Dance with the maidens to the bagpipe’s strains.”
[83] See Steevens’s Shakespeare, 1793, x. 186.
[84] Albion’s England, 1602, p. 121. It is part of the “Northerne man’s speech against the friers.” He adds:
“At Baptis-day with ale and cakes bout bonfires neighbours stood,
At Martle masse wa turnd a crabbe, thilke told of Roben Hood,
Till after long time myrke, when blest were windowes, dares and lights,
And pails were fild, and hathes were swept, gainst fairie elves and sprits:
Rock and plow Mondaies gams . . . with saint-feasts and kirk-lights.”
A very learned and ingenious gentleman conceives that the enumeration of characters in the passage quoted in the text belongs solely to the May, and has no relation whatever to the morrise. That the two games, however, though essentially distinct in their origin, got somehow or other blended together appears unquestionable.
“As fit as a morris for May-day” is one of the clown’s similes in All’s well that ends well (act ii. scene 2).