MORRIS-DANCERS.

Tones Sculpit.

From an an Ancient Window in the House of GEORGE TOLLETT Efq at BETLEY in STAFFORDSHIRE.

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that Shakspeare changed the name of his character advance by this means one step ?—In addition to what I have suggested in a former note on this subject, I may add, that it appears from Camden's Remaines, 1614, p. 146, that celebrated actors were sometimes distinguished by the names of the persons they represented on the stage :-' "that I may say nothing of such as for well acting on the stage have carried away the names of the personage which they acted, and have lost their names among the people."-If actors, then, were sometimes called by the names of the persons they represented, what is more probable than that Falstaff should have been called by the multitude, and by the players, Oldcastle, not only because there had been a popular character of that name in a former piece, whose immediate successor Falstaff was, and to whose cloaths and fictitious belly he succeeded, but because, as Shakspeare himself intimates in his epilogue to this play, a false idea had gone abroad, that his jolly knight was, like his predecessor, the theatrical representative of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham. MALONE.

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Mr. Tollet's Opinion concerning the Morris Dancers upon his

Window.

The celebration of May-day, which is represented upon my window of painted glass, is a very ancient custom, that has been observed by noble and royal personages, 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 most and lest, to fetche the flouris fresh, and braunch, and blome." Historians record, that in the beginning of his reign, Henry the Eighth with his courtiers rose on May-day very early to fetch May or green boughs; and they went with their bows and arrows shooting 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 diverse warlike shews, with good archers, Morrice Dancers, and other devices for pastime all the day long." Shakspeare 66 it was says 'impossible to make the people sleep on May morning; and that they rose early to observe the rite of May." The court of King James the First, and the populace, long preserved the observance of the day, as Spelman's Glossary remarks, under the word, Maiuma.

*

Better judges may decide, that the institution of this festivity 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. says,

* King Henry VIII. Act V. Sc. III. and Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV. Sc. I.

"that after their their long winter from the beginning of October to the end of April, the northern nations have a custom to welcome the returning splendor of the sun with dancing, and mutually to feast each other, rejoicing that a better season for fishing and hunting was approached." In honour of May-day the Goths and southern Swedes had a mock battle between summer and winter, which ceremony is retained in the Isle of Man, where the Danes and Norwegians had been for a long time masters. It appears from Holinshed's Chronicle, vol. iii. p. 314, or in the year 1306, that, before that time, in country towns the young folks chose a summer king and queen for sport to dance about Maypoles. There can be no doubt but their majesties had proper attendants, or such as would best divert the spectators; and we may presume, that some of the characters varied, as fashions and customs altered. About half a century afterwards, a great addition seems to have been made to the diversion 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 first brought into England in the time of Edward III. when John of Gaunt returned from Spain, where he had been to assist Peter, King of Castile, against Henry the Bastard. "This dance, (says Mr. Peck,) was usually performed abroad by an equal number of young men, who danced in their shirts with ribbands and little bells about their legs. But here in England they have always an odd person besides, being a boy dressed in a girl's habit, whom they call Maid Marian, an old favourite character in the sport.' 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 Jonson and Drayton, to call some of the representations on my window Morris Dancers, though I am uncertain whether it exhibits one Moorish personage; as none of them have black or tawny faces, nor do they brandish swords or staves in their hands ‡, nor are they in their shirts

* It is evident from several 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, Act III. Sc. IV. All's Well That Ends Well, Act II. Sc. II.

In the Morisco the dancers held swords in their hands with the points upward, says Dr. Johnson's note in Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. Sc. IX. The Goths did the same in their military dance, says Olaus Magnus, lib. xv. ch. xxiii. Haydocke's translation of Lomazzo on Painting, 1598, b. ii. p. 54, says: "There are other actions of dancing used, as of those who are represented