202 
G A 
dancing round a tall poll, which vs called a may-poll\ and 
being placed in a convenient part of the village, hands 
there, as it were, confecrated to the goddefs of flowers, 
without the leaf! violation being offered to it in the whole 
circle of the year.” This cuflom, no doubt, is a re- 
lic’of one more ancient, pra<ftifed by the heathens, who 
obferved the laft four days in April, and the firft of May, 
in hpnoi'.r of the goddefs Flora. To this we may add the 
following extradf from Stow. “ In the month of May 
th.e citizens of London of ail eflates, generally in every 
parifh, ai d in feme infiances two or three pariihes joining 
together, had their fevcral mayings, and did fetch their 
r.iay-poles with divers warlike fnews; with good archers, 
mori ice-dancers, and other devices for paftime, all day 
long ; and towards evening they had flage-plays and bon¬ 
fires in the flreeis. Thefe great mayings and may.games 
were made by the governors and niafters of the city, toge¬ 
ther w ith the triumphant fetting up of the great lhaft or 
piincipal may-pole in Cornhill before tlie parifii church of 
Saint Andrew thence called St. Andrew Undcr-Jhaft, No 
doubt the May-games are of longer (landing, though the 
time of their inliitiition cannot be traced. Mention is 
made of the may-pole at Cornhill, in a poem called the 
Chatincc of the Dice, attributed to Chaucer. Stow has pafl- 
ed over unnoticed the manner in which the may-poles 
were ulually decorated ; but tills deficiency is (upplied by 
a contemporary writer, wlio faw thefe pafiimes in a diffe¬ 
rent point of view ; he writes thus : “ Againfl Maie-day, 
every parifli, towne, or village, afl'emble ihemfelves, both 
men, women, and children; and either all together, or di¬ 
viding themlelves inio companies, they goe fonie to the 
woods and groves, fome to the hills and mountaines, fome 
to one place, fome to another, where they fpend all the 
night in pleafant pafiimes, and in the morning they return 
bringing with them birch bottghes and branches of trees 
to deck their alfcmblies withal. But their chiefeft jewel 
they bring from thence is the inaie-pole, which they bring 
home witli great veneration, as thus; they have tvventie 
or fourtie yoake of oxen, every oxe having a fweete nofe- 
gaie of flowers tied up to the tip of his homes, and thefe 
oxen drawe home tlie may-poale, which they covered all 
over with flowers and hearbes, bound round with firings 
from the top to tlie bottome, and fometimes it was painted 
with variable colours, having two or three hundred men, 
women, and children, following it with great devotion. 
And thus equipped it was reared with handkerchiefes and 
flagges fireaniing on the top, they firawe the ground round 
about it, they bind green boughs about it, they fet up 
fummer halles, bowers, and arbours, bard by it, and then 
fall they to banquetting and feafiing, to leaping and 
dauncing about it, as the heathen people did at the dedi¬ 
cation of their idols. I have heard it credeblie reported, 
by men of great gravity, credite, and reputation, that of 
fourtie, ihreefcore, or an hundred, maides going to the 
wood, there have fcarcely the third part of them returned 
}vome againe as they went!” P. Stubbs’s Anatomic of Abufes, 
^ 595 - 
It feems to have been the confiant cuftom, at the cele¬ 
bration of the may-games, to eledl a lord and lady of the 
vnay, vvho probably prefided over the (ports. “On the 
thirtieth of May," in the fourth year of queen Mary, 
A.D. J557, (lays Strype,) was a goodly may-game in 
Fcnchurch-ftrect, with drums, and guns, and pikes; and 
with the ni.'te worthie.'^, who rode, and each of them made 
his fpeech, there was alfo a mortice dance, and an ele- 
pha.nt and cafile, and the lord and lady of the may appear¬ 
ing to make up the (how.” We alfo read that the lord of 
the may, and.no doubt his lady alfo, was decorated with 
fcarfs, ribbands, and other fineries. Hence a citizen, in 
I he old,comedy called the Knight of the Burning Pcfle, add red¬ 
ing hiinfelf to the other adtors, fays, “ Let Ralph come 
out on may-day in the morning, and fpeak upon a conduit, 
wall all his fcarfs about him, and his featlrers, and his 
rings, and his knacks, as lord of the may.” His requeft 
M E. 
is complied with, and Ralph appears upon the fiage in 
the allumed charadfer, where he makes his fpeech, be¬ 
ginning in this manner : “ With gilded ftalf and crolfed 
fcarf the may-lord here I fiand.” 
