A VIEW OF _COUNTRY LIFE_ DURING THE AGE OF SHAKSPEARE; ITS
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.—RURAL HOLYDAYS, AND FESTIVALS.
The record of rural festivity and amusement, must, as far as it is
unaccompanied by any detail of riot or intemperance, be a subject of
pleasing contemplation to every good and cheerful mind. Labour, the
destined portion of by far the greater part of human beings, requires
frequent intervals of relaxation; and the encouragement of innocent
diversion at stated periods, may be considered, therefore, both in a
moral and political point of view, as essentially useful. The sports
and amusements of our ancestors on their holydays and festivals, while
they had little tendency to promote either luxury or dissipation,
contributed very powerfully to preserve some of the best and most
striking features of our national manners and character, and were
frequently mingled with that cheerful piety which forms the most
heart-felt species of devotion, where religion, mixing with the social
rite, offers up the homage of a happy and contented heart.
It may be necessary here to mention, that in enumerating the various
ceremonial and feast days of rural life, we have purposely omitted
those which are _peculiarly_ occupied by _superstitious_ observances,
as they will with more propriety be included under a subsequent
chapter, appropriated to the consideration of popular superstitions.
The ushering in of the New Year, or _New Years tide_, with rejoicings,
presents, and good wishes, was a custom observed, during the sixteenth
century, with great regularity and parade, and was as cordially
celebrated in the court of the prince as in the cottage of the peasant.
To end the old year _merrily_ and begin the new one _well_, and in
_friendship_ with their neighbours, were the objects which the common
people had in view in the celebration of this tide or festival.
New-Years Eve, therefore, was spent in festivity and frolic by the
men; and the young women of the village carried about, from door to
door, a bowl of spiced ale, which they offered to the inhabitants of
every house where they stopped, singing at the same time some rude
congratulatory verses, and expecting some small present in return. This
practice, however, which originated in pure kindness and benevolence,
soon degenerated into a mere pecuniary traffic, for Selden, in his
Table Talk, thus alludes to the subject, while drawing the following
curious comparison: "The pope in sending relicks to princes, does as
_wenches_ do by their _wassails_ at _New Years Tide_.—They _present
you_ with a _cup_, and you must _drink_ of a slabby stuff; but the
meaning is, you must _give_ them _money_ ten times more than it is
worth."[124:A]
It was customary also, on this eve, for the young men and women to
exchange their clothes, which was termed _Mumming_ or _Disguising_;
and when thus dressed in each other's garments, they would go from one
neighbour's cottage to another, singing, dancing, and partaking of
their good cheer; a species of masquerading which, as may be imagined,
was often productive of the most licentious freedoms.
On the succeeding morning, the first of the New Year, presents, called
new-year's gifts, were given and received, with the mutual expression
of good wishes, and particularly that of a _happy New Year_. The
compliment was sometimes paid at each other's doors in the form of a
song; but more generally, especially in the north of England and in
Scotland, the house was entered very early in the morning, by some
young men and maidens selected for the purpose, who presented the
spiced bowl, and hailed you with the gratulations of the season.
The custom of interchanging gifts on this day, though now nearly
obsolete, was, in the days of Shakspeare, observed most scrupulously;
and not merely in the country, but, as hath been just before hinted,
even in the palace of the monarch. In fact the wardrobe and jewelry of
Elizabeth appear to have been supported principally by these annual
contributions.
As a brief summary of these presents, though given not in the country,
but at court, will yet, as including almost every rank in life, from
the peer to the dustman, place in a strong light the prevalence of this
custom, and point out of what these gifts usually consisted in a town,
and therefore, by inference, of what they must have included in the
country, its introduction will not, we should hope, be considered as
altogether digressive from the nature of our subject.
To Mr. Nichols, who, in his work entitled "Queen Elizabeth's
Progresses," has printed, from the original rolls in vellum, some very
copious lists of New Year's gifts annually presented to this popular
monarch, are we indebted for the following curious enumeration.
"From all these rolls," says he, "and more of them perhaps are still
existing, it appears that the greatest part, if not all the peers
and peeresses of the realm, all the bishops, the chief officers of
state, and several of the Queen's houshold servants, even down to her
apothecaries, master cook, serjeant of the pastry, &c. gave New Year's
gifts to Her Majesty; consisting, in general, either of a sum of money,
or jewels, trinkets, wearing apparel, &c. The largest sum given by any
of the temporal lords was 20_l._; but the Archbishop of Canterbury
gave 40_l._, the Archbishop of York 30_l._, and the other spiritual
lords 20_l._ and 10_l._; many of the temporal lords and great officers,
and most of the peeresses, gave rich gowns, petticoats, smocks,
kirtles, silk stockings, cypres garters, sweet-bags, doblets, mantles,
some embroidered with pearles, garnets, &c. looking-glasses, fans,
bracelets, caskets studded with precious stones, jewels ornamented with
sparks of diamonds in various devices, and other costly trinkets. Sir
Gilbert Dethick, Garter King of Arms, gave a book of the states in King
William the Conqueror's time, and a book of the arms of the noblemen
in Henry the Fifth's time; Absolon, the master of the Savoy, a Bible
covered with cloth of gold, garnished with silver, and gilt, and two
plates with the royal arms; _Petruchio Ubaldino_, a book covered with
vellum of Italian; Lambarde, the antiquary, his Pandecta of all the
Rolls, &c. in the Tower of London. The Queen's physician presented her
with a box of foreign sweetmeats; another physician with two pots, one
of green ginger, the other of orange flowers; two other physicians
gave each a pot of green ginger, and a pot of the rinds of lemons; her
apothecaries a box of lozenges, a box of ginger candy, a box of grene
ginger, a box of orange candit, a pot of conserves, a pot of wardyns
condite, a box of wood with prunolyn, and two boxes of _manus Christi_;
Mrs. Blanch a Parry, a little box of gold to put in cumphetts, and
a little spoon of gold; Mrs. Morgan a box of cherryes, and one of
aberycocks; her master cook a fayre marchepayne; her serjeant of the
pastry a fayre pie of quinces oringed; a box of peaches of Jenneway
(Genoa); a great pie of quynses and wardyns guilte; _Putrino_, an
Italian, presented her with two pictures; _Innocent Corry_ with a
box of lutestrings; _Ambrose Lupo_ with another box of lutestrings,
and a glass of sweet water; _Petro Lupo_, _Josepho Lupo_, and _Cæsar
Caliardo_, each with a pair of sweet gloves; a cutler with a meat knyfe
with a fan haft of bone, _a conceit in it_; _Jaromy_ with twenty-four
drinking-glasses; _Jeromy Bassano_ two drinking-glasses; Smyth,
_dustman_, two boltes of cambrick."[126:A]
The Queen, though she made returns in plate and other articles, took
sufficient care that the balance should be in her own favour; hence,
as the custom was found to be lucrative, and had indeed been practised
with success by her predecessors on the throne, it was encouraged
and rendered fashionable to an extent hitherto unprecedented in this
kingdom. In the country, however, with the exception of the extensive
households of the nobility, this interchange was conducted on the pure
basis of reciprocal kindness and good will, and without any view of
securing patronage or support; it was, indeed, frequently the channel
through which charity delighted to exert her holy influence, and though
originating in the heathen world, became sanctified by the Christian
virtues.
To the rejoicings on New Year's tide succeeded, after a short interval,
the observance of the TWELFTH DAY, so called from its being the twelfth
after the Nativity of our Saviour, and the day on which the _Eastern
Magi_, guided by the star, arrived at Bethlehem to worship the infant
Jesus.
This festive day, the most celebrated of the twelve for the peculiar
conviviality of its rites, has been observed in this kingdom ever since
the reign of Alfred, in whose days, says Collier, "a Law was made with
relation to Holidays, by virtue of which the _twelve_ days _after_ the
Nativity of our Saviour were made Festivals."[127:A]
In consequence of an idea, which seems generally to have prevailed,
that the _Eastern Magi_ were kings, this day has been frequently termed
the _Feast of the Three Kings_; and many of the rites with which it
is attended, are founded on this conception; for it was customary to
elect, from the company assembled on this occasion, a king or queen,
who was usually elevated to this rank by the fortuitous division of a
cake containing a bean or piece of coin, and he or she to whom this
symbol of distinction fell, in dividing the cake, was immediately
chosen king or queen, and then forming their ministers and court from
the company around, maintained their state and character until midnight.
The _Twelfth Cake_ was almost always accompanied by the _Wassail Bowl_,
a composition of spiced wine or ale, or mead, or metheglin, into which
was thrown roasted apples, sugar, &c. The term _Wassail_, which in
our elder poets is connected with much interesting imagery, and many
curious rites, appears to have been first used in this island during
the well-known interview between Vortigern and Rowena. Geoffrey of
Monmouth relates, on the authority of Walter Calenius, that this lady,
the daughter of Hengist, knelt down, on the approach of the king, and
presenting him with a cup of wine, exclaimed "Lord king _wæs heil_,"
that is, literally "Health be to you." Vortigern being ignorant of
the Saxon language, was informed by an interpreter, that the purport
of these words was to wish him health, and that he should reply by
the expression _drinc-heil_, or "Drink the health;" accordingly, on
his so doing, Rowena drank, and the king receiving the cup from her
hand, kissed and pledged her.[128:A] Since this period, observes the
historian, the custom has prevailed in Britain of using these words
whilst drinking; the person who drank to another saying _was-heil_, and
he who received the cup answering _drinc-heil_.
It soon afterwards became a custom in villages, on Christmas-Eve, New
Year's Eve, and Twelfth Night, for itinerant minstrels to carry to
the houses of the gentry, and others, where they were generally very
hospitably received, a bowl of spiced wine, which being presented with
the Saxon words just mentioned, was therefore called a _Wassail-bowl_.
