MAY-DAY PAGEANT

IN

The Fifteenth Century.

BY THE LATE JOSEPH STRUTT. *

PALMER (To the Women).
Fair damsels! say, what brings you here?
DAMSELS.

To celebrate the first of May.

PALMER.

Wherefore this day to you so dear?

DAMSELS.

It is bold Robin's wedding day.

CHORUS.

With sprightly dance and carols gay,
We welcome Robin's wedding day!

PALMER (To the Men).
Why stand the bowmen on a row?
MEN.

Prepared to play a skilful game.

PALMER.

Some Saint to honour 't is, I trow,

ΜΕΝ.

'Tis Robin Hood, for that's his name.

CHORUS.

With sprightly dance and carols gay,

We keep bold Robin's wedding day!

* A celebrated antiquary; and author of several works on the ancient sports, dresses, and domestic manners of the English.

T

PALMER.

But who is she, so fair, bedight

In tunic blue, and rochet white?
WOMAN.

Dost thou not know her, holy man?
It is the blithe Maid Marian.

PALMER.

How name ye him y'clad in green,
With party hose and fringes sheen?
ΜΑΝ.

It is the prince of archers good:
And he is hight bold Robin Hood. *
CHORUS.

With merry carol, dance, and play,

We welcome Robin's wedding day;

* The dress of the two principal actors in the pageant, is thus described by Strutt, from high authorities.

Robin Hood,-a bright grass-green tunic, fringed with gold; his hood and his hosen were parti-coloured, blue and white; he had a large garland of rose-buds on his head, a bow bent in his hand; a sheaf of arrows at his gir. dle, and a bugle-horn depending from a baldrick of light blue tarantine (a kind of silken stuff), embroidered with silver; he had also a sword and a dagger, the hilts of both being richly embossed with gold.

Maid Marian was preceded by two maidens, in orange-coloured kirtles, with white court pies (short vests), strewing flowers. She was attired in a watchet-coloured tunic, reaching to the ground; over which she wore a white linen rochet, with loose sleeves, fringed with silver, and very neatly plaited; her girdle was of silver baudekin (a cloth of gold or silver tissue, with figures in silk), fastened with a double bow on the left side; her long flaxen hair was divided into many ringlets, and flowed upon her shoulders; the top part of her head was covered with a net-work caul of gold, upon which was placed a garland of silver, ornamented with blue violets. She was supported by two bride-maidens, in sky-coloured rochets, girt with crimson girdles, wearing garlands upon their heads, of blue and white violets; after them, four others, in green courtpies, and garlands of violets and cowslips, &c.

The tunic was a gown or habit, in the modern acceptation. The rochet, worn over it, was a loose flowing gown of lawn, very similar to a surplice, but having the large sleeves gathered at the wrist: the latter was also sometimes incongruously termed a rochet, until the middle or latter end of the seventeenth century.

PALMER.

I am a stranger, well ye wot,

And much have travelled: I did view The Lord's Sepulchre, and the Grot

Where he was born of maiden true.

The shells of Cales, in sign of grace,
Adorn my hat; - and you may see
A vernicle, with His dear face

Impressed, who died on Calvary.

Upon my cloak, Saint Peter's Keys

Were drawn at Rome, with crosses wide; And relics from beyond the seas

I bear, or woe may me betide!

The snow-topped hills of Armony,
Where Noah's Ark may now be found,

I've seen; in sooth, I do not lie ;

Told o'er my beads and kissed the ground.

At Walsingham, my vows I 've paid;
At Waltham eke, and Coloraine;
And to Saint Thomas I have prayed,

Who near the Holy Rood was slain.

But, tell me, to what saint, I pray,
What martyr, or what angel bright,
To dedicate this holy day,

That brings you here so gaily dight?

This calendar I've searched with care,
For saints y'blessed and angels good;

The holy saints are named there,-
But no such saint as Robin Hood.

* Handkerchief.

MEN.

Dost thou not, simple Palmer, know—
What every child can tell thee here,—
Nor saint nor angel claims this show,
But the bright season of the year?
WOMEN.

The cowslips now adorn the dells;

On sunny banks primroses blow, With violets sweet and dainty bells; And on the green the daisies grow ;

The birds in warbling chorus sing,

In hedge and grove and shady wood, Inviting us to hail the Spring, And join the troop of Robin Hood.

CHORUS.

With merry carol, dance, and play,
We welcome Robin's wedding day!

BY THE SAME.

WAKEN, lords and ladies gay !
On the mountain dawns the day,
All the jolly chase is here,

With hawk, and horse, and hunting spear;
Hounds are in their couples yelling,

Hawks are whistling, horns are knelling;
Merrily, merrily, mingle they,

"Waken, lords and ladies

gay!" Waken lords and ladies gay,

The mist has left the mountain gray;
Springlets in the dawn are streaming,
Diamonds on the brake are gleaming;
And foresters have busy been,
To track the buck in thicket green;·
Now we come to chaunt our lay,
"Waken, lords and ladies gay!"

Waken, lords and ladies gay
To the green-wood haste away;
We can shew you where he lies,
Fleet of foot, and tall of size,

We can shew the marks he made,

When 'gainst the oak his antlers frayed; You shall see him brought to bay;

Tell them, youth and mirth and glee,

Run a course as well as we;

Time, stern huntsman! who can baulk,—

Staunch as hound, and fleet as hawk;

Think of this, and rise with day,

Gentle lords and ladies gay!