contributions were dropped, while the rest of the ploughmen were engaged in performing a sword-dance, a piece of pageantry derived from our northern ancestors, and of which Olaus Magnus has left us an accurate description in his history of the Gothic nations." It consisted, for the most part, in forming various figures with the swords, sheathed and unsheathed, commencing in slow time, and terminating in very rapid movements, which required great agility and address to be conducted with safety and effect.† It was the opinion of Dr. Johnson that Shakspeare alluded to the sword-dance, where, in Anthony and Cleopatra, he makes his hero observe of Augustus, that "He, at Philippi, kept His sword even like a dancer."‡ But Mr. Malone has remarked, with more probability, that the allusion is to the English custom of dancing with a sword worn by the side; in confirmation of which idea, he quotes a passage from All's Well That Ends Well, where Bertram, lamenting that he is kept from the wars, says, 66 "I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn, It has been observed in a preceding page, that, among the common people, the festivities of Christmas were frequently protracted to Candlemas-Day. This was done under the idea of doing honour to the Virgin Mary, whose purification is commemorated by the church at this period. It was generally, remarks Bourne, a day of festivity, and more than ordinary observation among women, and is therefore called the Wives' Feast-Day." The term Candlemas, however, seems to have arisen from a custom among the Roman Catholics, of consecrating tapers on this day, and bearing them about lighted in procession, to which they were enjoined by an edict of Pope Sergius, A. D. 684; but on what foundation is not accurately ascertained. At the Reformation, among the rites and ceremonies which were ordered to be retained in a convocation of Henry VIII., this is one, and expressedly because it was considered as symbolical of the spiritual illumination of the Gospel. ++ From Candlemas to Hallowmas, the tapers which had been lighted all the winter in Cathedral and Conventual Churches ceased to be used; and so prevalent, indeed, was the relinquishment of candles on this day in domestic life, that it has laid the foundatiou of one of the proverbs in the collection of Mr. Ray: "On Candlemas-day throw Candle and Candlestick away." On this day likewise the Christmas greens were removed from churches and private houses. Herrick, who may be considered as the contemporary of Shakspeare, being five-and-twenty at the period of the poet's death, has given us a pleasing description of this observance; he abounds, indeed, in the history of local rites, and, though surviving beyond the middle of the seventeenth century, paints with great accuracy the manners and superstitions of the Shakspearean era. He has paid particular attention to the festival that we are describing, and enumerates the various greens and flowers appropriated to different seasons in a little poem entitled * Olai Magni Gent. Septent. Breviar. p. 341. See Brand on Bourne's Antiquitates Vulgares, p. 194; and Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, p. 307, edit. of 1810. Of this curious exhibition on Plough-Monday, I have often, during my boyhood, at York, been a delighted spectator, and, as far as I can now recollect, the above description appears to be an accurate detail of what took place. Act iii. sc. 9. ++ Fuller's Church History, p. 222. § Bourne's Antiquities apud Brand, p. 244. The usage which we have alluded to, of preserving the Christmas cheer and hospitality to Candlemas, is immediately afterwards recorded and connected with a singular superstition, in the following poems under the titles of "CEREMONIES FOR CANDLEMASSE DAY. Kindle the Christmas Brand, and then Till sunne-set, let it burne; Which quencht, then lay it up agen, Part must be kept wherewith to teend † End now the white-loafe, and the pye, To the exorcising power of the Christmas Brand is added, in the subsequent effusion, a most alarming denunciation against those who heedlessly leave in the Hall on Candlemas Eve, any the smallest portion of the Christmas greens. "CEREMONY UPON CANDLEMASSE EVE. Down with the Rosemary, and so Wherewith ye drest the Christmas Hall: That so the superstitious find No one least Branch there left behind: The next important period of feasting in the country occurred at Shrove tide, which among the Roman Catholics was the time appointed for shriving or confession of sins, and was also observed as a carnival before the commencement of Lent. The former of these ceremonies was dispensed with at the Reformation; but the rites attending the latter were for a long time supported with a rival spirit of hilarity. The Monday and Tuesday succeeding Shrove Sunday, called Collop Monday and Pancake Tuesday, were peculiarly devoted to Shrovetide amuse Hesperides, p. 337. Teend, to kindle. Hesperides, p. 361. Dramatic amusements were frequent on this day, as well in the halls of the nobility in the country, as at court. With regard to their exhibition in the latter, many documents exist; for instance, in a chronological series of Queen Elizabeth's payments for plays acted before her (from the Council Registers) is the following entry: "18th March, 1573-4. To Richard Mouncaster, (Mulcaster, the Grammarian), for two plays presented before her on Candlemas-day and Shrove-Tuesday last, 20 marks."