Part 44

Before we proceed to an examination of the more immediate object of this essay, the English morris, it may be as well to lay before the reader a short description of the _uncorrupted morris dance_, as practised in France about the beginning of the sixteenth century. It has been preserved by Tabourot, the oldest and by far the most curious writer of any other on the art of dancing.[163] He relates, that in his youthful days it was the custom in good societies for a boy to come into the hall, when supper was finished, with his face blackened, his forehead bound with white or yellow taffeta, and bells tied to his legs. He then proceeded to dance the _Morisco_, the whole length of the hall, backwards and forwards to the great amusement of the company.[164] He hints that the bells might have been borrowed from the _crotali_ of the ancients in the Pyrrhic dance. He then describes the more modern morris dance, which was performed by striking the ground with the forepart of the feet; but, as this was found to be too fatiguing, the motion was afterwards confined to the heel, the toes being kept firm, by which means the dancer contrived to rattle his bells with more effect. He adds that this mode of dancing fell into disuse, as it was found to bring on gouty complaints. This is the air to which the last-mentioned morris was performed.

[Music]

It has been supposed that the morris dance was first brought into England in the time of Edward the Third, when John of Gaunt returned from Spain;[165] but it is much more probable that we had it from our Gallic neighbours, or even from the Flemings. Few if any vestiges of it can be traced beyond the reign of Henry the Seventh; about which time, and particularly in that of Henry the Eighth, the churchwardens' accounts in several parishes afford materials that throw much light on the subject, and show that the morris dance made a very considerable figure in the parochial festivals. A late valuable writer has remarked that in some places the May-games of Robin Hood were nothing more than a morris dance, in which _Robin Hood_, _Little John_, _Maid Marian_, and _Friar Tuck_, were the principal personages, the others being a clown or fool, the hobby-horse, the taborer, and the dancers, who were more or less numerous;[166] but this seems to be a mistake. The May-games of Robin Hood appear to have been principally instituted for the encouragement of archery, and were generally accompanied by morris dancers, who, nevertheless, formed but a subordinate part of the ceremony. It is by no means clear that at any time Robin Hood and his companions were _constituent_ characters in the morris. There were, besides, May-games of a more simple nature, being merely dances round a May-pole, by the lads and lasses of the village, and the undoubted remains of the Roman Floralia.[167] We find also that other festivals and ceremonies had their morris, as Holy-Thursday; the Whitsun-ales; the bride-ales, or weddings,[168] and a sort of play or pageant called the lord of misrule. Sheriffs too had their morris dance.[169] The reader may be amused with the following account of the lord of misrule, as it contains a description of an attendant morris. It has been fortunately handed down to us by a puritanical writer of the reign of Elizabeth, whose loud ravings against the fashionable excesses of his countrymen have contributed to furnish posterity with the completest information respecting a considerable portion of the manners and customs of the above period that is any where to be found. These are his words: "First, all the wilde heads of the parish, flocking togither, chuse them a graund captaine (of mischiefe) whome they innoble with the title of _my Lord of misrule_, and him they crowne with great solemnitie, and adopt for their king. This king annoynted, chooseth foorth twenty, fourtie, threescore or a hundred lustie guttes like to himselfe to waite upon his lordly majesty, and to guarde his noble person. Then every one of these his men, he investeth with his liveries of greene, yellow, or some other light wanton color. And as though that were not (bawdy) gawdy enough, I should say, they bedecke themselves with scarffes, ribbons and laces hanged all over with golde ringes, precious stones, and other jewels: this done, they tie about either legge twentie or fortie belles, with rich handkerchiefe in their handes, and sometimes laide a crosse over their shoulders and neckes, borrowed for the most part of their pretie _Mopsies_ and loving _Bessies_, for bussing them in the darke. Thus all things set in order, then have they their hobby-horses, their dragons and other antiques, together with their baudie _pipers_, and thundering _drummers_, to strike up the _Devils Daunce_ withall: then martch this heathen company towards the church and churchyarde, their pypers pypyng, their drummers thundering, their stumpes dancing, their bells iyngling, their handkercheefes fluttering about their heades like madde men, their hobbie horses, and other monsters skirmishing amongst the throng: and in this sorte they go to the church (though the minister be at prayer or preaching) dauncing and swinging their handkerchiefes over their heads in the church like Devils incarnate, with such a confused noise, that no man can heare his owne voyce. Then the foolish people they looke, they stare, they laugh, they fleere, and mount upon formes and pewes, to see these goodly pageants solemnized in this sort. Then after this about the church they goe againe and againe, and so foorth into the church yard, where they have commonly their sommer haules, their bowers, arbours, and banquetting houses set up, wherein they feast, banquet, and daunce all that day, and (peradventure) all that night too. And thus these terrestrial _furies_ spend the Sabboth day. Another sort of fantasticall fooles bring to these helhoundes (the Lord of misrule and his complices) some bread, some good ale, some new cheese, some olde cheese, some custardes, some cracknels, some cakes, some flaunes, some tartes, some creame, some meat, some one thing, some another; but if they knewe that as often as they bringe anye to the maintenance of these execrable pastimes, they offer sacrifice to the Devill and Sathanas, they would repent and withdrawe their handes, which God graunt they may."[170] Another declaimer of the like kind, speaking of May games and morris dances, thus holds forth: "The abuses which are committed in your may-games are infinite. The first whereof is this, that you doe use to attyre in womans apparrell whom yon doe most commenly call _maymarrions_, whereby you infringe that straight commaundement whiche is given in Deut. xxii. 5, that men must not put on womens apparrell for feare of enormities. Nay I myself have seene in a may game a troupe, the greater part wherof hath been men, and yet have they been attyred so like unto women, that theyr faces being hidde (as they were indeede) a man coulde not discerne them from women. The second abuse, which of all other is the greatest, is this, that it hath been toulde that your morice dauncers have daunced naked in nettes: what greater entisement unto naughtines could have been devised? The third abuse is, that you (because you will loose no tyme) doe use commonly to runne into woodes in the night time, amongst maidens, to fet bowes, in so muche as I have hearde of tenne maidens which went to fet May, and nine of them came home with childe."[171] He seems likewise to allude to a character of the _Devil_ in the May games, of which no mention is elsewhere made.

