Falftaffe, in the old play of Henry VI. (for both Hall and Holinfhed call him rightly Faftolfe) he was able to do without having the trouble to invent or hunt after a new one; not perceiving or regarding the confufion which the transfer would naturally make between the two characters. However this may have been, there is every reason to believe that when these two plays came out of our author's hands, the name of Oldcastle fupplied the place of Falstaff. He continued Ned and Gadhill, and why should he abandon Oldcastle? a name and character to which the public was already familiarifed, and whom an audience would indifputably be much more glad to fee along with his old companions than a ftranger; if indeed our author himself did not at the time he was writing thefe dramas, take the Sir John Oldcastle of the original play to be a real historical perfonage, as neceffarily connected with his ftory as Hal or Hotspur. RITSON. Mr. TOLLET's Opinion concerning the MORRIS DANCERS upon his Window. THE celebration of May-day, which is reprefented upon my window of painted glafs, is a very ancient cuftom, that has been obferved by noble and royal perfonages, as well as by the vulgar. It is mentioned in Chaucer's Court of Love, that early on Mayday" furth goth al the court, both moft and left, to fetche the flouris fresh, and braunch, and blome." Hiftorians record, that in the beginning of his reign, Henry the Eighth with his courtiers. "rofe on May-day very early to fetch May or green boughs; and they went with their bows and arrows fhooting to the wood." Stowe's Survey of London informs us, that " every parish there, or two or three parishes joining together, had their Mayings; and did fetch in May-poles, with diverfe warlike fhews, with good archers, Morrice Dancers, and other devices for paftime all the day long.' Shakspeare fays it was impoffible to make the people fleep on May morning; and that they rofe early to obferve the rite of May.' The court of King James the Firft, and the populace, long preferved the obfervance of the day, as Spelman's Gloffary remarks under the word, Maiuma. * King Henry VIII; A&t V. sc, iii. and Midsummer Night's Dream, A& IV. fc. i. Better judges may decide, that the inftitution of this feftivity originated from the Roman Floralia, or from the Celtic la Beltine, while I conceive it derived to us from our Gothic ancestors. Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Lib. XV. c. viii. fays" that after their long winter from the beginning of October to the end of April, the northern nations have a cuftom to welcome the returning fplendor of the fun with dancing, and mutually to feaft each other, rejoicing that a better feafon for fifhing and hunting was approached." In honour of May-day the Goths and fouthern Swedes had a mock battle between fummer and winter, which ceremony is retained in the Isle of Man, where the Danes and Norwegians had been for a long time mafters. It appears from Holinfhed's Chronicle, Vol. III. p. 314, or in the year 1306. that, before that time, in country towns the young folks chofe a fummer king and queen for fport to dance about Maypoles. 'There can be no doubt but their majefties had proper attendants, or fuch as would beft divert the spectators; and we may prefume, that fome of the characters varied, as fashions and cuftoms altered. About half a century afterwards, a great addition feems to have been made to the diverfion by the introduction of the Morris or Moorish dance into it, which, as Mr. Peck, in his Memoirs of Milton, with great probability conjectures, was firft brought into England in the time of Edward III. when John of Gaunt returned from Spain, where he had been to affift Peter, King of Caftile, against Henry the Baftard. This dance," fays Mr. Peck, "was ufually performed abroad by an equal number of young men, who danced in their fhirts with ribbands and little bells about their legs. But here in England they have always an odd perfon befides, being a boy dreffed in a girl's habit, whom they call Maid Marian, an old favourite character in the fport.' "Thus," as he observes in the words of Shakspeare,+ " they made more matter for a May morning: having as a pancake for ShroveTuesday, a Morris for May-day." We are authorized by the poets, Ben Jonfon and Drayton, to call fome of the representations on my window Morris Dancers, though I am uncertain whether it exhibits one Moorish perfonage; as none of them have black or tawny faces, nor do they brandish fwords or ftaves in their hands, nor are they in their shirts *It is evident from