* Gentleman's Magazine, vide life of Richard Mulcaster, May, June, and July, 1800. ment; the first having been, in papal times, the period at which they took leave of flesh, or slices of meat, termed collops in the north, which had been preserved through the winter by salting and drying, and the second was a relic of the feast preceding Lent; eggs and collops therefore on the Monday, and pancakes, as a delicacy, on the Tuesday, were duly if not religiously served up. Tusser, in his very curious and entertaining poem on agriculture, thus notices some of the old observances at Shrovetide : "At Shroftide to shroving, go thresh the fat hen, For an explanation of the obsolete custom of "threshing the fat hen," we are indebted to Mr. Hilman. "The hen," says he, "is hung at a fellow's back, who has also some horse-bells about him; the rest of the fellows are blinded, and have boughs in their hands, with which they chase this fellow and his hen about some large court or small enclosure. The fellow with his hen and bells shifting as well as he can, they follow the sound, and sometimes hit him and his hen; at other times, if he can get behind one of them, they thresh one another well favour'dly; but the jest is, the maids are to blind the fellows, which they do with their aprons, and the cunning baggages will endear their sweet-hearts with a peeping hole, whilst the others look out as sharp to hinder it. After this the hen is boil'd with bacon, and store of pancakes and fritters are made. She that is noted for lying in bed long, or any other miscarriage, hath the first pancake presented to her, which most commonly falls to the dogs' share at last, for no one will own it their due." Mr. Hilman concludes his comment on the text with a singular remark; "the loss of the above laudable custom, is one of the benefits we have got by smoaking tobacco."* Shakspeare has twice noticed this season of feasting and amusement; first, in All's Well That Ends Well, where he makes the Clown tell the Countess (among a string of other similes), that his answer is "as fit as a pancake for ShroveTuesday;" and in the Second Part of King Henry IV, he has introduced Silence singing the following song: "Be merry, be merry, my wife's as all; For women are shrews, both short and tall : 'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all, And welcome merry shrovetide. Be merry, be merry, &c." The third line of this song appears to have been proverbial, and of considerable antiquity; for Adam Davie, who flourished about 1312, has the same imagery with the same rhyme, in his "Life of Alexander :" "Merry swithe it is in halle, When the berdes waveth alle." § * Hilman's Tusser, p. 80. Mr Hilman seems to have had as great an aversion to tobacco as King James; for, in another part of his notes, he observes, that "Suffolk and Essex were the counties wherein our author was a farmer, and no where are better dairies for butter, and neater housewives than there, if too many of them at present do not smoke tobacco." p. 49. Reed's Shakspeare, vol. viii. p. 272. 273. Act ii. sc. 2. Warner has also noticed this culinary article as appropriated to Shrove Tuesday in his Albion's England, chapter xxiv., where, enumerating the feasts and holidays of his time, he says, they had "At fasts-eve pan-puffes."-Chalmers's Poets, vol. iv. p. 564.. Shrove or Pancake Tuesday, is still called, in the North, Fastens, or Fasterns E'en, as preceding AshWednesday, the first day of Lent; and the turning of these cakes in the pan is yet observed as a feat of dexterity and skill. Of the pancake-bell which used to be rung on Shrove-Tuesday, Taylor, the Water Poet, has given us the following most singular account:-"Shrove-Tuesday, at whose entrance in the morning all the whole kingdom is unquiet, but by that time the clocke strikes eleven, which (by the help of a knavish sexton) is commonly before nine, then there is a bell rung, cal'd pancake-bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetful either of manners or humanitie." See his Works, folio, 1630. p. 115, + my wife's as all; i. e. as all women are. Farmer. $ Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 225. note (p). And the subsequent passage, quoted by Mr. Reed from a writer