Chapter VI: Introduction (2)

The shoes of the dancers should be ordinary walking shoes with low heels and no pointed toes, because these dances were danced in the open air and on the open road. A good dancer can make the “bells speak” even on a boarded floor, and that is all that is necessary. I think that any sort of thin ballet shoe is quite out of place and spoils the character of an open-air dance.

V. EXTRA CHARACTERS

In the days when the Morris dance was an integral part of the people’s life it was no one’s business to make exact records in writing either of the dance itself, of the ceremonies connected with it, or of the characters associated with it. It is therefore very difficult to differentiate with any exactitude just where the Morris dance merged into the sword dance, and just where the dances were merged into the Mummers’ plays and other early pageants and ceremonies.

All primitive forms of dance and drama are attempts to express man’s worship of the natural forces and facts of life, so that we shall expect to find other characters than those of the actual dancers. The most common of these are the Lord and Lady, the King and Queen, evidently representing early ideas of the masculine and feminine principles in nature and worshipped as the forces which brought the return of the green life of spring to the earth. Both these characters also occur separately in some places, the King being called Mayor, a Lord of Misrule, a very curious survival of the Mock King of Saturnalian revels, who after a short reign of feasting and festivity is sacrificed that a new king may reign in his stead. One very old man whom I met, and who shall remain unnamed and unlocated, boasted to me that he had been this Mayor of the Morris nine times. The qualification for this honour, I learned elsewhere in the town, was to have been locked up three times in one year for being drunk and three times in one year for beating your wife! In emphasising the religious origin of these dances it is well to bear in mind that the religion they express is not precisely that of the orderly Church and Chapel-going folk of to-day, and that no sort of gloom or depression was allowed to mar the joy of the ceremonial, even when the end of the principal actor was known to be execution at the point of the sword. As Dr Frazer remarks, “in these circumstances it was natural that the principal actor should be recruited from the gaol more often than from the green-room.”

The Queen was also called the Moll, Maid Marian, the Lady of the Lamb, Bessie, and The Lady of the May, and was a man, generally a smooth-faced youth, who was dressed as and represented a woman.

A very important character was the Fool, Tom Fool, Dysard, Squire, or Rodney, identical with the jongleur or joculator. He was often the best dancer, did special feats to amuse the crowd, and with a cow’s tail and bladder attached to the ends of a stick kept the crowd from encroaching on the dancers. The Fool survived in Lancashire as “owd Sooty face,” “Dirty Bet,” and “owd Molly Coddle” as late as 1891.

The Hobby-Horse was a great feature of the dance in early days. Its wild capering and frolicking around added much to the general amusement. Mr Cecil Sharp says that he has not met with a traditional dancer who remembers a hobby-horse being part of the Morris side, but there are numerous allusions to it in writing.

In “Cobbe’s Prophecies, his Signs and Tokens, his Madrigalls, Questions and Answers” (1614), the following occurs:—

“And fine Maide Marian with her smoile,
Shew’d how a rascall plaide the roile:
But, when the Hobby-Horse did wihy,
Then all the wenches gave a tihy.”

Robin Hood and Friar Tuck also appear occasionally in historic accounts, but I have never heard of either character as part of the “sides” now existing.

The musician, once a player on pipe and tabor, later on the fiddle, and to-day sometimes on the concertina, was of course indispensable, and I was told at Headington of one old fiddler for that “side,” who played until he was so old that he had to be carried from place to place and deposited on the roadside when the dancers halted for the dance, and I heard of another who rode a donkey when too old to accompany the dancers on foot.

The Treasurer who carried the collecting box is also important. Most “sides” of Morris men had a “sword-bearer,” who carried round a gaily decorated sword on which was impaled a cake, specially made for the occasion by some lady who undertook the duty year by year, though of late (as at Bampton) the cake is just an ordinary shop-made one. A small knife is stuck in the cake, and the sword-bearer hands it round to the spectators, who each ceremonially take a piece. The “treasurer” follows with a box into which one is expected to put a donation to compensate the dancers “for their trouble.”

