their nuptials, and perhaps on all splendid 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 ftomacher red with a yellow lace in cross 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 profeffed 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, A&t I. fc. i. The friar's ftockings are red, his red girdle is ornamented with a golden twift, 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 fpring; and as the grey friars were held in very great efteem, perhaps on this occafion their attendance was frequently requested. Moft of Shakspeare's friars are Francifcans. Mr. Steevens ingenioufly fuggefts, that as Marian was the name of Robin Hood's beloved mittrefs, 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 p. 371, and Appendix, p. 459.

HOLT WHITE.

David Dalrymple's extracts from the book of the Univerfal Kirk, in the year 1576.

Figure 4. has been taken to be Marian's gentleman-usher. Mr. Steevens confiders him as Marian's paramour, who in delicacy ap pears 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 it 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 refemble Abfolon, the parish 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 cierk, 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 difused in the Morris dance, even after Maid Marian, the friar, and the fool, were continued in it, as is intimated in Ben Jonson's mafque of The Metamorphofed Gipfies, and in his Entertainment of the Queen and Prince at Althorpe. Our hobby is a spirited horfe

* 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 amongst them, which is the furer mark."

of pasteboard, 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,+ and hofe in the like manner, were occafionally fashionable from Chaucer's days to Ben Jonson's, who, in Epigram 73, speaks 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 fleeves, and the lower part is a coarfe deep purple, his fhoes red.

Figure 7. by the fuperior neatnefs of his dress, 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.

Holinfhed, 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 defcribed: "A nott hede had he, with a brown visage.'

Again, in The Widoro'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 fpotted 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, Act III. fc. ii. fpeaks of a painted May-pole. Upon our pole are difplayed St. George's red crofs, 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 infpection of the window, that the upright line of the erofs, 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 ufed 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 excep tionable 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 especially honoured on the fame festival by our Gothic ancestors. To prove figure 9. to be Tom the Piper, Mr. Steevens has very happily quoted these 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 fuch 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 fhould have been called the Long Parliament. The Rump Parliament was in Oliver's time. REED.

note him to be a fquire minstrel, or a minftrel of the fuperior order. Chaucer, 1721, p. 181, fays: " Minstrels used 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 wrists, 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, A& 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 sleeves down the arms, his ftomacher white with a red lace, his hofe yellow, striped acrofs or rayed with blue, and spotted blue, the under part of his hose 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 pennylefs grooms, which swept the ground; and do not the two following quotations infer the ufe or fashion of two pair of fleeves upon one gown or doublet? It is asked 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-fleeves, that is, as I conceive it, with fleeves down the arms, and with another pair of fleeves, flit open before from the fhoulder to the bottom or almost 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 present Morris dancers in Suffex may be derived. Markham's Art of Angling, 1635, orders the angler's apparel to be " without hanging fleeves, waving loofe, like fails."