322
NOTES AND QUERIES. f n s. in. APRIL 29, 1911.
1628. Bishop John Earle. " A Shee precise
Hypocrite. . . .is more fiery against the May-pole
then her husband, and thinkes he might doe a
Phinehas his act to break the pate of the fiddler."
' Micro-cosmographie,' ed. Arber, p. 64.
1638. Thomas Randolph notes the decay of may-games caused by Puritanic teaching : Early in May up got the jolly rout
Busied at wrestling, or to throw the barre, Ambitious which should bear the bell away, And kiss the nut-brown Lady of the May.
Some melancholy swains about have gone To teach
The organs hate, have silenc'd bag-pipes too, And harmless May-poles, all are rail'd upon.
Ed. 1668, pp. 91-2. Will vertues dance ? O vile, absurd, Mavpole-Maid-Marian vertue !
P. 189. Circa 1645. Milton :
Zephyr with Aurora playing As he met her once a-Maying.
' L' Allegro.'
And his ' Song on May Morning.' 1648. Herrick:
Corinna's going a Maying.
Ed. Saintsbury, 1893, i. 86. ' The May-pole,' ii. 33. The May-poles too'with garlands grac't. ii. 22.
1653. Walton's ' Angler ' begins on " this fine pleasant fresh May day in the morning."
1656. ' The Trial of the Ladies Hide Park May-Day,' 4to.
1685-8. A print of ' The Merry Milk Maid,' " represented dancing with her milk-pail on her head. The pail is hung round with cups, tankards, porringers, and other pieces of borrowed plate. She is dressed in a white hood ; over which is a narrow-brimmed black hat ; on each shoulder is a knot, and she holds a white handkerchief in her right hand." Granger, ' Biog. Hist. Engl.,' ed. 4, 1804, iv. 354.
1714. John Gay :
But 'neither lamb nor kid, nor calf nor Tray, Dance like Buxom a on the first of May.
' Shepherd's Week,' i.
1714. ' The Maypole's New Year's Gift, or Thanks returned to its Benefactors, humbly inscribed to the two corners of Catherine Street, written by Parishioners of St. Mary Savoy' [in- verse].
1728. Thomson :
Oh come ! and while the rosy-footed May Steals blushing on, together let us tread The morning dews, and gather in their prime Fresh-blooming flowers. ' Spring,' 486.
1731. John Lewis translates " ludibria " in (Ecolanipadius by " May-games." ' Life of John Fisher,' 1855, i. 304.
Circa 1746. At Wintringham, in Lincoln- shire, " the parishioners had rights of common pasture over extensive meadows, and upland grounds for hay. On May-day the common pasture called the Marsh was stocked with horses,
cows, and other cattle. On this occasion it was
usual to have bull-fighting, and the worst passions
of the owners were stirred up .... The bulls fought
very furiously for some time, and the contests
ended with confusion." Life of T. Adam, pre-
fixed to his ' Exposition of the Four Gospels,'
1837, i. 28.
1789. " Mrs. Montagu always gave an annual dinner of roast beef and plum pudding to the chimney sweepers on May-day, in the court before her house, Portman Square." Roberts, ' Memoirs of Hannah More,' ed. 3, 1835, ii. 154.
1804. " The London milk-maids still continue to decorate their pails on the first of May, when they generally receive a small contribution from their customers." Granger, as above. Circa 1820. Wordsworth :
Among the hills the echoes play
A never never-ending song
To welcome in the May.
Thou Linnet ! in thy green array,
Presiding spirit here to-day,
Dost lead the revels of the May, Like the May
With festivals.
With the heart of May Doth every beast keep holiday.
the earth herself is adorning This sweet May morning, And the children are pulling
On every side,
In a thousand valleys far and wide, Fresh flowers. [And others.]
1822. Robert Bloomfield, ' May Day with the Muses,' 8vo, woodcuts.
1841. Dickens. " The emblem reared on the roadside over against the house, if not of those goodly proportions that Maypoles were wont to present in olden times, was a fair young ash, thirty feet in height, and straight as any arrow that ever English yeoman drew." ' Barnaby Rudge,' chap. i.
1904. W. Graham Robertson, ' A Masque of May Morning,' with 12 designs in colour, 4to.
1909. ' May Day Sports,' an article in The Times, 1 May.
It is sufficient just to name Brand, Hone,, the ' Book of Days,' and Hewitt's ' Book of the Seasons,' 1831. W. C. B.
TOTTEL'S 'MISCELLANY,'
SIR ANTONY ST. LEGER, AND SIR
JOHN HARINGTON THE ELDER.
(See ante, p. 201.)
I MUST now take a poem from the Earl of Surrey and restore it to its rightful owner.
No man who wishes to be well informed concerning the poems of Surrey and Wyatt can afford to neglect Dr. Nott, whose monu- mental work is a marvel of erudition and worthy of all praise. But one must be care- ful not to be led astray by Dr. Nott's theories,.
