of pafteboard, in which the mafter dances,* and difplays tricks of legerdemain, fuch as the threading of the needle, the mimicking of the whigh-hie, and the daggers in the nofe, &c. as Ben Jonfon, edit. 1756, Vol. I. p. 171, acquaints us, and thereby explains the fwords in the man's cheeks. What is ftuck in the horse's mouth I apprehend to be a ladle ornamented with a ribbon. Its ufe was to receive the fpectators' pecuniary donations. The crimfon foot-cloth fretted with gold, the golden bit, the purple bridle with a golden taffel, and ftudded with gold; the man's purple mantle with a golden border, which is latticed with purple, his golden crown, purple cap with a red feather, and with a golden knop, induce me to think him to be the king of May; though he now appears as a juggler and a buffoon. We are to recollect the fimplicity of ancient times, which knew not polite literature, and delighted in jefters, tumblers, jugglers, and pantomimes. The emperor Lewis the Debonair not only fent for fuch actors upon great feftivals, but out of complaifance to the people was obliged to affift at their plays, though he was averfe to publick fhews. Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Kenelworth with Italian tumblers, Morris dancers, &c. The colour of the hobby-horse is a reddish white, like the beautiful bloffom of the peach-tree. The man's coat or doublet is the only one upon the window that has buttons upon it, and the right fide of it is yellow, and the left red. Such a particoloured jacket,t and hofe in the like manner, were occafionally fashionable from Chaucer's days to Ben Jonfon's, who, in Epigram 73, fpeaks of a "partie-per-pale picture, one half drawn in folemn Cyprus, the other cobweb lawn."

Figure 6. feems to be a clown, peafant, or yeoman, by his brown vifage, notted hair, and robuft limbs. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play of The Two Noble Kinfmen, a clown is placed next to the Bavian fool in the Morris dance; and this figure is next to him on the file, or in the downward line. His bonnet is red, faced with yellow, his jacket red, his fleeves yellow, ftriped across or rayed with red, the upper part of his hofe is like the sleeves, and the lower part is a coarfe deep purple, his fhoes red.

Figure 7. by the fuperior neatnefs of his drefs, may be a franklin or a gentleman of fortune. His hair is curled, his bonnet purple,

Dr. Plot's Hiftory of Staffordshire, p. 434, mentions a dance by a hobbyhorfe and fix others.

Holinhed, 1586, Vol. III. p. 326, 805, 812, 844, 963. Whalley's edition of Ben Jonfon, Vol. VI. p. 248. Stowe's Survey of London, 1720, Book V. p. 164, 166. Urry's Chaucer, p. 198.

So, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the yeoman is thus described: “A nott hede had he, with a brown vifage."

Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: " country gentleman."

your not-beaded

his doublet red with gathered fleeves, and his yellow ftomacher is laced with red. His hofe red, ftriped acrofs or rayed with a whitish brown, and spotted brown. His cod-piece is yellow, and fo are

his fhoes.

Figure 8. the May-pole, is painted yellow and black in fpiral lines. Spelman's Gloffary mentions the cuftom of erecting a tall May-pole painted with various colours. Shakspeare, in the play of A Midsummer Night's Dream, A&t III. fc. ii. fpeaks of a painted May-pole. Upon our pole are difplayed St. George's red cross, or the banner of England, and a white pennon or ftreamer emblazoned with a red crofs terminating like the blade of a fword, but the delineation thereof is much faded. It is plain however from an inspection of the window, that the upright line of the crofs, which is difunited in the engraving, fhould be continuous.* Keyfler, in p. 78, of his Northern and Celtic Antiquities, gives us perhaps the original of May-poles; and that the French used to erect them appears alfo from Mezeray's Hiftory of their King Henry IV. and from a paffage in Stowe's Chronicle in the year 1560. Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton acquaint us that the May-games, and particularly fome of the characters in them, became exceptionable to the puritanical humour of former times. By an ordinance of the Rump Parliament + in April, 1644, all May-poles were taken down and removed by the conftables and churchwardens, &c. After the Restoration they were permitted to be erected again. I apprehend they are now generally unregarded and unfrequented, but we ftill on May-day adorn our doors in the country with flowers and the boughs of birch, which tree was efpecially honoured on the fame feftival by our Gothic ancestors. Το prove figure 9. to be Tom the Piper, Mr. Steevens has very happily quoted thefe lines from Drayton's third Eclogue:

"Myself above Tom Piper to advance,
"Who fo beftirs him in the Morris dance

"For penny wage.”

