"Stay, quoth my muse, and here behold a signe To mount the rod of peace, and none withstood Nor over-wise church-warden spoyl'd the sport." At night the villagers lighted up fires, and indulged in revellings which sometimes were "after the high Roman fashion," and might, indeed, have vied with those religious festivities with which the "true believers are still accustomed to reward themselves, for their pious abstinence during the fast of Rha mazen. "Happy the age, and harmlesse were the dayes, And Whitsun-ales and May-games did abound: And all the lusty yonkers, in a rout, With merry lasses daunc'd the rod about, Then friendship to their banquets bid the guests, The May-poles and pageantries of May-day are now becoming obsolete. We have, it is true, pageants and processions but they are continued merely for the pecuniary advantages resulting from them. We cannot, however, pass over the day without some notice of its former " mirth and merriment." The most innocent and amusing of all the May-day sports was doubtless that of dancing round the May-pole. Of these there were formerly a great many "set up " in London, which were regularly greeted on May-day. In speaking of one, opposite Gerrard's Hall, Stow says, "it might be, as was the case in every parish, set up every summer before the principal house in the parish or street," and "it stood in the halle, before the scrine, decked with hollie and ivie at the feaste at Christmasse." Were it not for Stow and other chroniclers, we should, of course, know little or nothing of the customs on this and other memorable days of our ancestors. The jocund sports of May-day, were not confined to the young and gay, even royalty itself partook of its diversions, and "every man, except impediment, would walke into the sweete meddowes and greene woodes, there to rejoice their spirites with the beauty and savour of sweete flowers," and to hear "How the merry minstrels of the grove In the thick forests feed the cooing dove; The flow'ry Venus, blooming Queen of May." In the reign of Henry the Eighth, and more particularly in his early years, the May games were celebrated with Justes and splendid Pageantry, and that famed chivalric out-law, Robin Hood, presided as Lord of the May, supported by his boon companions Little John and Friar Tuck, and near them sat the fair Maid Marian, crowned as Lady of the May, "With eyes of blue, Shining through dusk hair, like the stars of night, And habited in pretty forest plight Young as the dew:" whilst in a subsequent stage of the Pageant, were "The archer-men in green, with belt and bow, Henry's was, at first, a court of social gaiety, of which the Annals of his day furnish abundant testimony. Hall, in his Chronicles," tells us that "on May-daye in the second yere of his rayne (anno 1510) hys Grace beyng yonge, and wyllyng not to be idell, rose in the mornying very early to fetch May or greene bows, hym-selfe freche and richely appareyled, and clothed all his knyghts, squiers, and gentlemen in whyte satyn, and all hys garde and yomen of the crowne in whyte sarcenet. and so went every man with his bowe and arrowes shoting in the wood, and so repaired againe to the courte, every man with a green bough in his cappe; and at hys returnyng many hearynge of his goynge a Maying, were desyrous to see hym shote, for at that tyme his Grace shotte as stronge and as greate a lengthe as any of his garde." In the following year, the King being " lusty, young, and courageous," and greatly delighting" in feates of chyvalrie," caused a challenge at Justes, " against all commers," to be proclaimed, "to be holden at his mannour of Greenwyche," on the three first days of the ensuing May; "whiche noble courage, all younge persones highly praysed, but the auncient fathers muche doubted, considering the tender youth of the Kyng, and divers chaunces of horses and armure; so much that it was openly spoken, that stele was not so strong, but it might be broken, nor no horse could be so sure of fote, but he may fall: yet for all these doubets, the lusty Prince proceeded in his chalenge." In 1514 Tilting against "all commers," was proclaimed for the opening of May. The principal defenders were the King, and the Duke of Suffolk: the former was clad "in a scopelary mantel and hat of clothe of silver, and like a white hermite; and the Duke appeared appareled like a black hermite, all of black velvet: both their berdes wer of Damaske silver." "At these justes wer broken cxiiii speres, in a short season." The prize was adjudged to the King and his brave companion. 66 In 1515 a still greater degree of splendour was given to the courtly celebration of May-day. Henry the Eighth, and Queen Katherine, accompanied with many Lords and Ladies rode a Maying from Greenwich to the high ground of Shooter's Hill : where as they passed by the way, they espied a company of tall yeoman, clothed in greene, with green hoods, and with bowes and arrowes, to the number of 200. One, being their chieftain, was called Robin Hood, who required the King and all his company to stay and see his men shoote: whereunto the King granting, Robin Hood whistled, and all the 200 archers shot off, loosing all at once; and when he whistled again, they likewise shot again: their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the noise was strange and loud, which greatly delighted the King, Queen, and their company." On their return they were met by "two ladyes in a ryche chariot drawn with v. horses, and every horse had his name on his head, and on every horse sat a lady with her name written. "On the first courser, called Cawde, sate Humidite or Humide." On the ii courser, called Memeon, sate Lady Vert. On the iii called Phéton, sate Lady Vegatiue. On the iiii, called Rimphon, sate Lady Pleasauce. On the v, called Lampace, sate Sweet Odour: and in the chayre, sat the Lady May, accompanied by Lady Flora, richely appareled, and they saluted (the Kyng with diverse goodly songes, and so brought him to Grenewyche.' "At this Maying was a great number of people to behold to their great solace and comfort." The festivities of the day terminated with justing "on greate coursers and a goodly banquet." 