where the Manuel de Péché has
‘Karoles ne lutes nul deit fere,
En seint eglise qe me veut crere;
Car en cymiter neis karoler
Est outrage grant, ou luter:
Souent lur est mes auenu
Qe la fet tel maner de iu;
Qe grant peche est, desturber
Le prestre quant deit celebrer.’
[340] The Puritan Fetherston, in his Dialogue agaynst light, lewde, and lascivious Dancing (1583), sign. D. 7, says that he has ‘hearde of tenne maidens which went to set May, and nine of them came home with childe.’ Stubbes, i. 149, has a very similar observation. Cf. the adventures of Dr. Fitzpiers and Suke Damson on Midsummer Eve in Thomas Hardy’s novel, The Woodlanders, ch. xx.