"Walford's Antiquarian: A Magazine and Bibliographical Review" Volume IX January-June 1886.

Morris-dancing, when the sports of our ancestors were few and rude, constituted a very favourite part of their merry meetings. These dancers were at first a company of people who represented the military dances of the Moors, once the most lively and refined people in Europe, in their proper habits and arms, and were doubtless sufficiently amusing to an untravelled people like the English; but, by degrees, they seem to have adopted the other rustic May-games and sports, which were falling into disuse, and thus the Moorish or Morris dancers became the most anomalous collection of performers that ever appeared at once upon the stage of the world.

Besides the hobby-horse, there were the fool - not the driveller as often supposed, but the buffoon of the party; May or Maid Marian, and her paramour; a friar, a serving-man, a piper, and two Moriscoes. These, with their bells, rings, streamers, &c., all in motion at the same time, made, as Rabelais calls it, a tintamarre-de-diable! Chapman, in his "Monsieur d'Olive," Act iii., gives some idea of the general noise on their approach.

"You may hear them [the gallants] half a mile ere they come at you; six or seven make a perfect morrice-daunce; they need no bells, their spurs serve their turn;"

Their dress is prettily described in Fletcher's "Women Pleased: " -

SOTO. Do you know what sports are in season?
SILVIO. I hear there are some afoot.
SOTO. Where are your bells then, your rings, your ribbands, friend, and your clean napkins; your nosegay in your hat, pinn'd up ? &c,

Clod, in Ben Jonson's "Masque of Gypsies" observes: "They should be morris-dancers by their jingle, but they have no napkins." When the right hearty good-will with which these honest souls capered is taken into a momentary consideration, the clean napkin, which was never omitted, will not appear the least requisite part of the apparatus.

The hobby-horse, which Ben Jonson, in "Every Man out of his Humour," makes the household pet of Sogliardo, was the main feature or principal character in the dance, the banishment from which was a source of much lamentation, and excited the ludicrously dolorous pathos of many of the early dramatists. It was a light frame of wicker-work, with the head and neck of a horse, made of pasteboard. This was either buckled round the waist, or suspended by straps from the shoulders, and had a valance or foot-cloth which reached to the ground, and concealed at once the legs of the biped performer and his juggling apparatus. Thus equipped, he pranced and curveted in all directions, taking his part in the dance, or in a runaway whimsey, bounced at the lookers-by, who pressed in on the circle of their evolutions, neighing, or whigh-hie-ing, as it was wont to be called, in all outré gallimaufries of boisterous and burlesque horsemanship.

The Morris-dance and the May-games were grievously on the decline after the accession of James I. The pedantry of Great Britain's Solomon, while it allowed him no zest for the pleasures of the people over whom it was destined he should rule, served to sadden and sour the minds of the people, which rose into Puritanism in the reign of his successor.

In Fletcher's "Women Pleased," Burnby, who has been converted to Puritanism, mentions these whig-hies, and renounces the hobby-horse, in which he had just been delighting himself by dancing:-

"This beast of Babylon, I'll ne'er back again,
His pace is sure profane, and his lewd wi-hees,
The songs of Hymyn and Gymyn in the wilderness."

A correspondent of The Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1819, thus describes such various modifications of the Morris-dance as are still retained in Glamorganshire, not during the "merry month of May," but, like that recorded by Dr. Plot, at Christmas, and mingled with the usual exhibitions of that festive season.

The most conspicuous figure is the Aderyn bee y llwyd bird, with the grey beak; this is formed by the skeleton bones of a horse's head, furnished with artificial eyes and ears, and highly decorated with ribbons and coloured paper; it is borne by a man whose person is concealed beneath a long cloth. His part is to imitate the amblings, curvetings, startings, and kickings of the horse; he is attended by a groom, whose business is to soothe his affected anger and fears, and keep him within proper bounds ; three or four partners in the profits of the exhibition, who are by turns horse, groom, or attendants, accompany him from house to house, and, after a due display of the horse's various antics, a hat is put into his mouth, and a collection levied upon the spectators.

This is evidently the hobby-horse, detached from the Morris-dance; and it is observable that the Welsh name very nearly approaches that of a similar French exhibition, styled l'oiseau.

