The sparkling and stimulating colours of May have been aimed at by the stained glass artist of the glass of the Kingston Game in the Library at Kingston upon Thames on the Fairfield.
Above, you see Maid Marian in blue and gold, a multicoloured hobbyhorse and the drummer or taberer. In 1837 the colours of the Morris dancers were as follows: long coats of red material striped with white, white stockings and red roses in their shoes, a white skullcap with a jewel and a long read feather on one dancer, another had a scarlet skullcap with a jewel and a white feather. The hobbyhorse was also dressed in colours and the dancers had long staves of white and red. Part of the old Morris dance was a race and those who gambled on the winners wore their colours in their caps.
An ancient description of a glass window of the fool (right), who is a usual character in a Morris dance. It shows him in a blue hood edged with yellow, a doublet of red stripes, edged with yellow, a yellow girdle, and the left side hose yellow with a red shoe and the right side hose blue with a shoe of read leather. (HONE 1832,p.849 ) |