66 In 1517 an "evil May-day" occurred, in consequence of an insurrection made " by prentices and other young persons against aliens." Of the English May-pole much has been said, Geoffrey Chaucer, speaking of "a vaine boaster," and in reference to the May-pole, or shaft, which had for many years been set up in Cornhill, says "Right well aloft, and high ye heave your head, As ye would beare the great Shaft of Corne-hill." After the disturbance above alluded to, the "great Mayings and May games," as Stow expresses it, "made by the governors and masters of this city, with triumph setting up of the great shaft, or principal May-pole in Cornhill," were "not so freely used as before," and the shaft itself" was not raysed at any time since Evil May-day"-but "was laid over the doors, and under the pentises of one row of houses, and alley gate, called of the shaft,-Shaft Alley, in the ward of Lime Street." Pennant inaccurately states that this "unfortunate shaft, or May-pole, gave rise to the insurrection of the apprentices, and the plundering of the foreigners." That tumult, however, originated in circumstances altogether independent of the Maypole, but this shaft was the cause of a kind of civil after dinner broil, in which it was first " mangled" and afterwards committed to the flames. "The church of St. Andrew the Apostle," says Stow, "in the ward of Aldgate, was known from other churches of that name, by the addition of Knape or Undershaft, because that of old time, every yeere, on Maie-daye in the morning, it was used, that an high shaft or long pole, was set up there, in the midst of the streete, before the southe dore of the sayd church; which shaft, when it was set on end, and fixed in the ground, was higher than the church steeple." This shaft remained hanging " upon iron hooks," under "the pentises," till the third year of Edward the Sixth," when the plague of fanaticism began to scandalize the promoters of the reformed religion," and a frantic zealot called Sir Stephen, then curate of St. Catherine Cree, or Christ Church, made it the subject of a discourse at Paul's Cross, and "in the afternoon of that present day (Sunday) the neighbours," says Stow," over whose doores the said shaft had laine, after they had dined, to make themselves strong, gathered more helpe, and with greate labor raising the shaft from the hooks they sawed it in pieces, everie man taking for his share, so much as had layne over his dore and stall, the length of his house, and they of the alley, divided amongst them so much as had laine over their alley gate. Thus was this Idoll mangled and afterwards burned." It appears to have been the object of many of the more rigid among our early reformers to suppress the amusements of the C lower and middle classes and more especially May-pole games; and these "Idolls" of the people were got down as zeal grew fierce, and got up as it grew cool, till, after various ups and downs, the favourites of the populace were by the Parliament, on the 6th of April, 1644, thus provided against: "The Lords and Commons do further order and ordain, that all and singular May-poles, that are or shall be erected, shall be taken down, and removed by the constables, bossholders, tithing-men, petty constables, and church-wardens of the parishes, where the same be, and that no May-pole be hereafter set up, erected, or suffered to be set up within this Kingdom of England, or dominion of Wales: the said officers to be fined five shillings weekly till the said May-pole be taken down." Long previous to this ordinance, such great interruption had been given to the May games and sundry diversions of the people, that James the First, on returning from Scotland, through Lancashire, in 1615, judged it requisite to issue a Proclamation, forbidding any interference with the lawful recreations of his subjects, either in "dancing, archery, vaulting, &c. or in having May games, Whitson ales, and morris-dancers, and the setting up of May-poles, and other sports therewith used, so as the same be had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine service." In the following year, that Proclamation was extended to all parts of the Kingdom; and it was again ordered to be enforced by Charles the First, (together with the observance of wakes, or feasts, on the anniversary dedication of churches) by his letters mandatory, dated at Westminster, on the 18th of October, 1633. This command the King ordered to be promulgated by Episcopal authority, through all the parish churches of every diocese, but it so greatly excited the displeasure of the puritans, that they afterwards used it as an argument for expelling the Bishops from the House of Peers, and condemning Archbishop Laud. The Strand May-pole was set up in the place of an ancient stone cross, mentioned by Stow. It was erected prior to 1634, and is described in Pasquil's " Palenodia," published in that year. "Fairely we marched on till our approach Within the spacious passage of the Strand, |