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THIS ancient English Dance is supposed to have received its name from the Spanish, or rather Moorish Dance, called the Moresco, which is still practised in Spain under the name of the fandango. In many parts of England, at the present day, a dance is performed by a number of young countrymen, decorated with ribands, and furnished with short staves, which they strike together at intervals, but this has no resemblance to the old English Morris Dance. The earliest notices of this dance appear in the reign of Henry the Eighth, the churchwardens' books of that reign containing many items having reference to the Morris Dance, which appears to have made a considerable figure at parish festivals.

The engraving with which this subject is illustrated, is from a curious painted-glass window at Betley, in Staffordshire; it represents some of the characters that performed in the dance, as they were dressed about the end of the fifteenth century: many of these characters appear to have been omitted in more recent times.

Those which seem in ancient times to have composed this May-game dance, were Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian, the Queen or Lady of the May, the Fool, the Piper, and several Morris Dancers, habited, as it appears, in various modes; afterwards a Hobbyhorse and a Dragon were added. The first of May, the day on which this grotesque dance took place, was formerly celebrated by numerous games and merry-makings by all classes of society. Henry the Eighth rose on May-day very early, and went abroad with his courtiers, to fetch May, or green boughs, and with their bows and arrows shooting in the wood. "Every parish had its Maying, and did fetch in May-poles with diverse war-like shows, with good archers, Morrice-dancers, and other devices for pastime, all the day long."

The engraving has been thus described; fig. 1 is the Fool; fig. 2 is a Morisco, or Moor; fig. 3, a Spaniard; fig. 4, Tom the Piper; fig. 5, the May-pole. Then follow the English characters, which are supposed to represent the five great ranks of civil life; fig. 6, the Franklin, or private gentleman; fig. 7, a plain Churl, or peasant; fig. 8, the Man with the Hobbyhorse, who is supposed to be a Moorish king, the greatest personage in the piece, and the monarch of May, the intended consort of Maid Marian; fig. 9, a Nobleman; fig. 10, the Friar; fig. 11, Maid Marian, the Queen of May; fig. 12, the lesser Fool, who brings up the rear. This is one description, but commentators differ from each other in several particulars.

It will be seen that Robin Hood is not among the characters on the painted glass, but it has been already noticed, that they were not always the same. Robin Hood was always represented in a hunting suit of Lincoln green. It is well known that he was a real character, and existed in the reign of Richard Cœur de Lion.

In Locksley town, in merry Nottinghamshire,

In merry sweet Locksley town,

There bold Robin Hood was born and was bred,

Bold Robin, of famous renown.

He was a celebrated robber, or outlaw, and chiefly infested, along with his troop, the forests of Sherwood, in Nottinghamshire, and Barnsdale, in Yorkshire; he lived to a great age, but contrived, during the whole of his life, to set the civil power of the kingdom at defiance. In the rude times in which he lived, many of his deeds were looked on with great respect, for though he robbed the rich, he is said to have been extremely generous to the poor, and even to have attended mass and confession with great regularity.

This bold robber and his attendants were in the habit of frequenting public merry-makings where trials of skill in archery were going on. On this account he became, as it were, identified with the occasion, and, in after-times, himself and band were personified by the most skilful of the archers, and the successful man would naturally be called Robin Hood, and entitled to the hand of Maid Marian, the Queen of May. So famous was this celebrated robber, that two volumes of songs have been collected merely relating to the exploits of himself and band. The Maid Marian, as well as representing the favourite of Robin Hood in these May-games, was also the Queen of May. In the Isle of Man they not only elected a Queen of May, but also a Queen of Winter. In some places an entertainment, much similar to the May-games, takes place at Whitsuntide, when the Whitsun ales are celebrated.

Maid Marian was usually dressed according to the fashion of the time, and carried a flower or fruit in her hand; sometimes she was carried in procession on men's shoulders.

The Fool played a principal character, and was dressed in a cap and bells, like the domestic jester of the day; he seems to have had more labour to undergo in amusing the assemblage, when there happened to be no hobbyhorse.

But see the hobbyhorse is forgot,

Fool, it must be your lot,

To supply his want with faces,

And some other buffoon graces,

You know how. - ben jonson.

The hobby horse was represented by a man equipped with as much pasteboard as was sufficient to form the head and hinder parts of a horse, the defects of the quadruped being concealed by a long mantle that nearly touched the ground. The performer on this occasion exerted all his skill in burlesque horsemanship. The hobbyhorse also, at times, performed the part of a juggler. The two swords thrust into the cheek, as they appear in the engraving, have reference to some feat of dexterity, somewhat resembling that performed by the native Egyptian tumblers of the present day, who, placing the point of a sharp-pointed sword on each side of the cheek or eyes, retain them in that position while they fling a somerset. This affords another proof of the eastern origin of the dance. The horse carries in his mouth the ladle for collecting the money that was given.

The only English custom of modern times which seems to have a direct reference to the old Morris Dance, and the characters of which it was composed, is the May-day frolic of the chimney-sweepers, in which we have a Lord and a Lady, and perhaps Jack-in-the-Green may have had its origin in the hobbyhorse.

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