As to the original institution of May-poles, or king and queen of May,—in a word, of the primitive purpose and celebration of a popular festival at that season,—nothing {cviii} satisfactory or consequential can be discovered. The curious reader, at the same time, may consult Spelman’s Glossary, voce MAIUMA, and Ducange, vv. MAJUMA, MAIUS.
In an old manuscript music-book given lately by Mr. Dalziel to the Advocates’ Library are the following scraps of songs about Robin Hood:
“First when Robin good bow bare,
Was never bairne so bold,
Doune, doune, berrie, doune, doune.”
“Now will ye hear a jollie jest,
How Robin Hood was pope of Rome,
And Wallace king of France.”
“Jolly Robin goe to the green wood to thy lemman.”
“The nock is out of Johnes bow, Joly, joly,” &c.
Much curious matter on the subject of the morris-dance is to be found in “Mr. Tollet’s opinion concerning the Morris-dancers upon his Window.” (See Steevens’s Shakespeare, v. 425, edition 1778, or viii. 596, edition 1793. See also Mr. Waldron’s notes upon the Sad Shepherd, 1783, p. 255.) Morris-dancers are said to be yet annually seen in Norfolk,[101] and make their constant appearance in Lancashire.[102]
In Scotland, “The game of Robin Hood was celebrated in the month of May. The populace assembled previous to {cvix} the celebration of this festival, and chose some respectable[103] member of the corporation to officiate in the character of Robin Hood, and another in that of Little John his squire. Upon the day appointed, which was a Sunday or holyday, the people assembled in military array, and went to some adjoining field, where, either as actors or spectators, the whole inhabitants of the respective towns were convened. In this field they probably amused themselves with a representation of Robin Hood’s predatory exploits, or of his encounters with the officers of justice [rather, perhaps, in feats of archery or military exercises].
“As numerous meetings for disorderly mirth are apt to engender tumult, when the minds of the people came to be agitated with religious controversy, it was found necessary to repress the game[104] of Robin Hood by public statute. The populace were by no means willing to relinquish their favourite amusement. Year after year the magistrates of Edinburgh were obliged to exert their authority[105] in repressing this game; often ineffectually. In the year 1561, the mob were so enraged at being disappointed in making a Robin Hood, that they rose in mutiny, seized on the city gates, committed robberies upon strangers; and one of the {cx} ringleaders being condemned by the magistrates to be hanged, the mob forced open the jail, set at liberty the criminal and all the prisoners, and broke in pieces the gibbet erected at the cross for executing the malefactor. They next assaulted the magistrates, who were[106] sitting in the council-chamber, and who fled to the Tolbooth for shelter, where the mob attacked them, battering the doors, and pouring stones through the windows. Application was made to the deacons of the corporations to appease the tumult. Remaining, however, unconcerned spectators, they made this answer: ‘They will be magistrates alone; let them rule the people alone.’ The magistrates were kept in confinement till they made proclamation be published, offering indemnity to the rioters upon laying down their arms. Still, however, so late as the year 1592, we find the General Assembly complaining of the profanation of the sabbath, by making[107] of Robin Hood plays” (Arnot’s History of Edinburgh, p. 77).
Notwithstanding the above representation, it is certain that these amusements were considerably upon the decline before the year 1568. This appears from a poem by Alexander Scot, preserved in the Hyndford MS. (in the Advocates’ Library, compiled and written in that identical year), and inaccurately printed in The Evergreen:
“In May quhen men zeid everichone
With Robene Hoid and Littill Johne,
To bring in bowis and birkin bobbynis:
Now all sic game is fastlingis gone,
But gif it be amangis clovin Robbynis.”
(35) —“His bow, and one of his arrows, his chair, his cap, and one of his slippers were preserved till within the present century.”] “We omitted,” says Ray, “the sight of Fountain’s Abbey, where Robin Hood’s bow is kept” (Itineraries, 1760, p. 161).
“Having pleased ourselves with the antiquities of ‘Notingham,’ we took horse and went to visit the well and {cxi} ancient chair of Robin Hood, which is not far from hence, within the forest of Sherwood. Being placed in the chair, we had a cap, which they say was his, very formally put upon our heads, and having performed the usual ceremonies befitting so great a solemnity, we receiv’d the freedom of the chair, and were incorporated into the society of that renowned brotherhood” (Brome’s Travels over England, &c., 1700, p. 85).