MAY-DAY GAMES.

(_For the Mirror_.)


This day of joyous festivity has almost ceased to be the harbinger of
mirth and jollity; and the gambols of our forefathers are nearly
forgotten amidst the high notions of modern refinement. Time was when
king, lords, and commons hailed May-day morning with delight, and bowed
homage to her fair and brilliant queen. West end and city folks united
in their freaks, ate, drank, and joined the merry dance from morning
dawn till close of day. Thus in an old ballad of those times we find

The hosiers will dine at the Leg,
The drapers at the sign of the Brush,
The fletchers to Robin Hood will go,
And the spendthrift to Beggar's bush.

And another

The gentry to the King's head,
The nobles to the Crown, &c.

The rustic had his morrice-dance, hobby-horse race, and the gaudy
Mayings of Robin Hood, which last were instituted, according to an old
writer, in honour of his memory, and continued till the latter end of
the sixteenth century. These games were attended not by the people only,
but by kings and princes, and grave magistrates.

Stow says, "that in the moneth of May, the citizens of London, of all