In the course of time these several recreations were blended together so as to become almost indistinguishable. It is, however, very certain that the May games of Robin Hood, accompanied with the morris, were at first a distinct ceremony from the simple morris, which when Warner lived was celebrated about the season of Easter, and before the May games: he thus speaks of them:

"At Paske begun our Morrise, and ere Penticost our May."[172]

It is probable that when the practice of archery declined, the May games of _Robin Hood_ were discontinued, and that the morris dance was transferred to the celebration of Whitsuntide, either as connected with the Whitsun ales, or as a separate amusement. In the latter instance it appears to have retained one or two of the characters in the May pageants; but no uniformity was or possibly could be observed, as the arrangement would vary in different places according to the humour or convenience of the parties.

The painted glass window belonging to George Tollett, Esq., at Betley, in Staffordshire, exhibits, in all probability, the most curious as well as the oldest representation of an English May game and morris dance, that is any where to be found.[173] The learned possessor of this curiosity, to whom the readers of Shakspeare are much indebted not only for this, but for many other valuable communications, has supposed that the window might have been painted in the youthful days of Henry the Eighth, when he delighted in May games; but it must be observed that the dresses and costume of some of the figures are certainly of an older period, and may, without much hazard, be pronounced to belong to the reign of Edward the Fourth. Among other proofs that could be adduced, it will be sufficient to compare it with the annexed print of another morris dance. This is a copy from an exceedingly scarce engraving on copper by Israel Von Mecheln, or Meckenen, so named from the place of his nativity, a German village on the confines of Flanders, in which latter country this artist appears chiefly to have resided; and therefore in most of his prints we may observe the Flemish costume of his time. From the pointed shoes that we see in one of the figures it must have been executed between the year 1460, and 1470; about which latter period the broadtoed shoes came into fashion in France and Flanders. It seems to have been intended as a pattern for goldsmiths' work, probably a cup or tankard.

The artist, in a fancy representation of foliage, has introduced several figures belonging to a Flemish May game morris, consisting of the lady of the May, the fool, the piper, two morris dancers with bells and streamers, and four other dancing characters, for which appropriate names will not easily be found. The similitude between some of the figures in this print and others in Mr. Tollett's window, is very striking, and shows that the period of execution, as to both, was nearly the same. One objection to this opinion will, no doubt, present itself to the skilful spectator, and that is the shape of the letters which form the inscription A MERY MAY on the pane of glass No. 8. These are comparatively modern, and cannot be carried further back than the time of Elizabeth; but this will be accounted for hereafter.

