Part 46

[165] Peck's _Memoirs of Milton_, 135. What this writer has added on the subject of the morris dance is not very interesting; but he is certainly mistaken in his explanation of _five, seven, or nine men's morris_.

[166] Ritson's _Robin Hood_, I. cii.

[167] See particularly Stubbes's _Anatomie of abuses_, p. 109, edit. 1595, 4to.

[168] In Laneham's _Letter from Kenilworth or Killingworth castle_, a bride-ale is described, in which mention is made of "a lively Moris dauns, according too the auncient manner: six dauncerz, Mawdmarion, and the fool."

[169] See Stowe's _Survay of London_, 1618, 4to, p. 161.

[170] Stubbes's _Anatomie of abuses_, p. 107.

[171] Fetherston's _Dialogue agaynst light, lewde, and lascivious dauncing_, 1582, 12mo, sign. D. 7. See a passage to the same purpose in Northbrooke's _Treatise against dicing, dancing, &c._ 1597, 4to, fo. 68 b.

[172] Albion's _England_, 1612, p. 121.

[173] Steevens's _Shakspeare_, at the end of the play of _King Henry IV. part I_.

[174] There is a remarkable instance of the corruption that has been gradually introduced into popular ceremonies, in the celebration of the gunpowder-plot; in which, formerly, Guy Faux was ignominiously carted, in company with the Pope and the Devil, all of whom were afterwards consigned to the flames: whereas at present we have only the image of a fellow, or sometimes a real boy bedizened with gilded rags, ruffles, and powdered periwig, under the appellation of _Poor Guy_, for whom the attendants seem to crave charity. The Pope had been long dismissed by proclamation or act of parliament; and the Devil is probably forgotten by some, or become an object of too much terror with others to be sported with.

[175] Churchwardens' accounts at Kingston, in Lysons's _Environs of London_, vol. i. p. 227. The learned author of this interesting work has remarked that he had found no entries at Kingston relating to the May games, after the 29 Hen. VIII.; but they certainly continued, as parochial ceremonies, in other places to a much later period. In the churchwardens' accounts of Great Marlow it appears that dresses for the morris dance were lent to neighbouring parishes so late as 1629. See Langley's _Antiquities of Desborough_, 4to, 1797.

[176] Fordun's _Scotichronicon_, 1759, folio, tom. ii. p. 104.

[177] Polyolbion, song xxvi.

[178] Ben Jonson's _Works_, 1756, vol. vi. p. 93.

[179] _Marian_, or as it is more frequently written _Marion_, is not formed, as some French writers have supposed, from Mary and Ann, but more probably from _Mariamne_ the wife of Herod, whose name seems borrowed from that of Miriam מרים the prophetess, the sister of Aaron. Miriam is said to come from a Syrian word signifying _mistress_, or from מרר _marar_, _bitterness_. The name of _Mary_, evidently contracted from _Miriam_ or _Mariamne_, does not occur till the time of the daughter of Joachim and Anne, the mother of Christ, at which period we find other _Maries_ in the New Testament. It is remarkable that _Maria_, from Marius, should not occur among the Roman names of women, in like manner as we have Julia, Cornelia, Fulvia, Proba, Valeria, &c., from Julius, Cornelius, Fulvius, Probus, and Valerius. The facetious and eccentric Edmund Gayton, in the dedication to his _Festivous notes on Don Quixote_, speaks of _Mayd Myriam_. He perhaps imagined that the morris dance had been suggested by the prophetess and her dancing women with their timbrels.

[180] Steevens's _Shaksp._ viii. 530.

[181] Waldron's _History of the Isle of Man_, 12mo, p. 95, where he has described the mock battle between the queens.

[182] Strype's Eccl. _memorials_, iii. 376.

[183] The honestie of this age, 1615, 4to, p. 35.

[184] What these ladies exactly were is not easy to comprehend. _Whitepot_ in old cookery was a kind of custard, made in a crust or dish with cream, eggs, pulse of apples, sugar, spices, and sippets of _white_ or manchet bread. It is possible therefore that Maid Marian, being occasionally personated by a kitchen malkin or cook wench, obtained the title of a _white-pot queen_.

