours drest,
Their shining garland in the middle,
A pipe and tabor on before,
Or else the foot-inspiring fiddle.
They stopt at houses where it was
Their custom to cry ‘milk below!’
And, while the music play’d, with smiles
Join’d hands and pointed toe to toe.
Thus they tripp’d on, till--from door to door
The hop’d-for annual present sent--
A signal came, to courtsey low,
And at that door cease merriment.
Such scenes and sounds once blest my eyes
And charm’d my ears; but all have vanish’d.
On May-day now no garlands go,
For milkmaids and their dance are banish’d.
See Chappell’s _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, 1855-9; also _Every
Day Book_, vol. ii. p. 1562.
_May-gosling._--A writer in the _Gent. Mag._ (1791, vol. lxi. p. 327)
says a May-gosling, on the 1st of May, is made with as much eagerness in
the north of England as an April noddy (noodle) or fool on the 1st of
April.
“U. P. K. spells May-goslings” is an expression used by boys at play as
an insult to the losing party. U. P. K. is _up-pick_, that is, up with
your pin or peg, the mark of the goal. An additional punishment was
thus: the winner made a hole in the ground with his heel, into which a
peg about three inches long was driven, its top being below the surface;
the loser, with his hands tied behind him, was to pull it up with his
teeth, the boys buffeting with their hats, and calling out, “Up-pick!
you May gosling!” or “U. P. K., gosling in May.”[45]
[45] See p. 265.
BERKSHIRE.
At Abingdon the children and young people formerly went about in groups
on May morning, singing the following carol:--
“We’ve been a-rambling all the night,
And sometime of this day;
And now returning back again,
We bring a garland gay.
Why don’t you do as we have done
On this first day of May?
And from our parents we have come,
And would no longer stay.
A garland gay we bring you here,
And at your door we stand;
It is a sprout well budded out,
The work of our Lord’s hand.
Why don’t you do, &c.
So dear, so dear as Christ loved us,
And for our sins was slain;
Christ bids us turn from wickedness
Back to the Lord again.
Why don’t you do,” &c.--
_N. & Q. 4th S._ vol. iii. p. 401.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
In a MS. in the British Museum entitled _Status Scholæ Etonensis_, A.D.
1560, it is stated that on the day of St. Philip and St. James, if it be
fair weather, and the master grants leave, those boys who choose it may
rise at four o’clock, to gather May-branches, if they can do it without
wetting their feet; and that on that day they adorn the windows of the
bed-chambers with green leaves, and the houses are perfumed with
fragrant herbs.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
Some derive May from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom they offered
sacrifices on the first day of it; and this seems to explain the custom
which prevails on this day at Cambridge of children having a figure
dressed in a grotesque manner, called a _May-lady_, before which they
set a table having on it wine, &c. They also beg money of passengers,
which is considered as an offering to the _Maulkin_; for their plea to
obtain it is “Pray remember the poor May-lady.” Perhaps the garlands,
for which they also beg, originally adorned the head of the goddess. The
bush of hawthorn, or, as it is called, May, placed at the doors on this
day, may point out the firstfruits of the spring, as this is one of the
earliest trees which blossoms.--Audley, _Companion to the Almanack_,
1816, p. 71.
CHESHIRE.
In this county the young men formerly celebrated May-day by placing
large bidden boughs over the doors of the houses where the young women
resided to whom they paid their addresses; and an alder bough was often
placed over the door of a scold.--Lysons’ _Magna Britannia_, 1810, vol.
ii. pt. ii. p. 462.
Maypoles are also erected, and danced round in some villages with as
much avidity as ever.--_Jour. of Arch. Assoc._, 1850, vol. v. p. 254.
Washington Irving in his _Sketch Book_ says, I shall never forget the
delight I felt on first seeing a Maypole. It was on the banks of the
Dee, close by the picturesque old bridge that stretches across the
river 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 volume, or gazing on the pictures in Froissart. The Maypole
on the margin of that poetic stream completed the illusion. My fancy
adorned it with wreaths of flowers, and peopled the green bank with all
the dancing revelry of May-day.
CORNWALL.
In Cornwall this day is hailed by the juveniles as “dipping-day.” On
May-morning the children go out into the country and fetch home the
flowering branches of the white-thorn, or boughs of the narrow-leaved
elm, which has just put forth its leaves, both of which are called
“May.” At a later hour all the boys of the village sally forth with
their bucket, can, and syringe, or other instrument, and avail
themselves of a licence which the season confers “to dip” or well nigh
drown, without regard to person or circumstances, the passenger who has
not the protection of a piece of “May” in his hat or button-hole. The
sprig of the hawthorn or elm is probably held to be proof that the
bearer has not failed to rise early “to do observance to a morn of
May.”--_N. & Q. 1st S._ vol. xii. p. 297. Borlase, in his _Natural
History of Cornwall_, tells us that an ancient custom still retained by
the Cornish is that of decking their doors and porches on the 1st of May
with green sycamore and hawthorn boughs, and of planting trees, or
rather stumps of trees, before their houses.
Bond, in his _History of East and West Looe_ (1823, p. 38), says:--On
May-day the boys dress their hats with flowers and hawthorn, and furnish
themselves with bullocks’ horns, in which sticks of about two feet long
are fixed, and with these instruments filled with water they parade the
streets all day, and dip all persons who pass them if they have not what
is called May in their hats, that is, a sprig of hawthorn.
A writer also in _Once a Week_ (Sept. 24th, 1870), speaking of certain
Cornish customs, tells us that dipping was admitted by the boys of Looe
to be very great fun, and a May-day without any would have been voted
an utter failure; nevertheless the coppers of commutation were very
acceptable, as the great two-day fair of the town was held towards the
close of the week, when cash was generally in demand. Hence when any one
flung pence among them, they were wont to chant during the scramble--
“The First of May is dipping-day,
The Sixth of May is Looe’s fair day.”