A bowl or cup of this description was likewise to be found in almost
every nobleman's and gentleman's house, (and frequently of massy
silver,) until the middle of the seventeenth century, and which was
in perpetual requisition during the revels of Christmas. In "_The
Antiquarian Repertory_, vol. i. p. 217," relates Mr. Douce, "there is
an account, accompanied with an engraving, of an oaken chimney-piece
in a very old house at Berlen, near Snodland in Kent, on which is
carved a wassel-bowl resting on the branches of an apple-tree,
alluding, probably, to part of the materials of which the liquor was
composed. On one side is the word =wassheil=, and on the other
=drincheile=."[129:A] "This is certainly," he adds, "a very
great curiosity of its kind, and at least as old as the fourteenth
century. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, in his will gave to Sir John
Briddlewood a silver cup called _wassail_: and it appears that John
Duke of Bedford, the regent, by his first will bequeathed to John
Barton, his maitre d'hotel, a silver cup and cover, on which was
inscribed WASHAYL."[129:B]
In consequence of the _Wassail-bowl_ being peculiar to scenes of
revelry and festivity, the term _wassail_ in time became synonymous
with feasting and carousing, and has been used, therefore, by many of
our poets either to imply drinking and merriment, or the place where
such joviality was expected to occur. Thus Shakspeare makes Hamlet say
of the king "draining his draughts of Rhenish down," that he
"Keeps _wassel_:"[129:C]
and in Macbeth, the heroine of that play declares that she will
convince the two chamberlains of Duncan
"With wine and _wassel_."[129:D]
In Anthony and Cleopatra also, Cæsar, advising Anthony to live more
temperately, tells him to leave his
"Lascivious _wassals_."[129:E]
And lastly, in Love's Labour's Lost, Biron, describing the character
of Boyet, says,
"He is wit's pedler: and retails his wares
At wakes, and _wassels_, meetings, markets, fairs."[130:A]
Ben Jonson has given us two curious personifications of the Wassal; the
first in his Forest, No. 3. whilst giving an account of a rural feast
in the hall of Sir Robert Wroth; he says,
"The rout of rural folk come thronging in,
Their rudenesse then is thought no sin—
The jolly _Wassal_ walks the often round,
And in their cups their cares are drown'd:"[130:B]
and the second in "Christmas, His Masque, as it was presented at Court
1616," where _Wassall_, as one of the ten children of Christmas, is
represented in the following quaint manner. _Like a neat Sempster, and
Songster; her Page bearing a browne bowle, drest with Ribbands, and
Rosemarie before her._[130:C]
Fletcher, in his Faithful Shepherdess, has given a striking description
of the festivity attendant on the Wassal bowl:
——— "The woods, or some near town
That is a neighbour to the bordering down,
Hath drawn them thither, 'bout some lusty sport,
Or spiced _Wassel-Boul_, to which resort
All the young men and maids of many a cote,
Whilst the trim minstrell strikes his merry note."[130:D]
The persons thus accompanying the Wassal bowl, especially those who
danced and played, were called _Wassailers_, an appellation which it
was afterwards customary to bestow on all who indulged, at any season,
in intemperate mirth. Hence Milton introduces his Lady in Comus making
use of the term in the following beautiful passage:
——————— "Methought it was the sound
Of riot and ill-manag'd merriment,
Such as the jocund flute, or gamesome pipe
Stirs up among the loose unletter'd hinds,
When for their teeming flocks, and granges full,
In wanton dance, they praise the bounteous Pan,
And thank the gods amiss. I should be loath
To meet the rudeness, and swill'd insolence,
Of such late _wassailers_."[131:A]
During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. the celebration of
Twelfth Night was, equally with Christmas-Day, a festival through
the land, and was observed with great ostentation and ceremony in
both the Universities, at Court, at the Temple, and at Lincoln's
and Gray's-Inn. Many of the Masques of Ben Jonson were written for
the amusement of the royal family on this night, and Dugdale in his
_Origines Juridicales_, has given us a long and particular account of
the revelry at the Temple on each of the twelve days of Christmas,
in the year 1562. It appears from this document that the hospitable
rites of St. Stephen's Day, St. John's Day, and Twelfth Day, were
ordered to be exactly alike, and as many of them are, in their
nature, perfectly rural, and were, there is every reason to suppose,
observed, to a certain extent, in the halls of the country-gentry and
substantial yeomanry, a short record here, of those that fall under
this description, cannot be deemed inapposite.
The breakfast on Twelfth Day is directed to be of brawn, mustard, and
malmsey; the dinner of two courses, to be served in the hall, and after
the first course "cometh in the Master of the Game, apparalled in green
velvet: and the Ranger of the Forest also, in a green suit of satten;
bearing in his hand a green bow and divers arrows, with either of them
a hunting horn about their necks: blowing together three blasts of
venery, they pace round about the fire three times. Then the Master
of the Game maketh three curtesies," kneels down, and petitions to be
admitted into the service of the Lord of the Feast.
"This ceremony performed, a huntsman cometh into the hall, with a fox
and a purse-net; with a cat, both bound at the end of a staff; and with
them nine or ten couple of hounds, with the blowing of hunting-horns.
And the fox and cat are by the hounds set upon, and killed beneath the
fire. This sport finished, the Marshal (an officer so called, who, with
many others under different appellations, were created for the purpose
of conducting the revels) placeth them in their several appointed
places."
After the second course, the "antientest of the Masters of the Revels
singeth a song, with the assistance of others there present;" and after
some repose and revels, supper, consisting of two courses, is then
served in the hall, and, being ended, "the Marshall presenteth himself
with drums afore him, mounted upon a scaffold, born by four men; and
goeth three times round about the harthe, crying out, aloud, 'A Lord, a
Lord,' &c., then he descendeth, and goeth to dance."
"This done, the Lord of Misrule (an officer whose functions will be
afterwards noticed) addresseth himself to the Banquet; which ended
with some minstralsye, mirth and dancing, every man departeth to
rest."[133:A]
Herrick, who was the contemporary of Shakspeare for the first
twenty-five years of his life, that is, from the year 1591 to 1616, has
given us the following curious and pleasing account of the ceremonies
of Twelfth Night, as we may suppose them to have been observed in
almost every private family:
"TWELFTH-NIGHT,
OR KING AND QUEEN.
Now, now the mirth comes
With the cake full of plums,
Where Beane's the king of the sport here;
Beside, we must know,
The Pea also
Must revell, as Queene, in the court here.
Begin then to chuse,
This night as ye use,
Who shall for the present delight here,
Be a King by the lot,
And who shall not
Be Twelfe-day Queene for the night here.
Which knowne, let us make
Joy-sops with the cake;
And let not a man then be seen here,
Who unurg'd will not drinke
To the base from the brink
A health to the King and the Queene here.
Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle lambs-wooll;
Adde sugar, nutmeg and ginger,
With store of ale too;
And thus ye must doe
To make the _wassaile_ a swinger.
Give then to the King
And Queene wassailing;
And though with ale ye be whet here;
Yet part ye from hence,
As free from offence,
As when ye innocent met here."
_Herrick's Hesperides_, p. 376, 377.
The _Twelfth Day_ was the usual termination of the festivities of
Christmas with the higher ranks; but with the vulgar they were
frequently prolonged until Candlemas, to which period it was thought a
point of much importance to retain a portion of their Christmas cheer.
It should not be forgotten here, that Shakspeare has given the
appellation of _Twelfth Night_ to one of his best and most finished
plays. No reason for this choice is discoverable in the drama itself,
and from its adjunctive title of _What You Will_, it is probable, that
the name was meant to be no otherwise appropriate than as designating
an evening on which dramatic mirth and recreation were, by custom,
peculiarly expected and always acceptable.[134:A]
It appears from a passage from Warner's Albion's England, that between
Twelfth Day and Plough-Monday, a period was customarily fixed upon
for the celebration of games in honour of the Distaff, and which was
termed ROCK-DAY.[135:A] The notice in question is to be found in the
lamentations of the Northerne-man over the decline of festivity, where
he exclaims,
"_Rock_, and plow-mondaies, _gams_ sal gang,
With saint-feasts and kirk sights."[135:B]
That this festival was observed not only during the immediate days of
Warner and Shakspeare, but for some time afterwards, we learn from
a little poem by Robert Herrick, which was probably written between
the years 1630 and 1640. Herrick was born in 1591, and published his
collection of poems, entitled Hesperides, in 1648. He gives us in his
title the additional information that _Rock_, or _Saint Distaff's
Day_, was the morrow after Twelfth Day; and he advises that it should
terminate the sports of Christmas.
"SAINT DISTAFF'S OR THE MORROW AFTER
TWELFTH-DAY.
Partly worke and partly play
Ye must on S. _Distaff's day_:
From the plough soone free your teame;
Then come home and fother them.
If the Maides a spinning goe,
Burne the flax, and fire the tow:
Scorch their plackets, but beware
That ye singe no maiden-haire.
Bring in pailes of water then,
Let the Maides bewash the men.
Give S. _Distaffe_ all the right,
Then bid Christmas sport _good night_.
And next morrow, every one
To his owne vocation."[136:A]
The first Monday after Twelfth Day used to be celebrated by the
ploughmen as a Holiday, being the season at which the labours
of the plough commenced, and hence the day has been denominated
PLOUGH-MONDAY. Tusser, in his poem on husbandry, after observing that
the "old guise must be kept," recommends the ploughmen on this day to
the hospitality of the good huswife:
"Good huswives, whom God hath enriched ynough,
forget not the feasts, that belong to the plough:
The meaning is only to joy and be glad,
for comfort with labour, is fit to be had."
He then adds,
"Plough-Munday, next after that Twelftide is past,
bids out with the plough, the worst husband is last:
If plowman get hatchet, or whip to the skreene,
maids loveth their cocke, if no water be seene."
These lines allude to a custom prevalent in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, and which Mr. Hilman, in a note on the passage,
has thus explained: "After Christmas, (which formerly, during the
twelve days, was a time of very little work,) every gentleman
feasted the farmers, and every farmer their servants and task-men.