The above curious _painting_ has furnished the means of ascertaining some of the personages of which the May games and morris consisted at the time of its execution. To trace their original forms and numbers, or the progressive changes they underwent, with any degree of accuracy, would be perhaps impossible; because not only the materials for such an attempt are extremely few, but a variety of circumstances contributed to constitute their differences even during the same period. Wherever we turn, nothing but irregularity presents itself. Sometimes we have a lady of the May, _simply_, with a friar Tuck; and in later times a Maid Marian remained without even a Robin Hood or a friar. But consistency is not to be looked for on these occasions, when we find, as has been remarked, that the May games, those of Robin Hood, the ales, and the morris dances, were blended together as convenience or caprice happened to dictate.[174]

The several characters that seem in more ancient times to have composed the May game and morris were the following: 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 hobby horse and a dragon were added. To avoid the confusion that might otherwise ensue, it will be best to speak of each character by itself.

I. ROBIN HOOD. The history of this celebrated outlaw has been so ably and ingeniously treated by Mr. Ritson, and every fact that relates to him so minutely developed, that it will be long before any novelty shall be discovered of sufficient importance to deserve attention. It appears that in the May game he sometimes carried a painted standard.[175]

II. LITTLE JOHN. The faithful companion of Robin Hood, but of whom little that is not fabulous has been handed down to us. He is first mentioned, together with Robin Hood, by Fordun the Scotish historian, who wrote in the fourteenth century, and who speaks of the celebration of the story of these persons in the _theatrical performances_ of his time, and of the minstrels' songs relating to them, which he says the common people preferred to all _other romances_.[176]

III. FRIAR TUCK. 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."[177]

He is known to have formed one of the characters in the May games during the reign of Henry the Eighth, 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.[178]

IV. MAID MARIAN. None of the materials that constitute the more authentic history of Robin Hood, prove the existence of such a character in the shape of his mistress. There is a pretty French pastoral drama of the eleventh or twelfth century, entitled _Le jeu du berger et de la bergere_, in which the principal characters are _Robin_ and _Marion_, a shepherd and shepherdess. Mr. Warton thought that our English Marian might be illustrated from this composition; but Mr. Ritson is unwilling to assent to this opinion, on the ground that the French Robin and Marion "are not the Robin and Marian of Sherwood." Yet Mr. 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.[179] We have seen that 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. Little, if any, stress can be laid on the authority of an old play cited by Mr. Steevens to prove that "_Maid Marian_ was originally a name assumed by _Matilda_, the daughter of Robert Lord Fitzwater, while Robin Hood remained in a state of outlawry."[180] This is rather to be considered as a dramatic fiction, designed to explain a character the origin of which had been long forgotten.

Maid Marian not only officiated as the paramour of Robin Hood in the May games, but as the _queen or lady of the May_, who seems to have been introduced long before the games of Robin Hood. In the isle of Man they not only elected a queen of May, but likewise a queen of winter.[181] Gatherings for the May lady, as anciently for Robin Hood, were lately kept up at Cambridge, but in a corrupted form, the real occasion of this ceremony being, in all probability, quite unknown to the gatherers. There can be no doubt that the queen of the May is the legitimate representative of the Goddess Flora in the Roman festival.

The introduction of Robin Hood into the celebration of May probably suggested the addition of a _king_ or _lord of the May_. In the year 1306 Robert Bruce caused himself to be crowned at Scone, and a second time by the hands of his mistress, the adulterous wife of the earl of Bowhan, who changed his name to David. It is reported that he said to his own wife on this occasion, "Yesterday we were but earl and countess, to day we are king and queen;" to which she replied, "True, you are now a _summer king_, but you may not chance to be a winter one." Matthew of Westminster has recorded this fact, and Holinshed, who copies him, makes the lady say, that "she feared they should prove but as _a summer king and queen, such as in country townes the yong folks chose for sport to dance about may-poles_." In 1557 there was a May game in Fenchurch-street, with a _Lord and Lady of the May_, and a morris dance.[182] Both these characters are introduced in a morris in Fletcher's play of _The two noble kinsmen_, Act. III.; and, in the _Knight of the burning pestle_, a grocer's apprentice personates a lord of the May dressed out in "scarves, feathers, and rings." He is made to deliver a speech from the conduit to the populace, of which this is a part:

"London, to thee I do present the merry month of May, Let each true subject be content to hear me what I say: For from the top of conduit-head, as plainly may appear, I will both tell my name to you, and wherefore I came here. My name is _Rafe_, by due descent, though not ignoble I, Yet far inferiour to the flock of gracious grocery. And by the common counsel of my fellows in the Strand, With gilded staff, and crossed skarfe, the _May lord_ here I stand."

