Easter-gloves
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CUSTOM RHYMES
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Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales
Love, to thee I send these gloves,
If you love me,
Leave out the G,
And make a pair of loves!
It appears from Hall's Satires, 1598, that it was customary to make
presents of gloves at Easter. In Much Ado About Nothing, the Count sends
Hero a pair of perfumed gloves, and they seem to have been a common
present between lovers. In Devonshire, the young women thus address the
first young man they happen to meet on St. Valentine's day--
Good morrow, Valentine, I go to-day,
To wear for you what you must pay,
A pair of gloves next Easter-day.
In Oxfordshire I have heard the following lines intended, I believe, for
the same festival:
The rose is red, the violet's blue,
The gilly-flower sweet, and so are you;
These are the words you bade me say
For a pair of new gloves on Easter-day.