_Plough-monday_ puts them in mind of their business. In the morning the
men and maid-servants strive who shall shew their diligence in rising
earliest; if the ploughman can get his whip, his plough-staff, hatchet,
or any thing that he wants in the field, by the fire-side, before the
maid hath got her kettle on, then the maid loseth her _Shrovetide_
cock, and it wholly belongs to the men. Thus did our forefathers
strive to allure youth to their duty, and provided them innocent mirth,
as well as labour. On this _Plough-Monday_ they have a good supper
and some strong drink, that they might not go immediately out of one
extreme into another."[137:A]
In the northern and north-western parts of England, the entire day was
usually consumed in parading the streets, and the night was devoted
to festivity. The ploughmen, apparently habited only in their shirts,
but in fact with flannel jackets underneath, to keep out the cold, and
these shirts decorated with rose-knots of various coloured riband, went
about collecting what they called "_plough-money_ for drink." They were
accompanied by a plough, which they dragged along, and by music, and
not unfrequently two of the party were dressed to personate an _old
woman_, whom they called _Bessy_, and a _Fool_, the latter of these
characters being covered with skins, with a hairy cap on his head, and
the tail of some animal pendent from his back. On one of these antics
was devolved the office of collecting money from the spectators by
rattling a box, into which their contributions were dropped, while the
rest of the ploughmen were engaged in performing a _sword-dance_, a
piece of pageantry derived from our northern ancestors, and of which
Olaus Magnus has left us an accurate description in his history of the
Gothic nations.[137:B] It consisted, for the most part, in forming
various figures with the swords, sheathed and unsheathed, commencing
in slow time, and terminating in very rapid movements, which required
great agility and address to be conducted with safety and effect.[137:C]
It was the opinion of Dr. Johnson that Shakspeare alluded to the
_sword-dance_, where, in _Anthony and Cleopatra_, he makes his hero
observe of Augustus, that
——————— "He, at Philippi, kept
His sword even like a dancer."[138:A]
But Mr. Malone has remarked, with more probability, that the allusion
is to the English custom of dancing with a sword _worn by the side_; in
confirmation of which idea, he quotes a passage from _All's Well That
Ends Well_, where Bertram, lamenting that he is kept from the wars,
says,
"I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up, and no _sword worn_.
But one to _dance_ with."[138:B]
It has been observed in a preceding page, that, among the common
people, the festivities of Christmas were frequently protracted to
CANDLEMAS-DAY. This was done under the idea of doing honour to the
Virgin Mary, whose _purification_ is commemorated by the church at this
period. It was generally, remarks Bourne, "a day of festivity, and more
than ordinary observation among women, and is therefore called the
_Wives Feast-Day_."[138:C] The term _Candlemas_, however, seems to have
arisen from a custom among the Roman Catholics, of consecrating tapers
on this day, and bearing them about lighted in procession, to which
they were enjoined by an edict of Pope Sergius, A. D. 684; but on what
foundation is not accurately ascertained. At the Reformation, among the
rites and ceremonies which were ordered to be retained in a convocation
of Henry VIII., this is one, and expressedly because it was considered
as symbolical of the spiritual illumination of the Gospel.[138:D]
From Candlemas to Hallowmas, the tapers which had been lighted all
the winter in Cathedral and Conventual Churches ceased to be used; and
so prevalent, indeed, was the relinquishment of candles on this day in
domestic life, that it has laid the foundation of one of the proverbs
in the collection of Mr. Ray:
On _Candlemas-day_ throw _Candle_ and _Candlestick_ away.
On this day likewise the Christmas greens were removed from churches
and private houses. Herrick, who may be considered as the contemporary
of Shakspeare, being five-and-twenty at the period of the poet's death,
has given us a pleasing description of this observance; he abounds,
indeed, in the history of local rites, and, though surviving beyond
the middle of the seventeenth century, paints with great accuracy
the manners and superstitions of the Shakspearean era. He has paid
particular attention to the festival that we are describing, and
enumerates the various greens and flowers appropriated to different
seasons in a little poem entitled
"CEREMONIES FOR CANDLEMASSE EVE.
DOWN with the Rosemary and Bayes,
Down with the Misleto;
Instead of Holly, now up-raise
The greener Box (for show).
The Holly hitherto did sway;
Let Box now domineere;
Untill the dancing Easter-day,
On Easter's Eve appeare.
Then youthfull Box which now hath grace,
Your houses to renew;
Grown old, surrender must his place,
Unto the crisped Yew.
When Yew is out, then Birch comes in,
And many Flowers beside;
Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne,
To honour Whitsontide.
Green Bushes then, and sweetest Bents,
With cooler Oken boughs;
Come in for comely ornaments,
To re-adorn the house."[140:A]
The usage which we have alluded to, of preserving the Christmas cheer
and hospitality to Candlemas, is immediately afterwards recorded and
connected with a singular superstition, in the following poems under
the titles of
"CEREMONIES FOR CANDLEMASSE DAY.
KINDLE the Christmas Brand, and then
Till sunne-set, let it burne;
Which quencht, then lay it up agen,
Till Christmas next returne.
Part must be kept wherewith to teend[140:B]
The Christmas Log next yeare;
And where 'tis safely kept, the fiend
Can do no mischiefe there.——
* * * * *
End now the white-loafe, and the pye,
And let all sports with Christmas dye."[140:C]
To the exorcising power of the Christmas Brand is added, in the
subsequent effusion, a most alarming denunciation against those who
heedlessly leave in the Hall on Candlemas Eve, any the smallest portion
of the Christmas greens.
"CEREMONY UPON CANDLEMAS EVE
DOWN with the Rosemary, and so
Down with the Baies, and Misletoe:
Down with the Holly, Ivie, all
Wherewith ye drest the Christmas Hall:
That so the superstitious find
No one least Branch there left behind:
For look, how many leaves there be,
Neglected there, maids, trust to me,
So many _goblins_ you shall see."[141:A]
The next important period of feasting in the country occurred at
SHROVE-TIDE, which among the Roman Catholics was the time appointed
for _shriving_ or _confession of sins_, and was also observed as
a _carnival_ before the commencement of Lent. The former of these
ceremonies was dispensed with at the Reformation; but the rites
attending the latter were for a long time supported with a rival
spirit of hilarity. The Monday and Tuesday succeeding _Shrove_ Sunday,
called _Collop Monday_ and _Pancake Tuesday_, were peculiarly devoted
to _Shrovetide Amusement_; the first having been, in papal times, the
period at which they took leave of flesh, or slices of meat, termed
_collops_ in the north, which had been preserved through the winter by
salting and drying, and the second was a relic of the feast preceding
Lent; eggs and collops therefore on the Monday, and pancakes, as a
delicacy, on the Tuesday, were duly if not religiously served up.
Tusser, in his very curious and entertaining poem on agriculture, thus
notices some of the old observances at _Shrovetide_:—
"At Shroftide to shroving, go thresh the fat hen,
If blindfold can kill her, then give it thy men:
Maids, fritters and pancakes, ynow see ye make,
Let slut have one pancake, for company sake."
For an explanation of the obsolete custom of "threshing the fat hen,"
we are indebted to Mr. Hilman. "The hen," says he, "is hung at a
fellow's back, who has also some horse-bells about him; the rest of
the fellows are blinded, and have boughs in their hands, with which
they chase this fellow and his hen about some large court or small
enclosure. The fellow with his hen and bells shifting as well as he
can, they follow the sound, and sometimes hit him and his hen; at other
times, if he can get behind one of them, they thresh one another well
favour'dly; but the jest is, the maids are to blind the fellows, which
they do with their aprons, and the cunning baggages will endear their
sweet-hearts with a peeping hole, whilst the others look out as sharp
to hinder it. After this the hen is boil'd with bacon, and store of
pancakes and fritters are made. She that is noted for lying in bed
long, or any other miscarriage, hath the first pancake presented to
her, which most commonly falls to the dogs share at last, for no one
will own it their due." Mr. Hilman concludes his comment on the text
with a singular remark; "the loss of the above laudable custom, is one
of the benefits we have got by smoaking tobacco."[142:A]
Shakspeare has twice noticed this season of feasting and amusement;
first, in _All's Well That Ends Well_, where he makes the Clown tell
the Countess (among a string of other similes), that his answer is "as
fit as a pancake for Shrove-tuesday[143:A];" and in the _Second Part
of King Henry IV._ he has introduced _Silence_ singing the following
song:—
"Be merry, be merry, my wife's as all;[143:B]
For women are shrews, both short and tall:
'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all,
And welcome merry _shrove-tide_.
Be merry, be merry, &c."
The third line of this song appears to have been proverbial, and of
considerable antiquity; for Adam Davie, who flourished about 1312, has
the same imagery with the same rhyme, in his _Life of Alexander_:
"Merry swithe it is in halle,
When the _berdes waveth alle_."[143:C]
And the subsequent passage, quoted by Mr. Reed from a writer
contemporary with Shakspeare, proves, that it was a common burden or
under song in the halls of our gentry at that period:—"which done,
grace said, and the table taken up, the plate presently conveyed into
the pantrie, the hall summons this consort of companions (upon payne
to dyne with Duke Humphfrie, or to kisse the hare's foot,) to appear
at the first call: where a song is to be sung, the under song or
holding whereof is, _It is merrie in haul where beards wag all._" The
Serving-man's Comfort, 1598, sign. C.[144:A]
The evening of _Shrove-Tuesday_ was usually appropriated, as well
in the country as in town, to the exhibition of dramatic pieces.
