M A Y 
MAY 
Andrew Marvel!, in a fatirical and humourous poem, lias 
reprefented him as a martyr to Bacchus. His confidera- 
tion with his party was (hown by a (plendid public fune¬ 
ral in Weftminfter-abbey, with a marble monument, and 
laudatory epitaph ; but, after the reiteration, his corpfe 
was one of thofe which underwent the ignominious treat¬ 
ment of being dug up and thrown into a hole in St. Mar¬ 
garet's church-yard, and his monumental honours were 
deltroyed. Clarendon and Granger. 
MA'Y-APPLE. See Podophyllum. 
MA'Y-BE, adv Perhaps : 
May-be the amorous count folicits her 
In the unlawful purpofe. Shakefpeare. 
MA'Y-BE, cdj. Doubtful; expected : 
’Tis nothing yet, yet all thou haft to give ; 
Then add thofe may-be years thou haft to live. Dryden. 
MA'Y-BE, /. Excufe.—What they offer is bare may-be 
and ftiift, and fcarce ever amounts to a tolerable reafon. 
Crecck .—Chance ; expettation.—We leave thefe myfterious 
may-bes to them that have faith to receive them. Reid . 
MA'Y-BUG, f A chaffer. 
MA'Y-BUSH. See Crataegus. 
MAY (Cape). See Cape, vol. iii. 
MAY (Cape) County, extends northward round the 
fore-mentioned cape, and is a healthy Tandy traft of coun¬ 
try, thirty-four miles long, and nineteen broad. This 
country is divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower, pre- 
cinfts. The number of inhabitants is 3066, of whom 98 
are (laves. 
MAY-DA'Y, f. The firft of May : 
’Tis as much impoftible, 
Unlefs we fwept them from the door with cannons, 
To fcatter ’em, as ’tis to make ’em deep 
On May-day morning. Shakefpeare. 
MA'Y-DEW, or Hon'ey-dew,/I The excrementitious 
liquor difeharged from the bodies of the aphides which 
infeft the leaves of plants. See the article Aphis, vol. i. 
p. 789. 
Mr. Thomas Henlhaw, having had occafion to make 
life of a great quantity of May-dew, did, by feveral ca- 
fual effays on that fubjeft, make the following obferva- 
tions and trials, and prefent them to the Royal Society, 
and they were printed in the ill volume of the Phil. Tranf. 
It appears from this paper, that the dew, far from being 
a pure or unadulterated water, is in reality of a more 
mixed nature than moft others. This dew, newly-ga¬ 
thered and filtered through a clean linen cloth, is of a 
yellowilh colour, fomevvhat approaching to that of urine. 
In moderate quantities, it does not eafily putrify, though 
kept for a long time ; but in large quantities, as of four 
or five gallons, it putrifies, arid depofits a black fediment. 
Evaporating away great quantities of his putrified dew' in 
glafs bafons, and other earthen glazed veffels, he at laft 
obtained, as he remembers, above two pounds of greyifti 
earth, which when he had waflied with more of the fame 
dew out of all his bafons into one, and evaporated to dry- 
nefs, lay in leaves one above another, not unlike to fome 
kind of brown paper, but very friable. Taking this 
earth out, after he had well ground it on a marble, and 
given it a fmart fire in a coated retort of glafs, it focn 
melted, and became a cake in the bottom when it was 
cold, and looked as if it had been fait and brimftone in a 
certain proportion melted together; but, as he remembers, 
was not at all inflammable. This ground again on a mar¬ 
ble, he fays, turned fpring-water of a reddifh-purple co¬ 
lour. By often calcining and filtering this earth, he at 
laft extracted about two ounces of a fine fmall white fait, 
which, examined through a good inicrofcope, feemed to 
have fides and angles in the fame number _and figure as 
rock-lalt. Phil. Tranf. anno 1665. 
The moft important part of the paper is this conclud¬ 
ing paragraph, demonftrating that a great quantity of fa- 
Jir.e matter is contained in the dew. The precile nature 
Vol. XIV. No. 996. 
