Maypoles
—The earliest representation of an English maypole is that published in the Variorum Shakespeare, and depicted on a window at Betley in Staffordshire, then the property of Mr. Tollet, and which he was disposed to think as old as the time of Henry VIII. The pole is planted in a mound of earth, and has affixed to it St. George’s red-cross banner, and a white pennon or streamer with a forked end. The shaft of the pole is painted in a diagonal line of black colour upon a yellow ground, a characteristic decoration of all these ancient maypoles, as alluded to by Shakespeare in his Midsummer Night’s Dream, where it gives point to Hermia’s allusion to her rival Helena as, “a painted maypole.”—Book of Days, vol. i. p. 575.—See Brand’s Pop. Antiq. 1849, pp. 234-247.
It was, says Hone (Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 556), a great object with some of the more rigid reformers to suppress amusements, especially maypoles; and these idols of the people were taken down as zeal grew fierce, and put up as it grew cool, till, after various ups and downs, the favourites of the populace were by the Parliament, on the 6th April, 1644, thus provided against: “The Lords and Commons do further order and ordain that, all and singular maypoles that are or shall be erected, shall be taken down and removed by the constables, bossholders, tithing-men, petty constables, and churchwardens of the parishes where the same be, and that no maypole be hereafter set up, erected, or suffered to be set up within this kingdom of England or dominion of Wales; the said officers to be fined five shillings weekly till the said maypole be taken down.” Accordingly down went all the maypoles that were left. The restoration of Charles II. however was the signal for their revival. On the very 1st of May afterwards, in 1661, the maypole in the Strand was reared with great ceremony and rejoicing. A contemporary writer (in Cities Loyalty Displayed, 1661, 4to) speaking of it, says, “This tree was a most choice and remarkable piece; ’twas made below Bridge, and brought in two parts up to Scotland Yard, near the King’s Palace, and from thence it was conveyed, April 14th, to the Strand to be erected [nearly opposite Somerset House]. It was brought with a streamer flourishing before it, drums beating all the way, and other sorts of musick; it was supposed to be so long that landsmen (as carpenters) could not possibly raise it; (Prince James, the Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of England, commanded twelve seamen off aboord to come and officiate the business, whereupon they came and brought their cables, pullies, and other tacklins, with six great anchors); after this was brought three crowns borne by three men bare-headed, and a streamer displaying all the way before them, drums beating, and other musick playing; numerous multitudes of people thronging the streets with great shouts and acclamations all day long. The maypole then being joyned together, the crown and cane with the King’s arms richly gilded was placed on the head of it. This being done, the trumpets did sound, and in four hours space it was advanced upright, after which being established fast in the ground, six drums did beat, and the trumpets did sound; again great shouts and acclamations the people give that it did ring throughout all the Strand. After that came a morris-dance finely deckt, with purple scarfs in their half-shirts with a tabor, and pipe, the ancient musick, and danced round about the maypole, and after that danced the rounds of their liberty. Upon the top of this famous standard is likewise set up a royal purple streamer, about the middle of it is placed four crowns more, with the King’s arms likewise; there is also a garland set upon it of various colours of delicate rich favours, under which is to be placed three great lanthorns, to remain for three honours; that is, one for Prince James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of England; the other for the Vice-Admiral; and the third for the rear-Admiral: these are to give light in dark nights, and to continue so long as the pole stands, which will be a perpetual honour for seamen.”—See The Town, Leigh Hunt (1859, p. 161).
The author of a pamphlet entitled The Way to Things by Words, and Words by Things, considers the maypole in a curious light. We gather from him, says Brand (Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 245), that our ancestors held an anniversary assembly on May-day, and that the column of May (whence our maypole) was the great standard of justice in the Ey-commons, or fields of May. Here it was the people, if they saw cause, deposed or punished their governors, their barons, and their kings. The judge’s bough or wand (now discontinued, and only faintly represented by a trifling nosegay), and the staff or rod of authority in the civil and in the military (for it was the mace of civil power, and the truncheon of the field-officers), are both derived from hence.
A mayor, he says, received his name from this May, in the sense of lawful power; the crown—a mark of dignity and symbol of power, like the mace and sceptre—was also taken from the May, being representative of the garland or crown, which when hung on the top of the May or pole, was the great signal for convening the people; the arches of it, which spring from the circlet and meet together at the mound or round bell, being necessarily so formed, to suspend it to the top of the pole. The word maypole, he observes, is a pleonasm; in French it is called singly Mai.
In front of the spot now occupied by St. Mary-le-Strand anciently stood a cross, at which, says Stow, “In the year 1294 and other times, the justices itinerant sat without London.”
In the British Apollo (1708, vol. i.) a writer says: It was a custom among the ancient Britons, before converted to Christianity, to erect these maypoles, adorned with flowers, in honour of the goddess Flora.
Keysler, says Mr. Borlase, thinks that the custom of the maypole took its origin from the earnest desire of the people to see their king, who, seldom appearing at other times, made his procession at this time of year to the great assembly of the states held in the open air.—Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 246.