Then the garland on ropes is hung high over all,
One end to a tree, and one hooked to a wall;
When they cuck the ball over till day is nigh gone,
And then tea and cakes and the dancing comes on.
And then, lawk! what laughing and dancing is there,
While the fiddler makes faces within the arm-chair;
And then comes the cushion,[54] the girls they all shriek,
And fly to the door from the old fiddler’s squeak.
But the doors they are fastened, so all must kneel down,
And take the rude kiss from the unmannerly clown.
Thus the May games are ended, to their houses they roam,
With the sweetheart she chooses each maiden goes home.”
[53] Duck-under-the-water. A game in which the players run, two and two, in rapid succession, under a handkerchief held up aloft by two persons standing apart with extended arms. Formerly in this northern part of Northamptonshire even married women on May-day played at this game under the garland, which was extended from chimney to chimney across the village street.—Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 1854, vol. i. p. 204.
[54] The cushion dance appears to be of some antiquity: it is thus mentioned by Selden in his Table Talk, under “King of England”:—“The court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing, first you have the great measures, then the Corrantoes and the Galliards, and this is kept up with ceremony; at length to French-more [Frenchmore] and the cushion dance, and then all the company dance—lord and groom, lady and kitchen maid, no distinction. So in our court in Queen Elizabeth’s time gravity and state were kept up. In King James’ time things were very pretty well. But in King Charles’ time there was nothing but Frenchmore and the cushion-dance, omnium gatherum, tolly polly, hoite come toite.” In Playford’s Dancing Master (1698, p. 7) it is described as follows:—“This dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who, taking a cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the end of the tune stops and sings, ‘This dance it will no further go;’ the musician answers, ‘I pray you, good sir, why say you so?’ Man. ‘Because Jean Sanderson will not come to.’ Musician. ‘She must come to, and she shall come to, and she must whether she will or no.’ Then he lays down the cushion before a woman, on which she kneels, and he kisses her, singing, ‘Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome.’ Then she rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance, singing, ‘Prinkum prankum is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it once again?’ Then making a stop, the woman sings as before, ‘This dance it will no further go.’ Musician. ‘I pray you, madam, why say you so?’ Woman. ‘Because John Sanderson will not come to.’ Musician. ‘He must come to,’ &c. (as before). And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing ‘Welcome, John Sanderson,’ &c. Then he taking up the cushion, they dance round, singing as before, and thus they do till the whole company are taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid before the first man, the woman singing ‘This dance,’ &c. (as before), only instead of ‘not come to,’ they sing, ‘go fro;’ and instead of ‘Welcome, John Sanderson,’ ‘Farewell, farewell;’ and so they go out one by one as they came in.”
This dance was well known in Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century, and an interesting engraving of it may be seen in the ‘Emblems of John de Brunnes,’ Amst. 1624.—Nares’ Glossary (Halliwell and Wright), 1859, vol. i. p. 219.
A native of Fotheringhay, Mr. W. C. Peach, relates that he was formerly accustomed to go into the fields over-night and very early on May-day to gather cowslips, primroses, wood-anemones, blue bells, &c., to make the garlands. The garland, if possible, was hung in the centre of the street on a rope stretched from house to house. Then was made the trial of skill in tossing balls (small white leather ones) through the framework of the garland, to effect which was a triumph. Speaking of the May-bush (a large tree selected for being tall, straight, full of branches, and if possible flowers), Mr. W. C. Peach says, “I have been looking out for a pretty bush days before the time, and if hawthorn and in blossom, then it was glorious. I have seen them ten or twelve feet high, and many in circumference, and they required a stalwart arm to carry and put them into a hole in the ground before the front door, where they were wedged on each side so as to appear growing. Flowers were then thrown over the bush and around it, and strewn as well before the door. Pretty little branches of whitethorn, adorned with the best flowers procurable, were occasionally put up, unperceived by others if possible, against the bed-room of the favourite lass, to show the esteem in which she was held, and the girls accordingly were early on the alert to witness the respective favours allotted them. Elder, crab-tree, nettles, thistles, sloes, &c., marked the different degrees of respect in which some of them were held.”—Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, vol. ii. p. 427.
At Nassington they carry garlands about, and beg for money; in the evening they tie them across the street from chimney to chimney, and dance under them. Formerly married women used to amuse themselves by playing under them at the game of Duck-under-the-water.[55]—Ibid. p. 428.
[55] See [note] on [page 252].
At Nassington a curious pasture custom also takes place on May-day. There is a large tract of meadow-land lying on the side of the river Nen, which the inhabitants of the village have the right of pasturing cows upon.[56] The pasture season commences on May-day, and on the evening preceding a rail is put across the entrance to the pasture, which the cows must leap to get into. Much rivalry takes place on this occasion. The lads watch through the night and the dawning of May-day, the lasses with their cows being ready at the proper moment to see which cow shall leap the rail first into the meadow, and the cow which does this is led round the village in the afternoon, her horns decorated with ribbons, &c. Degradation only awaits the hindmost cow, she has to carry elder, nettles, and thistles as her badge, and the lass who milks her has to bear the gibes and jeers of the villagers.—Glossary, &c., p. 428.