Not only at Court, where Jonson was occasionally employed to write
Masques on this night[144:B], but at both the Universities, in the
provincial schools, and in the halls of the gentry and nobility, were
these the amusements of _Shrovetide_, during the days of Elizabeth
and James. Warton, speaking of these ephemeral plays, adds, in a
note, "I have seen an anonymous comedy, APOLLO SHROVING, composed
by the Master of Hadleigh-school, in Suffolk[144:C], and acted by
his scholars, on Shrove-tuesday, Feb. 7, 1626, printed 1627. 8vo.
published, as it seems, by E. W. _Shrove-tuesday_, as the day
immediately preceding Lent, was always a day of extraordinary sport
and feasting."—"Some of these festivities," he proceeds to say, "still
remain in our universities. In the PERCY HOUSHOLD-BOOK, 1512, it
appears, that the clergy and officers of Lord Percy's chapel performed
a play _before his lordship upon Shrowftewesday at night_." Pag.
345.[144:D]
The cruel custom of _Cock-throwing_, which, until lately, was a
diversion peculiar to this day, seems to have originated from the
barbarous, yet less savage, amusement of _Cock-fighting_. "Every yeare
on _Shrove-Tuesday_," says Fitzstephen, who wrote in the reign of Henry
II., "the schoole-boyes doe bring cockes of the game to their master,
and all the forenoone they delight themselves in Cock-fighting."[145:A]
At what period this degenerated into Cock-throwing cannot now be
ascertained; Chaucer seems to allude to it in his _Nonnes Priests'
Tale_, where the Cock revenges himself on the Priest's son, because he
—————— "gave hym a knocke
Upon his legges, when he was yonge and nice;"
and that it was common in the sixteenth century, we have the testimony
of Sir Thomas More, who, describing the state of childhood, speaks of
his skill in casting a cok-stele, that is, a stick or cudgel to throw
at a cock.[145:B]
The first effective blow directed against this infamous sport, was
given by the moral pencil of Hogarth, who in one of his prints called
_The Four Stages of Cruelty_, has represented, among other puerile
diversions, a groupe of boys _throwing at a Cock_, and, as Trusler
remarks, "beating the harmless feathered animal to jelly."[145:C] The
benevolent satire of this great artist gradually produced the necessary
reform, and for some time past, the magistrates have so generally
interdicted the practice, that the pastime may happily be considered as
extinct.[145:D]
EASTER-TIDE, or the week succeeding Easter-Sunday, afforded another
opportunity for rejoicing, and was formerly a season of great
festivity. Not only, as bound by every tie of gratitude to do, did man
rejoice on this occasion, but it was the belief of the vulgar that
the sun himself partook of the exhilaration, and regularly danced on
Easter-Day. To see this glorious spectacle, therefore, it was customary
for the common people to rise before the sun on Easter-morning, and
though, as we may conclude, they were constantly disappointed, yet
might the habit occasionally lead to serious thought and useful
contemplation; metaphorically considered, indeed, the idea may be
termed both just and beautiful, "for as the earth and her valleys
standing thick with corn, are said _to laugh and sing_; so, on account
of the Resurrection, the heavens and the sun may be said to dance for
joy; or, as the Psalmist words it, the _heavens may rejoice and the
earth may be glad_."[146:A]
The great amusement of the Easter-holidays consisted in playing at
hand-ball, a game at which, say the ritualists Belithus and Durandus,
bishops and archbishops used, upon the continent at this period, to
recreate themselves with their inferior clergy[147:A]; nor was it
uncommon for corporate bodies on this occasion in England to amuse
themselves in a similar way with their burgesses and young people;
antiently this was the custom, says Mr. Brand, at Newcastle, at the
feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, when the mayor, aldermen, and
sheriff, accompanied by great numbers of the burgesses, used to go
yearly at these seasons to the Forth, or little mall of the town, with
the mace, sword, and cap of maintenance carried before them, and not
only countenance, but frequently join in the diversions of hand-ball,
dancing, &c.[147:B]
The constant prize at hand-ball, during Easter, was a _tansy-cake_,
supposed to be allusive to the _bitter herbs_ used by the Jews on
this festival. Selden, the contemporary of Shakspeare, speaking of
our chief holidays, remarks, that "our Meats and Sports have much of
them relation to Church-Works. The coffin of our _Christmas Pies_, in
shape long, is in imitation of the Cratch[147:C]: our chusing Kings and
Queens on Twelfth Night, hath reference to the three kings. So likewise
our eating of fritters, _whipping_ of tops, _roasting_ of herrings,
Jack of Lents, &c. they are all in imitation of Church-Works, emblems
of martyrdom. Our _Tansies at Easter_ have reference to the _bitter
Herbs_; though at the same time 'twas always the fashion for a man
to have a _Gammon of Bacon_, to shew himself to be no _Jew_."[147:D]
Fuller has noticed this Easter game under his Cheshire, where,
explaining the origin of the proverb "When the daughter is stolen shut
Pepper Gate," he says, "The mayor of the city had his daughter, as she
was _playing at ball_ with other maidens in Pepper-street, stolen away
by a young man through the same gate, whereupon he caused it to be shut
up."[148:A]
Another custom which prevailed in this country, during the sixteenth
century, at Easter, and is still kept up in some parts of the north,
was that of presenting children with _eggs stained with various colours
in boiling_, termed _Paste_ or more properly _Pasche Eggs_, which the
young people considered in the light of _fairings_. This observance
appears to have arisen from a superstition, prevalent among the Roman
Catholics, that eggs were an emblem of the resurrection, and, indeed,
in the Ritual of Pope Paul the Fifth, which was composed for the use of
England, Ireland, and Scotland, there is a prayer for the consecration
of eggs, in which the faithful servants of the Lord are directed to eat
this his creature of eggs _on account of the resurrection_. On this
custom Mr. Brand has well observed, that "the antient Egyptians, if the
resurrection of the body had been a tenet of their faith, would perhaps
have thought an _Egg_ no improper hieroglyphical representation of
it. The exclusion of a living creature by incubation, after the vital
principle has lain a long while dormant or extinct, is a process so
truly marvellous, that if it could be disbelieved, would be thought by
some a thing as incredible, as that the Author of _Life_ should be able
to re-animate the _dead_."[148:B] So prevalent indeed was this custom
of _egg-giving_ at Easter, that it forms the basis of an old English
proverb, which, in the collection of Mr. Ray, runs thus:
"I'll warrant you for an _egg_ at _Easter_."[148:C]
A popular holiday, called HOKE-DAY, or HOCK-DAY, which used to be
celebrated with much festivity in Shakspeare's native county, was
usually observed on the Tuesday following the second Sunday after
Easter-day. Its origin is doubtful, some antiquaries supposing it was
commemorative of the massacre of the Danes in the reign of Ethelred
the Unready, which took place on the 13th of November 1002; and others
that it was meant to perpetuate the deliverance of the English from
the tyrannical government of the Danes, by the death of Hardicanute
on Tuesday the 8th of June 1041. At Coventry in Warwickshire,
however, it was celebrated in memory of the former event, though the
commemoration was held on a day wide apart from that on which the
catastrophe occurred, a circumstance which originated in an ordinance
of Ethelred himself, who transferred the sports of this day to the
Monday and Tuesday in the third week after Easter. John Rouse, or Ross,
the Warwickshire historian, says, that this day was distinguished by
various sports, in which the people, divided into parties, used to draw
each other by ropes[149:A]; a species of diversion of which Spelman has
given us a more intelligible account by telling us that it "consisted
in the men and women binding each other, and especially the women the
men," and that the day, in consequence of this pastime, was called
_Binding-Tuesday_.[149:B]
The term _hock_, by which this day is designated, is thus accounted
for by Henry of Huntingdon. "The secret letters of Ethelred, directed
to all parts of his kingdom from this city (Winchester), ordered
that all the Danes indiscriminately should be put to death; and this
was executed, as we learn from the chronicle of Wallingford, with
circumstances of the greatest cruelty, even upon women and children,
in many parts: but in other places, it seems that the English, instead
of killing their guests, satisfied themselves with what was called
_hock-shining_, or _houghing_ them, by cutting their ham-strings, so
as to render them incapable of serving in war. Hence the sports which
were afterwards instituted in our city, and from thence propagated
throughout the whole kingdom, obtained the name of _Hocktide
merriments_."
It appears from the following passage in Laneham's Account of Queen
Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle, A. D. 1575, that the
citizens of Coventry had lately been compelled to give up their annual
amusements on _Hock Tuesday_, and took the opportunity of the queen's
visit to the Earl of Leicester to petition her for a renewal of the
same. "Hereto followed," says Laneham, "as good a sport (methought),
presented in an historical cue, by certain good-hearted men of
_Coventry_, my Lord's neighbours there; who understanding among them
the thing that could not be hidden from any, how careful and studious
his Honour was that by all pleasant recreations her Highness might best
find herself welcome, and be made gladsome and merry (the groundwork
indeed and foundation of his Lordship's mirth and gladness of us all),
made petition that they mought renew now their old storial shew: Of
argument how the _Danes_, whylome here in a troublous season were for
quietness borne withal and suffered in peace; that anon, by outrage and
importable insolency, abusing both _Ethelred_ the _King_, then, and
all Estates every where beside; at the grievous complaint and counsel
of _Huna_ the _King_'s chieftain in wars on a _Saint Brice_'s night,
A. D. 1012 (as the book says, that falleth yearly on the thirteenth of
November) were all dispatched, and the realm rid. And for because the
matter mentioneth how valiantly our _English_ women for love of their
country behaved themselves, expressed in actions and rymes after their
manner, they thought it mought move some mirth to her Majesty the
rather. The thing, said they, is grounded on story, and for pastime
wont to be played in our city yearly; without ill example of manners,
papistry, or any superstition; and else did so occupy the heads of a
number, that likely enough would have had worse meditations; had an
ancient beginning and a long continuance; till now of late laid down,
they knew no cause why, unless it were by the zeal of certain their
preachers, men very commendable for their behaviour and learning,
and sweet in their sermons, but somewhat too sour in preaching away
their pastime: Wished therefore, that as they should continue their
good doctrine in pulpit, so, for matters of policy and governance of
the city, they would permit them to the _Mayor_ and _Magistrates_;
and said, by my faith, _Master Martyn, they would make their humble
petition unto her Highness, that they might have their Plays up
again_."[151:A]
As it is subsequently stated that their play was very graciously
received by the queen, who commanded it to be represented again on the
following Tuesday, and gave the performers two bucks, and five marks
in money, we must suppose, that their petition was not rejected, and
that they were allowed to renew yearly at Coventry, their favourite
diversions on _Hock-Tuesday_. The observance of this day, indeed,
was still partially retained in the time of Spelman, who died A. D.
