The gentry to the King's head,
The nobles to the Crown, &c.
The rustic had his morrice-dance, hobby-horse race, and the gaudy
Mayings of Robin Hood, which last were instituted, according to an old
writer, in honour of his memory, and continued till the latter end of
the sixteenth century. These games were attended not by the people only,
but by kings and princes, and grave magistrates.
Stow says, "that in the moneth of May, the citizens of London, of all
estates, lightlie in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes
joyning together, had their severall Mayinges, and did fetch in
Maypoles, with divers warlike showes, with good archers,
morrice-dancers, and other devices for pastime all the day long, and
towards the evening they had stage-playes and bone-fires in the
streetes. These greate Mayinges and Maygames, made by governors and
masters of this citie, with the triumphant setting up of the greate
shafte, (a principall May-pole in Cornhill, before the parish church of
S. Andrew, therefore called Undershafte,) by meane of an insurrection of
youthes against alianes, on May-day, 1517, have not beene so freely used
as afore."
The disuse of these ancient pastimes and the consequent neglect of
Archerie, are thus lamented by Richard Niccols, in his _London's
Artillery_, 1616:
How is it that our London hath laid downe
This worthy practise, which was once the crowne,
Of all her pastime which her Robin Hood
Had wont each yeare when May did clad the wood
With lustre greene, to lead his young men out,
Whose brave demeanour, oft when they did shoot,
Invited royall princes from their courts
Into the wilde woods to behold their sports!
Who thought it then a manly sight and trim,
To see a youth of clene compacted lim,
Who, with a comely grace, in his left hand
Holding his bow, did take his steadfast stand,
Setting his left leg somewhat foorth before,
His Arrow with his right hand nocking sure,
Not stooping, nor yet standing streight upright,
Then, with his left hand little 'bove his sight,
Stretching his arm out, with an easie strength
To draw an arrow of a yard in length.