Another exhibition is corruptly called "The Merry Dancers." There are usually three persons dressed in short jackets, which, as well as their hats, are decorated with a profusion of paper ornaments, they proceed from house to house, dancing in each a sort of reel, chiefly, I believe, peculiar to Wales. After dancing the keys and setting, two of the dancers, by turns, take strong hold of each other's wrists, and continue turning round for a much longer time than would be sufficient to make any ordinary head completely giddy. The Welsh are generally very good dancers, and very fond of it; and on these occasions particularly, their feet keep time with the music in a most energetic shuffle upon the floor, somewhat similar to a particular step in the old hornpipe, which is also occasionally danced by one of the "Merry Dancers," if any of the party happens to be particularly expert. The music was generally the harp, though the fiddle is superseding the native instrument.

A frequent, but not universal, accompaniment of this merry dance is the conspicuous and grotesque group of Punch and Judy. The gentleman is dressed according to the taste and ability of the wearer, generally in a cap and mask of some animal's skin, with the hair on, and the jacket is either much decorated, or entirely composed of the same materials; a fox's brush, if it can be got, or some other hairy ornament is pendant from behind, and a concealed bell tinkles about his hinder parts. His right hand wields a rod, with which he belabours his wife Judy, who is personated by the tallest man the party are able to procure. He is habited in female attire, his face blacked, and an enormously broad-brimmed, slouched beaver hat upon his head. These two dance a pas de deux, to give occasionally rest to the other performers. The step of this dance is a sort of shuffling run, in very short steps, somewhat resembling what in fashionable assemblies was formerly known by the name of the "partridge step." The jingle of Punch's bell is the only music, and the frequent application of his rod to Judy's back the most striking part of the performance. The merry dancers are not always accompanied by these figures, but each occasionally forms a separate exhibition. Old Christmas Day is that upon which these, as well as the Aderyn bee y llwyd, make their appearance.

To the preceding amusing detail of the characters and manner of the English Morris-dance, as performed two centuries ago, may be added some account of the May-games, as exhibited in the neighbourhood of Longcombe, Oxfordshire, about 1774, which, though comparatively modern, is worthy preservation.

The May-games at that period were planned by the sons of wealthy farmers, who undertook the burthen of the expense in case the want of success should leave any undefrayed. Some convenient spot, near the middle of the village, where the use of a barn could be obtained, was fixed upon, and with a green sufficiently contiguous, where the bower and May-pole could be erected. The intended festival was then announced by the Morris-dancers upon Maunday-Thursday, if that day fell conveniently; and they paid visits to the halls of the neighbouring gentry, where they usually obtained a seasonable contribution. It was also made known upon the market days at all the adjacent towns.

The May-pole, and a thrave of boughs, to form the bower, were occasionally purchased, but more commonly obtained as a donation. The first, when erected, had the top adorned with a garland of flowers, and the latter, being arched over, was made sufficiently capacious for the country-dances.

In the barn, or, as named for the occasion, the Lord's mansion, there were placed several barrels of ale, brewed for the purpose, with cakes newly baked (for a daily supply of which some neighbouring oven was engaged) and a large quantity of ribbons. The sale of these articles usually saved the promoters of the games from loss.

In choosing the Lord and Lady of the May, care was taken to select a smart, active, and handsome man, as well as a lively, pretty woman, the daughter of some respectable farmer, and to whom it often proved the prelude of obtaining a husband. It is doubtful whether the Lord derived any pecuniary advantage from the revenue that supported his state, though the Lady was allowed daily new shoes and twenty yards of ribbon, and at the end of the sports, was complimented with a guinea.

In procession the Lady carried a bouquet, which was called her mace, and she and the Lord held each the end of a ribbon as did their attendants, called my Lord's footman and my Lady's maid, part of whose province was to sell ribbons. The maid also earned a mace, which might be named the mace of mischief, as, to tickle the noses of her admirers, the flowers were often mischievously enwoven with pins as well as with briars.

Another attendant, whose presence gave life to the show, was called the Squire. His dress was a fanciful compound of those genuine Mimes, the Harlequin, Clown, and Scaramouch. He was furnished with a weapon to prevent the crowd from obstructing his Lord and Lady in their progress. It consisted of a short stick, having at one end a narrow round sand-bag, sewed in tan leather; at the other the dried tail of an ox. The incorrigible, on whom the weight of the sand-bag had reputedly fallen without effect, seldom ventured to provoke a second stripe from the latter, The Squire was expected to have a wise or foolish speech ready upon every occasion; for by the laughter his nonsense occasioned was commonly decided his ability to support the character.

