Eke ech at other throw the floures bright,
The primerose, the violets, and the gold,
With fresh garlants party blew and white.
And it should be observed that this, the simplest mode of celebrating May-day, was as much in vogue in the days of Shakspeare as the more complex one, accompanied by the morris-dance and games of Robin Hood. The following description, by Bourne and Borlase, manifestly alludes to the costume of this age, and to the simpler mode of commemorating the first of May: "On the calends, or the first day of May," says the former, "the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a little after midnight, and walk to some neighboring wood, accompanied with music and the blowing of horns, where they break down branches from the trees, and adorn them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. When this is done, they return with their booty homewards, about the rising of the sun, and make their doors and windows to triumph in the flowery spoil. The after part of the day is chiefly spent in dancing round a tall pole, which is called a May-pole; which, being placed in a convenient part of the village, stands there, as it were, consecrated to the goddess of flowers, without the least violence offered to it, in the whole circle of the year."
"An ancient custom," says the latter, "still retained by the Cornish, is that of decking their doors and porches on the first of May with green sycamore and hawthorn boughs, and of planting trees, or rather stumps of trees, before their houses. And, on May-eve, they from towns make excursions into the country, and, having cut down a tall elm, brought it into town, fitted a straight and taper pole to the end of it, and painted the same, erect it in the most public places; and on holidays and festivals adorn it with flower-garlands, or ensigns and streamers." So generally prevalent was this habit of early rising on May-day, that Shakspeare makes one of his inferior characters in King Henry the Eighth exclaim—
Pray, sir, be patient; 'tis as much impossible
(Unless we sweep them from the door with cannons)
To scatter them, as 'tis to make them sleep
On May-day morning; which will never be.
But, about the commencement of the sixteenth century, or sooner, a very material addition was made to the celebration of the rites of May-day by the introduction of the characters of Robin Hood and some of his associates. This was done with a view towards the encouragement of archery, and the custom was continued even beyond the close of the reign of James the First. It is true that the May-games, in their rudest form—the mere dance of lads and lasses round a May-pole, or the simple morris with the Lady of the May—were occasionally seen during the days of Elizabeth; but the general exhibition was the more complicated ceremony which we are about to describe. The personages who now become the chief performers in the morris-dance were four of the most popular outlaws of Sherwood Forest. Warner, the contemporary of Shakspeare, speaking of the periods of some of our festivals, and remarking that "ere Penticost began our May," adds—