Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/428

 400 The Folklore of Shakespeare.

The valiant Talbot says :

" God and St. George, Talbot and England's right, Prosper our colours in the dangerous fight ! "

I Henry VI. iv. 2. 55.

The Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, while lamenting the death of Henry V., will have no lamentations on the battle-field, and says :

" Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great St. George's feast withal."

I Hetiry VI. i. i. 154.

The bastard Faulconbridge alludes to the popularity of St. George and the dragon as a tavern sign :

" Saint George, that swing'd the dragon, and e'er since Sits on his horse back at mine hostess' door. Teach us some fence !" King Jo/iii, ii. 288.

May. The most popular month among the poets. The song beginning :

" As it fell upon a day In the merry month of May,"

has been attributed to Shakespeare, from having been printed in The Passionate Pilgrim, although it was written by Richard Barnfield. It has connected the adjective "merry" with May for all time. In Loves Labour Lost (i. I. 106) Biron says:

" At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows."

The last word, which is not a good reading, has been changed by some to mirth.

In I Hony IV. (iv. i. 101) we have :

" As full of spirit as the month of May."

I. May day has been through many centuries full of popular celebrations, and it was only at the end of the