contemporary with Shakspeare, proves, that it was a common burden or under song in the halls of our gentry at that period :-"which done, grace said, and the table taken up, the plate presently conveyed into the pantrie, the hall summons this consort of companions (upon payne to dyne with Duke Humphfrie, or to kisse the hare's foot), to appear at the first call where a song is to be sung, the under song or holding whereof is, 'It is merrie in haul where beards wag all."" The Serving-man's Comfort, 1698, sign. C. The evening of Shrove-Thuesday was usually appropriated, as well in the country as in town, to the exhibition of dramatic pieces. Not only at Court, where Jonson was occasionally employed to write Masques on this night, but at both the Universities, in the provincial schools, and in the halls of the gentry and nobility, were these the amusements of Shrovetide, during the days of Elizabeth and James. Warton, speaking of these ephemeral plays, adds, in a note, "I have seen an anonymous comedy, 'Apollo Shroving,' composed by the Master of Hadleigh-school, in Suffolk, and acted by his scholars, on ShroveTuesday, Feb. 7, 1626, printed 1627, 8vo. published, as it seems, by E. W. Shrove-Tuesday, as the day immediately preceding Lent, was always a day ofextraordinary sport and feasting." Some of these festivities," he proceeds to say, "still remain in our universities. In the Percy Houshold Book,' 1512, it appears, that the clergy and officers of Lord Percy's chapel performed a play before his lordship upon Shrowftewesday at night." Pag. 345. S The cruel custom of Cock-throwing, which until lately was a diversion peculiar to this day, seems to have originated from the barbarous, yet less savage, amusement of Cock-fighting. "Every yeare on Shrove-Tuesday," says Fitzstephen, who wrote in the reign of Henry II., "the schoole-boyes doe bring cockes of the game to their master, and all the forenoone they delight themselves in Cock-fighting." At what period this degenerated into Cock-throwing cannot now be ascertained; Chaucer seems to allude to it in his "Nonnes Priests' Tale," where the Cock revenges himself on the Priest's son, because he and that it was common in the sixteenth century, we have the testimony of Sir Thomas More, who, describing the state of childhood, speaks of his skill in casting a cok-stele, that is, a stick or cudgel to throw at a cock.††t The first effective blow directed against this infamous sport, was given by the moral pencil of Hogarth, who in one of his prints called "The Four Stages of Cruelty," has represented, among other puerile diversions, a group of boys throwing at a Cock, and, as Trusler remarks, "beating the harmless feathered animal to jelly." The benevolent satire of this great artist gradually produced the necessary reform, and for some time past, the magistrates have so * Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xii. p. 235. See his Masque on the Shrove-Tuesday at night 1608, and Chloridia, a Masque, at Shrovetide, 1630. The author of " Apollo Shroving" was William Hawkins, who likewise published "Corolla varia contexta per Guil, Haukinum scholarcham Hadleianum in agro Suffolcienci. Cantabr. ap. Tho. Buck." 12mo. 1634. It may be observed, that Shrove-Tuesday was considered by the apprentices as their peculiar holiday ; and it appears that in the days of Shakspeare, they claimed a right of punishing, at this season, women of ill-fame. To these customs Dekker and Sir Thomas Overbury allude, when the former says: "They presently (like Prentises upon Shrove-Tuesday) take the lawe into their owne handes and do what they list." Seven Deadly Sinnes of London, 4to p. 35. 1606. And when the latter, in his Characters, speaking of a bawd. remarks: "Nothing daunts her so much as the approach of Shrove-Tuesday;" and describing a “roaring boy,” adds, "he is a supervisor of brothels, and in them is a more unlawful reformer of vice than prentices on Shrove-Tuesday." ** Stow's Survey of London, edit. of 1618, p. 142, #Vide Hogarth Moralized p.134. History of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 387. It Vide Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 250 generally interdicted the practice, that the pastime may happily be considered as extinct. Eastertide, or the week succeeding Easter-Sunday, afforded another opportunity for rejoicing, and was formerly a season of great festivity. Not only, as bound by every tie of gratitude to do, did man rejoice on this occasion, but it was the belief of the vulgar that the sun himself partook of the exhilaration, and regularly danced on Easter-Day. To see this glorious spectacle, therefore, it was customary for the common people to rise before the sun on Easter-morning, and though, as we may conclude, they were constantly disappointed, yet might the habit occasionally lead to serious thought and useful contemplation; metaphorically considered, indeed, the idea may be termed both just and beautiful," for as the earth and her valleys standing thick.with corn, are said to laugh and sing'; so, on account of the Resurrection, the heavens and the sun may be said to dance for joy; or, as the Psalmist words it, the heavens may rejoice and the earth may be glad.'