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| Dancing Around the Maypole. Peter Brueghel. |
As is so often the case, it is John Stowe who provides the
more genuine details. At least for the great metropolis of London.
in the moneth of May, the Citizens of London of all estates,
lightly in euery Parish, or sometimes two or three parishes ioyning togither, had
their seuerall mayings, and did fetch in Maypoles, with diuerse warlike shewes,
with good Archers, Morice dauncers, and other deuices for pastime all the day
long, and towards the Euening they had stage playes, and Bonefiers in the streetes.[1]
The “warlike shewes” may come as a surprise. Male citizens needed
to maintain their skills continually at a high level of readiness in the event
that England's citizen army might be sent into battle. All holidays involved archery, in
particular.
In the seventh year of the reign of King Henry VIII, crack
archers were featured as he and Queen Katherine celebrated May Day. The archers’
leader played the traditional master-of-ceremonies role of the day: Robin Hood.
One being their Chieftaine was called Robin Hoode, who
required the king and his companie to stay and see his men shoote, whereunto
the king graunting, Robin hoode whistled, and all the Archers shot off, loosing
all at once, and when he whistled againe, they likewise shot againe, their
arrowes whistled by craft of the head, so that the noyse was straunge and
loude, which greatly delighted the King, Queene, and their Companie.
The ceremonial arrowheads of the company were custom-shaped
such that shooting through the air made a loud collective whistling sound for the special occasion.
This was during Henry’s years as Defender of the Catholic Faith.
Over many centuries, that church had learned tolerance for muted displays of what
pagan times had made traditional holidays and entertainment among the people.
We learn from Brand that
In an account of parish expenses in Coates’s History of
Reading, A.D. 1504, we have: “ It[em]. payed for felling and bryngy’g home
of the bow (bough) set in the M’cat-place, for settyng up of the same, mete and
drinke, viiid.”[2]
Many similar entries can be found in many such registers. Churches
themselves were often strewn with boughs and flowers.
Still, it was no secret that the customs were thoroughly
pagan. As Queen Elizabeth’s reign reached its midway point, the Anglican church
was faced with a fierce backlash from Puritan dissenters. Among them was
Phillip Stubbes who gives us a full picture of the rituals of the day in their
most liberal expression.
Against May, Whitsonday, or other time, all the yung
men and maides, olde men and wiues, run gadding ouer night to the woods,
groues, hils, & mountains, where they spend all the night in plesant pastimes;
& in the morning they return, bringing with them bows & branches of
trees, to deck their assemblies withall. and no meruaile, for there is a great
Lord present amongst them, as superintendent and Lord ouer their pastimes and sportes,
namely, Sathan, prince of hel. But the cheifest iewel they bring from thence is
their May-pole, which they bring home with great veneration, as thus. They haue
twentie or fortie yoke of Oxen, euery Oxe hauing a sweet nose-gay of flouers
placed on the tip of his homes: and these Oxen drawe home this May-pole (this stinking
Ydol, rather) which is couered all ouer with floures and hearbs, bound round
about with strings from the top to the bottome, and sometime painted with
variable colours, with two or three hundred men, women and children following
it with great deuotion. And thus beeing reared vp with handkercheefs and flags
houering on the top, they straw the ground rounde about, binde green boughes
about it, set vp fommer haules, bowers, and arbors hard by it; And then fall
they to daunce about it, like as the heathen people did at the dedication of
the Idols, wherof this is a perfect pattern, or rather the thing it self. I
haue heard it credibly reported (and that viua voce) by men of great
grauitie and reputation, that of fortie, threescore, or a hundred maides going
to the wood ouer night, there haue scaresly the third part of them returned
home againe vndefiled. These be the frutes which these cursed pastimes bring
foorth. Neither the lewes, the Turcks, Sarasins, nor Pagans, nor any other
nations how wicked or barbarous soeuer, haue euer vsed such deuilish exercises
as these; nay, they would haue been ashamed once to haue named them, much lesse
haue vsed them. Yet wee, that would be Christians, think them not amisse. The
Lord forgiue vs, and remooue them from vs![3]
Not many parishes could come up with twenty or forty yolk of
oxen for such a celebration. And neglecting to specify by just what acts,
precisely, the maids were “defiled” shows demagogic skill. Surely the festivities
described here were of an uncommon extent.
Far more common were revels along the line of those John
Aubrey informs us took place at Oxford in the 17th century where
the Boyes doe blow Cows horns & hollow Canes all night;
and on May-day day the young maids of every parish carry about their parish
Garlands of Flowers, wch afterwards they hang up in their Churches.[4]
Numerous references make clear that such were the carousals.
Aubrey also informs us that
On the top of the Tower of St. Magdalene College in Oxon, choristers
of the fraternity sing, yearly, on the first day of May at the fourth hour of
the morning.[5]
Brand adds that another feature was included.
Henry Rowe, in a note in his Poems, says : “ The Tower of
Magdalen College, Oxford, erected by Cardinal Wolsey, when bursar of the College
(A.D. 1492), contains a musical peal of ten bells, and on May Day the Choristers
assemble on the top to usher in the Spring.”[6]
The tradition is said to have been inaugurated during the
reign of Henry VIII. Wolsey’s involvement in erecting the tower is disputed.
[1] Stowe,
John. Survey of London (1603, 1908). I.98.
[2]
Brand. Observations on Popular Antiquities (1900). 119.
[3] Furnivall,
Frederick J. Philip Stubbes’s Anatomy of Abuses (1583, 1879). I.149-50.
[4] Aubrey,
John. Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme (1881). 18.
[5]
Aubrey. “In fastigio Turris Collegii S. Magdalenae Oxoii, Ministri istius
Sodalitii chorales, annuatim de more, primo die Maij ad horam quartam matutinam
melodici cantant. Ant. a Wood, Historia & Antiquitates Oxo. lib. ii.
p. 211.”
[6]
Brand. 118.
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