of
material prosperity and material enjoyment which were so prominent in
Elizabeth's reign. There is no sign of the prevailing improvement in
the condition of men more suggestive than the effervescence of spirits
which broke loose on every holiday and at every festival. On the first
day of May "the juvenile part of both sexes are wont to rise a little
after midnight, and walk to some neighboring wood, accompany'd with
music and the blowing of horns, where they break down branches from the
trees and adorn them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. When this
done, they return with their booty homewards about the rising of the
sun, and make their doors and windows to triumph in the flowery
spoil."[44] "But their cheefest jewell they bring from thence is their
Maie poole whiche they bringe home with great veneration, as thus: They
have twentie or fourtie yoke of oxen, every oxe havyng a sweete
nosegaie of flowers, tyed on the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen
drawe home this Maie poole."[45] Games, dances, rude dramatic
performances succeeded each other for hours, interspersed with feasting
and drinking. An extravagant fancy sought expression in the excitement,
of grotesque actions and brilliant costumes. The Morris dancers
executed their curious movements, clad in "gilt leather and silver
paper, and sometimes in coats of white spangled fustian,"[46] or in
"greene, yellow, or some other light wanton collour," bedecked with
"scarfs, ribbons and laces hanged all over with golde ringes, precious
stones and other jewells," and "aboute either legge twentie or fourtie
belles."[47] Robin Hood's Day, Christmas, Twelfth Night, Harvest Home,
Sheepshearing, were all celebrated in turn with a liveliness of spirit,
a vigor of imagination, and a noisy enjoyment of the good things of
life which showed that Merry England had at last succeeded to the gloom
of the Middle Ages.

The prevailing prosperity and activity were naturally even more
apparent in London than in the rural districts. The city was growing
rapidly, filling up with warehouses and shops, with palaces and
dwellings. The people in general were attracted to it by the growing
trade and industry, and by the theatres, taverns, bear-gardens, and
other places of amusement, the number of which was constantly
increasing. The nobility and gentry sought the splendor of Elizabeth's
court to spend their leisure and their wealth. The middle or commercial
classes of the city, like the co