The Morris Book Part 1

The Morris Book.

by Cecil J. Sharp.

PREFACE.

Besides other friends, too numerous for individual mention, who have given us able and willing help in the writing of this book, we desire to tender especial thanks to the following: To the Lady Isabel Margesson, by means of whose kind a.s.sistance we were enabled to note certain of the dances herein described; to Miss Florence Warren, whose help was simply invaluable; and to the Rev. S. Baring Gould, for permission to reproduce in our text the old woodcut of the historic Kemp, who danced the Morris steps all the way from London to Norwich.

INTRODUCTION.

We have been drawn to the publication of tunes and description of the old English Morris, not primarily for the information of the archaeologist and scholar, but to help those who may be disposed to restore a vigorous and native custom to its lapsed pre-eminence.

Whether we have erred in believing that there exists to-day a wide and keen desire for that restoration will be plainly shown in the reception and the result of our endeavour. How we ourselves came by the belief in that desire is easily told.

The idea that the Morris dance might once again be known amongst us, in town and countryside, as the ordered expression of a national spirit, was given to us in this wise. One of us--it is not by now too much to claim--had acquired an enthusiasm for Folk-music, and a certain knack of finding it where it still survived in the aged memories of the peasantry, and of transcribing and preserving it when found. The other had also his knack of pa.s.sing on the music that pleased him to susceptible and willing juniors, and of making them to perform the same. In a happy hour the collector with his treasury and the teacher, pining for some fresher and sincerer melodies, met together. The "Folk Songs from Somerset" were given to those working girls of London town to whom this book is dedicated. From the very start we were aware that the old songs, merry or mournful, that until then had been looked upon by this newer generation for the greater part with something of an antiquarian and merely curious eye, had been given wings and a new vitality. The songs of peasant-folk long dead, songs of love and war, parting and death, prospered and spread in the London streets and workrooms like the news of victory. We were very well used to find in these singers apt and willing learners; we were also used to note that whatsoever we had found to teach them hitherto, pa.s.sed, when the performance was done, into forgetfulness: we were totally unused to find this fertility and resonance follow, as it followed upon the teaching of the Folk-songs. It was like a sowing and a full harvest in a place where, until now, we had tilled all but unavailingly.

Forbye Folk-songs, the collector had noted, some seven years before, a set of Morris tunes from Kimber, leader of the Headington (Oxon) men; these had lain until now unused. Seeing the Folk-music fall upon such good ground and flourish so amazingly, even amongst these quick-witted Londoners, strangers to the countryside, it naturally suggested itself to him that here was the opportunity, so long desired, to wake the Morris from its long sleep. Anybody not deaf and blind, or un.o.bservant as a stone, knows that the genius of dancing is born in the London girl of the people, as surely as in children of the sun.

We had Kimber and his cousin up to town; and the result of their coming far outran our fondest antic.i.p.ations. The Morris, like that magic beanstalk, seemed to outwit the laws of nature: we saw it in the heart of London rise up from its long sleep before our very eyes. In connection with this affair, the mention of that well-beloved fable is appropriate and irresistible. The first dance that was set before these Londoners--upon this occasion which we enthusiasts make bold to call historic--was Bean-setting. It represents the setting of the seed in springtime. Of course the music, its lilt and the steps that their forefathers had footed to it in the olden time, were as little known to these, the London born, as the tongue and ceremonial of old Peru. As little known, yet not strange at all; it was a summons never heard until now, yet instantly obeyed; because, though unfamiliar and unforeseen, it was of England and came, even though it was centuries upon the way, to kinsfolk. Let the precisian explain it as he may, that is our way of accounting for an experience both fruitful and astounding. Within half an hour of the coming of these Morris-men we saw the Bean-setting--its thumping and clas.h.i.+ng of staves, its intricate figures and steps. .h.i.therto unknown--full swing upon a London floor. And upon the delighted but somewhat dazed confession of the instructor, we saw it perfect in execution to the least particular. Perfect, yet in a different order of perfection from that attainable by men. It may be noted here and now by all who have to do with the instruction of girls in the Morris, that the feminine temperament inevitably robs the dance of something of its st.u.r.diness. It is nothing to lament; for what is lost in vigour is a.s.suredly more than made good in gracefulness. At any rate, there was Bean-setting, perfect in its kind. No wonder Jack-and-the-Beanstalk came to mind and stayed there with the memory of this evening.

It was even so with all the other dances: to see them shown was to see them learned. And the Folk-songs had prepared us for what followed: here was no mere fugitive delight and curiosity, as of a child with a new toy.

We had given back to these children of the city no less than a birthright long mislaid.

