2) In his Anatomie of Abuses (1583), Phillipe Stubbes informs his puritan readership that “he has heard it credibly reported,... by men of great gravitie, credite, and reputation, that of fourtie, three score, or a hundred maides goyng to the woode ouer night, there have scarcely the thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled.”
3) The London apprentices rioted against foreign workers in the city, on May Day of 1517, for which reason it is called “Evil May Day”. A small numer of rioters were executed by way of examples and the rest pardoned and allowed to go on their way.
4) According to John Stowe, the maypole for the Cornehill section of London was set up before St. Andrew's church in that parish. It was taller than the tallest point of the church.
5) According to John Stowe, the Cornehill may pole was “hanged on Iron hookes many yeares,” over the lintel of the church door and neighboring houses, between May Days, never to be raised again after Evil May Day. For this reason the church was known as St. Andrew's Undershaft.
6) The Cornehill may pole was removed from over St. Andrew's during the reign of King Edward VI, the staunch protestant king, for being a pagan idol.
7) According to Henry Rowe, “The Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford,... contains a musical peal of ten bells, and on May Day the Choristers assemble on the top to usher in the Spring.”
8) At the end of the round dance, the revelers stripped the boughs from the poles and various decorations and carried them to deck the inside and outside of their homes. In some places they would also decorate the church.
9) In George Chapman's play May Day, written about 1600, we learn some traditions of the day. “Well, in conclusion, I'll to her instantly, and if I do not bring her to thee, or, at the least, some special favour from her, as a feather from her fan, or a string from her shoe, to wear in thy hat, and so forth, then never trust my skill in poultry whilst thou liv'st again.”
10) We learn even more from Robert Herrick's poem, written a decade or two later, “Corinna's going a Maying”:
Come, my Corinna, come; and comming, marke
How each field turns a street; each street a Parke
Made green, and trimm'd with trees: see how
Devotion gives each House a Bough,
Or Branch: Each Porch, each doore, ere this,
An Arke a Tabernacle is
Made up of white-thorn neatly enterwove;
As if here were those cooler shades of love.
Can such delights be in the street,
And open fields, and we not see't?
Come, we'll abroad; and let's obay
The Proclamation made for May:
And sin no more, as we have done, by staying;
But my Corinna, come, let's goe a Maying.
There's not a budding Boy, or Girle, this day,
But is got up, and gone to bring in May.
A deale of Youth, ere this, is come
Back, and with White-thorn laden home.
Some have dispatcht their Cakes and Creame,
Before that we have left to dreame:
And some have wept, and woo'd, and plighted Troth,
And chose their Priest, ere we can cast off sloth:
Many a green-gown has been given;
Many a kisse, both odde and even:
Many a glance too has been sent
From out the eye, Loves Firmament:
Many a jest told of the Keyes betraying
This night, and Locks pickt, yet w'are not a Maying.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
A Tudor Recipe for Malt. March 31, 2023. “...The best malt is tried by the hardness and colour; for, if it look fresh with a yellow hue,...”
Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador. March 21, 2023. "The reason to delay his first audience under this pretext would soon be known."
Young William, Lord Herbert, samples the pleasures. February 24, 2023. “...a bookish, melancholic young man, with an addiction to tobacco, only slightly less to the ladies...”
A Brief Introduction to the Tudor Inn. February 5, 2023. "A London inn was homey enough, it would seem."
Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.
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