Early upon May morning the Lord and Lady, with their attendants, waited by the May-pole for visitors, whom they preceded in due form, their Squire and two servants leading the way, first to the bower and then to the mansion. Here the company were shown the curiosities, viz. a flail, hung over a beam, as my Lord's organ; the portrait of a lion for my Lady's lap-dog, and that of an owl for her parrot. The regulations and forfeits of the mansion were also communicated, and finally, the party invited to partake of the refreshments.

That being done, the duty of the Lord and Lady ceased, and they returned, with their attendants, to their former station, to wait other visitors. If while they were engaged, as it frequently happened, there arrived a set of Morris-dancers, often with all the good folks of their village in company, the whole halted at a distance until the cavalcade could be preceded in due state to the mansion.

No inconsiderable portion of good humour and mirth arose from the non-payment of the forfeits. To call either of the above-named curiosities by any other appellation than that assigned to it, incurred a fine of sixpence; and he that refused to pay was forced to ride my Lord's horse. This was a wooden machine, about four feet high, borne upon poles, and having the head of a horse with a bridle. Upon this my Lady first mounted, sideways, holding the rein; then the delinquent was placed behind her, and both carried by two men round the May-pole. A fine was often wilfully incurred, as during the ride it became the duty of the swain to salute my Lady; and whether he was a bashful or a gay gallant, the process always proved a subject of merriment for the spectators.

To these festivals the Morris-dancers came in sets far and near; those from a distance commonly on horseback, with the manes and heads of the horses decorated with flowers, &c. They usually wore shirts closely plaited, buckskin, or white linen breeches, cotton stockings, and pumps, with bells, fixed upon the outside of each leg, the whole dress tastefully adorned with ribbons and white handkerchiefs, or napkins, to use in dancing. In procession, first came the fool, next the piper, and then the dancers; of whom twelve seem to have been the customary number. It was not uncommon for them to be attended by persons to take care of their clothes.

There were also the dancers of the Bedlam-Morris. They did not wear bells, and were distinguished by high peaked caps (such as are worn by clowns in pantomimes) adorned with ribbons. Each carried a stick about two feet long, which they used with various gesticulation during the dance, and, at intervals, struck them against each other. A clown and piper attended them.

The greatest number of Morris-dancers, in that part of England, always assembled in the Whitsun-week at Dover Hill, near the vale of Evesham, in the neighbourhood of Campden, Weston, and Long Marston. There were many booths erected, in which various rural sports and gymnastic exercises were celebrated.

At the village of Finstock, near Charlbury, Oxfordshire, the Morris is held by prescription, with a right of common, of a considerable extent, by the forest of Wychwood. The young men and maidens claim the right of procuring from the forest such materials for the bower, as, with the May-pole, they can draw away, always preserving leather harness for that purpose, and when the sports are ended the bower and May-pole are sold, and the money expended in malt, from which is brewed ale for the ensuing year. At Woodstock and Longcombe those articles are usually obtained by the gift of the Duke of Marlborough.

Middlesex could not then claim the pre-eminence, afterwards obtained, in possessing the tallest May-pole "in all our land." This was erected in the Strand opposite Maypole-alley, now Little Drury-lane, and in a poem, dated 1634, it is said to have rivalled " the lofty spire of Clerkenwell." The Cockneys, however, were not such proficients in the games as to exclude the itinerant Morris-dancers. Thus, in the tract of " Coach and Sedan, pleasantly disputing for place and precedence, the Brewer's Cart being Moderator," 1636, 4to., it is said, "Talking in this manner, unexpected, there comes by a Morrice-dance of countrey-fellows; away goes Powell [a waterman], and takes the Maide Marian and the foole along to a taverne; the promiscuous bystanders left us to follow the Morrice-dancers." The scene of this dispute was Jack-an-apes-lane, which, we believe, led from Little Lincoln's-inn-fields into Chancery-lane.

Stow tells us "that in the month of May, namely, on May-Day, in the morning, every man, except impediment, would walk into the sweet meddows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmony of birds praising God in their kinde."

Stow also quotes from Hall an account of Henry VIII. riding a-Maying, from Greenwich to the high ground of Shooter's-hill, with Queen Katherine his wife, accompanied by many lords and ladies; and further tells us, "I find also that, in the month of May, the citizens of London (of all estates) lightly, in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joining together, had their several Mayings, and did fetch in May-poles, with divers warlike shews, with good archers, morrice dancers, and other devices for pastime, all the day long; and, towards the evening, they had stage plaies, and bonfires in the streets."

