Britain

Festivals, Folk Plays & Figures of Inversion

from Humphrey, Chris. "The World Upside Down in Theory as in Practice" (7).

WINTER SEASON TRADITIONAL CELEBRATIONS in the BRITISH ISLES:

SHROVETIDE

Merrymakers at Shrovetide | Frans Hals 1616-17 | Met Museum Collections
Shrovetide is the English equivalent of Carnival (Shrove Tuesday is Mardis Gras)

 TWELFTH NIGHT


Twelfth Night Merry Making in Farmer Shakeshaft's Barn
from Ainsworth's Mervyn Clitheroe, by Phiz, ca. 1850

detail from Twelfth Night The King Drinks by David Teniers the Younger 

The Feast of the Bean King | Gabriel Metsu 1655 | Wikipaintings.org

Now, now the mirth comes,

With the cake full of plums,

Where Bean’s the king of the sport here;

Besides we must know,

The pea also

Must revel, as queen, in the court here.

Begin then to choose,

This night as ye use,

Who shall for the present delight here,

Be a king by the lot,
And who shall not
Be Twelfth-day queen for the night here.

Which known, let us make

Joy-sops with the cake;

and let not a man then be seen here,

Who, unurg’d, will not drink,

To the base from the brink,

A health to the king and queen here.

Next crown the bowl full

With the gentle lamb’s-wool

Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,

With store of ale too;

And thus ye must do

To make the wassail a swinger.

Give then to the king

And queen wassailing;

And, though with ale ye be wet here,

Yet part ye from hence

As free from offense,

As when ye innocent met here.

–Robert Herrick, Now, Now the Mirth Comes (1660)



   

Contemporary Influence| UK Postage Stamp | oldfashionedholidays.wordpress.com

MUMMERS

• Christmas Season Folk Performance
• DOOR TO DOOR VISITS including hand-outs of money
• Use of MASKS allows LICENCE through DISGUISE
• Elements of Courtship, Feasting, general community Merriment
• STOCK CHARACTERS & SATIRE
• Usually features St. George and the Dragon - themes of good prevailing over evil, DUALITY and RESURRECTION
• Originally silent (mum) pantomimes, for past few hundred years takes the form of short verse-plays.

  

  A Party of Mummers |  Engraving, not credited. | from thebookofdays.com
  
  
  

  

  Similar to Mumming, Sword-Dancing.
  Yorkshire Sword-Actors: St. George in Combat with St. Peter
  The Antiquary, May, 1895. | Sacred-texts.com
  

  

 

Contemporary Resonance: 

Mummers, Mask and Mischief

25 minute documentary features The Aughakillymaude Mummers of county Fermanagh in Ireland
Produced and Directed by James Kelly | http://www.fermanagh.info/aughakillymaude


PLOUGH MONDAY


• "Plough Sunday is a traditional English celebration of the beginning of the agricultural year with origins said to date back to at least medieval times...Next morning, on Plough Monday, the teams would drag the ploughs round the village seeking contributions for an ‘Ale’ or night of revelling at the tavern.Typical festivities included Morris Dancing, a ‘Feast of Fools’, ‘Mab and his Wife’ and sometimes a man dressed as a bear…" http://www.moretonshow.co.uk/news/2010/12/plough-sunday-2011/
• "Plays performed on Plough Monday...all contain a good deal of dancing, a violent death and a revival, and grotesques found both in the dances and in the Christmas plays." -Clement Miles

Print by Heinrich Petri, Swiss, 1572 | Illustration to a Latin edition of Sebastian Brant's 'Ship of Fools' 1572.
British Museum

SPRING

 

-HOCK TUESDAY (EASTER TUESDAY)- "Women captured men and made them pay a ransom for their release" (Burke 194)

 



 ROBYN HOOD and MAY DAY

Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). "Robin Hood and the Tanner." From: Ritson, Joseph. Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, Now Extant, Relative to That Celebrated English Outlaw: To Which Are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life. In Two Volumes. London: Printed for T. Egerton, Whitehall, and J. Johnson, St. Pauls-Church-Yard, 1795. Vol. 2. P. 33. | Robin Hood Project, University of Rochester



Robin Hood and the tanner [traditional] performed by St. George's Canzona, directed by John Sothcott. A Minstrel's Music published by English Heritage, 1998.

• A figure of the greenwood, Robyn is aligned to ancient spirits of FERTILITY
• His celebration falls on May Day, a fertility festival similar to winter-time carnivalesque practices in it's sexual license, costume, and relaxation of rules
• A Robin Hood Figure was KING OF MAY and lead a PROCESSION through the town, collecting money.
• His legend describes him taking on the power-structure by stealing from the RICH to give to the POOR
• He is known for his Jolly Outlook, use of JEST, and ability to CROSS SOCIAL BOUNDARIES & move freely between town and wood.
• His legends date back to medieval Europe, but were popular into the 19th and 20th century. He is the figure of folk-tales, ballads, published stories, plays and folk-plays alike.

Learn more about Robyn though The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/rhhome.htm
And his early presence at Wolfshead Through the Ages: http://www.boldoutlaw.com/robages/robages3.html

May Day involved the election of a Queen and King of May, who lead rites of spring including sexual license.
"they spent all the night in pleasant pastimes" - late 16th c. description (Burke 194)


MORRIS DANCING

image of the Betley Window from Kingston Museum leaflet
www.springgrovemorris.org

Morris Dancers | Daniel Hopfer late 15th-early 16th c. | Met Museum Collections
Traditional English folk dancing still found today through the Merry Month of May, Morris Dancing dates back to at least the mid-15th c. It can also be found among Christmas Season Revels, though less commonly.

For some excellent research on additional forms of English Performance, including Medieval cycle plays, pageantry and processions, see the work of Alison Bowie.