The Morris-men came in October. In the following February, 1906, the songs and dances were performed before a company of friends. The audience, if very friendly, was also very critical; and there was represented in it, literally, every element in contemporary society. And every element, or representatives of each, exhorted us to give our performance in public, since it was so good that the world in general must know of it.

In April, 1906, we did so. The performance was given very nearly in the height of the concert season; in no announcement of it was any mention made of charity, or any lack or need of funds: the entertainment was run as a public affair. And the public responded so that we filled the hall to the doors and were reluctantly constrained to refuse admittance to a host beside. The entertainment has since then been repeated several times; and every repet.i.tion brought substantial evidence of continually increasing public interest.

It should be mentioned here that Miss Mary Neal, of the Esperance Working Girls' Club, not only made the venture possible in the beginning, but, with her powers of help and organization, gave it a reach and strength that neither of us could have given.

But outside appreciation did not end here--one might really say that it only began. Inquiries poured in from every quarter of the Kingdom, from every cla.s.s and kind of person. They all wanted to know how they also might be shown the way to do as we had done--revive these traditional English songs and dances in their neighbourhood, amongst the rising generation of English men and women. One of the inquiries, as to how the Morris dances might be imported there, came from j.a.pan, where all things typically English are in so great request.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FROM THE FRONTISPIECE OF "KEMP'S NINE DAIES WONDER, PERFORMED ON A JOURNEY FROM LONDON TO NORWICH."]

In the case of the Folk-songs, it was easy enough to instruct the anxious inquirer. But as to the Morris dances it was otherwise. Here there were no handbooks to recommend, for the sufficient reason that not one existed. With ourselves, and with the few--Alas! very few--traditional Morris-men left in England, there reposed the only practical knowledge of the dances in existence. With all the goodwill in the world we could only give them to others as the Morris-men gave them to us--by example, since in the shape of printed precept there was nothing. So far as possible this demand for tuition of the dances has been, and is being, met. Some of the girls already mentioned are teaching or have taught the dances in many London centres and here and there in eight counties at least, including Monmouth and Derby, Devon and Norfolk, and the Home Counties. But the demand is great and growing, the supply is obviously limited. In London alone it might be met, or nearly so; but in the provinces, with existing or possible resources, it cannot be, even if we could command the services of the spirited, historic Kemp, who danced the Morris all the way from London to Norwich--_see_ plate opposite. This indefatigable traveller, incidentally, is somewhat curiously figurative of this latter-day revival of the Morris--of its restoration by townsfolk to dwellers in the country.

Thus we were faced with a sudden demand and very limited means wherewith to meet it. In these circ.u.mstances we naturally bethought ourselves of possible expedients. To us it seemed practicable to meet it only in one way--through the writing of a book on Morris dancing, by the help of which even those who had never seen the dances performed might be enabled to learn them, and so pa.s.s them on. The result of our endeavours must declare itself in the efforts of others to make use of this little handbook. That there is a demand for it is very sure: whether we have succeeded in putting together an intelligible and a workable manual of dances--notoriously a very hard thing to do--will be told presently in the tally of practising Morris-dancers in England--and j.a.pan. We have aimed at simplicity, brevity and clearness in the description.

As to the extent of the demand and its constant tendency to increase, so far, there can be no doubt. As to the permanence of the demand, as to whether the Morris dance is likely to become again, as once it was, a feature of our national life, one can only surmise. For ourselves, we believe absolutely in the permanence of this revival, and that these astounding results of our efforts. .h.i.therto are evidence, not of a fleeting phase or vogue but of no less than that we have restored to our own people a rightful inheritance, a means and method of self-expression in movement, native and sincere, such as is offered by no other form of dancing known to us.

The outstanding feature of all our English inst.i.tutions is their continuity: to have continuity you must have age and a hallowed tradition: these we have in everything national, save only in our songs and dances. These, although we are anything but an imitative race, we have imported from un-English lands, with the inevitable result that in dance and music we express everybody but ourselves. We shall go on doing so until the treasure-house of our Folk-music and dances--now for several generations mysteriously closed to us--shall be re-opened. In this handbook we have tried to do something towards restoring that forsaken repository to its rightful pre-eminence.

HISTORICAL.

We claim for this sketch no completeness: we are chiefly concerned with the Morris as a lapsed yet living art, calling, as we hold, for revival; we look to the Morris-men, not primarily as subject-matter for the industrious archaeologist, but as heralds to the sweetening of the town life of England and the re-peopling of her forsaken countryside. We have nevertheless taken some trouble in our search for all that is interesting and genuine as concerns the Morris, in the literature of our own country, and others. For the benefit of those inclined to follow the subject farther in its historical aspect than it is herein treated, we have appended a list of books in which we have found items of interest.

