The May-pole is up, Now give me the cup, I’ll drink to the garlands around it, But first unto those, Whose hands did compose, The glory of flowers that crown’d it.
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In olden days even the King and Queen condescended to mingle with their lieges, and to assist in commemorating the time-honoured custom. Chaucer, in his Court of Love, describes how on May Day, “Forth goeth all the Court both most and least, to fetch the flowers fresh.”
Spenser, in his Shepherd’s Calendar, thus describes the May Day festival of Elizabethan times:—
Siker this morrow, no longer ago, I saw a shole of shepherds out go With singing and shouting and jolly cheer; Before them rode a lusty Tabrere, That to the many a hornpipe played, Whereto they dancen each one with his maid. To see these folks make such jouissance, Made my heart after the pipe to dance. Then to the green-wood they speeden them all, To fetchen home May with their musical; And home they bring him in a royal throne Crowned as king; and his queen attone Was Lady Flora, on whom did attend A fair flock of fairies, and a fresh bend Of lovely nymphs—O that I were there To helpen the ladies their May-bush to bear!
Probably the most famous May-pole that ever existed was the one which gave its name to the parish of St. Andrew-Undershaft. It was of such a height that it towered above all the houses and even above the church spire. Chaucer alludes to this mighty pole in the lines:—
Right well aloft and high ye beare your head, As ye would beare the greate shaft of Cornhill.
When this May-pole was not required for festive purposes, it lay suspended on great iron hooks above the doors of the neighbouring houses. In the reign of Edward VI., after a sermon preached at the cross of St. Paul’s against the iniquity of May games, the inhabitants of these houses in a fit of pious enthusiasm, desiring, doubtless, to replenish their wood-cellars and to destroy an “idoll” at the same time, cut the pole in pieces, each man retaining that portion of it which had been before his house. The May-pole in the Strand was another celebrated {244} shaft. It was erected at the Restoration, when there was a revival of the popular sports which the sour-faced Puritans had so unsparingly condemned. It was 134 ft. high, and was raised with great ceremony and public rejoicings.
At Helston, in Cornwall, on the 8th of May, called “Furry Day,” may still be witnessed a survival of the old May Day festivities. Very early in the morning the young men and maidens of the place go off into the country to breakfast. About seven o’clock they return bearing green branches, and decked with flowers, they dance through the streets to the tune of the “Furry Dance.” At eight o’clock the “Hal-an-Tow” (Heel and Toe?) song is sung, and dancing and merriment fill the remainder of the day.
THE HAL-AN-TOW.