interludes, and were doubtless written, like the plays of Adan de la Hale, by some clerk or minstrel for the delectation of the villagers. They are, therefore, in a less degree folk-drama, than the examples which we shall have to consider in the next chapter. But it is worthy of notice, that even in the hey-day of the stage under Elizabeth and James I, the summer festival continued to supply motives to the dramatists. Anthony Munday’s _Downfall and Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon_[603], Chapman’s _May-Day_, and Jonson’s delightful fragment _The Sad Shepherd_ form an interesting group of pastoral comedies, affinities to which may be traced in the _As You Like It_ and _Winter’s Tale_ of Shakespeare himself. As has been said, it is impossible to establish any direct affiliation between the Robin Hood plays and earlier _caroles_ on the same theme, in the way in which this can be done for the _jeu_ of Adan de la Hale, and the Robin and Marion of the _pastourelles_. The extant Robin Hood ballads are certainly not _caroles_; they are probably not folk-song at all, but minstrelsy of a somewhat debased type. The only actual trace of such _caroles_ that has been come across is the mention of ‘Robene hude’ as the name of a dance in the _Complaynt of Scotland_ about 1548[604]. Dances, however, of one kind or another, there undoubtedly were at the May-games. The Wells corporation accounts mention _puellae tripudiantes_ in close relation with _Robynhode_[605]. And particularly there was the morris-dance, which was so universally in use on May-day, that it borrowed, almost in permanence, for its leading character the name of Maid Marian. The morris-dance, however, is common to nearly all the village feasts, and its origin and nature will be matter for discussion in the next chapter.