The effect of the ceremony is quite extraordinary. To go from the London of to-day to a quiet village and take part in this old ritual is to know the link which binds the ornate Catholic ritual of to-day to the most primitive ritual evolved by the folk to express the truths of incarnation, of sacrifice, of death, and of resurrection. To go from Kirtlington, where in the traditional tales of the oldest inhabitants there are still traces of the human sacrifice, and later of a lamb sacrificed as a substitute, and to go on to Bampton, where the cake alone typifies the ancient sacrificial rite, is to realise the power inherent in the human race to lay aside in each generation some cruelty, some horror, and to rise by slow degrees into a higher state of evolution. The study of folk-dance and of the legend and ceremonial which surround it opens up a great field of interest to all who would learn the secrets of human development.

VI. THE SWORD DANCE

The Sword dance is still performed in the North of England, generally at Christmas time and on Plough Monday, 6th of January. It was originally part of a pageant or Mummers’ play in which the ever-recurring drama of death and resurrection was acted in various forms.

Mr Sharp says that traces of it have been found in two southern English counties. Mr Carey found a dance called “Over the Sticks” in Sussex, but it has more of the characteristics of the Scotch sword dance, in which the swords are placed on the ground and the dancer shows his skill by dancing elaborate steps over and between the swords. Sometimes in the Midlands a similar dance is found in which long Churchwarden pipes take the place of the sticks. The sword dances of Northern England are quite different, and are allied to those found in many European countries. These show traces of ancient ceremonial worship and the slaying of the sacrificial victim, and are more in the nature of drama than dance.

In _Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda_, by Leopold von Schroeder (1908), there are some very interesting suggestions as to the meaning of these ceremonial sword dances, one of which, referring to the sword dance of Yorkshire called the Giants’ dance, runs as follows (p. 118):—“The leading feature of the dance, which was performed by masked peasants, was that two swords were swung around and on to the neck of a boy without hurting him. The circumstance is of great importance that the leading giant was called Woden and his wife Frigg. This shows us the mythological significance of the dance, clearly and without doubt. Whilst we here see Woden stepping forth as a great dancer, as the chief of a troop of giant dancers, we get a new and important feature in the representation of the god which makes him still more like the wild dancer Rudra-Shiva, a feature of which we hear nothing from other accounts of Wodan-Odin, and yet which is undoubtedly old and real. We must picture to ourselves here not the great heavenly god of the Edda, but rather the still far more primitive though already powerful spirit of the wind, of the soul, and of fruitfulness, from which the great god Woden has developed. Perhaps, too, we may see in the boy round whose neck the sword was swung harmlessly, the new-born, youthful spirit of fruitfulness: whom the swords shall symbolically protect, whose growth and thriving the sword dance, as a magical enchantment bearing fruitfulness, was in all probability intended to promote. In the same way the Curetes held the sword dance round the young Zeus, and the Corybantes round the infant Dionysos, in order to protect him. In my opinion it was also to promote his growth.”

One is not so dependent on present-day dancers for a description of the sword dances as one is for that of the Morris dances, for certain records have survived. Olaus Magnus, in his _History of the Northern Nations_, thus describes the sword dance as practised by the Swedes and Goths:—“First with their swords sheathed and erect in their hands they dance in a triple round. Then with their drawn swords held erect as before, afterwards extending them from hand to hand, they lay hold of each other’s hilt and point while they are wheeling more moderately round, and changing their order, throw themselves into the figure of a hexagon which they call a rose. But presently, raising and drawing back their swords they undo that figure to form (with them) a four-square rose that may rebound over the head of each. At last they dance rapidly backwards, and vehemently rattling the sides of their swords together conclude the sport. Pipes or songs (sometimes both) direct the measure, which at first is slow, but increasing afterwards becomes a very quick one towards the conclusion.”

He calls this a kind of Gymnastic Rite in which the ignorant were successively instructed by those who were skilled in it.

