Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 63

The combat of this saint on horseback with a dragon has been very long established as a subject for sign-painting. In "King John" (ii. 1) Philip says:

"Saint George, that swing'd the dragon, and e'er since Sits on his horseback at mine hostess' door."

It is still a very favorite sign. In London alone[655] there are said to be no less than sixty-six public-houses and taverns with the sign of St.

George and the Dragon, not counting beer-houses and coffee-houses.

[655] Hotten's "History of Sign-boards," 1866, 3d ed., p. 287.

_May Day._ The festival of May day has, from the earliest times, been most popular in this country, on account of its a.s.sociation with the joyous season of spring. It was formerly celebrated with far greater enthusiasm than nowadays, for Bourne tells us how the young people were in the habit of rising a little after midnight and walking to some neighboring wood, accompanied with music and the blowing of horns, where they broke down branches from the trees, which, decorated with nosegays and garlands of flowers, were brought home soon after sunrise, and placed at their doors and windows. Shakespeare, alluding to this practice, informs us how eagerly it was looked forward to, and that it was impossible to make the people sleep on May morning. Thus, in "Henry VIII." (v. 4), it is said:

"Pray, sir, be patient: 'tis as much impossible- Unless we sweep 'em from the door with cannons- To scatter 'em, as 'tis to make 'em sleep On May-day morning."

Again, in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (i. 1), Lysander, speaking of these May-day observances, says to Hermia:

"If thou lov'st me, then, Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night; And in the wood, a league without the town, Where I did meet thee once with Helena, To do observance to a morn of May, There will I stay for thee."

And Theseus says (iv. 1):

"No doubt they rose up early to observe The rite of May."[656]

[656] Cf. "Twelfth Night" (iii. 4): "More matter for a May morning."

In the "Two n.o.ble Kinsmen" (ii. 3), one of the four countrymen asks: "Do we all hold against the Maying?"

In Chaucer's "Court of Love" we read that early on May day "Fourth goth al the Court, both most and lest, to fetche the flowris fresh and blome." In the reign of Henry VIII. it is on record that the heads of the corporation of London went out into the high grounds of Kent to gather the May, and were met on Shooter's Hill by the king and his queen, Katherine of Arragon, as they were coming from the palace of Greenwich. Until within a comparatively recent period, this custom still lingered in some of the counties. Thus, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the following doggerel was sung:

"Rise up, maidens, fie for shame!

For I've been four long miles from hame, I've been gathering my garlands gay, Rise up, fair maidens, and take in your May."

Many of the ballads sung nowadays, in country places, by the village children, on May morning, as they carry their garlands from door to door, undoubtedly refer to the old practice of going a-Maying, although fallen into disuse.

In olden times nearly every village had its May-pole, around which, decorated with wreaths of flowers, ribbons, and flags, our merry ancestors danced from morning till night. The earliest representation of an English May-pole is that published in the "Variorum Shakespeare," and depicted on a window at Betley, in Staffords.h.i.+re, then the property of Mr. Tollet, and which he was disposed to think as old as the time of Henry VIII. The pole is planted in a mound of earth, and has affixed to it St. George's red-cross banner and a white pennon or streamer with a forked end. The shaft of the pole is painted in a diagonal line of black colors upon a yellow ground, a characteristic decoration of all these ancient May-poles, as alluded to by Shakespeare in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (iii. 2), where it gives point to Hermia's allusion to her rival Helena as "a painted May-pole."[657] The popularity of the May-pole in former centuries is shown by the fact that one of our London parishes, St. Andrew Undershaft, derives its name from the May-pole which overhung its steeple, a reference to which we find made by Geoffrey Chaucer, who, speaking of a vain boaster, says:

"Right well aloft, and high ye bear your head, As ye would bear the great shaft of Cornhill."

[657] "Book of Days," vol. i. p. 575; see "British Popular Customs," pp. 228-230, 249.

London, indeed, had several May-poles, one of which stood in Basing Lane, near St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a large fir pole, forty feet high and fifteen inches in diameter, and fabled to be the justing staff of Gerard the Giant. Only a few, however, of the old May-poles remain scattered here and there throughout the country. One still supports a weatherc.o.c.k in the churchyard at Pendleton, Manchester; and in Derbys.h.i.+re, a few years ago, several were to be seen standing on some of the village greens. The rhymes made use of as the people danced round the May-pole varied according to the locality, and oftentimes combined a curious mixture of the jocose and sacred.

Another feature of the May-day festivities was the morris-dance, the princ.i.p.al characters of which generally were Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Scarlet, Stokesley, Little John, the Hobby-horse, the Bavian or Fool, Tom the Piper, with his pipe and tabor. The number of characters varied much at different times and places. In "All's Well that Ends Well" (ii.

2), the clown says: "As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney ... a morris for May-day."[658]

[658] See Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," vol. i. pp. 247-270; "Book of Days," vol. i. pp. 630-633.

In "2 Henry VI." (iii. 1) the Duke of York says of Cade:

"I have seen Him caper upright, like a wild Morisco, Shaking the b.l.o.o.d.y darts, as he his bells."

In the "Two n.o.ble Kinsmen" (iii. 5) Gerrold, the schoolmaster, thus describes to King Theseus the morris-dance:

"If you but favour, our country pastime made is.

We are a few of those collected here, That ruder tongues distinguish villagers; And, to say verity and not to fable, We are a merry rout, or else a rable, Or company, or, by a figure, choris, That 'fore thy dignity will dance a morris.

