"A penny for the May who has neither mantle nor petticoat."
Lorenzo de' Medici says in one of his ballads:
Se tu vuo' appiccare un maio.
A qualcuna che tu ami....
In his day "Singing the May" was almost a trade; the country folk flocked into Florence with their May trees and rustic instruments and took toll of the citizens. The custom continues along the Ligurian coast. At Spezia I saw the boys come round on May-day piping and singing, and led by one, taller than the rest, who carried an Italian flag covered with garlands. The name of the master of the house before which they halt is introduced into a song that begins:
Siam venuti a cantar maggio,
Al Signore ——
Come ogn' anno usar si suole,
Nella stagion di primavera.
Since Chaucer, who loved so dearly the "May Kalendes" and the "See of the day," no one has celebrated them with a more ingenuous charm than the country lads of the island of Sardinia, who sing "May, May, be thou welcome, with all Sun and Love; with the Flower and with the Soul, and with the Marguerite." A Tuscan and a Pisan Rispetto may be taken as representative of Italian May-song: