Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait.
Ovid, Fasti, v.
May-Day (Evil), May 1, 1517, when the London apprentices rose up against the foreign residents and did incalcuable mischief. This riot began May 1, and lasted till May 22.
May Queen (The), a poem in three parts by Tennyson (1842). Alice, a bright-eyed, merry child, was chosen May queen, and, being afraid she might oversleep herself, told her mother to be sure to call her early.
I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake,
If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break;
But I must gather knots of flowers, and buds and garlands gay,
For I’m to be queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be queen o’ the May.
The old year passed away, and the black-eyed rustic maiden was dying. She hoped to greet the new year before her eyes closed in death, and bade her mother once again to be sure to call her early; but it was not now because she slept so soundly. Alas! no.
Good night, sweet mother; call me before the day is born.
All night I lie awake, but I fall asleep at morn;
But I would see the sun rise upon the glad New Year,
So, if you’re waking, call me, call me early, mother dear.
The day rose and passed away, but Alice lingered on till March. The snow-drops had gone before her, and the violets were in bloom. Robin had dearly loved the child, but the thoughtless village beauty, in her joyous girlhood, tossed her head at him, and never thought of love, but now, that she was going to the land of shadows, her dying words were:
And say to Robin a kind word, and tell him not to fret;
There’s many worthier than I, would make him happy yet.
If I had lived—I cannot tell—I might have been his wife;
But all these things have ceased to be, with my desire of life.
Maye (The), that subtle and abstruse sense which the goddess Maya inspires. Plato, Epicharmos, and some other ancient philosophers refer it to the presence of divinity. “It is the divinity which stirs within us.” In poetry it gives an inner sense to the outward word, and in common minds it degenerates into delusion or second sight. Maya is an Indian deity, and personates the “power of creation.”
Hartmann possède la Mâye ... il laisse pénétrer dans ses écrits les sentiments, et les pensées dont son âme est remplie, et cherche sans cesse à resoudre les antithèses.—G. Weber, Hist. de la Littérature Allemande.