1641[151:B], and even Plott, who lived until 1696, mentions it then as
not totally discontinued; but the eighteenth century, we believe, never
witnessed its celebration.
We have now reached that period of the year which was formerly
dedicated to one of the most splendid and pleasing of our festal rites.
The observance of MAY-DAY was a custom which, until the close of the
reign of James the First, alike attracted the attention of the royal
and the noble, as of the vulgar class. Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth,
and James, patronized and partook of its ceremonies; and, during this
extended era, there was scarcely a village in the kingdom but what had
a _May-pole_, with its appropriate games and dances.
The origin of these festivities has been attributed to three different
sources, _Classic_, _Celtic_, and _Gothic_. The first appears to us
to establish the best claim to the parentage of our May-day rites,
as a relique of the _Roman Floralia_, which were celebrated on the
last four days of April, and on the first of May, in honour of the
goddess Flora, and were accompanied with dancing, music, the wearing of
garlands, strewing of flowers, &c. The _Beltein_, or rural sacrifice
of the Highlanders on this day, as described by Mr. Pennant and Dr.
Jamieson[152:A], seems to have arisen from a different motive, and
to have been instituted for the purpose of propitiating the various
noxious animals which might injure or destroy their flocks and herds.
The Gothic anniversary on May-day makes a nearer approach to the
general purpose of the _Floralia_, and was intended as a thanksgiving
to the sun, if not for the return of flowers, fruit, and grain, yet for
the introduction of a better season for fishing and hunting.[152:B]
The modes of conducting the ceremonies and rejoicings on _May-day_, may
be best drawn from the writers of the Elizabethan period, in which this
festival appears to have maintained a very high degree of celebrity,
though not accompanied with that splendour of exhibition which took
place at an earlier period in the reign of Henry the Eighth. It may be
traced, indeed, from the era of Chaucer, who, in the conclusion of his
_Court of Love_, has described the _Feast of May_, when
"—— Forth goth all the court both most and lest,
To fetch the floures fresh, and braunch and blome—
And namely hauthorn brought both page and grome
And than rejoysen in their great delite:
Eke ech at other throw the floures bright,
The primerose, the violete, and the gold,
With fresh garlants party blew and white."[153:A]
And, it should be observed, that this, the simplest mode of celebrating
May-day, was as much in vogue, in the days of Shakspeare, as the
more complex one, accompanied by the morris-dance, and the games
of Robin Hood. The following descriptions, by Bourne and Borlase,
manifestly allude to the costume of this age, and to the simpler mode
of commemorating the 1st of May: "On the _Calends_, or the 1st day of
May," says the former, "commonly called _May-day_, the juvenile part
of both sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight, and walk to
some neighbouring wood, accompany'd with music, and the blowing of
horns, where they break down branches from the trees, and adorn them
with _nosegays_ and _crowns of flowers_. When this is done, they return
with their booty homewards, about the rising of the sun, and make their
doors and windows to triumph in the flowery spoil. The after part of
the day, 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 violence offered it, in the whole circle of the
year."[153:B] "An antient custom," says the latter, "still retained by
the Cornish, is that of decking their doors and porches on the first of
May with green sycamore and hawthorn boughs, and of planting trees, or
rather stumps of trees, before their houses: and on May-eve, they from
towns make excursions into the country, and having cut down a tall elm,
brought it into town, fitted a straight and taper pole to the end of
it, and painted the same, erect it in the most public places, and on
holidays and festivals adorn it with flower garlands, or insigns and
streamers."[154:A]
Now both these passages are little more than a less extended account
of what Philip Stubbes was a witness of, and described, in the year
1595, in his puritanical work, entitled _The Anatomie of Abuses_.
"Against Maie-day," relates this vehement declaimer, "every parish,
towne, or village, assemble themselves, both men, women, and children;
and either all together, or dividing themselves into companies, they
goe some to the woods and groves, some to the hills and mountaines,
some to one place, some to another, where they spend all the night in
pleasant pastimes, and in the morning they return bringing with them,
birche boughes and branches of trees to deck their assemblies withal.
But their chiefest jewel they bring from thence is the maie-pole,
which they bring home with great veneration, as thus—they have
twentie or fortie yoake of oxen, every oxe having a sweete nosegaie of
flowers tied to the tip of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home the
maie-poale, their stinking idol rather, which they covered all over
with flowers and hearbes, bound round with strings from the top to the
bottome, and sometimes it was painted with variable colours, having
two or three hundred men, women, and children following it with great
devotion. And thus equipp'd it was reared with handkerchiefes and
flagges streaming on the top, they strawe the ground round about it,
they bind green boughs about it, they set up summer halles, bowers, and
arbours, hard by it, and then fall they to banquetting and feasting,
to leaping and dauncing about it, as the heathen people did at the
dedication of their idolls.—I have heard it crediblie reported," he
sarcastically adds, "by men of great gravity, credite, and reputation,
that of fourtie, three score, or an hundred maides going to the wood,
there have scarcely the third part of them returned home againe as they
went."[154:B]
Browne also has given a similar description of the May-day rites in
his Britannia's Pastorals:—
"As I have seene the Lady of the May
Set in an arbour —— —— ——
Built by the May-pole, where the jocund swaines
Dance with the maidens to the bagpipe's straines,
When envious night commands them to be gone,
Call for the merry yongsters one by one,
And for their well performance some 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're and o're agen;
And none returneth empty, that hath spent
His paynes to fill their rurall merriment."[155:A]
The custom of rising early on a May-morning to enjoy the season, and
honour the day, is thus noticed by Stow:—"In the month of May," he
says, "namely, on May-day in the morning, every man, except impediment,
would walke into the sweete meddowes and green woods, there to
rejoice their spirits, with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers,
and with the harmony of birds, praysing God in their kind[155:B];"
and Shakspeare has repeated references to the same observance; in
_Midsummer-Night's Dream_, Lysander tells Hermia,
—— "I did meet thee once with Helena,
_To do observance to a morn of May_;"[155:C]
and again, in the same play, Theseus says,—
"No doubt they rose up early, _to observe
The rite of May_."[156:A]
So generally prevalent was this habit of early rising on May-day, that
Shakspeare makes one of his inferior characters in _King Henry the
Eighth_ exclaim,—
"Pray, sir, be patient; _'tis as much impossible_
(Unless we sweep them from the door with cannons)
_To scatter them, as 'tis to make them sleep
On May-day morning; which will never be_."[156:B]
Herrick, the minute describer of the customs and superstitions of his
times, which were those of Shakspeare, and the _immediately_ succeeding
period, has a poem called _Corinna's Going A Maying_, which includes
most of the circumstances hitherto mentioned; he thus addresses his
mistress:—
"Get up —— and see
The dew bespangling herbe and tree:
Each flower has wept, and bow'd toward the east,
Above an houre since;—it is sin,
Nay profanation to keep in;
When as a thousand virgins on this day,
Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in May!
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 enterwove.—
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:
Many a jest told of the keyes betraying
This night, and locks pickt, yet w'are not a Maying!"[157:A]
With this, the simplest mode of celebrating the rites of May-day,
was frequently united, in the days of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, a
groupe of _Morris Dancers_, consisting of several characters, which
were often varied both in number, appellation, and dress. The _Morris
Dance_ appears to have been introduced into this kingdom about the
reign of Edward the Fourth, and is, without doubt, derived from the
_Morisco_, a dance peculiar to the _Moors_, and generally termed the
_Spanish Morisco_, from its notoriety in Spain, during the dynasty of
that people in the peninsula. The _Morris Dance_ in this country, when
performed on a May-day, and not connected with the Games of Robin Hood,
usually consisted of the Lady of the May, the Fool, or domestic buffoon
of the 15th and 16th centuries, a Piper, and two, four, or more, Morris
Dancers. The dress of these last personages, who designated the
amusement, was of a very peculiar kind; they had their faces blackened
to resemble the native Moors, and "in the reign of Henry the Eighth,"
says Mr. Douce, "they were dressed in gilt leather and silver paper,
and sometimes in coats of white spangled fustian. They had purses at
their girdles, and garters to which bells were attached[158:A];" but
according to Stubbes, who wrote in 1595, the costume had been altered,
for he tells us that they were clothed in "greene, yellow, or some
other light wanton collour. And as though that were not gawdy ynough,"
he continues, "they bedeeke themselves with scarffes, ribbons, and
laces hanged all over with golde ringes, precious stones, and other
jewels: this done, they tie about either legge twentie or fourtie
belles, with rich handkerchiefe in their handes, and sometimes laide a
crosse over their shoulders and neckes borrowed for the most part of
their pretie _Mopsies_ and loving _Bessies_ for bussing them in the
darke."[158:B] Feathers, too, were usually worn in their hats, and they
had occasionally bells fixed on their arms or wrists, as well as on
their legs. That these jingling ornaments were characteristic of, and
derived from, the genuine _Moorish Dance_, appears from a plate copied
by Mr. Douce from the habits of various nations, published by Hans
Weigel at Nuremberg, in 1577, and which represents the figure of an
African lady of the kingdom of Fez in the act of dancing, with bells at
her feet.[158:C]
It was the business of these motley figures to dance round the
May-pole, which was painted of various colours; thus in Mr. Tollett's
painted glass window, at Betley in Staffordshire, which represents an
English May-game and morris-dance, the May-pole is stained yellow and
black, in spiral lines[158:D]; and Shakspeare, in allusion to this
custom, makes Hermia tell Helena, whilst ridiculing the tallness of her
form, that she is a "painted May-pole[158:E];" so Stubbes, likewise,
in a passage previously quoted, says, that the Maie-pole was "painted
with variable colours."
That the _morris-dance_ was an almost constant attendant on the May-day
festivities, may be drawn from our usual authority, the works of
Shakspeare; for, in _All's Well That Ends Well_, the Clown affirms,
that his answer will serve all questions
"As fit as a morris for May-day."[159:A]
But, about the commencement of the sixteenth century, or somewhat
sooner, probably towards the middle of the fifteenth century, a very
material addition was made to the celebration of the rites of May-day,
by the introduction of the characters of Robin Hood and some of his
associates. This was done with a view towards the encouragement of
archery, and the custom was continued even beyond the close of the
reign of James I. It is true, that the May-games in their rudest form,
the mere dance of lads and lasses round a May-pole, or the simple
morris with the Lady of the May, were occasionally seen during the
days of Elizabeth; but the general exhibition was the more complicated
ceremony which we are about to describe.
The personages who now became the chief performers in the
_morris-dance_, were four of the most popular outlaws of Sherwood
forest; that Robin Hood, of whom Drayton says,—
"In this our spacious isle, I think there is not one,
But he hath heard some talk of him and little John;—
Of Tuck the merry friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws and their trade;—
"Of Robin's" mistress dear, his loved Marian,
—— —— —— which wheresoe'er she came,
Was sovereign of the woods, chief lady of the game:
Her clothes tuck'd to the knee, and dainty braided hair,
With bow and quiver arm'd;"[159:B]
characters which Warner, the contemporary of Drayton and Shakspeare,
has exclusively recorded as celebrating the rites of May; for,
speaking of the periods of some of our festivals, and remarking that
"ere penticost begun our May," he adds,
"Tho' (_then_) Robin Hood, liell John, frier Tucke,
And Marian, deftly play,
And lord and ladie gang till kirke
With lads and lasses gay:
Fra masse and een sang sa gud cheere
And glee on ery greene."[160:A]
These four characters, therefore, _Robin Hood_, _Little John_, _Friar
Tuck_, and _Maid Marian_, although no constituent parts of the original
English morris, became at length so blended with it, especially on the
festival of May-day, that until the practice of archery was nearly laid
aside, they continued to be the most essential part of the pageantry.
In consequence of this arrangement, "the old _Robin Hood_ of England,"
as Shakspeare calls him[160:B], was created the King or Lord of
the May, and sometimes carried in his hand, during the May-game, a
painted standard.[160:C] It was no uncommon circumstance, likewise,
for metrical interludes, of a comic species, and founded on the
achievements of this outlaw, to be performed after the morris, on
the May-pole green. In Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, occurs
one, entitled "A mery Geste of Robyn Hoode, and of hys Lyfe, wyth
a newe Playe _for to be played in Maye-Games_, very pleasaunte and
full of pastyme;" it is printed at London, in the black letter, for
William Copland, and has figures in the title page of Robin Hood and
Lytel John.[160:D] Shakspeare appears to allude to these interludes
when he represents Fabian, in the _Twelfth Night_, exclaiming on the
approach of Sir Andrew Ague-Cheek with his challenge, "More matter for
May-morning."[160:E]
Upon this introduction of Robin Hood and his companions into the
celebration of May-day, his paramour _Maid Marian_, assumed the office
of the former Queen of May. This far-famed lady has, according to Mr.
Ritson, no part in the original and more authentic history of Robin
Hood; but seems to have been first brought forward when the story of
this hero became dramatised, which was at a very early period in this
country; and Mr. Douce is of opinion that the name, which is a stranger
to English history, has been taken from "a pretty French pastoral drama
of the eleventh or twelfth century, entitled _Le jeu du berger et de la
bergere_, in which the principal characters are _Robin_ and _Marian_,
a shepherd and shepherdess."[161:A] This appears the more probable, as
the piece was not only very popular in France, but performed at the
season when the May-games took place in England.
_Maid Marian_, in the days of Shakspeare, was usually represented by a
delicate, smooth-faced youth, who was dressed in all the fashionable
finery of the times; and this assumption of the female garb gave, not
without some reason, great offence to the puritanical dissenters, one
of whom, exclaiming against the amusements of May-day, notices this,
amongst some other abuses, in the following very curious passage:—"The
abuses which are committed in your May-games are infinite. The first
whereof is this, that you doe use to attyre in woman's apparrell whom
you doe most commonly call _may-marrions_, whereby you infringe that
straight commandment whiche is given in Deut. xxii. 5., that men must
not put on women's apparrell for feare of enormities. Nay I myself
have seene in a may game a troupe, the greater part whereof hath been
men, and yet have they been attyred so like into women, that their
faces being hidde (as they were indeede) a man coulde not discerne them
from women. The second abuse, which of all other is the greatest, is
this, that it hath been toulde that your morice dauncers have dannced
naked in nettes: what greater enticement unto naughtiness could have
been devised? The third abuse is, that you (because you will loose no
tyme) doe use commonly to runne into woodes in the night time, amongst
maidens, to fet bowes, in so muche as I have hearde of tenne maidens
which went to fet May, and nine of them came home with childe."[162:A]
That, in consequence of this custom, effeminate and coxcomical men were
sarcastically compared to _Maid Marian_, appears from a passage in a
pamphlet by Barnaby Rich, who, satirising the male attire, as worn by
the fops of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., cries out,—"From
whence commeth this wearing, and this embroidering of long locks, this
curiosity that is used amongst men, in frizeling and curling of their
haire, this gentlewoman-like starcht bands, so be-edged and be-laced,
_fitter for Maid Marian in a Moris dance_, than for him that hath
either that spirit or courage that shold be in a gentleman."[162:B]
It will not seem surprising that the converse of this was occasionally
applicable to the female sex; and that those women who adopted
masculine airs and habits should be branded with a similarity to the
clown who, though personating the lady of the May, never failed,
however nice or affected he might be, to disclose by the boldness
and awkwardness of his gesture and manner, both his rank and sex.
Thus Falstaff is represented as telling the hostess, when he means to
upbraid her for her masculine appearance and conduct, that "for _woman
hood_ Maid Marian may be the Deputy's wife of the ward to thee."[162:C]
A fancy coronet of gilt metal, or interwoven with flowers, and a
watchet coloured tunic, a kirtle or petticoat of green, as the livery
of Robin Hood, were customary articles of decoration in the dress of
the May-Queen.
_Friar Tuck_, the next of the four characters which we have mentioned
as introduced into the May-games, was the chaplain of Robin Hood, and
is noticed by Shakspeare, who makes one of the outlaws, in the _Two
Gentlemen of Verona_, swear
"By the bare scalp of _Robin Hood's fat friar_."[163:A]
He is represented in the engraving of Mr. Tollet's window as a
Franciscan friar in the full clerical tonsure; for, as Mr. T. observes
in giving an account of his window, "when the parish priests were
inhibited by the diocesan to assist in the May games, the Franciscans
might give attendance, as being exempted from episcopal jurisdiction;"
he adds that "most of Shakspeare's friars are Franciscans," and that
in Sir David Dalrymple's extracts from the book of the _Universal
Kirk_, in the year 1576, he is styled "chaplain to Robin Huid, king of
May."[163:B]
The last of this groupe was the boon companion of Robin, the "_brave
Little John_," as he is termed in one of the ballads on this popular
outlaw, and who "is first mentioned," remarks Mr. Douce, "together
with Robin Hood, by Fordun the Scotish historian, who wrote in the
fourteenth century, and who speaks of the celebration of the story of
these persons in the _theatrical performances_ of his time, and of the
minstrel's songs relating to them, which he says the common people
preferred to all _other romances_."[163:C]
With these _four_ personages therefore, who were deemed so inseparable,
that a character in Peele's Edward I. says, "We will live and die
together, like _Robin Hood_, _Little John_, _Friar Tucke_, and _Maide
Marian_[163:D]," the performers in the simple English Morris, the
_fool_, _Tom the Piper_, and the _Morris Dancers_, peculiarly so called
from their dress and function, were, for a time, generally connected.
Tom the Piper is thus mentioned by Drayton:
"Myself above Tom Piper to advance,
Which so bestirs him in the Morrice-dance
For penny wage."[164:A]
And Shakspeare, alluding to the violent gesticulations and music of the
Morris dancers says, speaking of Cade the rebel,
——————— "I have seen him
Caper upright like a _wild morisco_,
Shaking the bloody darts, as he his bells."[164:B]
The music accompanying the _Morris_ and the _May-games_, was either the
simple pipe, or the pipe and tabor, or the bag-pipe. In the following
passage from a curious controversial pamphlet, published towards the
close of the sixteenth century, the morris and the pipe and tabor
are thus noticed: "If Menippus, or the man in the moone, be so quick
sighted, that he beholds these bitter sweete jests, these railing
outcries; this shouting at prelates to cast them downe, and heaving
at Martin to hang him up for Martilmas biefe; what would he imagine
otherwise, then as that stranger, which seeing a Quintessence (beside
the _foole_ and the _Maid Marian_) of all the picked youth, strained
out of an whole Endship, footing the _morris about a may pole_, and
he, not hearing the crie of the hounds, for the barking of dogs, (that
is to say) the minstrelsie for the fidling, the tune for the sound,
nor the _pipe for the noise of the tabor_, bluntly demanded if they
were not all beside themselves, that they so lip'd and skip'd whithout
an occasion."[164:C] To this quotation Mr. Haslewood has annexed the
subsequent ludicrous story from a tract entitled, _Hay any worke
for Cooper_. It is a striking proof of the singular attraction and
popularity of the May-games at this period:—"There is a neighbour of
ours, an honest priest, who was sometimes (simple as he now stands) a
vice in a play, for want of a better; his name is Gliberie of Hawstead
in Essex, hee goes much to the pulpit. On a time, I thinke it was the
last _May_, he went up with a full resolution to doe his businesse
with great commendations. But, see the fortune of it. A boy in the
church, hearing either the _summer lord with his May-game, or Robin
Hood with his morice daunce_, going by the church, out goes the boye.