His tabour, tabour-ftick, and pipe, atteft his profeffion; the feather in his cap, his fword, and filver-tinctured shield, may de

St. James was the apoftle and patron of Spain, and the knights of his order were the most honourable there; and the enfign that they wore, was white, charged with a red cross in the form of a fword. The pennon or ftreamer upon the May-pole feems to contain such a crofs. If this conjecture be admitted, we have the banner of England and the enfign of Spain upon the May-pole; and perhaps from this circumftance we may infer that the glafs was painted during the marriage of King Henry VIII. and Katharine of Spain. For an account of the enfign of the knights of St. James, fee Ashmole's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter, and Mariana's Hiftory of Spain.

†This should have been called the Long Parliament. The Rump Parliament was in Oliver's time. REED.

note him to be a fquire minftrel, or a minstrel of the fuperior order. Chaucer, 1721, p. 181, fays: "Minstrels ufed a red hat." Tom Piper's bonnet is red, faced or turned up with yellow, his doublet blue, the fleeves blue, turned up with yellow, fomething like red muffettees at his wrifts, over his doublet is a red garment, like a short cloak with arm-holes, and with a yellow cape, his hofe red, and garnished acrofs and perpendicularly on the thighs, with a narrow yellow lace. This ornamental trimming feems to be called gimp-thigh'd in Grey's edition of Butler's Hudibras; and fomething almoft fimilar occurs in Love's Labour's Loft, Act IV. fc. ii. where the poet mentions, " Rhimes are guards on wanton Cupid's hofe." His fhoes are brown.

Figures 10. and 11. have been thought to be Flemings or Spaniards, and the latter a Morifco. The bonnet of figure 10. is red, turned up with blue, his jacket red with red fleeves down the arms, his ftomacher white with a red lace, his hofe yellow, ftriped acrofs or rayed with blue, and spotted blue, the under part of his hofe blue, his shoes are pinked, and they are of a light colour. I am at a lofs to name the pennant-like flips waving from his fhoulders, but I will venture to call them fide-fleeves or long fleeves, flit into two or three parts. The poet Hocclive or Occleve, about the reign of Richard the Second, or of Henry the Fourth, mentions fide-fleeves of penny lefs grooms, which fwept the ground; and do not the two following quotations infer the use or fashion of two pair of fleeves upon one gown or doublet? It is afked in the appendix to Bulwer's Artificial Changeling: "What ufe is there of any other than arming fleeves, which anfwer the proportion of the arm?" In Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. fc. iv. a lady's gown is defcribed with down-fleeves, and fide-sleeves, that is, as I conceive it, with fleeves down the arms, and with another pair of fleeves, flit open before from the shoulder to the bottom or almoft to the bottom, and by this means unfuftained by the arms and hanging down by her fides to the ground or as low as her gown. If fuch fleeves were flit downwards into four parts, they would be quartered; and Holinfhed fays: " that at a royal mummery, Henry VIII. and fifteen others appeared in Almain jackets, with long quartered fleeves;" and I confider the bipartite or tripartite fleeves of figures 10. and 11. as only a fmall variation of that fashion. Mr. Steevens thinks the winged fleeves of figures 10. and 11. are alluded to in Beaumont and Fletcher in The Pilgrim:

66

That fairy rogue that haunted me

"He has fleeves like dragon's wings."

And he thinks that from thefe perhaps the fluttering streamers of the prefent Morris dancers in Sussex may be derived. Markham's Art of Angling, 1635, orders the angler's apparel to be" without hanging fleeves, waving loofe, like fails."

66

Figure 11. has upon his head a filver coronet, a purple cap with a red feather, and with a golden knop. In my opinion he perfonates a nobleman, for I incline to think that various ranks of life were meant to be reprefented upon my window. He has a poft of honour, or, a ftation in the valued file, which here feems to be the middle row, and which according to my conjecture comprehends the queen, the king, the May-pole, and the nobleman. The golden crown upon the head of the mafter of the hobby-horse, denotes pre-eminence of rank over figure 11. not only by the greater value of the metal, but by the fuperior number of points raifed upon it. The fhoes are blackish, the hofe red, ftriped acrofs or rayed with brown or with a darker red, his codpiece yellow, his doublet yellow, with yellow fide-fleeves, and red arming fleeves, or down-fleeves. The form of his doublet is remarkable. There is great variety in the dresses and attitudes of the Morris dancers on the window, but an ocular obfervation will give a more accurate idea of this and of other particulars than a verbal defcription.