feveral authors, that Maid Marian's part was frequently performed by a young woman, and often by one, as I think, of unsullied reputation. Our Marian's deportment is decent and graceful. + Twelfth Night, A&t III. sc. iv. All's well that ends well, A& II: sc. ii. In the Morifco the dancers held fwords in their hands with the points upward, fays Dr. Johnson's note in Antony and Cleopatra, A& III. sc. ix. The Goths did the fame in their military dance, fays Olaus Magnus, Lib. XV, ch. xxiii, Haydocke's tranflation of Lomazzo on Painting, 1598, Book II, p. 54, adorned with ribbons. We find in Olaus Magnus, that the northern nations danced with brafs bells about their knees, and fuch we have upon feveral of these figures, who may perhaps be the original English performers in a May-game before the introduction of the real Morris dance. However this may be, the window exhibits a favourite diverfion of our ancestors in all its principal parts. I fhall endeavour to explain fome of the characters, and in compliment to the lady I will begin the defcription with the front rank, in which he is ftationed. I am fortunate enough to have Mr. Steevens think with me, that figure 1. may be defigned for the Bavian fool, or the fool with the flabbering bib, as Bavon, in Cotgrave's French Dictionary, means a bib for a flabbering child; and this figure has fuch a bib, and a childish fimplicity in his countenance. Mr. Steevens refers to a paffage in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of The Two Noble Kinfmen, by which it appears that the Bavian in the Morris dance was a tumbler, and mimicked the barking of a dog. I apprehend that feveral of the Morris dancers on my window tumbled occafionally, and exerted the chief feat of their activity, when they were afide the May-pole; and I apprehend that jigs, hornpipes, and the hay, were their chief dances. It will certainly be tedious to defcribe the colours of the dresses, but the task is attempted upon an intimation, that it might not be altogether unacceptable. The Bavian's cap is red, faced with yellow, his bib yellow, his doublet blue, his hofe red, and his fhoes black. Figure 2. is the celebrated Maid Marian, who, as queen of May, has a golden crown on her head, and in her left hand a flower, as the emblem of fummer. The flower feems defigned for a red pink, but the pointals are omitted by the engraver, who copied from a drawing with the like miftake. Olaus Magnus mentions the artificial raifing of flowers for the celebration of May-day; and the fuppofition of the like practice here will account for the queen of May having in her hand any particular flower before the feafon of its natural production in this climate. Her vefture was once fashionable in the highest degree. It was anciently the custom for maiden ladies to wear their hair + dishevelled at their coronations, fays: "There are other actions of dancing ufed, as of those who are represented with weapons in their hands going round in a ring, capering skilfully, baking their weapons after the manner of the Morris, with divers actions of meeting," &c. "Others hanging Morris bells upon their ankles." * Markham's tranflation of Herefbatch's Husbandry, 1631, obferves, "that gilliflowers, fet in pots and carried into vaults or cellars, have flowered all the winter long, through the warmness of the place." Leland's Collectanea, 1770, Vol. IV. p. 219, 293, Vol. V. p. 332, and Holinshed, Vol. III. p. 801, 931; and fee Capilli in Spelman's Gloffary. their nuptials, and perhaps on all fplendid folemnities. Margaret, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. was married to James, King of Scotland, with the crown upon her head: her hair hanging down. Betwixt the crown and the hair was a very rich coif hanging down behind the whole length of the body.-This fingle example fufficiently explains the drefs of Marian's head. Her coif is purple, her furcoat blue, her cuffs white, the skirts of her robe yellow, the fleeves of a carnation colour, and her stomacher red with a yellow lace in crofs bars. In Shakspeare's play of Henry VIII. Anne Bullen at her coronation is in her hair, or as Holinfhed fays, "her hair hanged down," but on her head she had a coif with a circlet about it full of rich ftones. Figure 3. is a friar in the full clerical tonfure, with the chaplet of white and red beads in his right hand; and, expreffive of his professed humility, his eyes are caft upon the ground. His corded girdle, and his ruffet habit, denote him to be of the Francifcan order, or one of the grey friars, as they were commonly