Good Glibery, though he were in the pulpit, yet had a mind to his old
companions abroad, (a company of merry grigs you must thinke them to
be, as merry as a vice on a stage), seeing the boy going out, finished
his matter presently with John of London's amen, saying, ha ye faith,
boy! are they there? Then ha with thee, and so came downe and among
them he goes."[165:A]
That the music of the _bag-pipe_ was highly esteemed in the days of
Shakspeare, and even preferred to the tabor and pipe, we have a strong
instance in his _Winter's Tale_, where a servant enters announcing
Autolicus in the following terms: "If you did but hear the pedlar at
the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no,
_the bag-pipe could not move you_[165:B];" and that especially in the
country, it was a frequent accompaniment to the morris bells, the
numerous collections of _madrigals_, published in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, afford many proofs. Thus, from a collection
printed in 1600:
"Harke, harke, I heare the dancing
And a nimble morris prancing;
_The bagpipe and the morris bells_,
That they are not farre hence us tells;
Come let us all goe thither,
And dance like friends together:"[165:C]
and from another, allusive to the May-games, edited by Thomas Morley:
"Now is the month of Maying,
When merry lads are playing; Fa la la,
Each with his bonny lasse,
Upon the greeny grasse. Fa la la.
The spring clad all in gladness,
Doth laugh at winter's sadnesse;
And to the _bagpipe's_ sound,
The nimphs tread out their ground.
* * * * *
About the May-pole new with glee and merriment,
While as the _bagpipe_ tooted it,
Thirsis and Cloe fine together footed it; Fa la la."[166:A]
The Morris and the May-game of Robin Hood attained their most perfect
form when united with the _Hobby-Horse_ and the _Dragon_. Of these
the former was the resemblance of the head and tail of a horse,
manufactured in pasteboard, and attached to a person whose business it
was, whilst he seemed to ride gracefully on its back, to imitate the
prancings and curvettings of that noble animal, whose supposed feet
were concealed by a foot-cloth reaching to the ground; and the latter,
constructed of the same materials, was made to hiss and vibrate his
wings, and was frequently attacked by the man on the hobby-horse, who
then personated the character of St. George.[166:B]
In the reigns therefore of Elizabeth and James I. these eight
masqueraders, consisting of _Robin Hood_, _Maid Marian_, _Friar Tuck_,
_Little John_, the _Fool_, _Tom the Piper_, the _Hobby-Horse_, and
the _Dragon_, with from two to ten _morris-dancers_, or, in lieu of
them, the same number of _Robin Hood's men_, in coats, hoods, and hose
of green, with a painted _pole_ in the centre, represented the most
complete establishment of the May-game.[167:A]
All these characters may be traced, indeed, so far back as the middle
of the fifteenth century; and, accordingly, Mr. Strutt, in his
interesting romance, entitled "Queen-hoo Hall," has introduced a very
pleasing and accurate description of the May-games and Morris of Robin
Hood, which, as written in a lively and dramatic style, and not in the
least differing from what they continued to be in the youthful days of
Shakspeare, and before they were broken in upon by the fanaticism of
the puritans, we shall copy in this place for the entertainment of our
readers.
"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 attached 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 rose-buds on his head, a bow bent in his hand, a sheaf
of arrows at his girdle, and a bugle-horn 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[168:A] courtpies;
strewing flowers; followed immediately by
"The _maid Marian_, elegantly habited in a watchet-coloured[168:B]
tunic reaching to the ground; over which she wore a white linen[168:C]
rochet with loose sleeves, fringed with silver, and very neatly
plaited; her girdle was of silver baudekin[168:D], 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 crimsom 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[169:A]: 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 untill 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 labour, 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 [170:A]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 [170:B]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 be decided, which occasioned them to shoot
again; when Robin struck the gold a second time, and Stukely's arrow
was affixed upon the edge of it. Robin was therefore adjudged the
conqueror; and the prize of honour, a garland of laurel embellished
with variegated ribbons, was put upon his head; and to Stukely was
given a garland of ivy, because he was the second best performer in
that contest.
"The pageant was finished with the archery; and the procession began
to move away, to make room for the villagers, who afterwards assembled
in the square, and amused themselves by dancing round the May-pole in
promiscuous companies, according to the ancient custom."[171:A]
In consequence of the opposition, however, of the puritans, during
the close of Elizabeth's reign, who considered the rights of May-day
as relics of paganism, much havoc was made among the Dramatis Personæ
of this festivity. Sometimes instead of Robin and Marian, only a Lord
or Lady of the day was adopted; frequently the friar was not suffered
to appear, and still more frequently was the hobby-horse interdicted.
This zealous interference of the sectarists was ridiculed by the poets
of the day, and among the rest by Shakspeare, who quotes a line from
a satirical ballad on this subject, and represents Hamlet as terming
it an epitaph; "Else shall he suffer not thinking on," says he, "with
the hobby-horse; whose epitaph is, _For, O, for, O, the hobby horse
is forgot_."[171:B] He has the same allusion in Love's Labour's
Lost[171:C]; and Ben Jonson has still more explicitly noticed the
neglect into which this character in the May-games had fallen in his
days.
"But see, the Hobby-horse is forgot.
Foole, it must be your lot,
To supply his want with faces,
And some other Buffon graces;"[172:A]
and again, still more pointedly,—
"_Clo._ They should be Morris dancers by their gingle, but they
have no napkins.
_Coc._ No, nor a hobby-horse.
_Clo._ Oh, he's _often forgotten_, that's no rule; but there is
no maid Marian nor Friar amongst them, which is the surer mark.
_Coc._ Nor a Foole that I see."[172:B]
In Beaumont and Fletcher's Tragi-comedy called _Women Pleased_, the
aversion of the puritans to this festive beast is strikingly depicted;
where the person who was destined to perform the hobby-horse, being
converted by his wife, exclaims vehemently against the task imposed
upon him.
"_Hob._
I do defie thee and thy foot-cloth too,
And tell thee to thy face, this prophane riding
I feel it in my conscience, and I dare speak it,
This unedified ambling hath brought a scourge upon us.—
_Far._
Will you dance no more, neighbour?
_Hob._
Surely no,
Carry the beast to his crib: I have renounc'd him
And all his works.
_Soto._
_Shall the Hobby-horse be forgot then?
The hopeful Hobby-horse, shall he lye founder'd?_
_Hob._
I cry out on't,
'Twas the forerunning sin brought in those tilt-staves,
They brandish 'gainst the church, the Devil calls _May
poles_."[173:A]
From one of these puritans, named Stephen Gosson, we learn, likewise,
that Morrice-dancers and Hobby-horses had been introduced even upon the
stage during the early part of the reign of Elizabeth; for this writer,
in a tract published about 1579, and entitled _Plays Confuted_, says,
that "the Devil beeside the beautie of the houses, and the stages,
sendeth in gearish apparell, maskes, ranting, tumbling, dauncing of
gigges, galiardes, _morisces_, _hobbi-horses_, &c."[173:B] By the
continued railings and invectives, however, of these fanatics, the
May-games were, at length, so broken in upon, that had it not been
for the _Book of Sports, or lawful Recreations upon Sunday after
Evening-prayers, and upon Holy-days_, issued by King James in 1618,
they would have been totally extinct. This curious volume permitted
May-games, Morris-dances, Whitsun-ales, the setting up of May-poles,
&c.[173:C]; and had it not allowed church-ales, and dancing on the
Sabbath, would have been unexceptionable in its tendency; for as honest
Burton observes, in allusion to this very _Declaration_ of King James,
"_Dancing_, _Singing_, _Masking_, _Mumming_, _Stage-playes_, howsoever
they be heavily censured by some severe _Catoes_, yet if _opportunely_
and _soberly used_, may justly be approved. _Melius est fodere, quam
saltare_, saith _Augustin_: but what is that if they delight in it?
