the guests,
And poor men far'd the better for their feasts.

The next verse recalls that scene in _The Winter's Tale_ where
Shakespeare draws a vivid picture of Elizabethan country merrymaking--

The Lords of Castles, Manners, Townes, and Towers
Rejoyc'd when they beheld the Farmers flourish,
And would come down unto the Summer-Bowers
To see the Country gallants dance the Morrice,
And sometimes with his tenant's handsome daughter
Would fall in liking, and espouse her after
Unto his Serving-man, and for her portion
Bestow on him some farme, without extortion.

Alas poore Maypoles, what should be the cause
That you were almost banish't from the earth?
You never were rebellious to the lawes,
Your greatest crime was harmelesse honest mirth;
What fell malignant spirit was there found
To cast your tall _Piramides_ to ground?
* * * * *

And you my native towne, which was of old,
(When as thy Bon-fires burn'd and May-poles stood,
And when thy Wassell-cups were uncontrol'd)
The Summer Bower of Peace and neighbourhood,
Although since these went down, thou ly'st forlorn,
By factious schismes and humours over-borne,
Some able hand I hope thy rod will raise,
That thou maist see once more thy happy daies.

The hopes of the bard of Leeds were fulfilled at the Restoration.
Merriment, of a sort, came back to England; but it found no congenial
acceptance from Milton. The Court roysterers, the Hectors, Nickers,
Scourers, and Mohocks, among whom were numbered Sedley and Rochester, and
others of the best poets of the day, are celebrated by him incidentally
in those lines, unsurpassable for sombre magnificence, which he appends
to his account of Belial--

In courts and palaces he also reigns,
And in luxurious cities, where the noise
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers,
And injury and outrage; and, when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

The public festivals of these later days are glanced at in _Samson
Agonistes_--

Lords are lordliest in their wine;
And the well-feasted priest then soonest fired
With zeal, if aught religion seem concerned;
No less the people on their holy-days
Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable.

There is no relaxation, no trace of innocent lightheartedness, in any of
the later poems. Even the garden of Paradise, where some gentl