called from the colour of their apparel, which was a ruffet or a brown ruffet, as Holinfhed, 1586, Vol. III. p. 789, obferves. The mixture of colours in his habit may be refembled to a grey cloud, faintly tinged with red by the beams of the rifing fun, and streaked with black; and fuch perhaps was Shakspeare's Aurora, or "the morn in ruffet mantle clad." Hamlet, Act I. fc. i. The friar's stockings are red, his red girdle is ornamented with a golden twist, and with a golden taffel. At his girdle hangs a wallet for the reception of provifion, the only revenue of the mendicant orders of religious, who were named Walleteers or budget-bearers. It was cuftomary in former times for the priest and people in proceffion to go to fome adjoining wood on May-day morning, and return in a fort of triumph with a May-pole, boughs, flowers, garlands, and fuch like tokens of the spring; and as the grey friars were held in very great esteem, perhaps on this occafion their attendance was frequently requested. Most of Shakspeare's friars are Francifcans. Mr. Steevens ingenioufly fuggefts, that as Marian was the name of Robin Hood's beloved miftrefs, and as fhe was the queen of May, the Morris friar was defigned for friar Tuck, chaplain to Robin Huid, king of May, as Robin Hood is styled in Sir * See Maii inductio in Cowel's Law Dictionary. When the parish priests were inhibited by the diocefan to affift in the May games, the Francifcans might give attendance, as being exempted from epifcopal jurisdiction. Splendid girdles appear to have been a great article of monaftick finery. Wykeham, in his Vifitatio Notabilis, prohibits the Canons of Selborne any longer wearing filken girdles ornamented with gold or filver: "Zonifve fericis auri vel argenti ornatum habentibus." See Natural Hiftory and Antiquities of Selborne, B. 371, and Appendix, p. 459. HOLT WHITE. David Dalrymple's extracts from the book of the Universal Kirk, in the year 1576. it Figure 4. has been taken to be Marian's gentleman-usher. Mr. Steevens confiders him as Marian's paramour, who in delicacy appears uncovered before her; and as it was a custom for betrothed perfons to wear fome mark for a token of their mutual engagement, he thinks that the crofs-fhaped flower on the head of this figure, and the flower in Marian's hand, denote their espousals or contract. Spenfer's Shepherd's Calendar, April, fpecifies the flowers worn of paramours to be the pink, the purple columbine, gilliflowers, carnations, and fops in wine. I fuppofe the flower in Marian's hand to be a pink, and this to be a ftock-gilliflower, or the Hefperis, dame's violet, or queen's gilliflower; but perhaps may be defigned for an ornamental ribbon. An eminent botanift apprehends the flower upon the man's head to be an Epimedium. Many particulars of this figure resemble Abfolon, the parifh clerk in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, fuch as his curled and golden hair, his kirtle of watchet, his red hofe, and Paul's windows corvin on his fhoes, that is, his fhoes pinked and cut into holes, like the windows of St. Paul's ancient church. My window plainly exhibits upon his right thigh a yellow fcrip or pouch, in which he might, as treasurer to the company, put the collected pence, which he might receive, though the cordelier muft, by the rules of his order, carry no money about him. If this figure should not be allowed to be a parish clerk, I incline to call him Hocus Pocus, or 'fome juggler attendant upon the mafter of the hobby-horse, as "faire de tours de (jouer de la) gibeciere," in Boyer's French Dictionary, fignifies to play tricks by virtue of Hocus Pocus. His red ftomacher has a yellow lace, and his fhoes are yellow. Ben Jonfon mentions "Hokos Pokos in a juggler's jerkin," which Skinner derives from kirtlekin; that is, a fhort kirtle, and fuch feems to be the coat of this figure. Figure 5. is the famous hobby-horfe, who was often forgotten or difufed in the Morris dance, even after Maid Marian, the friar, and the fool, were continued in it, as is intimated in Ben Jonfon's mafque of The Metamorphofed Gipfies, and in his Entertainment of the Queen and Prince at Althorpe. Our hobby is a spirited horse *Vol. VI. p. 93, of Whalley's edition, 1756: Clo. They should be Morris dancers by their gingle, but they have no napkins. "Coc. No, nor a hobby-horse. "Clo. Oh, he's often forgotten, that's no rule; but there is no Maid Marian nor friar amor gft them, which is the furer mark." Vol. V. p. 211: But fee, the hobby-horfe is forgot. Fool, it must be your lot To fupply his want with faces, |