Music And The Masonic Ritual—No. Ii.

rites ; and ive are further g iven to understand , from the poem referred to , that fche esoteric portion of Druidical initiation ivas only conferred upon those who had made a study of theology , natural philosophy , divination , astronomy , 2 'hetoric , logic , arithmetic , and music .

Prom the Druids ive have inherited the peculiar dance still knoAvn in the remote parts ofthe country , called the morris dance ; and it AA'as not until the time of the Puritans , in the seventeenth century , that its popularity began to wane . As the morris dance is so closely allied with our subject , a feAv words on it may not be considered irrelevant here , and as it was a national custom , derived from one of the

mysteries of initiation , Ave hope that excuse will plead with our readers for the digression . The May eve of the Druids having been lost sight of , after the conversion of the kingdom to Christianity , the sports and pastimes of the people still retained traces of the heathen festival , and we find them revived as May games in honour of Robin Hood . As time went on , this origin was again forgottenand Stow writes" I

, , find that in the month of May , the citizens of London , of all estates , lightly in every parish , or sometimes two or three parishes joining together , had their several Mayings , and did fetch in May poles , with divers other warlike shows , AA'ith good archers , morris dancers , and devices for pastime all the day long . * * * These great Mayings and May games , made by the governours and masters of this

city , Avith the triumphant setting up of the great shaft [ a principal May pole in Cornhill , before the parish church of St . Andrew , which , from the pole being higher than the steeple itself , was , and still is , called St . Andrew-under-Shaft ] , by means of an insurrection of youths against aliens on May-day , 1517 , the ninth of Henry VIII ., have not been so freely used as before . " * The reader of the father of English poetry , Chaucer , will call to mind his description of a May feast towards the conclusion of his " Court of Love , "

when" Forth go'th all the court , both most and least , To fetch the floivres fresh , and brauuch and broom—And namely hawthorn brought , both page and groom ; Aid they rejoicen in their great delight ; Elke each at other throw the floivres bright , The primrose , the violetc , and thc gold , With frcshe garlants party blue aucl white . "

For further accounts of this custom we refer the inquiring reader to Bourne ' s Antiquiiates Vidgares , Borlase ' s Natural History of Cornwall , and Phili p Stubbe ' s Anatomie of Abuses , reserving our space for an extract from Prynne , t fco contrast his condemnation of tho dance which we have seen so universally adopted by the ancients , and performed in the May games of his OAVII time . He tells us , speaking of the May pole , " Dancing is , for the most part , attended with many