And I, that am the rectifier of all, By t.i.tle _Paedagogus_, that let fall The birch upon the breeches of the small ones, And humble with a ferula the tall ones, Do here present this machine, or this frame: And, dainty duke, whose doughty dismal fame, From Dis to Daedalus, from post to pillar, Is blown abroad, help me, thy poor well willer, And, with thy twinkling eyes, look right and straight Upon this mighty _morr_-of mickle weight- _Is_-now comes in, which being glu'd together Makes _morris_, and the cause that we came hether, The body of our sport, of no small study.

I first appear, though rude, and raw, and muddy, To speak, before thy n.o.ble grace, this tenner; At whose great feet I offer up my penner: The next, the Lord of May and Lady bright, The chambermaid and serving-man, by night That seek out silent hanging: then mine host And his fat spouse, that welcomes to their cost The galled traveller, and with a beck'ning, Inform the tapster to inflame the reck'ning: Then the beast-eating clown, and next the fool, The bavian, with long tail and eke long tool; _c.u.m multis aliis_ that make a dance: Say 'Ay,' and all shall presently advance."

Among the scattered allusions to the characters of this dance may be noticed that in "1 Henry IV." (iii. 3): "and for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee"-the allusion being to "the degraded Maid Marian of the later morris-dance, more male than female."[659]

[659] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 550.

The "hobby-horse," another personage of the morris-dance on May day, was occasionally omitted, and appears to have given rise to a popular ballad, a line of which is given by "Hamlet" (iii. 2):

"For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot."

This is quoted again in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iii. 1). The hobby-horse was formed by a pasteboard horse's head, and a light frame made of wicker-work to join the hinder parts. This was fastened round the body of a man, and covered with a foot-cloth which nearly reached the ground, and concealed the legs of the performer, who displayed his antic equestrian skill, and performed various juggling tricks, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the bystanders. In Sir Walter Scott's "Monastery" there is a spirited description of the hobby-horse.

The term "hobby-horse" was applied to a loose woman, and in the "Winter's Tale" (i. 2) it is so used by Leontes, who says to Camillo:

"Then say My wife's a hobby-horse; deserves a name As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to Before her troth-plight."

In "Oth.e.l.lo" (iv. 1), Bianca, speaking of Desdemona's handkerchief, says to Ca.s.sio: "This is some minx's token, and I must take out the work!

There, give it your hobby-horse." It seems also to have denoted a silly fellow, as in "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 2), where it is so used by Bened.i.c.k.

Another character was Friar Tuck, the chaplain of Robin Hood, and as such is noticed in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (iv. 1), where one of the outlaws swears:

"By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar."

He is also represented by Tollet as a Franciscan friar in the full clerical tonsure, for, as he adds, "When the parish priests were inhibited by the diocesan to a.s.sist in the May games, the Franciscans might give attendance, as being exempted from episcopal jurisdiction."[660]

[660] See Drake's "Shakespeare and his Times," 1817, vol. i. p. 163.

It was no uncommon occurrence for metrical interludes of a comic species, and founded on the achievements of the outlaw Robin Hood, to be performed after the morris, on the May-pole green. Mr. Drake thinks that these interludes are alluded to in "Twelfth Night" (iii. 4), where Fabian exclaims, on the approach of Sir Andrew Aguecheek with his challenge, "More matter for a May morning."

_Whitsuntide._ Apart from its observance as a religious festival, Whitsuntide was, in times past, celebrated with much ceremony. In the Catholic times of England it was usual to dramatize the descent of the Holy Ghost, which this festival commemorates-a custom which we find alluded to in Barnaby Googe's translation of _Naogeorgus_:

"On Whit-Sunday white pigeons tame in strings from heaven flie, And one that framed is of wood still hangeth in the skie, Thou seest how they with idols play, and teach the people too: None otherwise than little girls with puppets used to do."

This custom appears to have been carried to an extravagant height in Spain, for Mr. Fosbroke[661] tells us that the gift of the Holy Ghost was represented by "thunder from engines which did much damage." Water, oak leaves, burning torches, wafers, and cakes were thrown down from the church roof; pigeons and small birds, with cakes tied to their legs, were let loose; and a long censer was swung up and down. In our own country, many costly pageants were exhibited at this season. Thus, at Chester, the Whitsun Mysteries were acted during the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Whitsun week. The performers were carried from one place to another by means of a scaffold-a huge and ponderous machine mounted on wheels, gayly decorated with flags, and divided into two compartments-the upper of which formed the stage, and the lower, defended from vulgar curiosity by coa.r.s.e canvas draperies, answered the purposes of a green-room. To each craft in the city a separate mystery was allotted. Thus, the drapers exhibited the "Creation," the tanners took the "Fall of Lucifer," the water-carriers of the Dee acted the "Deluge," etc. The production, too, of these pageants was extremely costly; indeed, each one has been set down at fifteen or twenty pounds sterling. An allusion to this custom is made in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (iv. 4), where Julia says:

"At Pentecost, When all our pageants of delight were play'd, Our youth got me to play the woman's part, And I was trimm'd in Madam Julia's gown."

[661] "Encyclopaedia of Antiquities," 1843, vol. ii. p. 653.

The morris-dance, too, was formerly a common accompaniment to the Whitsun ales, a practice which is still kept up in many parts of the country. In "Henry V." (ii. 4), the Dauphin thus alludes to it:

"I say, 'tis meet we all go forth, To view the sick and feeble parts of France: And let us do it with no show of fear; No, with no more than if we heard that England Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance."

And once more, in the "Winter's Tale" (iv. 4), Perdita says to Florizel: