to the village green. It was an incident of this feftive day, that Lady Craven has preferved in these lines:

Colin met Sylvia on the green

Once on the charming first of May,
And shepherds ne'er tell false, I ween,
Yet 'twas by chance, the shepherds say.

Colin he bow'd and blush'd, then said,
"Will you, sweet maid, this first of May,
Begin the dance by Colin led,
To make this quite his holiday?"

Sylvia replied, "I ne'er from home
Yet ventured till this first of May;
It is not fit for maids to roam,
And make a shepherd's holiday."

"It is most fit," replied the youth,
"That Sylvia should, this first of May,
By me be taught that love and truth
Can make of life a holiday."

At the entertainment given at Elvetham, by the Earl of Hereford, to Queen Elizabeth, in 1591, her Majefty was awakened in the morning by "three excellent mufitians, who, being disguised in auncient country attire, did greete her with a pleasant song of Corydon and Phillida, made in three partes of purpose. The fong, as well for the worth of the dittie as the aptness of the note thereto applied, foe pleased Her Highneffe after it had been once fung, as to commande it again and highly to grace it with her cheerfull acceptaunce and commendation.” We are unable to give the "note thereto applied;" but as it was favoured with an encore by

one who was a skilful musician, not less than an able fovereign,

we may affume that it was appropriate, and give only the words which Breton has preferved:

In the merrie moneth of Maye,
In a morne by break of daye,
With a troop of damsells playing,
Forth I yode forsooth a Maying

Where anon by a wood side,
Where as May was in his pride,
I espied all alone

Phillida and Corydon.

Much adoe there was, God wot:
He wold love and she wold not;
She sayde never man was trewe;
He sayes none was false to you.

He sayed he had lovde her longe :

She sayes love should have no wronge.

Corydon would kisse her then :

She sayes maids must kisse no men,

Tyll they doe for good and all.

When she made the shepherde call

All the heavens to wytness truthe,
Never lov'd a truer youthe.

Then with many a prettie othe,
Yea and naye, and faithe and trothe;
Such as gentle shepperdes use

When they will not love abuse;

Love that had been long deluded,
Was with kisses swete concluded;
And Phillida with garlands gaye,
Was made the ladye of the Maye.

We find, too, in Herrick's Paftorals, a very preffing invitation to the long flumbering Corinna, to overcome her evident repugnance to early rifing, and abridge the light labours of the toilette, in order "To do obfervance for a morn of May." Hear the impatient fwain how he appeals to the lingering maiden:

Get up, get up, for shame, the blooming morne
Upon her wings presents the god unshorne.

See how Aurora throwes her faire
Fresh-quilted colours through the aire;
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see

The dew bespangling herbe and tree.

Each flower has wept, and bowed towards the east,
Above an hour since, yet you not drest,

Nay! not so much as out of bed;

When all the birds have matteyns seyd,

And sung their thankfull hymnes to Heaven, 'tis sin,

Nay, profanation to keep in,

When as a thousand virgins on this day,

Spring sooner than the lark to fetch in May.

Come, my Corinna, come, and comming marke

How each field turns a street, each street a parke,
Made green and dimmed with trees; see how
Devotion gives each house a bough

Or branch; each porch, each doore, ere this
An arke, a tabernacle is,

Made up of white-thorne neatly enterwove,
As if here were those cooler shades of love.

Can such delights be in the street
And open fields, and we not see't?
Come, we'll abroad, and let's obay
The proclamation made for May:

And sin no more as we have done by staying,
But, my Corinna, come, let's goe a Maying.

C

It was to a scene such as Spenfer has thus described, that the ardent lover invited the fair maiden :

Siker this morrow, no longer ago,

I saw a shole of shepheards outgo,

With singing and showting and jolly cheere ;

Before them yode a lustie tabrere,

That to the meynie a hornepipe plaid,

Whereto they dauncen eche one with his maide.
To see these folkes make such jovisaunce,
Made my hart after the pipe to daunce.

Tho' to the greene-woode they speeden them all,
To fetchen home May with their musicall:
And home they bringen, on a royall throne,
Crown'd as king; and his queen atone
Was Ladie Flora, on whom did attend

A faire flocke of faeries, and a fresh bend

Of lovely nymphs. O, that I were there,

To helpen the ladies their May-bush to beare.

Even the grave mercers and merchants of London caught fomething of the hilarity of the villagers, for Stowe fays :

"I find also that in the month of May, the citizens of London of all eftates, fingly in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joining together, had their feveral Mayings and did fetch in May-poles with divers warlike fhowes, with good archers, morris dancers, and other devices for paftime, all the day long, and toward the evening they had ftage plays and bonfires in the streets. Of these Mayings, we read in the reign of Henry VI. that the Aldermen and Sheriffs of London being on May-day at the Bishop of London's wood, in the parish of Stebonheath (Stepney), and having there a worfhippful dinner for themselves and other com