people fleep on May morning; and that they rose early to obferve the rite of May." The court of King James the First, and the populace, long preserved the observance of the day, as Spelman's Gloffary remarks, under the word, Maiuma.

Better judges may decide, that the institution of this feftivity originated from the Roman Floralia, or from the Celtic la Beltine, while I conceive it derived to us from our Gothic anceftors. Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Lib. XV. C. viii. fays "that after their long winter from the beginning of October to the end of April, the northern nations have a custom to welcome the returning fplendor of the fun with dancing, and mutually to feaft each other, rejoicing that a better season for fifhing and hunting was approached. In honour of May-day

the Goths and fouthern Swedes had a mock battle between fummer and winter, which ceremony is retained in the Isle of Man, where the Danes and Norwegians had been for a long time mafters. It appears from Holinfhed's Chronicle, Vol. III. p. 314, or in the year 1306, that, before that time, in country towns the young folks chose a summer king and queen for fport to dance about Maypoles. There can be no doubt but their majesties had proper attendants, or fuch as would beft divert the spectators; and we may prefume, that some of the characters varied, as fashions and customs altered. About half a century afterwards, a great addition seems to have been made to the diverfion by the introduction of the Morris or Moorish dance into it, which, as Mr. Peck, in his Memoirs of Milton, with great probability conjectures, was firft brought into England in the time of Edward III. when John of Gaunt returned from Spain, where he had been to affift Peter, King of Caftile, against Henry the Bastard. "This dance," fays Mr. Peck, "was usually performed abroad by an equal number of young men, who danced in their fhirts with ribbands and little bells about their legs. But here in England they have always an odd perfon befides, being a boy dreffed in a girl's habit, whom they call Maid Marian, an old favourite character in the fport."-" Thus," as he observes in the words of Shakspeare,+ " they made more matter for a May morning: having as a pancake for Shrove-Tuesday, a Morris for Mayday."

We are authorized by the poets, Ben Jonfon and Drayton, to call fome of the representations on my window Morris Dancers,

*It is evident from several authors, that Maid Marian's part was frequently performed by a young woman, and often by one, as I think, of unfullied reputation. Our Marian's deportment is decent and graceful.

+ Twelfth Night, A&t III. fc. iv. All's well that ends well, A& II. fc. ii.

*

though I am uncertain whether it exhibits one Moorish perfonage; as none of them have black or tawny faces, nor do they brandish fwords or ftaves in their hands, nor are they in their fhirts adorned with ribbons. We find in Olaus Magnus, that the northern nations danced with brafs bells about their knees, and such we have upon feveral of these figures, who may perhaps be the original English performers in a May-game before the introduction of the real Morris dance. However this may be, the window exhibits a favourite diverfion of our ancestors in all its principal parts. I fhall endeavour to explain fome of the characters, and in compliment to the lady I will begin the description with the front rank, in which he is ftationed. I am fortunate enough to have Mr. Steevens think with me, that figure 1. may be defigned for the Bavian fool, or the fool with the flabbering bib, as Bavon, in Cotgrave's French Dictionary, means a bib for a flabbering child; and this figure has fuch a bib, and a childish fimplicity in his countenance. Mr. Steevens refers to a paffage in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of The Two Noble Kinfmen, by which it appears that the Bavian in the Morris dance was a tumbler, and mimicked the barking of a dog. I apprehend that feveral of the Morris dancers on my window tumbled occafionally, and exerted the chief feat of their activity, when they were afide the May-pole; and I apprehend that jigs, hornpipes, and the hay, were their chief dances.

It will certainly be tedious to defcribe the colours of the dreffes, but the task is attempted upon an intimation, that it might not be altogether unacceptable. The Bavian's cap is red, faced with yellow, his bib yellow, his doublet blue, his hofe red, and his fhoes black.