So far as we can discover, there is no single work devoted to the topic: all that is to be gleaned of it from books consists only in sc.r.a.ps of information, most of them very brief, some contradictory; as a rule almost casually introduced in works upon dancing, ancient games and customs, and such like.

Even the origin of the name Morris and the true source of the dance are not to be traced with absolute certainty. Most authorities accept, or a.s.sert, that the dance is Moorish in origin: some again bring evidence to show that the English Morris (or Morrice) owed nothing whatever to the Moors. Still, the weight of testimony must be held to show Morocco as the fount and origin, no matter if the genius of our own folk--so very far removed from anything native to Africa--has, in the process of the centuries, altered it until it bears, in spirit, little resemblance to the parent stock.

If the spirit has been Anglicised, the steps remain. Tabourot, for instance, a very quaint and interesting writer on dancing, tells us that when he was a youth--that would be early in the 16th century--it was the custom in good society for a boy to come into the hall after supper with his face blackened, his forehead bound with white or yellow taffeta, and bells tied to his legs. He then proceeded to dance the Morisco the length of the hall, forth and back, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of the company. So says Tabourot, long dead; and to-day we learn that, in most winters, a side of Morris-men dances at White Ladies Aston, one-and-a-half mile from Spetchley, Worcester. They blacken their faces and have for music accordion, triangle, and tambourine: their flute-player died recently.

Tabourot suggests that the bells might have been borrowed from the _crotali_ of the ancients in the Pyrrhic dance. He then describes the more modern Morris dance, which was performed by striking the ground with the fore part of the feet; but as this proved fatiguing the work was given to the heels, the toes being kept firm, whereby the bells jingled more effectively. He adds that this method in turn was modified, as it tended to bring on gouty complaints.

We are given by the same writer a notation of the Morisco, or Morisque, music, steps, and description: this shows as nearly as possible the steps of the Morris as we have seen it danced in England to-day.

Again, Engel, in a pa.s.sage to us of extraordinary interest, gives in modern notation "... one of the tunes headed La Morisque, probably the oldest tune of the famous Morris dance still extant. As it is interesting from having been printed in the year 1550, when most likely it was already an old tune, it shall be inserted here ...." And there we found the same tune which Tabourot gives for the dance that he described, as we have already told. It is the tune of "Morris Off," which we reproduce in our books of tunes. Just a few weeks earlier we had taken down, at Redditch, from the fiddler of the Bidford Morris-men, the same tune, note for note, as Tabourot gives it. Here in truth is a signal instance of that persistence and continuity which is always cropping up, to the lasting amazement and delight of the student of Folk-music--to the delight more especially of the student who, like ourselves, holds that in our Folk-music is a treasury not to be h.o.a.rded for the delectation of the scholar, but to be expended with both hands for the revivifying of a national spirit.

The Morris, then--once also the Moresc--of England; La Morisque and Morisco of France; the Moresca of Corsica, danced by armed men to represent a conflict between Moors and Christians--is in all reasonable probability Moorish in origin: never mind if in our own country it is become as English as fisticuffs, as the dance called "How d'ye do" will show--wherein our own folk, after their own manner, have suggested strife, as in the Corsican variety. Holland, as is told by Engel, was infected too; industrious research, in fact, will probably show that the Morris in some shape or other was known throughout Europe, and beyond. As for the date of its introduction into England that is impossible to state with certainty; but most authorities point to the time of Edward III., maybe when John of Gaunt returned from Spain, as probably the earliest when Morris-men were seen in England. It is said also that we had it from the French; another lays its introduction to the credit of the Flemings.

The window with its Morris-men shown in our frontispiece is probably of the time of Edward IV.

Schemes of wider research, however, we are content to leave in the hands of the intrepid Folk-lorist. We are concerned here to extract from a ma.s.s of notes and references some outstanding few, to remind practising and potential Morris-dancers of to-day that this new-old art, if not indigenous, has been, like many another foreign importation, a.s.similated much to our advantage.

The Morisco, from which our own Morris has obviously descended, seems to have been originally both a solo and square dance, the latter being performed by sides (that is, sets) of six. The solo Morris existed all along, and still exists. When we saw our friend Kimber (mentioned elsewhere) dance his Morris jig to the tune of "Rodney," had our other old friend Tabourot been present in the spirit--maybe he was--he need have altered nothing in the description we have quoted but to subst.i.tute for the boy with his face blackened a st.u.r.dy English yeoman, and to note some differences in the get-up of the dancer. The solo dance has been performed also at Bampton, between tobacco-pipes laid crosswise on the ground--to the tune of the "Bacca Pipes" jig, or "Green Sleeves"--suggesting the Scottish sword-dance, and in many other fas.h.i.+ons.