+ The great amusement of the Easter-holidays consisted in playing at hand-ball, a game at which, say the ritualists Belithus and Durandus, bishops and archbishops used, upon the Continent at this period, to recreate themselves with their inferior clergy; nor was it uncommon for corporate bodies on this occasion in England to amuse themselves in a similar way with their burgesses and young people; anciently this was the custom, says Mr. Brand, at Newcastle, at the feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, when the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff, accompanied by great numbers of the burgesses, used to go yearly at these seasons to the Forth, or little mall of the town, with the mace, sword, and cap of maintenance carried before them, and not only countenance, but frequently join in the diversions of hand-ball, dancing, etc.S The constant prize at hand-ball, during Easter, was a tansy-cake, supposed to "In some places," says Mr. Strutt, "it was a common practice to put the cock into an earthen vessel made for the purpose, and to place him in such a position that his head and tail might be exposed to view; the vessel, with the bird in it, was then suspended across the street, about twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, to be thrown at by such as chose to make trial of their skill; two-pence was paid for four throws, and he who broke the pot, and delivered the cock from his confinement, had him for a reward. At North-Walsham, in Norfolk, about forty years ago, some wags put an owl into one of these vessels; and having procured the head and tail of a dead cock, they placed him in the same position as if they had appertained to a living one; the deception was successful; and at last, a labouring man belonging to the town, after several fruitless attempts, broke the pot, but missed his prize; for the owl being set at liberty, instantly flew away, to his great astonishment, and left him nothing more than the head and tail of the dead bird with the potsherds, for his money and his trouble; this ridiculous adventure exposed him to the continual laughter of the town's people, aad obliged him to quit the place, to which I am told he returned no more." Sports and Pastimes, p. 251. "For many years," observes Mr. Brady, our public diaries, and monthly publications, took infinite pains to impress upon the minds of the populace a just abhorrence of such barbarities (cock-fighting and cock-throwing); and, by way of strengthening their arguments, they failed not to detail in the most pathetic terms the following fact, which for the interest it contains is here transcribed, from the Obituary of the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1789. Died, April 4th, at Tottenham, John Ardesoif, esquire, a young man of large fortune, and in the splendour of his horses and carriages, rivalled by few countrygentlemen. His table was that of hospitality, where it may be said he sacrificed too much to conviviality. Mr. Ardesoif was very fond of cock-fighting, and had a favourite cock upon which he had won many profitable matches. The last bet he laid upon this cock he lost, which so enraged him, that he had the bird tied to a spit, and roasted alive before a large fire. The screams of the miserable animal were so affecting, that some gentlemen who were present attempted to interfere, which so enraged Mr. Ardesoif, that he seized a poker, and with the most furious vehemence declared, that he would kill the first man who interfered: but in the midst of his passionate asseverations, he fell down dead upon the spot.' Clavis Calendaria, 1st edit. vol. i. p. 200, 201. 268. Bourne's Antiquities apud Brand, Bourne's Antiquities apud Brand, p. 277. "Why they should play at Hand Ball at this time," observes Mr Bourne, "rather than any other game, I have not been able to find out, but I suppose it will readily be granted, that this custom of so playing, was the original of our present recreations and diversions on Easter Holy Days," p. 277. § Brand on Bourne, p. 280. note. The morris dance, of which such frequent mention is made in our old. poets, was frequently performed at Easter; but, as we shall have occasion to notice this amusement, at some length, under the article "May-Day," we shall here barely notice that Warner has recorded it as an Easter diversion in the following line: "At Paske begun our morrise; and ere Penticost our May." Albion's England, Chap xxiv. |