May Day in Early Modern England May Day in Early Modern England Author Shauna Hoogstra Author Olivia McAuley Supervising Editor Melissa Walter Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Shauna Hoogstra and Olivia McAuley, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Gender Sexuality Published file. Updated metadata proofed Created File. Review of article finished. Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Shauna Hoogstra Shauna Hoogstra

Shauna Hoogstra was a student at the University of Fraser Valley.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Olivia McAuley Olivia McAuley

Olivia McAuley was a student at the University of Fraser Valley.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 Melissa Walter Melissa Walter

Melissa Walter is Associate Professor of English at the University of the Fraser Valley. Her research focuses on early modern English drama and English and European prose fiction. She is the author of The Italian Novella and Shakespeare’s Comic Heroines (U of Toronto, 2019), and co-editor, with Dennis Britton, of Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Authors, Audiences, Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018). Her work on English theatre and the European novella has appeared in several edited collections, including Transnational Exchange in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2008), and Transnational Mobility in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2012). She has also written about Translation and Identity in the Dialogues in English and Malaiane Languages (Indographies, ed. Jonathan Gil Harris. Palgrave 2012). At the University of the Fraser Valley, she is a lead coordinator of UFV’s Shakespeare and Reconciliation Garden.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
May Day

In early modern England, the celebration of May Day brought people together and served as a source of great entertainment. The day had roots in Roman and Celtic fertility practices such as the Roman festival of the goddess Flora and the Celtic holiday of Beltane, but May Day occurred without religious context in England by the Middle Ages, according to scholar John Chu. As the name suggests, May Day was generally celebrated on the first of May. The lively celebrations were especially popular among rural and country folk. John Stow’s 1598 Survey of London notes that Mayings and Maygames excited the different parishes of the growing capitol city as well. We see reference to May Day celebrations, including both the maypole and Morris dancing, in some of Shakespeare’s work. A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains both, with Titania’s reference to Morris in her speech found in Act 2, Scene 1, as well as a brief mention of the maypole from Hermia in Act 3 Scene 2.

May Day consisted of games, feasting, and dancing. There were activities for children, young women, young men, village groups, and even entertainment by hired professionals. A few key activities iconic to May Day include: The Rite of May Maypole decorating and dancing Morris dancing May Court selection (May Queen and King)

May Day celebrations have persisted to the present day in the British Isles, although they were frowned upon by Puritans during the Elizabethan period and even banned by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum (1642–1660). They were later restored under King Charles II, who saw to it that a large maypole was installed in London.

May Day Criticisms

In his 1583 attack on all sorts of behaviors, Puritan religious reformer Philip Stubbes complains of the lewd activities practiced on May Day and extended through other summer celebrations such as Midsummer Day: On Mayday, Whitsunday or other time, all the young men and maids, old men and wives, run gadding over night to the woods, groves, hills, and mountains, where they spend all night in pleasant pastimes And no marvel, for there is a great lord present amongst them, as superintendent over their pastimes and sports, namely Satan, Prince of Hell.

Dr. Will Tosh explains that this kind of ritualised suspension of normal rules of propriety that allowed couples to stay out all night in the woods and fields was common in pre-modern England, as it is in other world cultures.

Maypole

The Maypole’s origins were that of a decorated tree; the tallest tree in the forest would be cut down and brought into the public square to serve as the maypole. This was an annual tradition, the maypole being set up in the morning, with the people decorating it with garlands of greenery and flowers. The May Pole, a type of phallic symbol, arises from the celebration’s origins as a fertility rite in Celtic pagan cultures. The decorated maypole might be left up for the year. Ribbons twined around the pole became a part of the ritual in Victorian times.

Morris Dancing

Morris dancing is a type of folk dance that includes movements of jogging, skipping, and oftentimes a mock battle where props like wooden swords, sticks, and hobby horses are incorporated. Dancers often wear bells on their legs. A lively country dance, the Morris was familiar to theatrical audiences during the early modern period. Various regions and towns had their own takes on the dance, which often enacted the death of the May King as part of the Morris Sword Dance, according to J.M. Mackley. It arose in the English Middle Ages but is still practiced in the 21st century, and the Morris Dance remains a significant part of British culture.

Morris Dancing has evolved over hundreds of years, including one practice that has been especially adapted: the use of face paint. Black face paint was traditionally used in early modern Morris dancing, but today, most Morris groups have changed the color to green or blue or removed face paint entirely due to the racist practices associated with blackface.

May Traditions in Literature

Morris Dance is mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when Titania comments that the nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud (2.1.101) In this scene, she uses the way that bad weather hinders a Morris Dance as a metaphor for the disruption in communities that occurs when she and Oberon are in a disagreement.

In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the spirit of May Day is heavily integrated in the play through the setting, characters, and plot. The connection between fertility and new birth correlates to the romance and merriment in the play, demonstrating the transformation and renewal of love entanglements. Duke Theseus’ wedding to Hippolyta launches the world of the play as a time of festivity and joy, similar to May Day traditions. Throughout the play, the setting of the enchanted forest is described, which is integral to the plot and character development. For example, the fairies’ interactions with nature and their influence on human relations highlights the bond between humans and nature that many May Day traditions enact. Overall, the play reinforces the May Day spirit of celebrating nature’s ability to renew and transform.

Key Print Sources Heaney, Michael. The Ancient English Morris Dance. Archaeopress, 2023. Hornback, Robert. <q>Extravagant and Wheeling Strangers</q>: Early Blackface Dancing Fools, Racial Impersonation, and the Limits of Identification. Exemplaria vol. 20, no. 2, 2008, pp. 197–222. Stow, John. A Survey of London. Containing the Original Antiquity, Increase, Modern estate, and description of that City, written in the year 1598 by John Stow, Citizen of London. Since by the same author increased, with divers rare notes of antiquity, and published in the year 1603. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Texts and Contexts. Ed. Gail Kern Paster and Kiles Howard. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999, pp. 99–116.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Summer: Mowing a Meadow. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria, 4 Jan. 2011. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/husbandry/summer.html. Chu, John. The History of May Day. National Trust. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/the-history-of-may-day. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025. Garry, Jane. The Literary History of the English Morris Dance. Folklore vol. 94, no. 2, 1983, pp. 219–228. Taylor & Francis Online. https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1983.9716280. Johnson, Ben. May Day Celebrations. Historic UK. 2023. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/May-Day-Celebrations/. John Stow. A Survey of London. Reprinted From the Text of 1603. Ed. C. L. Kingsford. 1908. British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/survey-of-london-stow/1603. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025. Mackley, J. S. <q>This Stinckyng Idoll</q>: the Origins of Some English Mayday Traditions. Loughborough University Conference on Country Life: The Rural Experience in Literature, Song, Film & Folklore. University of Northampton, 2013. https://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/5503/7/Mackley20135503.pdf. Tosh, Will. The Giddiness of Midsummer Day. Shakespeare’s Globe. https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blogs-and-features/2020/06/24/the-giddiness-of-midsummers-day/. Accessed 24 Jun. 2020.