“The Lock”; Characteristic of Sword Dances]

The first sword dance I saw performed was the Earsdon, which was accompanied by the small pipes. It looks very complicated, and is more interesting from an antiquarian point of view than from that of a dance. The performers keep huddled up together, and it is difficult for a spectator to see much of what is going on. The second one I saw was at Flamborough, and it was danced by eight fishermen who have learnt it traditionally for longer than anyone living to-day can tell. This is a much more attractive dance, with more variety in the figures, and is almost identical with the description given by Olaus Magnus. Eventually I had two of the fishermen up to London, and they taught the dance to eight young men, who have in their turn passed it on to a great many others. Mr Fuller Maitland has published the Sword Dance Song of Kirkby Malzeard in _English County Songs_, with the music. He considers that the tune of the Prologue has much of the Morris dance character, and that it was probably used for the actual dancing. The song describes each of the dancers, who comes out from among the rest as he is described by the singer. Old Thomas Wood of Kirkby Malzeard told Mr Bower, who took down the tune, that he would have nothing to do with the present Christmas sword dancers, or Moowers, “who have never had the full of it, and don’t dress properly nor do it in any form, being a bad, idle company.” They were originally taught by him, to make up his numbers at the Ripon Millenary Festival.

Mr Sharp has collected seven sword dances, including those of Earsdon, Flamborough, and Kirkby Malzeard, but probably none are danced as they were in the old days before more modern amusements took the place of the old folk festivals.

The sword dance, like the Morris, was essentially a man’s dance, and whereas many of the Morris dances are quite suitable for women, the sword dance should be kept strictly as a man’s dance.

VII. THE FURRY DANCE

The Furry dance comes under the heading of a genuine folk-dance and is part of an old ritual of May Day. Mrs Lily Grove gives the following account of it:—

“The Fadé or Furry dance takes place in the parish of Helston, on Furry Day, May 8th, which to dwellers in those parts is like Christmas Day to most English people.”

Fadé is an old Cornish word meaning “to go,” and is often corrupted into faddy, while furry is by some authorities derived from the Cornish fuer, signifying fair or merry-making. Mr Quin, in the _Royal Cornwall Gazette_ of May 13th, 1864, gives the following description of the dance:—

“There were forty-one couples. They just trip it on in couples hand in hand, during the first part of the Furry dance tune forming a long string, the gentleman leading his partner with his right hand: second part of the tune, the first gentleman turns with both hands, the lady behind him and her partner turns the same way with the first lady, then each gentleman in the same manner with his own partner; then trip as before, each part of the tune being repeated. The other couples pair and turn the same way and at the same time. The movement is elegant. The party proceed up one side of the street and down the other, passing through all the houses they choose.”

This dance is very like the spring dance of other countries, where it was customary to stop before every door to give a blessing and ask for contributions. Any house omitted was considered unlucky. Men and women both take part in this dance, and the alternate processional and figure dancing shows that it is probably of the same nature as the Tideswell processional dance. It is in this respect also like the “Lancashire Morris processional,” “Long Morris,” and the tune of the Furry dance is like the tune of “Long Morris.”

_Goosey Dancing._—There is also the Cornish “Goosey Dancing,” which is danced by boys and girls, and which has much in common with Saturnalian revels. It is danced at Christmas time for a week, ending on Plough Monday.

The word “goosey” probably comes from “guised,” for it is customary to dress up for the festivities and for the boys and girls to change dresses. This is a very usual feature of Saturnalian revels, and much shocked the Puritans, as it is contrary to the express law of Deuteronomy.

_The Gienys Dance._—In the Isle of Man, on January 6th, the Gienys Dance is held, and the mainstyr or master of the ceremony appoints every man his tegad or valentine for the year.

_The Abbot’s Bromley Horn Dance._—Mr Sharp has included this in his book of Sword Dances. The dancers have stags’ horns attached to their heads, but there is no very distinctive step.

VIII. THE COUNTRY DANCE

A few country dances are still remembered by old people living in villages, but, unlike the Morris dances, by far the greater number of country dances are recorded both as to steps and figures, so that they do not come under the same heading as the strictly traditional dance. The supposition that “country-dance” is a corruption of “contre-danse,” and that it came to England from France, is not correct. It was in fact, as in name, a country dance, danced by country folk in barn and ale-house and on village greens. It travelled to France, and was called there the “Contre-danse.” Later these dances were adopted by the upper classes and even penetrated into Court circles. At this time they were at their best, and many were danced in the round form, but gradually this form became obsolete, until in the middle of the eighteenth century only the dances “longways for as many as will” were danced.