A lord and lady are still preserved in some places where the Whitsun-ales continue to be celebrated, and perhaps in other morrises during the season of May.

To return to Maid Marian.--She was usually dressed according to the fashion of the time, as we may collect from the figures of her in Mr. Tollett's window, and Israel's engraving. In both the kirtle and petticoat are alike; and the pendent veil is supported by the hand. The English figure holds a flower, and has a fancy coronet as _queen of the May_. The other has apparently an apple in her hand, and her steeple head-dress is what was actually worn in the middle of the fifteenth century by queens and ladies of high rank. Barnaby Rich, who wrote in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., inveighing against the foppery of men's apparel, exclaims, "And from whence commeth this wearing, and this embroidering of long locks, this curiosity that is used amongst men, in frizeling and curling of their haire, this gentlewoman-like starcht bands, so be-edged and belaced, _fitter for Maid Marion in a Moris dance_, then for him that hath either that spirit or courage that shold be in a gentleman?"[183]

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 maner of carying whytepot queenes in Western May games."[184] Her usual gait was nice and affected.[185] Thus in the description of the family visit to the royal guest, in the old ballad of _The miller of Mansfield_:

"And so they jetted down towards the king's hall: The merry old miller, with his hands on his side; His wife, like Maid Marian did _mince_ at that tide."

But although the May-lady was originally a character of some delicacy and importance, she appears to have afterwards declined in both respects. In the time of Elizabeth she was visually represented by some smooth-faced and effeminate youth.[186] Falstaff tells the hostess, that "for _womanhood_ Maid Marian may be the Deputy's wife of the ward to her;" meaning perhaps that she was as masculine in her appearance as the country clown who personated Maid Marian: and in Fletcher's _Monsieur Thomas_, Dorothea desires her brother to conduct himself with more gentleness towards his mistress, unless he would choose to marry _Malkyn the May Lady_; another allusion to the degraded state of Maid Marian, who is here assimilated to a vulgar drudge or scullion both in name and condition. But during the whole of her existence mirth and gaiety were her constant companions. The translator of _The hospitall of incurable fooles_, 1600, 4to, speaking of Acco, the old woman who became mad on beholding her ugliness in a mirror, says that "one while shee could be _as merrie as Maid Marrian_." Nor was this character, even in later times, _uniformly_ vulgar. Every one will call to mind Nicholas Breton's pretty sonnet of _Phyllida and Corydon_, where the shepherdess,

"... with garlands gay Was made the Lady of the Maye."

V. THE FOOL. This character in the morris was the same, in point of dress, as the domestic buffoon of his time. In Mr. Tollett's window he has additional bells tied to his arms and ancles as a morris dancer, but is, in other respects, the English fool of the fifteenth century. Yet the habit of this eccentric person was not the same in all countries, nor even uniform in the same country. Accordingly, he is very differently accoutred in the Flemish print. He has a cap or hood with asses' ears, and a row of bells for the crest; in his left hand he carries a bauble, and over his right arm hangs a cloth or napkin. He wears behind what seems intended for a purse or wallet, with which the fool in the old German prints is generally exhibited. It is certain that there was only one fool in the morris; and therefore Mr. Steevens and Mr. Tollett have erred in supposing the figure No. 1, in the window, to be the _Bavian fool with the bib_. The former gentleman had apparently misconceived the following passage in Fletcher's _Two noble kinsmen_,

"... and next the fool, The _Bavian_, with long tail and eke long tool."

Here are not _two_ fools described. The construction is, "next comes the fool, i. e. the Bavian fool," &c. This might have been the _idiot_ fool, and so denominated from his wearing a bib, in French _bavon_,[187] because he drivelled. Thus in _Bonduca_, Act V., Decius talks of a "dull _slavering_ fool." The tricks of the Bavian, his tumbling and barking like a dog, suggested perhaps by the conduct of Robert the Devil when disguised as a fool in his well known and once popular romance, were peculiar to the morris dance described in _The two noble kinsmen_, which has some other characters that seem to have been introduced for stage effect, and not to have belonged to the genuine morris. The tail was the fox tail that was sometimes worn by the morris fool; and the long tool will be best understood by referring to the cut of the idiot in the _genuine_ copy of the _dance of death_ usually, though improperly, ascribed to Holbein, and by reflecting on some peculiar properties and qualifications of the idiot character.