_Nemo saltat sobrius._ But in what kind of dance? I know these sports
have many oppugners, whole volumes writ against them; when as all they
say (if duly considered) is but _ignoratio Elenchi_; and some again,
because they are now cold and wayward, past themselves, cavil at all
such youthful sports in others, as he did in the Comedy; they think
them, _illico nasci senes_, &c. Some out of preposterous zeal object
many times trivial arguments, and because of some abuse, will quite
take away the good use, as if they should forbid wine, because it makes
men drunk; but in my judgment they are too stern: there _is a time for
all things, a time to mourn, a time to dance_. Eccles. 3. 4. _a time
to embrace, a time not to embrace_, (ver. 5.) _and nothing better than
that a man should rejoice in his own works_, ver. 22. For my part, I
will subscribe to the _King's Declaration_, and was ever of that mind,
those _May-games_, _Wakes_, and _Whitsun-ales_, &c. if they be not at
_unseasonable_ hours, may justly be permitted. Let them freely feast,
sing and dance, have their _poppet-playes_, _hobby-horses_, _tabers_,
_crouds_, _bag-pipes_, &c., play at _ball_, and _barley-brakes_,
and what sports and recreations they like best."[174:A] All these
festivities, however, on _May-day_, were again set aside, by still
greater enthusiasts, during the period of the Commonwealth, and were
once more revived at the Restoration; at present, few vestiges remain
either of those ancient rites, or of those attendant on other popular
periodical festivals.[174:B]
Several of the amusements, and some of the characters attendant on
the celebration of May-day, were again introduced at WHITSUNTIDE,
especially the morris-dance, which was as customary on this period of
festivity as on the one immediately preceding it. Thus Shakspeare, in
King Henry V., makes the Dauphin say, alluding to the youthful follies
of the English monarch,
————— "Let us do it with no show of fear;
No, with no more, than if we heard that England
Were busied with a _Whitsun Morris-dance_."[175:A]
The rural sports and feasting at Whitsuntide were usually designated
by the term _Whitsun-ales_; _ale_ being in the time of Shakspeare, and
for a century or two, indeed, before him, synonymous with _festival_
or _merry-making_. Chaucer and the author of Pierce Plowman use the
word repeatedly in this sense, and the following passages from our
great poet, from Jonson, and from Ascham, prove that it was familiar,
in their time, in the sense of simple carousing, church-feasting, and
Whitsuntide recreation. Launcelot, in the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_,
exclaims to Speed, "Thou hast not so much charity in thee, as to go to
the _ale_ with a Christian[175:B];" and Ascham, speaking of the conduct
of husbandmen, in his Toxophilus, observes that those which have their
dinner and drink in the field, "have fatter barnes in the harvest, than
they which will either sleape at noonetyme of the day, or els _make
merye with theyr neighbours at the ale_."[175:C] In the chorus to the
first act of _Pericles_, it is recorded of an old song, that
"It hath been sung at festivals,
On ember-eves, and _holy-ales_."[176:A]
And Jonson says,
—— "All the neighbourhood, from old records
Of antique proverbs drawn from _Whitson lords_,
And their authorities at wakes and _ales_,
With country precedents, and old wives tales,
We bring you now."[176:B]
It will be necessary, in this place, therefore, to notice briefly, as
being periods of festivity, the various _Ales_ which were observed
by our ancestors in the sixteenth century. They may be enumerated
under the heads of _Leet-ale_, _Lamb-ale_, _Bride-ale_, _Clerk-ale_,
_Church-ale_ and _Whitsun-ale_. We shall confine our attention at
present, however, principally to the two latter; for of the Lamb-ale
and Bride-ale, an occasion will occur to speak more at large in a
subsequent part of this chapter, and a very few words will suffice with
regard to the Leet-ale and the Clerk-ale; the former being merely the
dinner provided for the jury and customary tenants at the court-leet
of a manor, or _View of frank pledge_, formerly held once or twice a
year, before the steward of the leet[176:C]; to this court Shakspeare
alludes, in his _Taming of the Shrew_, where the servant tells Sly,
that in his dream he would "rail upon the hostess of the house," and
threaten to
—— —— "present her at the leet:"[176:D]
and the latter, which usually took place at Easter, is thus mentioned
by Aubrey in his manuscript History of Wiltshire. "In the Easter
holidays was the _Clarkes-Ale_, for his private benefit and the solace
of the neighbourhood."[176:E]
The _Church-ale_ was a festival instituted sometimes in honour of
the church-saint, but more frequently for the purpose of contributing
towards the repair or decoration of the church. On this occasion it was
the business of the churchwardens to brew a considerable quantity of
strong ale, which was sold to the populace in the church-yard, and to
the better sort in the church itself, a practice which, independent of
the profit arising from the sale of the liquor, led to great pecuniary
advantages; for the rich thought it a meritorious duty, beside paying
for their ale, to offer largely to the holy fund. It was no uncommon
thing indeed to have four, six, or eight of these _ales_ yearly, and
sometimes one or more parishes _agreed_ to hold annually a _certain
number_ of these meetings, and to contribute individually a _certain
sum_. Of this a very curious proof may be drawn from the following
stipulation, preserved in Dodsworth's Manuscripts in the Bodleian
Library:—"The parishioners of Elveston and Okebrook, in Derbyshire,
agree jointly, to brew four _Ales_, and every _Ale_ of one quarter
of malt, betwixt this (the time of contract) and the feast of saint
John Baptist next coming. And that every inhabitant of the said town
of Okebrook shall be at the several _Ales_. And every husband and his
wife shall pay two pence, and every cottager one penny, and all the
inhabitants of Elveston shall have and receive all the profits and
advantages coming of the said _Ales_, to the use and behoof of the
said church of Elveston. And the inhabitants of Elveston shall brew
_eight Ales_ betwixt this and the feast of saint John Baptist, at the
which _Ales_ the inhabitants of Okebrook shall come and pay as before
rehersed. And if he be away at one _Ale_, to pay at the toder Ale for
both, &c."[177:A]
The date of this document is anterior to the Reformation, but that
_church-ales_ were equally popular and frequent in the days of
Shakspeare will be evident from the subsequent passages in Carew and
Philip Stubbes. The historian of Cornwall, whose work was first printed
in 1602, says that "for the church-ale, two young men of the parish are
yerely chosen by their last foregoers, to be wardens; who, dividing
the task, make collection among the parishioners, of what soever
provision it pleaseth them voluntarily to bestow. This they imploy in
brewing, baking, and other acates, against Whitsontide; upon which
holy-dayes the neighbours meet at the church-house, and there merily
feede on their owne victuals, contributing some petty portion to the
stock; which, by many smalls, groweth to a meetley greatness: for there
is entertayned a kinde of emulation betweene these wardens, who by his
graciousness in gathering, and good husbandry in expending, can best
advance the churches profit. Besides, the neighbour parishes at those
times lovingly visit one another, and this way frankely spend their
money together. The afternoones are consumed in such exercises as olde
and yong folke (having leysure) doe accustomably weare out the time
withall."[178:A] Stubbes in his violent philippic declares that, "in
certaine townes, where drunken Bacchus bears swaie against Christmas
and Easter, Whitsunday, or some other time, the churchwardens, for so
they call them, of every parish, with the consent of the whole parish,
provide half a score or twentie quarters of mault, whereof some they
buy of the church stocke, and some is given to them of the parishioners
themselves, every one conferring somewhat, according to his ability;
which mault being made into very strong ale, or beer, is set to sale,
either in the church or in some other place assigned to that purpose.
Then, when this nippitatum, this huffe-cappe, as they call it, this
nectar of life, is set abroach, well is he that can get the soonest to
it, and spends the most at it, for he is counted the godliest man of
all the rest, and most in God's favour, because it is spent upon his
church forsooth."[178:B]
There is but too much reason to suppose that the satire of this bitter
writer was not, in this instance, ill directed, and that meetings
of this description, though avowedly for the express benefit of the
church, were often productive of licentiousness, and consequently
highly injurious both to morals and religion. A few lines from Ben
Jonson will probably place this beyond doubt. In his Masque of Queens,
performed at Whitehall, 1609, he represents one of his witches as
exclaiming
"I had a dagger: what did I with that?
Kill'd an infant, to have his fat:
A Piper it got, at a _Church-ale_."[179:A]
Returning to the consideration of the _Whitsuntide_ amusements, it may
be observed, that not only was the morris a constituent part in their
celebration, but that the Maid Marian of the May-games was frequently
introduced: thus Shirley represents one of his characters exclaiming
against rural diversions in the following manner:
——— "Observe with what solemnity
They keep their wakes, and throw for pewter candlestickes,
How they become the morris, with whose bells
They ring all into _Whitson ales_, and sweate
Through twentie scarffes and napkins, till the Hobby-horse
Tire, and the _maide Marrian_ dissolv'd to a gelly,
Be kept for spoone meate."[179:B]
The festivities, indeed, on this occasion, as at those on May-day,
were often regulated by a Lord and Lady of the _Whitsun-ales_.[179:C]
Very frequently, however, there was elected only a Lord of Misrule,
and as the church or holy ales were not unfrequently combined with
the merriments of this season, the church-yard, especially on the
sabbath-day, was too generally the scene of rejoicing. The severity of
Stubbes, when censuring this profanation of consecrated ground, will
scarcely be deemed too keen: "First," says he, "all the wilde heads
of the parish, flocking together, chuse them a graund captaine (of
mischiefe) whom they inrolle with the title of _my Lord of misrule_,
and him they crowne with great solemnitie, and adopt for their king.
This king annoynted, chooseth foorth twentie, fourtie, threescore, or a
hundred lustie guttes like to himselfe to wait upon his lordly majesty,
and to guarde his noble person.—(Here he describes the dress of the
morris dancers, as quoted in a former page, and proceeds as follows.)
Thus all things set in order, then have they their hobby-horses, their
dragons and other antiques, together with their baudie pipers, and
thundering drummers, to strike up the _Devils Daunce_ withall: then
martch this heathen company towards the church and church-yarde, their
pypers pypyng, their drummers thundering, their stumpes dauncing, their
belles jyngling, their handkercheefes fluttering about their heads like
madde men, their hobbie horses, and other monsters skirmishing amongst
the throng: and in this sorte they goe to the church like Devils
incarnate, with such a confused noise, that no man can heare his owne
voyce. Then the foolish people they looke, they stare, they laugh, they
fleere, and mount upon formes and pewes, to see these goodly pageants
solemnized in this sort. Then after this about the church they goe
againe and againe, and so foorth into the church yard, where they have
commonly their summer haules, their bowers, arbours, and banqetting
houses set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and daunce all that day,
and (peradventure) all that night too. And thus these terrestrial
furies spend the Sabboth day. Another sort of fantastical fooles bring
to these helhoundes (the Lord of misrule and his complices) some bread,
some good ale, some new cheese, some old cheese, some custardes, some
cracknels, some cakes, some flaunes, some tartes, some creame, some
meat, some one thing, some another; but if they knewe that as often as
they bringe anye to the maintenance of these execrable pastimes, they
offer sacrifice to the Devill and Sathanas, they would repente and with
drawe their handes, which God graunt they may."[180:A]
Dramatic exhibitions, called _Whitsun plays_, were common, at this
season, both in town and country, and in the latter they were chiefly
of a pastoral character. Shakspeare has an allusion to them in his
_Winter's Tale_, where Perdita, addressing Florizel, says,
——————— "Come, take your flowers:
Methinks, I play as I have seen them do
in _Whitsun' pastorals_."[181:A]