Figure 12. is the counterfeit fool, that was kept in the royal palace, and in all great houfes, to make fport for the family. He appears with all the badges of his office; the bauble in his hand, and a coxcomb hood with affes ears on his head. The top of the hood rises into the form of a cock's neck and head, with a bell at the latter; and Minfheu's Dictionary, 1627, under the word cock's comb, obferves, that "natural idiots and fools have [accustomed] and ftill do accuftome themselves to weare in their cappes cocke's feathers or a hat with a necke and a head of a cocke on the top, and a bell thereon," &c. His hood is blue, guarded or edged with yellow at its fcalloped bottom, his doublet is red, ftriped acrofs or rayed with a deeper red, and edged with yellow, his girdle yellow, his left fide hofe yellow, with a red fhoe, and his right fide hofe blue, foled with red leather. Stowe's Chronicle, 1614, p. 899, mentions a pair of cloth-ftockings foled with white leather called " cafhambles," that is, " Chauffes femelles de cuir," as Mr. Anftis, on the Knighthood of the Bath, obferves. The fool's bauble and the carved head with affes ears upon it are all yellow. There is in Olaus Magnus, 1555, p. 524, a delineation of a fool, or jefter, with feveral bells upon his habit, with a bauble in his hand, and he has on his head a hood with affes ears, a feather, and the resemblance of the comb of a cock. Such jefters seem to have been formerly much careffed by the northern nations,

*The right hand file is the firft in dignity and account, or in degree of value, according to Count Mansfield's Directions of War, 1624.

The ancient kings of France wore gilded helmets, the dukes and counts wore filvered ones. See Selden's Titles of Honour for the raised points of

Coronets.

efpecially in the court of Denmark; and perhaps our ancient joculator regis might mean fuch a perfon.

A gentleman of the higheft clafs in hiftorical literature, apprehends, that the reprefentation upon my window is that of a Morris dance proceffion about a May-pole; and he inclines to think, yet with many doubts of its propriety in a modern painting, that the perfonages in it rank in the bouftrophedon form. By this arrangement (fays he) the piece feems to form a regular whole, and the train is begun and ended by a fool in the following manner: Figure 12. is the well-known fool. Figure 11. is a Morifco, and figure 10. a Spaniard, perfons peculiarly pertinent to the Morris dance; and he remarks that the Spaniard obviously forms a fort of middle term betwixt the Moorish and the English characters, having the great fantastical fleeve of the one, and the laced ftomacher of the other. Figure 9. is Tom the Piper. Figure 8. the May-pole. Then follow the English characters, representing as he apprehends, the five great ranks of civil life. Figure 7. is the franklin, or private gentleman. Figure 6. is a plain churl or villane. He takes figure 5. the man within the hobby-horse, to be perhaps a Moorish king, and from many circumstances of fuperior grandeur plainly pointed out as the greatest perfonage of the piece, the monarch of the May, and the intended confort of our English Maid Marian. Figure 4. is a nobleman. Figure 3. the friar, the representative of all the clergy. Figure 2. is Maid Marian, queen of May. Figure 1. the leffer fool clofes the rear.

My defcription commences where this concludes, or I have reverfed this gentleman's arrangement, by which in either way the train begins and ends with a fool; but I will not affert that such a difpofition was defignedly obferved by the painter.

With regard to the antiquity of the painted glafs there is no memorial or traditional account tranfmitted to us; nor is there any date in the room but this, 1621, which is over a door, and which indicates in my opinion the year of building the house. The book of Sports or lawful Recreations upon Sunday after Evening-prayers, and upon Holy-days, published by King James in 1618, allowed May-games, Morris dances, and the fetting up of May-poles; and, as Ben Jonfon's Mafque of The Metamorphojed Gypfies, intimates, that Maid Marian, and the friar, together with the often forgotten hobby-horse, were fometimes continued in the Morris dance as late as the year 1621, I once thought that the glafs might be ftained about that time; but my prefent objections to this are the following ones. It feems from the prologue to the play of King Henry VIII. that Shakspeare's fools fhould be dreffed in a long motley coat guarded with yellow;" but the fool upon my window is not fo habited; and he has upon his head a hood, which I apprehend might be the coverture of the fool's head before the days of Shakspeare, when it was a cap with a comb like a cock's, as