At the commencement of the fixteenth century, or per¬ 
haps dill earlier, the ancient ftories of Robin Hood and his 
merry companions feem to have been new-modelled, and 
divided into fepa-mte ballads, which much increafed their 
popularity ; for this reafon it was cuftomary to perronify 
this famous outlaw, with fevcral of his moft noted alToci- 
ates, and add them to the pageantry of the may-games. 
He prefided as lord of the may, and a female, or rather, 
perhaps, a man habited like a female, called the Maid Ma¬ 
rian, his faithful miftrefs, was the lady of the may. His 
companions wereaUd equipped in appropriate drelfes, and 
diftinguifiied by the title of Robin Hood's Men. Bifiiop La¬ 
timer, in a fermon which he preached before Edward VI. 
relates the following anecdute, which proves the great 
popularity of thefe pageants : “ Coming (fays he) to a 
certain town on a holiday to preach, I found the church 
door.faft locked. I taryed there half an houre and more, 
and at laft thekeywas found, and one of the parifh comes 
to me and (ayes, Syr, this is a buly day with us, we cannot 
hear you; it is Robin Hoodds day \ the pariih are gone 
abroad to gather for Robin Hood ; I pray you let [hinder J 
them not. I was fayne, therefore, togive place to Robin 
Hood. I thought my rochet would have been regarded; 
but it would not ferve, it was faine to give place to Rabin 
Hoode’s men. ” 
It has been obferved, that the May-games were not con. 
fined to the firft day of the month, neither were they al. 
ways concluded in one day; on the contrary, there is an 
ancient manufeript, written apparently in the reign 
of Henry VII. wherein a number of gentlemen, pro- 
fefiing tliemfel ves to be the fervants of the lady May, pro¬ 
mile to be in the royal paik at Greenwich, day after day, 
from two o’clock in the afternoon till five, in order to 
perform the various fports and exercifes fpecified in the 
agreement, that is to fay,—On the fourteenth of May they 
engage to meet at a place appointed by the king, armed 
with the harneis thereunto accuftomed, to kepe the fielde, 
and to run with every commer eight courfes. Four addi- 
tional courfes were to be granted to any one who defired 
it, if the time would permit, or the queen was pleafed to 
give them leave.—On the fifteenth the archers took the 
field to flioot at the fiandard with flight arrows.—On the 
fixteenth they held a tournament with fwords rebated to 
ftrike with every commer eight firokes, according ta the 
accuftomed ufage.—On the eighteenth, (for Sunday in¬ 
tervened,) they were to be ready to “ wreftle with all 
commers all manner of ways,” according to their pleafure. 
—On the nineteenth they were to enter the field, to fight 
on foot at the barriers, with fpears in their hands and 
fwords rebated by their fidcs, and with fpear and fword to 
defend their barriers.—On the twentieth they were to 
give additional proof of their ftrength by calling “the 
barreon foote.and with the arme, bothe heav it and bight.” 
—On the twenty-firft they recommenced the exercifes, 
whicli were to be continued daily, Sundays excepted, 
through the remaining part of May, and a fortnight 'in 
the month of June. 
Henry Vlll. when young, delighted much in pagean- 
try, and the early part of his reign abounded with gaudy 
fliows; moft of them were his own deviling, and others 
contrived for his aniufement ; among the latter we may 
reckon a May-game at Shooter’s-hill, which was exhibi¬ 
ted by the ofticers of his guards : they in a body amoun-t- 
ing to two hundred, all of them clothed in gieen, and 
hca<ied by their captain, who perfonated Robin (food, 
met the king one morning as he was riding to take the 
air, accompanied by the queen and a large (uite of the no. 
bility of both fexes. The-fiiffitious forelters iiilf ainufed 
them with a double difeharge of their arrows ; and then, 
their chief approaching the king, invited him to fee tlie 
inamier 
