Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Maypole of Merry Mount Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The May-Pole of Merry Mount" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1832. It tells the story of the colony of Mount Wollaston, or Merry Mount, a 17th-century British colony located in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts. The people of Merrymount, whom Hawthorne calls the "crew of Comus," celebrate the marriage of a youth and a maiden (Edgar and Edith). They dance around a may-pole and are described as resembling forest creatures. Their festivities are interrupted by the arrival of John Endicott and his Puritan followers. Endicott orders for the people of Merrymount to be whipped. Stricken by the newlyweds, he spares them but orders they put on more conservative clothing. He also orders the youth to cut his hair in the "pumpkin shell" style in order to reflect the Puritan's strictness.