[88] “Marian was the assumed name of the beloved mistress of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon, whilst he was in a state of outlawry, as Robin Hood was his. See Mr. Steevens’s note to a passage in Shakespeare’s _Henry IV._ This character in the morris-dances was generally represented by a boy. See Strutt’s View of Customs and Manners, vol. iii. p. 150. It appears by one of the extracts, given above, that at Kingston it was performed by a woman, who was paid a shilling each year for her trouble.” [89] “Mr. Steevens suggests, _with great probability_, that this word may have the same meaning as howve or houve, used by Chaucer for a head-dress; Maid Marian’s head-dress was always very fine: indeed some persons have derived her name from the Italian word morione, a head-dress.” Mr. Steevens was never less happy than he is in this very probable conjecture. The word howve or houve, in Chaucer, is a mere variation of hood: and Maid Marian’s head-dress must, to be sure, have been “very fine” when made of four yards of broad cloth! A huke is a woman’s gown or habit. (Huke, palla, toga, palium Belgicis feminis usitatum.—_Skin._) Skelton mentions it in his Elinour Rumming: “Her _huke_ of Lyncole grene.” “All women in generall,” says Moryson, speaking of the Netherlands, “when they goe out of the house, put on a _hoyke_ or vaile, which covers their heads, and hangs downe vpon their backs to their legges,” &c. (Itinerary, 1617, part 3, p. 169). Sir John Cullum seems to have mistaken Rose Sparkes’ “best hook” for a “hook worn at the bottom of the stays, to regulate the sitting of the apron” (History of Hawsted, p. 25). Morione, in Italian, signifies a murrion or scull-cap; and though the derivation alluded to appears to have the sanction of Blount’s Glosographia, nothing can be more completely absurd. _Marian_ is _Mary_. “And _Marian’s_ nose looks rede and raw.” [90] “It appears that this, as well as other games, was made a parish concern.” [91] “Probably gilt leather, the pliability of which was particularly accommodated to the motion of the dancers.” [92] “A sort of coarse linen.” [93] “Probably a Moor’s coat; the word Morion is sometimes used to express a Moor.—The morris dance is by some supposed to have been originally derived from Moorish-dance. Black buckram appears to have been much used for the dresses of the ancient mummers. One of the figures in Mr. Tollet’s window is supposed to be a morisco.” [94] “Disard is an old word for a fool.” [95] In Ben Jonson’s Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies, presented to King James in 1621 (the very date, by the way, which appears on Mr. Tollet’s window), we have the following dialogue between _Cockret_ and _Clod_: “_Coc._ Oh the lord! what be these? . . . _Clo._ They should be morris-dancers by their gingle, but they have no napkins. _Coc._ No, nor a hobby-horse.