573 
of this faline matter remains .yet to be afeertained, and is 
unqueftionably a fubjefl which well deferves to be invefti- 
gated by modern chemifts. Editor's Note to the Phil. Tranf. 
abr. i. 13. 
MA'Y-DUKE,/. A fpecies of cherry. See the article 
Prunus. 
MA'Y-FLOWER,yi A plant.—The plague, they re¬ 
port, hath a feent of the May-Jloiutr. Bacon's Natural Uijlory. 
MA'Y-FLY,y. An infeft; properly the Day-fly, or 
Ephemara vulgata. —He loves the May-fly, which is bred 
of the cad-worm or caddis. Walton's Angler. 
MA'Y-GAME, /. Diverfion ; fport; Arch as is ufed 
on the firft of May.—The king this while, though he 
feemed to account of the defignsof Perkins bcft as a May- 
game, yet had given order for the watching of beacons upon 
the coafts. Bacon. 
Like early lovers, whofe unpraclis’d hearts 
Were long the May-game of malicious arts, 
When once they find their jealoufies were vain. 
With double heat renew their fires again. Dryden. 
MAY-LIL'Y*, /. The fame with lily of the valley. See 
Convallaria. 
M A'Y-MORN, f. Frefhnefs : 
My thrice-puiffant liege 
Is in the very May-morn of his youth. Shakefpeare's Hen. V. 
MAY PLA'CE, which ftiould have been noticed under 
the article Crayford, vol. v. is about half a mile from 
that town. May Place is a feat ftill venerable for its 
antique ftrufture, but which has fuftained fome injury 
from an attempt to give a more modern appearance to 
part of the building. Sir Cloudfiey Shovel was once 
the owner of this manfion, and of other confiderable pof- 
feflions in this parilh. At prefent a moiety of the eltate 
is veiled in Miles Barnes, efq. of Suffolk, and the houfe 
inhabited by Felix Calvert, efq. Very little of May Place 
is to be feen from the main-road : the fmart falhed build¬ 
ing, which is vifible from the top of the hill leading down 
into Crayford, is a farm-houle belonging to Mr. Barnes’s 
eftate, and now in the occupation of Mr. Munn, a great 
calico-printer. The gallant lea-officer juft mentioned, 
who was in the manner of his death only unfortunate, 
prefented a fine altar-piece to the church of Crayford ; and, 
in the window of the north aide of this neat edifice, there 
was prel’erved, not long fmee, and may be ftill remaining, 
a good piece of painting on glafs—the fubjedf, Abraham 
offering up his fon Ifaac. 
MAY POI'NT, a point of the peninfula between For¬ 
tune and Placentia Bays, on the fouth fide of Newfound¬ 
land Ifland. 
MA'Y-POLE, f. A pole to be danced round in May. 
See May, p. 570. 
Amid the area wide (lie took her ftand ; 
Where the tall May-pole once o’er-look’d the Strand. Pope. 
MA'Y-WEED, f. See Anthemis, Cotula, and Ma¬ 
tricaria. —It is a fpecies of chamomile, called alfo (link¬ 
ing chamomile, which grows wild. Miller. 
The maie-zuetd doth burne, and the thiftle doth freat, 
The fitches pull downward both ris and the wheat. Tufftr . 
MA'Y-WORT. See Artemisia. 
MA'YA, a town of Spain, in Navarre: twenty-one 
miles north of Pamplona. 
MA'YA, f. in metaphyfics, a term of vague import 
among the Brahmins and other Hindoo philofophers. It 
means illvfion or deception, and is varioufly applied in cafes 
beyond the reach of deinonftration or comprehenfion. 
MA'YA, in mythology, is deferibed as the mother of 
Kama, the god of love. Under this perfonincation (he 
reprefents the general attratting power ; and fome Hindoo 
fcholars explain the word to mean the 41 firft inclination 
of the Godhead to diverfify himfelf,” fuch is their phrale, 
“ by creating worlds.” She is thus feigned to be the mo- 
7 ,G ther 