Figure 2. is the celebrated Maid Marian, who, as queen of May, has a golden crown on her head, and in her left hand a flower, as the emblem of summer. The flower seems defigned for a red pink, but the pointals are omitted by the engraver, who copied from a drawing with the like mistake. Olaus Magnus mentions the artificial raising of flowers for the celebration of May-day; and the fuppofition of the like practice† here will

In the Morifco the dancers held fwords in their hands with the points upward, fays Dr. Johnfon's note in Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. fc. ix. The Goths did the fame in their military dance, fays Olaus Magnus, Lib. XV. ch. xxiii. Haydocke's translation of Lomazzo on Painting, 1598, B. II. p. 54, fays: "There are other actions of dancing ufed, as of those who are reprefented with weapons in their hands going round in a ring, capering fkilfully, shaking their weapons after the manner of the Morris, with divers actions of meeting," &c. "Others hanging Morris bells upon their ankles."

+ Markham's tranflation of Herefbatch's Husbandry, 1631, obferves,

account for the queen of May having in her hand any particular flower before the season of its natural production in this climate. Her vefture was once fashionable in the highest degree. It was anciently the custom for maiden ladies to wear their hair* difhevelled at their coronations, their nuptials, and perhaps on all fplendid folemnities. Margaret, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. was married to James, King of Scotland, with the crown upon her head: her hair hanging down. Betwixt the crown and the hair, was a very rich coif hanging down behind the whole length of the body.-This fingle example fufficiently explains the drefs of Marian's head. Her coif is purple, her furcoat blue, her cuffs white, the skirts of her robe yellow, the fleeves of a carnation colour, and her ftomacher red with a yellow lace in crofs bars. In Shakspeare's play of Henry VIII. Anne Bullen at her coronation is in her hair, or as Holinfhed fays, "her hair hanged down," but on her head she had a coif with a circlet about it full of rich stones.

Figure 3. is a friar in the full clerical tonfure, with the chaplet of white and red beads in his right hand; and, expreffive of his profeffed humility, his eyes are caft upon the ground. His corded girdle, and his ruffet habit, denote him to be of the Francifcan order, or one of the grey friars, as they were commonly called from the colour of their apparel, which was a ruffet or a brown ruffet, as Holinfhed, 1586, Vol. III. p. 789, obferves. The mixture of colours in his habit may be refembled to a grey cloud, faintly tinged with red by the beams of the rifing fun, and ftreaked with black; and fuch perhaps was Shakspeare's Aurora, or" the morn in ruffet mantle clad." Hamlet, A&t I. fc. i. The friar's ftockings are red, his red girdle is ornamented with a golden twist, and with a golden taffel. At his girdle hangs a wallet for the reception of provifion, the only revenue of the mendicant orders of religious, who were named Walleteers or budget-bearers. It was cuftomary‡ in former times for the

"that gilliflowers, fet in pots and carried into vaults or cellars, have flowered all the winter long, through the warmness of the place."

*Leland's Collectanea, 1770, Vol. IV. p. 219, 293, Vol. V. p. 332, and Holinfhed, Vol. III. p. 801, 931; and fee Capili in Spelman's Glossary.

+ Splendid girdles appear to have been a great article of monaftick finery. Wykeham, in his Visitatio Notabilis, prohibits the Canons of Selborne any longer wearing filken girdles ornamented with gold or filver: "Zonifve fericis auri vel argenti ornatum habentibus." See Natural History, and Antiquities of Selborne, p. 371, and Appendix, p. 459. HOLT WHITE.

See Maii. inductio in Cowel's Law Dictionary. When the parish priests were inhibited by the diocefan to affift in the May games, the Francifcans might give attendance, as being exempted from epifcopal jurifdiction.

prieft and people in proceffion to go to fome adjoining wood on May-day morning, and return in a fort of triumph with a Maypole, boughs, flowers, garlands, and fuch like tokens of the fpring; and as the grey friars were held in very great esteem, perhaps on this occafion their attendance was frequently requested. Moft of Shakspeare's friars are Francifcans. Mr. Steevens ingenioufly fuggefts, that as Marian was the name of Robin Hood's beloved miftrefs, and as fhe was the queen of May, the Morris friar was defigned for friar Tuck, chaplain to Robin Huid, king of May, as Robin Hood is ftyled in Sir David Dalrymple's extracts from the book of the Univerfal Kirk, in the year 1576.