[185] Golden books of the leaden Goddes, 1577, 4to, fo. 30.

[186] Greene's _Quip for an upstart courtier_, sig. D. 3.

[187] _Bavon_ or _bavette_, is from _bave_, spittle. Hence the middle age Latin term for a fool, _bavosus_. See Ducange _Gloss_. This is a very plausible etymology, and might stand well enough by itself; but it must not be concealed that in some of the Northern languages _Bavian_ signifies a monkey or _baboon_. Whether Fletcher, who seems the only writer that has made use of this word, applied it to the fool in question on account of the _monkey tricks_ that he played, remains to be ascertained. If we could discover the names of the characters in a French, Dutch, or German morris of this time, some light might be thrown on the subject.

[188] See Carter's _Specimens of ancient sculpture and painting_, vol. ii. pl. xiii. Nos. 5 and 13, and pl. xxxvi.

[189] Edit. 1585, 12mo, p. 299. See likewise the article _chironomus_ in p. 521.

[190] Coryat's _Crudities_, 1611, 4to, p. 9.

[191] Yet, in the reign of Charles the Second, Thomas Hall, another puritanical writer, published his _Funebria Floræ, the Downfall of May-games_, 1661, 4to, in which, amidst a great deal of silly declamation against these innocent amusements, he maintains that "Papists are forward to give the people May-poles, and the Pope's holiness with might and main keeps up his superstitious festivals as a prime prop of his tottering kingdome." That "by these sensual sports and carnal-flesh-pleasing wayes of wine, women, dancing, revelling, &c., he hath gained more souls, than by all the tortures and cruel persecutions that he could invent." He adds, "What a sad account will these libertines have to make, when the Lord shall demand of them, where wast thou such a night? why, my Lord, I was with the prophane rabble, stealing May-poles; and where wast thou such a day? why, my Lord, I was drinking, dancing, dallying, ranting, whoring, carousing, &c."

[192] _Every man out of his humour_, Act II. Scene 1.

[193] Spanish dictionary.

[194] See the plate of ancient cards, xxxi. in Strutt's _Sports and pastimes_, where a _knave_ or attendant is dressed in this manner.

[195] Churchwardens' accounts at Kingston, in Lysons's _Environs of London_, i. p. 227, 228.

[196] Stubbes's _Anatomie of abuses_, ubi supra.

[197] See Rowley's _Witch of Edmonton_, 1658, Act I. Scene 2.

[198] Stubbes, ubi supra. _Knight of the burning pestle_, Act IV.

[199] Stubbes, ubi supra. Jonson's _Masque of gipsies_. Holme's _Academy of armory_, book iii. p. 169, whence the following cut has been borrowed, which, rude as it is, may serve to convey some idea of the manner in which the handkerchiefs were used.

[200] _Knight of the burning pestle_, Act IV.

[201] Vox graculi, 1623, p. 49.

[202] Fletcher's _Women pleased_, Act IV.

[203] Greene's _Quip for an upstart courtier_, sign. B. 2.

[204] This tract is mentioned by Sir William Temple, in his Essay on health and long life, from the communication of Lord Leicester. Howel, in his _Parly of beasts_, 1660, has recorded that "of late years ther were call'd out within three miles compasse ten men that were a thousand years between them, one supplying what the other wanted of a hundred years apiece, and they danc'd the _morris_ divers hours together in the market place with a taborer before them 103 years old, and a maid _Mariam_ 105."--p. 122. This seems to allude to the same event.

[205] Compare No. 1, with the left hand figure at bottom in the print; No. 4, with the left hand figure at top; No. 6, with the right hand figure at bottom; and No. 7, with the right hand figure at top. This last character in the Flemish print has a flower in his hat as well as No. 4. Query if that ornament have been accidentally omitted by the _English engraver_?

[206] This gentleman's death is recorded to have happened Oct. 22nd, 1779. Gough's _Brit. topogr._ ii. 239.

[207] See his continuation to _Ben Jonson's sad shepherd_, 1782, 8vo, p. 255, a work of very considerable merit, and which will materially diminish the regret of all readers of taste that the original was left unfinished.

[208] _Robin Hood_, I. cviii.

INDEX.

"Commoditas homines studiosos invitavit librorum _Indices_ comparare, quibus minimo labore ad id quod quisque quæreret, tanquam manu duceretur."--CICERO AD ATTICUM.

A. PAGE

Æsop's Fables, a ludicrous cut in some editions of them, 12

Æsopian fables, account of a collection of them made during the middle ages, 361

----, moralized, 523

Affiancing, some account of this ancient ceremony, 67, 248

Ages of man, prints of them, 185

Alexander the great, his good savour, 150

----, his arms as one of the nine worthies, 150

Althea's firebrand, inaccurately alluded to by Shakspeare, 278

Alligator, a conjecture on the derivation of this word, 436

Alliterative and anapæstic lines, in Love's labour's lost, not Shakspeare's, 133

Amaimon, the name of a Devil, 264

Ambrose, Saint, a hymn by him against nocturnal illusions, 128

Amulets against fascination, 303, 305

----, phallic, 304

Anachronisms, those of Shakspeare pointed out, 488

Angels, cracked, 460

Anglo-Norman song, 447

Apemantus, his character whence borrowed, 356

Apollonius Tyaneus, account of this romance, 398

April and May, to smell, 45

Appeal for treason, the ceremony observed in the combats on that occasion, 317, 487

Arbeau Thoinot, his Orchesographie, a curious treatise on dancing, 135, 301

Archee or Archy Armstrong, the fool of James I. and Charles I., 502, 505, 513

Armin, Robert, an imitator of Shakspeare in his play of The Valiant Welshman, 476

Arthur's show, some account of it, 283

Artillery, names given to it formerly, 261

Ars moriendi, account of a print copied from it, 325

Arvals, description of them, 439

Asmodeus, the demon of nocturnal illusions, 129

Ass, receipt to make a man resemble one, 119

Autolycus, not a minstrel, 216

----, whence his character taken, 217

B.

Bacon, Lord, story from his apophthegms, 276

Badge, account of this ancient mark of servitude, 205

----, representation of it, 209

Bagpipe woollen, the true reading, 162

Banks, some account of him and his horse, 131

Banshee, an Irish fairy, 237

Bardolph, his face, the subject of Falstaff's wit, 267

Bartholomæus de proprietatibus rerum, account of this book, 487

Basilisco oaths, 247

Basilisk, its fabulous property, 321

Batman upon Bartholome, its original price, 6

Battles, the absurd way of representing them on the ancient stage, 296

Bauble, the fool's, description of various sorts of it, 386, 509

Bavian fool, 593

Beadles, their ancient dress, 293

Bear-licking, popular notions respecting it, 330

Beaufort, Cardinal, strictures on a celebrated painting of his death, 325

Beaumont and Fletcher, one edition of their plays curious for the prints, 489

Bed, blessing of the bridal, 485

Bellona's bridegroom, this expression defended, 228

Bell-savage, sign of the, explained, 61

Belly and the members, origin of this apologue investigated, 361

Benzoria, a sort of witch or fairy, 236

Bercheur or Berchorius, his Repertorium morale, 528

----, whether the author of the Gesta Romanorum, _ib._

Bermuda, island of, 3

Betrothing, some account of this ancient ceremony, 67, 248

Bestiarium, an old work on natural history, 522, 524

Bills, the setting up of, 101

Bird-bolts, explained, 102

Blessing of beds, an ancient ceremony, 126

---- of chambers, _ib._

Blue coats, 205

Boccaccio's novels, a very ancient English translation of them pointed out, 103

----, account of the English translation of his Decameron, 382

Bond story in the Merchant of Venice, remarks on it, 171

Boot, torture of the, explained, 21

Bow, the awkward use of it by crowkeepers, 417

Bows, materials of which they were made in England, 244

Bras, the ancient pronunciation of this French word ascertained, 310

Brawl, account of this ancient dance, 134

Brazen tombs, meaning of this expression, 130

Breaking the little finger, a token of amorous dalliance, 262

Breeches bible, particulars relating to it, 233

Bridal-bed, ceremony of blessing it, 123

Bromyard, John, an old English preacher, his Summa prædicantium described, 526

Brothels, signs anciently belonging to them described, 397

----, jesters employed in them, 358, 378

Budha, a deity of Ceylon, story of him and a hare, 10

Bunyan, John, supposed to have been indebted to an old romance for the materials of his Pilgrim's progress, 256

Burial service, particulars of it before the reformation, 222

C.

Cakes and ale, old custom relating to them, 55

Canary dance, description of, 136

Candlesticks, remarks on ancient ones, 308

Cardanus's comforte, a book used by Shakspeare, 461

Carol, an ancient one, 217

Carpet-knights, account of, 66

Casket story in the Merchant of Venice, remarks on it, 169, 486

Cat, why the favourite of witches, 243

Catullus, a remarkable coincidence between a passage in this author and one in Shakspeare, 461

Cavendish's life of Wolsey, account of, 159

Cavendish, some remarks on his life of Wolsey, 344

Caxton's chronicle, some account of it, 260

----, his chess book not didactic, 522

----, not the author of a chronicle ascribed to him, 422, 512

Ceremonies, popular, modern corruptions in them noticed, 586

Chastellain, George, his account of the manner in which the duke of Gloucester was put to death, 322

China dishes, when first brought into England, 78

Chopine, description of it, 457

Chrisome explained, 299

Cilhart, the favourite hound of Prince Llewellyn, a story relating to him, 547

Clarence, duke of, the manner of his death, 323

Cleopatra, her trick upon Marc Antony, 369

Clerk of Chatham, in King Henry the Sixth, an unreal character, 327

Clown, various remarks on this character, 32, 74, 94, 151, 167, 191, 200, 224

Clowns in old plays, classification of them, 499

----, various remarks on, 374, 387, 398, 483, 497

----. See Fool.

Clocks, their antiquity in England, 138

Coin with cracked edges, hoarded by usurers, 459

Colevile of the dale, 289

Combats, single, in cases of treason, ceremonies observed in them, 317, 487

Comet, a medal stricken to commemorate that which appeared on the death of Julius Cæsar, 364

Concert improperly used for consort, 314

Conde Lucanor, a Spanish collection of novels, 212

Conscience, its dispute with the flesh, the subject of an old Monkish fable, 157

Contest devots, account of them, 521

Copley, Antony, account of a work written by him, 210

Cornelius's tub, uncertainty of the origin of this expression, 357

Coroners, their conduct satirized by Shakspeare, 476

Corporal of the field, his office explained, 138

Coryat, a curious quotation from him, 330

Cotgrave, the first edition of his valuable dictionary, 140

Coventry pageants, remarks on, 217

---- plays, an extract from one of them, 463

Covercle, whence derived, 282

Cressets, some account of them, 264

Cressida, how punished for her falsehood to Troilus, 299

Critic on Shakspeare, a female one censured, 379

Cross-gartering, fashion of explained, 57

Crotalum, account of this ancient instrument, 509

Crowns of the sun, the coins so called described, 396

Crying clubs, illustration of that custom, 344

Cude Yeddy, an idiot so called, 416

Cupid, his golden shaft, 53, 484

----, his blindness, 137

----, why called a hangman, 107, 146

Curry favour, origin of this phrase, 291

Curtain formerly placed before pictures, 53

Cymbeline, remarks on the story of this play, 381

D.

Dagonet, the fool of King Arthur in the romances of the round table, some account of him, 283, 286

Daiphantus, a work by Scoloker, in which Hamlet is alluded to, 465, 478

Dame Habunde or Abunde, a fairy, 237

Dance of death, account of a remarkable one, 81

Dancing rapier, 193

Danes, formerly remarkable for hard drinking, 449

Death and the fool, a subject borrowed from the Dance of death, 80

---- and the lady, old representations of, 478

Dedications, prices of in the time of Elizabeth, 573

Deer, killed by ladies in ancient times, 139

Despenser, Hugh le, his arraignment in the original form, 274

Devices, whence those of the knights in Pericles were borrowed, 392

Devil, his roaring, 258

----'s ruff-shop, print of it, 220

----s invoked by witches, account of them, 315

Diana, a name for Hecate in modern times, 235

----, patroness of witches, 236

Dictionary, the first French and English, by Hollyband, afterwards amplified by Cotgrave, 140

Dieu et mon droit, when this motto was originally used, 248

Dragon on Chinese porcelain, 18

----, a character in the morris dance, 600

Drinking horns, formerly carried by lunatics, &c., 415

Drinking pots with hoops, explained, 327

Duke, its ancient meaning, 111

Dun is in the mire, an old proverbial phrase, 425

E.

Edward shovel-boards, 33

Ego et rex meus, remarks on this expression, 341

Elbow, rubbing the, a popular superstition, 273

Elf-knots, 426

Elf-locks, _ib._

Elf-stones, _ib._

Elizabeth, Queen, a compliment to her, 341

Eloisa, some compositions by her noticed, 472

Ephesiacs of Xenophon, a romance which is supposed to have furnished a material incident in the story of Romeo and Juliet, 436

Essex, Earl of, a supposed allusion to his death, 250

Euriphile, whence the name borrowed by Shakspeare, 378

Evil spirits, how the Greeks expelled them from dying persons, 326

Eyes, green, 30

----, grey, _ib._

F.

Fair lady of Norwich, origin of a curious story so entitled, 545

Fairies, delight in cleanliness, 122

----, miscellaneous remarks on them, 238

----, their blessing, 127

----, their immortality defended, 114

----, their rings, 111, 114

----, their song, 51

Falling of the axe, this expression examined, 187

Falstaff, the severity of his punishment censured, 294

Farmer, Doctor, a mistake in a note by him pointed out, 571

Fascination against the influence of evil eyes, remarks on it, 303

Fashions in dress, the English always remarkable for their variation of them, 105

Fate, used by Shakspeare for fortune, and not death according to Warburton, 146

Father friar, this expression explained, 84

Favel, the ancient name of a horse, 291

Fica, 303

Ficus, remarks on the disease so called, 304

Fig, making the, explained, 302

Fig of Spain, 307

Finis coronat opus, remarks on this phrase, 199

Florio's First fruits, some account of that book, 140

Fool, death's, 80

----, fortune's, 146

----, time's, 273

----, various remarks on this character, 18, 55, 74, 94, 198, 200

----, Charles the First's, 502

----, city and corporation, 500

----, court, 502

----, domestic, 499, 501

----, Duke of Mantua's, story of him, 505

----, Earl of Suffolk's, 503

----, female, 500

----, fortune's, 431

----, in brothels, 358, 500

----, in dumb shows at fairs, 501

----, in the mysteries and moralities, 500

----, Lord Mansel's, 504

----, Louis the Thirteenth's, 505

----, morris, 501, 592

----, mountebank's, 501

----, Pope's, _ib._

----, proverb relating to him explained, 506

----, Sir Thomas More's, 513

----, stage, his office, 507, 514

----, story of a Welsh one, 503

----, strumpet's, 358, 500

----, tavern, 500

----, various remarks on this character, 358, 412, 419, 483, 497

----, Whitson ale, 501

----, William the Conqueror's, _ib._

Fool's bauble, 509

---- cockscomb, 508

---- combat with death, 394

---- dress, 507, 510

---- general mode of behaviour, 504

---- punishment, 505

Fools, begged, 148

----, pre-eminence of those in Shakspeare's plays, 514

----, their decline, 503, 515

----. See Clowns.

Fortunatus, origin of the story of this romance, 553

Fox-tails, how worn by ladies in the reign of Edward I., 512

French crown, 76

---- songs and ballads, 446, 472, 474

Friar and the boy, a popular story used by Shakspeare, 14

Frier John and frier Richard, a curious story so entitled, 392, 545

---- Tuck, origin of his name, 587

Funeral feasts, borrowed from the ancients, 439

G.

Gascoine, justice, an anachronism concerning him, 293

Gentlemen, what they formerly were, 214, 223

----, who were so formerly, 429, 476, 486

Gesta Romanorum, 400, 401, 402, 403, 420

---- ----, some account of it, 167, 170

---- ----, a curious story from an ancient English MS. of it, 172

---- ----, analysis of a work under this name composed in England, 537

---- ----, inquiries concerning its authors, 527, 571

---- ----, manuscripts of it, 531, 536, 574

---- ----, printed editions of it, 532, 571, 575

---- ----, question examined whether composed in England, 535

---- ----, stories from it used in the pulpit, or otherwise to entertain the monks, 527

---- ----, translations of it, 533, 571

---- ----, two works under this name, 520

Ghosts retire at the approach of day, 120

----, damned, 466

----, reasons for their appearing, 450

----, why exclusively addressed by scholars, 438

----, why said to fast, 451

----, why they disappeared at the dawn of day, 452

Gilliflower, applied by Perdita to a painted woman, 219

Gilt two-pences, 290

Ginger, in great use formerly as a stomachic, 88

Girdle, turning of the, explained, 109

Gis, a corruption of Jesus, 475

Gloucester, duke of, discordant accounts of his death, 322

Giving hands, an old expression for bestowing applause, 129

Glow-worm's fire, 118

Goblin, what it signified in former times, 242

Golden legend, a story from that work, 239

Gowrie conspiracy, 213

Gower, supposed to have translated the Gesta Romanorum into English, 572

Grace, when this title was first used, 320

Grammatical errors in Shakspeare, 181

Gray, Mr., borrowed from Shakspeare, 343

Green sleeves, an old ballad, 37

---- eyes, less uncommon formerly than at present, 433

---- sleeves, some account of an old time so called, 484

Guido's painting of Bacchus and Ariadne, remarks on, 29

Guido of Colonna, his Troy book not an original work as usually supposed, but borrowed from Benoit de Saint More a Norman French poet, 353

Guillelmus Hilacensis, singular title bestowed on himself, 523

Guy Faux, how treated by the modern populace, 586

H.

Halfpence, tearing pieces into, explained, 107

Halifax gibbet, 188

Hamlet, alluded to in Scoloker's Daiphantus, 478

----, enigmatical speech by him explained, 469

Hamlet, his madness, 456

Harlequin, the successor to the old vice of our theatres, 288

Harry ten shillings, when first coined, 283

Hay, an ancient dance, a sort of brawl, 146

Heaping coals of fire on a person's head, explanation of this phrase, 423

Heart, the seat of courage among the ancients, 365

Hearts and hands, 482

Hecate, how accented by Shakspeare, 122

----, her team, 121

----, miscellaneous remarks on, 235

Helmet, some observations on this part of ancient armour, 269

Henbane, 452

----, Shakspeare's insane root, 229

Heraldry ridiculed by Shakspeare, 476

Herb John, a proverbial expression relating to it, 481

Hermit of Prague, 66

Herne's oak, 51

Herod, account of his character in the old mysteries, 463

----, his character in the old mysteries illustrated, 85

Herodias, 236, 237

Higa, mistake concerning its etymology, 306

Hobby-horse, a character in the morris dance, 595

Holinshed, an error in his chronicle, 297

Hollyband, his real name Sainliens, 139

Horn, romance of King, 2

Horned head-dresses of the ladies, 125

Horse, the dancing, account of, 131

Horses, ancient names of, 291

Hugo de Sancto Victore, some tales and fables ascribed to him, 524

Hume, Mr., a singular remark by him, 323

Hundred merry tales, discussion relating to them, 102

Hyena, 189

I.

Idiots, begging of them, 148