h a Chorus” of youths with pick-up instruments, the “Song” invited (or if you will, half-obliged) everybody to join hands in a great circle around the Maypole.
Scholarship revels in the show of power behind English masques. These Revels showed the power of interdependence, cooperation and tolerance. They happened because Native New England allowed them. Feasting, sports, hunts, music, dance and entertainments, trade, “cohabitations” --- from there, it was up to these people(s) to make what they would of the world in their midst.
Were Plimothers invited? It seems some attended: Bradford mentioned “scurrilous” verses nailed to the Maypole (2: 49) and much “frisking,” of “fairies, or Furies, rather.” Morton’s “Revels” chapter says they “could not expound” The Poem’s Riddle: it “put their noses out of joint, as the proverb is.” Morton imagined the Maypole rearing up over them like a “seven-headed Hydra”: a core of six men around him (likely some with families) who had, like a Hydra, too much reach for Plimoth’s liking.
“At defiance with” the Maypole, “Some of them affirmed that the first institution thereof was in memory of a whore; not knowing that it was a trophy erected at first in honor of Maya, the Lady of Learning, which they despise….”(140).
Compassion and the courage to try new things were at these Revels’ core. “Reading The Revels” shows more behind each line of both creations.
Listen below to Morton’s original “Poem,” and read along with the “modernized” version --- which tries to help us hear it with 1627 English ears. Your reactions are most welcome!
Rise, riddle-reader, and unfold
What meant this whirlpool, Death, beneath the mold
When woman, solitary on the ground
Sitting and weeping her children was found?
Then Deities, love-inspiring, did acquaint
Grim King James with the tenor of her plaint,
and caused him send forth heroes, to the sound
of trumpet loud; at which, those seas were found
so full of shifting shapes that this bold shore
presented Woman a new paramour,
as strong as Samson (wasn't); and so patient
As Job himself (at times)---Directed thus, by Fate
To comfort Woman, so unfortunate.
I do profess, by Love’s own beauteous Mother,
That here’s a wise fool’s choice---for her, none other;
Though Scilla still is sick, because no sign
Till this our Revels heals her race and mine.
Asklepios, healer, come! We know right well
All our work’s lost, if we should hear her knell---
The great Earth Mother’s call, none ever withstand!
And yet, that same Love points this land,
With Proclamation, friends! The first of May
Shall here at Merrymount be holy day.
Listen below to “The Song” to music by Mark Waterhouse and Jack Dempsey
Drink and be merry, merry, merry boys,
Let all your delights be in Hymen’s joys:
Yo! to Hymen, now the day is come:
About the merry Maypole take a room...
Make green garlands, bring bottles out
And fill sweet Nectar freely about:
Uncover your head, and fear no harm,
For here’s good liquor to keep it warm.
So drink and be merry, merry, merry boys...
Nectar is a thing assigned
By the Deity's own mind
To cure the heart oppressed with grief
And of good liquors is the chief.
So drink and be merry, merry, merry boys...
Give to the melancholy man
A cup or two of it now and then:
This physic will soon revive his blood
And make him be of a merrier mood.
To drink and be merry, merry, merry boys...
Give to the Nymph that’s free from scorn
Nor Irish [cloth] nor Scotch o’er-worn:
Lasses in beaver coats, come away,
Ye shall be welcome to us night and day.
To drink and be merry, merry, merry boys...
A year after May Day (June 1628), Myles Standish or “Captain Shrimp” sprung his second ambush at Weymouth. But Morton, a guest there, slipped laughing out of Standish’s grasp (and slammed the door behind). He was probably still laughing to think of Plimothers complaining to their nemesis King James’ officials. So he had answered their “friendly warnings”: “The King is dead, and his displeasure with him.” Morton was right on legal and real-world grounds. He had to be forced out.
Plimoth commenced the Keystone Cops