Figure 4. has been taken to be Marian's gentleman-usher. Mr. Steevens confiders him as Marian's paramour, who in delicacy appears uncovered before her; and as it was a cuftom for betrothed perfons to wear some mark for a token of their mutual engagement, he thinks that the cross-shaped flower on the head of this figure, and the flower in Marian's hand, denote their efpoufals or contract. Spenfer's Shepherd's Calendar, April, fpecifies the flowers worn of paramours to be the pink, the purple columbine, gilli-flowers, carnations, and fops in wine. I fuppofe the flower in Marian's hand to be a pink, and this to be a ftock-gilliflower, or the Hefperis, dame's violet, or queen's gilliflower; but perhaps it may be defigned for an ornamental ribbon. An eminent botanift apprehends the flower upon the man's head to be an Epimedium. Many particulars of this figure resemble Abfolon, the parish clerk in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, fuch as his curled and golden hair, his kirtle of watchet, his red hose, and Paul's windows corvin on his fhoes, that is, his fhoes pinked and cut into holes, like the windows of St. Paul's ancient church. My window plainly exhibits upon his right thigh a yellow fcrip or pouch, in which he might, as treasurer to the company, put the collected pence, which he might receive, though the cordelier muft, by the rules of his order, carry no money about him. If this figure fhould not be allowed to be a parish clerk, I incline to call him Hocus Pocus, or fome juggler attendant upon the mafter of the hobby-horse, as "faire de tours de (jouer de la) gibeciere," in Boyer's French Dictionary, fignifies to play tricks by virtue of Hocus Pocus. His red stomacher has a yellow lace, and his thoes are yellow. Ben Jonfon mentions " Hokos Pokos in a juggler's jerkin," which Skinner derives from kirtlekin; that is, a fhort kirtle, and fuch feems to be the coat of this figure.

Figure 5. is the famous hobby-horse, who was often forgotten or difufed in the Morris dance, even after Maid Marian, the

friar, and the fool, were continued in it, as is intimated in Ben Jonfon's mafque of The Metamorphofed Gypfies, and in his Entertainment of the Queen and Prince at Althorpe.* Our hobby is a spirited horfe of pafteboard, in which the mafter dances,t and difplays tricks of legerdemain, fuch as the threading of the needle, the mimicking of the whigh-hie, and the daggers in the nofe, &c. as Ben Jonfon, edit. 1756, Vol. I. p. 171, acquaints us, and thereby explains the fwords in the man's cheeks. What is ftuck in the horfe's mouth I apprehend to be a ladle ornamented with a ribbon. Its ufe was to receive the fpectators' pecuniary donations. The crimson foot-cloth fretted with gold, the golden bit, the purple bridle with a golden taffel, and ftudded with gold; the man's purple mantle with a golden border, which is latticed with purple, his golden crown, purple cap with a red feather, and with a golden knop, induce me to think him to be the king of May; though he now appears as a juggler and a buffoon. We are to recollect the fimplicity of ancient times, which knew not polite literature, and delighted in jesters, tumblers, jugglers, and pantomimes. The emperor Lewis the Debonair not only fent for fuch actors upon great festivals, but out of complaifance to the people was obliged to affift at their plays, though he was averfe to publick fhews. Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Kenelworth with Italian tumblers, Morris dancers, &c. The colour of the hobby-horse is a reddifh white, like the beautiful bloffom of the peach-tree. The man's coat or doublet is the only one upon the window that has buttons upon it, and the right fide of it is yellow, and the left red. Such a particoloured jacket, and hofe in the like

* Vol. VI. p. 93, of Whalley's edition, 1756:

"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 amongft them, which is the furer mark."

Dr. Plot's History of Staffordshire, p. 434, mentions a dance by a hobbyhorse and fix others.

Holinfhed, 1586. Vol. III. p. 326, 805, 812, 844, 963. Whalley's edition of Ben Jonfon, Vol. VI. p. 248. Stowe's Survey of London, 1720, Book V. p. 164, 166. Urry's Chaucer, p. 198.