"The Mayings," says Strutt, "are in some sort yet kept up by the milk-maids at London, who go about the streets with their garlands and music, dancing. But this tracing is a very imperfect shadow of the original sports : for May-poles were set up in the streets with various martial shews, moms dancing, and other devices, with which, and revelling and good cheer, the day was passed away. At night they rejoiced and lighted up their bonfires." (English Ćra, vol. ii. p. 99.)

Pennant tells us, that on the first of May, in the Highlands of Scotland, the herdsmen of every village hold their Beltain, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench in the ground, leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood, on which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal, and milk, and bring, besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whiskey; for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground by way of libation. On that, every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them. Each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and, flinging it over his shoulder, says, "This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses: this to thee, preserve thou my sheep;" and so on. After that they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals. "This I give to thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded crow! this to thee, O eagle!" When the ceremony is over, they dine on the caudle, and, after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two persons deputed for that purpose; but on the next Sunday, they re-assemble, and finish the remains of the first entertainment.

And again, Stow, in his "Survey of London," tells us that "in the reign of Henry VI, the aldermen and sheriffs of London, being on May-day at the bishop of London's wood, and having there a worshipful dinner for themselves and other commers, Lydgate, the monk of Bury, sent them, by a pursivant, a joyful commendation of that season, beginning thus:-

'Mighty Flora, goddess of fresh flowers,
Which clothed has the soil in lusty green,
Made buds to spring with her sweet showers,
By influence of the sun sheene,
To do pleasance of Intent full cleane,
Unto the states which now sit here
Hath Ver sent down her oun daughter dear."

Borlase, in his curious account of the manners of Cornwall, tells us: "An ancient custom 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, bring it into town, fit a straight and taper pole to the end of it, and paint the same, erect it in the most public places, and, on holidays and festivals, adorn it with flower garlands, or ensigns and streamers." He adds. "This usage is nothing more than a gratulation of the spring season; and every house exhibits a proper signal of its approach, to testify their universal joy at the revival of vegetation."

Browne, in his Britannia's Pastorals (ii. 4), thus describes some of the May revellings:-

"As I have seene the lady of the May
Set in an arbour on a holiday,
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 youngsters one by one,
And for their well-performance soone 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 handkerchief cast o're and o're again:
And none returneth empty, that hath spent
His pains to fill their rural merriment:
So," &c.

Cleland, the author of a pamphlet entitled " The Way to Things by Words, and to Words by Things," in his specimen of an Etymological Vocabulary, considers the May-pole in a new and curious light; we gather from him that "our ancestors held an anniversary assembly on May-day; the column of the May (whence our May-pole) was the great standard of justice in the Ey-commons, or fields of May. Here it was that the people, if they saw cause, deposed or punished their governors, their barons, their kings. The judge's bough or wand (at this time discontinued, and only faintly represented by a trifling nosegay), and the staff or rod of authority in the civil, and in the military (for it was the mace of civil power, and the truncheon of the field officers) are both derived from hence."

"A mayor," he says, "received his name from this May, in the sense of lawful power. The crown, a mark of dignity and symbol of power like the mace and sceptre, was also taken from the May, being representative of the garland or crown; when hung on the top of the mayor-pole, was the great signal for convening the people. The arches of it, which spring from the circlet, and meet together at the mound or round ball, being necessarily so formed to suspend it on the top of the pole." "The word May-pole," he observes," is a pleonasm; in French it is called singly the Mai."

"This is", he further tells us, "one of the ancientest customs, which, from the remotest ages, has been, by repetition, from year to year, perpetuated down to our days, not being at this instant totally exploded, especially in the lower class of life. It was considered as the boundary day, that divided the confines of winter and summer, allusively to which there was instituted a sportful war between two parties; the one in defence of the continuance of winter, the other for bringing in the summer. The youth were divided into troops, the one in winter livery, the other in the gay habit of the spring. The mock battle was always fought booty, the spring was sure to obtain the victory, which they celebrated by carrying triumphantly green branches, with May flowers, proclaiming and singing the song of joy, of which the burthen was in these, or equivalent terms :- 'We have brought the summer home.'

It is, or was till far into the present century, common at Newcastle for women, early on May morning, to sing about the streets, with garlands in their hands, and which, if I mistake not, they sell to any who are superstitious enough to buy them. The verse is homely and low, but it must be remembered that our treatise is not "on the sublime."

"Rise up, maidens! fie for shame,
I've been four long miles from hame,
I've been gathering my garland gay,
Rise up, fair maids, and take in your May."