Another feature in the history of the English Morris, which by this time may be called impossible to account for with any exact.i.tude, is that in the elder days the Mummers and their plays, the Robin Hood games and other ancient diversions with their characters and customs, became allied--or rather mixed up--with the Morris-men, upon May-day and occasions of festivity such as the Leet-ales, Lamb-ales, Bride-ales, &c.

To what extent they were allied, or mixed, will probably baffle even the combined powers of all our archaeologists to discover. In an old woodcut, for instance, preserved on the t.i.tle of a penny history (Adam Bell, &c.) printed at Newcastle in 1772, is apparently the representation of a Morris dance, consisting of--A Bishop (or friar), Robin Hood, the Potter or Beggar, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian. Robin Hood and Little John carry bows of length befitting the size of each. The window, too, shown in the frontispiece is proof that the Morris-dancers were attended by other characters. The following, from Ben Jonson's "The Metamorphosed Gipsies," supplies further evidence to the same effect:--

They should be a Morris dancers by their jingle, but they have no napkins.

No, nor a hobby horse.

Oh, he's often forgotten, that's no rule; but there is no Maid Marian nor friar amongst them, which is the surer mark.

Nor a fool that I see.

But other characters, introduced for whatsoever reason, gradually disappeared, until the Morris company, as a general thing, consisted only of the dancers, the piper--that is, the musician--and the fool.

The hobby-horse, described later, was habitually a.s.sociated with the Morris, until the Puritans, by their preachings and invective, succeeded in banis.h.i.+ng it as an impious and pagan superst.i.tion. This accounts for the expression, "The hobby-horse quite forgotten"; and gives a touch of prophecy to Shakespeare's lament: "For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot." As is well known, however, the hobby-horse still prances in England to-day; at Minehead and Padstow, for instance, as an ancient and hallowed inst.i.tution on its own account, and performing with the Morris-men at Bidford.

Other implements and characters may be found, used by and performing with the Morris-men, that originally had no connection with the Morris, but were borrowed from other pastimes. As we have said, however, this sets out to be no exhaustive study, whether of the Morris when it was a national dance, or of all its survivals at the present time. Such a study would in scope and purpose far outrun the limits of our intention.

Broadly speaking, the peculiar characteristics of the Morris, as it was in its heyday and as it has survived amongst us, are these: Leaving aside the solo dances, upon which we shall not touch further, the Morris is performed by six men; the records show that women have occasionally, but rarely, figured as performers. A musician is of course indispensable; also, as it seems, a fool, to supply comic relief and give the dancers breathing-time. The fool often goes by the name of "Squire," sometimes of "Rodney." These are practically invariable; but beyond and beside these, other characters have accompanied the dancers. The hobby-horse we have already mentioned as a popular addition. Some took with them an a.s.sistant, called the ragman, to carry the dancers' extra clothing. Then, a person in various disguises and habiliments went--and still goes--with the dancers to collect money, if it might be, from admiring lookers-on: sometimes the fool himself served both as the type of unwisdom and its opposite, who bears the money-box.

In some parts of the country a swordbearer accompanied the Morris-men.

This officer carried a rich pound-cake impaled upon his sword-point--cake and sword were be-ribboned, the former being supplied by some local lady; and during the dances slices of it were given amongst the audience who were expected to respond with coin for the treasury. A slice of cake was by way of bringing luck to the receiver; the credulous even treasured a piece of it the year round as a minister of good fortune.

Generally speaking, these must be regarded as the fixed and regular performers and accompaniments of the Morris. But, according to time and place, the additions to and varieties of these were innumerable. When the dance was popular, it may almost be said that every village sporting a troupe had its own peculiar variation in dress or character or other particular of its programme and _personnel_, by which it was known; and by these singularities each set of Morris-men and their backers held resolutely. There was compet.i.tion, once, amongst the Morris-folk as there is to-day amongst football teams and their adherents. Many a bout, begun in friendly rivalry, ended in a scrimmage, in which the staves brought for use and ornament in the dance were used to break heads with. We are grown vastly more delicate and refined since then, it is supposed.

Before we go on to note some leading features in the dress and paraphernalia of the Morris-men, one more memory of the days that are gone--maybe in some fas.h.i.+on to return, maybe not--tempts to quotation.

It is from the church-wardens' accounts of the parish of Kingston-upon-Thames, and in our prejudiced eyes has a dignity, and somehow a promise, all its own. It is from Lysons' "Environs of London,"

vol. i., 1792, p. 226, and runs:--