ring,
In his gay baldric sits at his low, grassy board,
With flawns, curds, clouted cream, and country dainties stored;
And whilst the bag-pipe plays, each lusty, jocund swain
Quaffs syllabubs in cans, to all upon the plain,
And to their country girls, whose nosegays they do wear;
Some roundelays do sing; the rest the burthen bear."

[672] "Polyolbion," song 14; see Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849,
vol. ii. p. 34; Timbs's "A Garland for the Year," pp. 74, 75.

In the "Winter's Tale," one of the most delicious scenes (iv. 4) is that
of the sheep-shearing, in which we have the more poetical
"shepherd-queen." Mr. Furnivall,[673] in his introduction to this play,
justly remarks: "How happily it brings Shakespeare before us, mixing
with his Stratford neighbors at their sheep-shearing and country sports,
enjoying the vagabond pedler's gammon and talk, delighting in the sweet
Warwickshire maidens, and buying them 'fairings,' telling goblin stories
to the boys, 'There was a man dwelt in a churchyard,' opening his heart
afresh to all the innocent mirth, and the beauty of nature around him."
The expense attaching to these festivities appears to have afforded
matter of complaint. Thus, the clown asks, "What am I to buy for our
sheep-shearing feast?" and then proceeds to enumerate various things
which he will have to purchase. In Tusser's "Five Hundred Points of
Husbandry" this festival is described under "The Ploughman's
Feast-days:"

"Wife, make us a dinner, spare flesh neither corne,
Make wafers and cakes, for our sheep must be shorne;
At sheepe-shearing, neighbours none other things crave,
But good cheere and welcome like neighbours to have."

[673] Introduction to the "Leopold Shakespeare," p. xci.

_Midsummer Eve_ appears to have been regarded as a period when the
imagination ran riot, and many a curious superstition was associated
with this season. Thus, people gathered on this night the rose, St.
John's wort, vervain, trefoil, and rue, all of which were supposed to
have magical properties. They set the orpine in clay upon pieces of
slate or potsherd in their houses, calling it a "Midsummer man." As the
stalk was found next morning to incline to the right or left, the
anxious maiden knew whether her lover would prove true to her or not.
Young men sought, also, for pieces of coal, but, in reality, certain
hard, black, dead roots, often found under the living mugwort, desig