the eleventh or twelfth century, entitled Le Feu du Berger et de la Bergere, in which the principal characters are Robin and Marion, a shepherd and shepherdess. Warton thought that our English Marian might be illustrated from this composition; but Ritson is unwilling to assent to this opinion, on the ground that the French Robin and Marian 'are not the Robin and Marian of Sherwood.' Yet Warton probably meant no more than that the name of Marian had been suggested from the above drama, which was a great favourite among the common people in France, and performed much about the season at which the May Games were celebrated in England. The great intercourse between the countries might have been the means of importing this name amidst an infinite variety of other matters; and there is, indeed, no other mode of accounting for the introduction of a name which never occurs in the page of English history. The story of Robin Hood was, at a very early period, of a dramatic cast; and it was perfectly natural that a principal character should be transferred from one drama to another. It might be thought, likewise, that the English Robin deserved his Marian as well as the other. The circumstance of the French Marian being acted by a boy contributes to support the above opinion; the part of the English character having been personated, though not always, in like manner."

In the Isle of Man, writes Waldron, the month of May is there every year ushered in with the following ceremony: "In almost all the great parishes, they chuse from among the daughters of the most wealthy farmers a young maid for the Queen of May. She is drest in the gayest and best manner they can, and is attended by about twenty others, who are called maids of honour: she has also a young man, who is her captain, and has under his command a good number of inferior officers. In opposition to her is the Queen of Winter, who is a man drest in woman's clothes, with woolen hoods, furr tippets, and loaded with the warmest and heaviest habits one upon another; in the same manner are those who represent her attendants drest, nor is she without a captain and troop for her defence. Both being equipt as proper emblems, of the beauty of the Spring, and the deformity of the Winter, they set forth from their respective quarters; the one preceded by violins and flutes, the other with the rough music of the tongs and cleavers. Both companies march till they meet on a common, and then their trains engage in a mock battle. If the Queen of Winter's forces get the better so far as to take the Queen of May prisoner, she is ransomed for as much as pays the expences of the day. After this ceremony, Winter and her company retire, and divert themselves in a barn, and the others remain on the green, where, having danced a considerable time, they conclude the evening with a feast: the Queen at one table with her maids, the Captain with his troop at another. There are seldom less than fifty or sixty persons at each board, but not more than three knives."

Douce notes that "it appears that the Lady of the May was sometimes carried in procession on men's shoulders; for Stephen Batman, speaking of the Pope and his ceremonies, states that he is carried on the backs of four deacons, 'after the manner of carrying Whytepot

Queenes in Western May Games*." And he adds: "There can be no doubt that the Queen of May is the legitimate representative of the Goddess Flora in the Roman Festival."

ROBIN HOOD.

In his Sixth Sermon before King Edward VI. Latimer mentions Robin Hood's day as kept by country people in memory of him. “I came once myself," says he, "to a place, riding a journey homeward from London, and sent word over-night into the town that I would preach there in the morning, because it was a holy-day, and I took my horse and my company and went thither (I thought I should have found a great company in the church); when I came there, the churchdoor was fast locked. I tarried there half an hour and more; at last the key was found, and one of the parish comes to me, and says'This is a busy day with us, we cannot heare you, this is Robin Hoode's daye, the parish is gone abroad to gather for Robin Hoode. I thought my rochet should have been regarded, though I were not. but it would not serve, but was fayne to give place to Robin Hoode's men."

In the Churchwardens' Accounts of St Lawrence Parish, Reading, under the year 1499, is the following article: "It. rec. of the gaderyng of Robyn-hod, xixs;" and similarly in the Churchwardens' Accounts of St Helen's, Abingdon, under the year 1566 we find eighteen pence charged for setting up Robin Hood's bower.

Douce thinks "the introduction of Robin Hood into the celebration of May probably suggested the addition of a King or Lord of May." The Summer King and Queen, or Lord and Lady of the May, however, are characters of very high antiquity.

Lysons, in his Extracts from the Churchwardens' and Chamberlains' Accounts at Kingston-upon-Thames, affords us some curious particulars of a sport called "Kyngham," or KING-GAME.

"Be yt in mynd, that yo 19 yere of King Harry the 7, at the geveng out of the Kynggam by Harry Bower and Harry Nycol, cherchwardens, amounted clerely to £4. 2s. 6d. of that same game.'

"Mem. That the 27 day of Joun a°. 21, Kyng H. 7, that
we, Adam Bakhous and Harry Nycol, hath made
account for the Kenggam, that same tym don Wylm
Kempe, Kenge, and Joan Whytebrede, quen, and all
costs deducted

23 Hen. 7. Paid. for whet and malt and vele and motton
and pygges and ger and coks for the Kyngam
To the taberare

。 33 ༔

* In the Gentleman's Magazine for October 1793 there is a curious anecdote of Dr Geddes, the well-known translator of the Bible, who, it should seem, was fond of innocent festivities. He was seen in the summer of that year, "mounted on the poles behind the QUEEN of the MAY at Marsden Fair, in Oxfordshire."

To the leutare

1 Hen. 8. Paid out of the Churche-box at Walton Kyng

£. s. d.

. O 2 O

0 3 6

96

. O

The contributions to the celebration of the same game in the neighbouring parishes, Lysons observes, show that the Kyngham was not confined to Kingston.

In another quotation from the same Accounts, 24 Hen. VII. the "cost of the Kyngham and Robyn-hode" appears in one entry, viz.

"A kylderkin of 3 halfpennye bere and a kilderkin of

singgyl bere

7 bushels of whete

.

2 bushels and of rye

3 shepe

A lamb

£. s. d.

. O 5 4

O

O O 3

I II."

The clear profits, 15 Henry VIII. (the last time Lysons found it mentioned) amounted to £9 10s. 6d. ; a very considerable sum.

In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, Rafe, one of the characters, appears as Lord of the May

"And, by the common-councell of my fellows in the Strand,
With gilded staff, and crossed skarfe, the May-Lord here I stand."

He adds

"The Morrice rings while Hobby Horse doth foot it featously;" and, addressing the groupe of citizens assembled around him, "from the top of Conduit-head," says—

"And lift aloft your velvet heads, and, slipping of your gowne, With bells on legs, and napkins cleane unto your shoulders ti'de, With scarfs and garters as you please, and Hey for our town cry'd: March out and shew your willing minds, by twenty and by twenty, To Hogsdon or to Newington, where ale and cakes are plenty. And let it nere be said for shame, that we, the youths of London, Lay thrumming of our caps at home, and left our custome undone. Up then, I say, both young and old, both man and maid, a Maying, With drums and guns that bounce aloude, and merry taber playing." In Sir David Dalrymple's Extracts from the Book of the Universal Kirk (1575) Robin Hood is styled King of May. We read in Skene's Regiam Majestatem, "Gif anie provest, baillie,

K

counsell, or communitie, chuse Robert Hude, litell John, Abbat of Unreason, Queens of Maii, the chusers sall tyne their friedome for five Zeares; and sall bee punished at the King's will: and the accepter of sick ane office, salbe banished furth of the Realme." And under "pecuniall crimes,"-" all persons, quha a landwort, or within burgh, chuses Robert Hude, sall pay ten pounds, and sall be warded indur ing the King's pleasure."

FRIAR TUCK.

Tollet describes this character upon his Window as being in the full clerical tonsure, with a chaplet of white and red beads in his right hand and, expressive of his professed humility, his eyes are cast upon the ground. His corded girdle and his russet habit denote him to be of the Franciscan order, or one of the Grey Friars. His stockings are red, and his red girdle is ornamented with a golden twist and a golden tassel. At his girdle hangs a wallet for the reception of provision, the only revenue of the mendicant orders of religious, who were named Walleteers, or Budget-bearers. Steevens supposes this Morris friar designed for Friar Tuck, chaplain to Robin Hood, as King of May.

