XXII 



the other hand, some reasons to support the conjecture that the 

 name is of Teutonic origin; and, as this conjecture neither 

 wounds our vanity nor conflicts with h'istory, we may safely 

 assume it to be the true one, and so unbridle fancy to carry 

 back, our May-day festivals beyond the time of the Heptarchy, 

 into the woods of Germany, aud among those hilarious wild- men, 

 the primitive ancestors of our Saxon stock. 



Whatever gave rise to the ceremonies of May-day whether 

 they are a relic of the early " mythology of the Teutonic peo- 

 ples," or a continuation of the Floralia of the Romans, or a 

 Christian festival in honor of the Blessed Virgin, as has been 

 variously supposed by different investigators of the subject all 

 are agreed that, in England, at least, they are of so ancient 

 observance that " the memory of man runneth not to the 

 contrary;" and that, universally, they symbolize the joy of 

 mankind at the triumph of the Sun over the frosts and barren- 

 ness of Winter. 



The celebration of the May-games was extrem'ely distasteful 

 to the Puritans and other early reformers in the English 

 Church ; and, doubtless, the many excesses of the revellers the 

 wantonness and debauchery inseparable from these festivals 

 were sufficiently scandalous to all pious and moral men. Lat- 

 imer, who suffered martyrdom in the reign of Mary, discloses 

 another objection to these pastimes in a sermon preached before 

 the young King Edward against the popular observance of 

 Robin Hood's day, which, he complains, sometimes drew all the 

 parish away from church. " I thought," he mournfully says, 

 concerning an instance of this kind within his own experience, 

 " my rochet would have been regarded ; but it would not serve, 

 it was faine to give place to Robin Hood's men." 



The Puritans were certainly not steeled against all the sweet 

 influences of nature, nor backward in their enjoyment and 

 praise of the beauties of Spring ; and it was the chief of Puritan 

 poets whose " Song on May Morning," remains to this day un- 

 approachable in its excellence. 



