A Midsummer's Hack for AHRC Common Ground, 2016

“As I went out one midsummer morning...”

It’s not a proper English folk song unless someone’s falling in love, complaining, being killed, or all three. At the same time. And most of these tales take place at the same time - midsummer. Why is this? Midsummer seems to be an evocative time of the year, and as the weather’s nicer, people are more likely to be out and about, meeting others and becoming embroiled in tragic - or comedic - affairs.

The above ballad is from the later 18th century and is a cautionary tale to all you young women not to heed the charms of men, especially when they promise to marry you.

O Phoebus! down the western sky

Far hence diffuse thy burning ray,

Thy light to distant worlds supply,

And wake them to the cares of day.

Come, gentle Eve, the friend of Care,

Come, Cynthia, lovely queen of night!

Refresh me with a cooling breeze,

And chear me with a lambent light.

Lay me where o'er the verdant ground

Her living carpet Nature spreads;

Where the green bower, with roses crown'd,

In showers its fragrant foliage sheds.

Improve the peaceful hour with wine,

Let music die along the grove;

Around the bowl let myrtles twine,

And every strain be tun'd to Love.

Come, STELLA, queen of all my heart!

Come, born to fill its vast desires!

Thy looks perpetual joys impart,

Thy voice perpetual love inspires.

While, all my wish and thine complete,

By turns we languish, and we burn,

Let sighing gales our sighs repeat,

Our murmurs murmuring brooks return. 

Let me, when Nature calls to rest,

And blushing skies the morn foretell,

Sink on the down of STELLA's breast,

And bid the waking world farewell.

Found in the Close Rolls of Edward I, March 1301

“To William la Zusche. Summons to be with the king at Berwick-onTweed at Midsummer with horses and arms, ready to set out with the king at his wages against the Scots.“

Midsummer seems like a good meeting time, given the number of other legal things that happened on that day, but this summons is 3 months in advance of the meeting.

In 1382, a prisoner called Thomas Sherman, also known as Thomas Reynaldo of Ireland, who was held in Wallingford gaol in Berkshire, turned king’s evidence, and became an approver in the hope of getting a pardon for his crimes. Among the crimes he confessed was that on Monday before the feast of Corpus Christi 1382, together with Thomas ate Corner of Northampton, John Brecher, Henry Sancky, Richard Upton and Thomas Goldsmith, they robbed a merchant whose name they did not know on the highway between Leicester and Northampton of silver coins worth five marks, silver bowls, dishes, two paternosters and silver. 

Thomas went on to accuse Richard Breton, a mercer of ‘Eastcherchestrete’ in London of receiving him, together with Ralph Basing, William Monemouche and William Slower, and allowing them to live at their house from Midsummer’s Day 1383 to the following Christmas, knowing them to be criminals and thus abetting various robberies. 

The Priory of Bricett

The prior, with a great number of other priors of alien houses and cells, was summoned to appear before the council at Westminster, on the morrow of Midsummer, 1346, 'to speak with them on things that shall be set forth to them,' upon pain of forfeiture and the loss of the priory, lands, and goods.

Incipit liber de Petro Plowman In a somer seson · whan soft was the sonne I shope me in[to]T shroudes · as i a shepe were In habite as an heremite · vnholy of workes Went wyde in þis world [·] wondres to here Ac on a May mornyng · on Maluerne hulles Me byfel a ferly · of fairy me thouȝte I was wery forwandred · and went me to rest Vnder a brode banke · bi a bornes side And as I lay and lened · and loked [o]nT þe wateres

Find out more here:

1491: James IV of Scotland ordered that a wappenschaw take place four times a year, the first to be on midsummer. A wappenschaw is an inspection of men able to fight in a certain area, to show that they were properly armed. There were specific requirements for men of different stations:

“that each gentleman who has £10 worth of land or more is adequately furnished and armed with a basinet, sallet, metal hat, gorget or pisane, whole leg harness, sword, spear and dagger; and gentlemen who have a small amount of land or [are] unlanded shall be armed as far as possible according to the view and discretion of the sheriffs... and honest yeomen with sufficient power who choose to be men of arms shall be sufficiently furnished according to the discretion of the said sheriffs or commissioners; and all other yeomen of the realm between sixteen and sixty [years of age] shall have sufficient bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear or good axe instead of the bow...”

Men who were not properly equipped were fined, with the amount of money increasing for each wappenschaw they ‘failed’.

James IV clearly wanted his people to be ready for fighting. Why play games when you should be learning archery?

Midsummer fairs, sometimes called ‘watches,’ were incredibly popular throughout the Medieval period. But in Chester, they were more than a festival. The Midsummer Watch became the highlight of the year, taking on a carnival-esque tone to the whole celebration. 

This became a problem in 1611, when Midsummer’s Day fell on a Sunday. The Assembly was worried it was perhaps too risky to proceed as planned, and pushed the fair to the Monday after. 

So what kinds of demons would people fear as the bonfire burned on Midsummer’s Eve? This might be an example; the face is severe, with the tongue mocking the audience, and the object in its left hand has threatening points. Is this the devil, or a more mischievous force? There is very little information about this carving, yet to me it represents the darker side of Midsummer celebrations. Is this the figure that was lurking in the shadows of the past, at least within the medieval imagination?

In 1340, Hugh le Despenser promised the Burgesses of Cardiff, among other things, “a fair for a fortnight at Midsummer”

According to James Calfhill (1530-1570) there were restrictions on marriage throughout the year in the early modern period.  

“from thrée wéekes before Lente, till the octaues of Easter, from Aduent to Twelftyde, & for thrée wéekes before Mid|sommer, there shall be no marrying at all, wythout a dys|pensation”  - James Calfhill, An aunsvvere to the Treatise of the crosse wherin ye shal see by the plaine and vndoubted word of God, (1565).