Douce writes: "There is no very ancient mention of this person, whose history is very uncertain. Drayton has thus recorded him, among other companions of Robin Hood

་

'Of Tuck, the merry Friar, which many a sermon made
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws and their trade.'

"He is known to have formed one of the characters in the May Games during the reign of Henry VIII., and had been probably introduced into them at a much earlier period. From the occurrence of this name on other occasions, there is good reason for supposing that it was a sort of generic appellation for any friar, and that it originated from the dress of the order, which was tucked or folded at the waist by means of a cord or girdle. Thus Chaucer, in his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, says of the Reve

'Tucked he was, as is a frere aboute :'

and he describes one of the friars in the Sompnour's Tale

'With scrippe and tipped staff, ytucked hie.'

"This Friar maintained his situation in the Morris under the reign of Elizabeth, being thus mentioned in Warner's Albion's England

'Tho' Robin Hood, liell John, frier Tucke, and Marian, deftly play :' but is not heard of afterwards. In Ben Jonson's Masque of Gipsies the clown takes notice of his omission in the Dance."

The friar's coat, as appears from some of the extracts of Churchwardens' and Chamberlains' Accounts of Kingston, was generally of russet. In an ancient drama called the Play of Robin Hood, very proper to be played in May games, a friar, whose name is Tuck, is one of the principal characters. He comes to the forest in search of

Robin Hood, with an intention to fight him, but consents to become chaplain to his lady.

THE FOOL.

Tollet, describing the Morris dancers in his Window, calls this the Counterfeit Fool, that was kept in the royal palace, and in all great houses, to make sport for the family. He appears with all the badges of his office; the bauble in his hand, and a coxcomb hood, with asses' ears, on his head. The tc of the hood rises into the form of a cock's neck and head,* with a bell at the latter and Minshew's Dictionary, 1627, under the word cockscomb, observes that "natural idiots and fools have [accustomed] and still do accustome themselves to weare in their cappes cocke's feathers, or a hat with the necke and head of a cocke on the top, and a bell thereon." His hood is blue, guarded or edged with yellow at its scalloped bottom, his doublet is red, striped across, or rayed, with a deeper red, and edged with yellow, his girdle yellow, his left-side hose yellow, with a red shoe, and his right-side hose blue, soled with red leather.

In Olaus Magnus there is a delineation of a fool, or jester, with several bells upon his habit, with a bauble in his hand; and he has on his head a hood with asses' ears, a feather, and the resemblance of the comb of a cock.

In the Churchwardens' Accounts of the parish of St Helen's in Abingdon, Berkshire, from the first year of the reign of Philip and Mary to the thirty-fourth of Queen Elizabeth, the Morris bells are mentioned. In 1560, the third of Elizabeth,-"For two dossin of Morres bells." As these appear to have been purchased by the community, we may suppose the diversion of the Morris dance was constantly practised at their public festivals.

"Bells for the dancers" have been already noticed from the Churchwardens' Accounts of Kingston-upon-Thames: and they are mentioned in those of St Mary-at-Hill, in the city of London.

A note signed HARRIS, in Reed's edition of Shakespeare (1803), informs us that "Morrice-dancing, with bells on the legs, is common at this day in Oxfordshire and the adjacent counties, on May Day, Holy Thursday, and Whitsun Ales, attended by the Fool, or, as he is generally called, the Squire, and also a Lord and Lady; the latter, most probably, the Maid-Marian mentioned in Tollet's note: 'nor is the Hobby Horse forgot.""

According to the prologue to the play of King Henry VIII., Shakespeare's fools should be dressed “in a long motley coat, guarded with yellow."

In The Knave of Harts (1612), we read—

"My sleeves are like some Morris-dansing fellow,

My stockings, IDEOT-LIKE, red, greene, yellow."

Steevens observes: "When Fools were kept for diversion in great

"The word Cockscomb afterwards was used to denote a vain, conceited, meddling fellow" (Reed's Shakespeare). In The First Part of Antonio and Melida (1602), we read: "Good Faith, Ile accept of the Cockescombe, so you will not refuse the Bable."