The Hawthorn (also known as May) is in blossom.When I was a little girl and we had a warm and sunny Spring day, I would ask my granny if I could take off my vest (or liberty bodice). She would invariably reply, 'Ne'er cast a clout till May be out.' Which meant 'no.'
There's some uncertainty about the meaning of the rhyme, in particular whether it refers to the blossom or the month of May.
The earliest written record of it comes from 1732, from Dr. Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia:
"Leave not off a Clout Till May be out."
It possibly originates from a Spanish proverb, "Do not leave off your Coat till May be past", as recorded in Captain John Stevens's A New Spanish and English Dictionary, published in London in 1706.
9 comments:
Nope, I wasn't allowed to take my vest off either. I didn't realise it could be the blossom not the month. It's funny but I said those words to Tall Girl yesterday and she had no idea what I was on about!!!
(Never had a liberty bodice but it sounds very romantic!)
Pretty strange English spoken here if you ask me. That May bush is a bit early, well just a few days, so that's a promising sign.
The way it was said to me was, "Niverrr shed yur coot til the month of May is oot." A bit 'o of the Welsh and Scottish mixed together, I guess. But it certainly had the same meaning. :D
Wise words - May has a habit of coming back at you.
aaaah Liberty Bodice. I fought the buttons on a few of those in my time!
Compare that to the year round crop tops that young girls wear today!
Also the famous "Never drop yor hat - till you see cat!"
and
That's "Near casted clout may still may be out".
A clout is a standard long-range practice shooting in archery. Archery practice was prescribed in England well before Crecy. A clout measures 180 yards and was the standard distance between infantry battle lines for several hundred years. The clout target is a piece of cloth the size of a man's chest.
5 points for hitting it, decreasing to zero points 12 yards 'out'. An arrow which fell short, i.e. missing the front row of an opponent's infantry (=near-casted clout), would not have been scored (=may still be out).
Just telling you; I thought you knew all about 'the Archers' ;-)
Lovely photo Liz. Sure that's not blackthorn? We have some blackthorn out, but the hawthorn will be quite a time yet.
A liberty bodice was anything buut romantic, suburbia. It's a misnomer!
you know those quaint olde englishe country folk, jmb!
I can hear it, leslie!
It does indeed, james.
Really, deejay, I'm surprised at you!
Now I think you're just making that up, mutley!
You too, "Walter"!
It could be, dragonstar. I rely on Husband for identification, although there is another tree close by that I am fairly sure is Hawthorn.
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