In Grove’s _Dictionary of Music_ Mr Kidson gives an account of a dance called “Mall Peatly, the new way,” which he has seen danced in a cottage on a Yorkshire moor. “You are to hit your right elbows together and then your left, and turn with your left hands behind and your right hands before, and turn twice round and then your left elbows together, and turn as before and so to the next.” Mr Cecil Sharp has collected a number of country dances still danced by country folk, and Mr Clive Carey has also collected country dances, principally in Sussex. But the great mine of wealth wherein are the greatest numbers of these beautiful, old-fashioned dances is _Playford’s Dancing Master_.

The first edition of this collection is entitled “The English Dancing Master: or Plain and Easie Rules for the Dancing of Country Dances, with the tune to each dance (104 pages of music). Printed by Thomas Harper, and are to be sold by John Playford at his shop in the Inner Temple neere the Church doore.” The date is 1651, but it was entered at Stationers’ Hall on the 7th of November, 1650.

The next is “The Dancing Master, ... second edition, enlarged and corrected from many grosse errors which were in the former edition.” This was printed by John Playford in 1652 (112 pages of Music). The two next editions, those of 1657 and 1665, each contain 132 Country Dances, and are counted by Playford as one edition. To both were added the tunes of the most usual French Dances, and also other new and pleasant English Tunes for the Treble Violin. (The tunes for the Violin were afterwards printed separately as “Apollo’s Banquet,” and are not included in any other edition of the _Dancing Master_.) The date of the fourth edition is 1670 (155 pages of Music). The fifth edition, 1675 (160 pages of Music). The sixth edition, from advertisements in Playford’s other publications, appears to have been printed in 1680. The seventh edition bears the date 1686 (208 pages), but to this “an additional sheet,” containing thirty-two tunes, was first added, then “a new additional sheet of twelve pages,” and lastly “a new addition of six more.” The eighth edition was printed by E. Jones for H. Playford, and great changes made in the airs. It has 220 pages, date 1690. The ninth edition, 196 pages, date 1695. The second part of the _Dancing Master_, 24 pages, date 1696. The tenth edition, 215 pages, date 1698, also the second edition of the second part, ending on page 48 (irregularly paged), 1698. The eleventh edition, 312 pages, date 1701. The twelfth edition, 354 pages, date 1703.

A sixteenth and a seventeenth edition, which, however, are identical, are in the Bodleian Library.

The directions for the dance were written under each, but only the figures are given, but no steps. The following directions for one of the dances, “All in a Garden Green,” will give an idea of the curious phraseology of the book:—

ALL IN A GARDEN GREEN. Longways for six.

Lead up all a D. forwards and back, set and turn S. [·_]; that again [:_].

First man shake his own Wo. by the hand, then the 2, then the 3, by one hand, then by the other, kisses her twice and turn her [·_], shake her by the hand, then the 2, then your own by one hand, then by the other, kiss her twice and turn her [:_].

Sides all, set and turn S. [·_]; that again [:_]. This as before, the We. doing it [:_].

Arms all, set and turn S. [·_]; that again [:_]. This as before, the men doing it [:_].

_A Table explaining the characters which are set down in the Rules for Dancing_

D. Is for double. A double is four steps forward
and backward, closing both feet.
S. Is for a single. A single is two steps, closing
both feet.
Wo. Stands for Woman.
We. Stands for Women.
Cu. Stands for Couple.
Co. Stands for Contrary.
2. Stands for Second.
3. Stands for Third.
4. Stands for Fourth.
[·_] This is for a strain play’d once.
[:_] This is for a strain play’d twice.

These two characters expresse the figures
of the dance,
☉ This stands for the Man.
☽ This stands for the Woman.

In 1904 Miss Nellie Chaplin gave a performance of dances including the “Pavane,” “Galliard,” “Allemande,” “Courante,” “Sarabande,” and “Chacone,” and in 1906 led, through her study of old instruments and old music, to an interest in other ancient dances, and with the help of an expert in dancing she deciphered several of the dances from _Playford’s Dancing Master_, harmonised the tunes, added the appropriate steps from her collaborator’s knowledge of dancing, and began to give public performances of the dances in London and different parts of the country. No one who has ever seen these pupils of hers, with their beautiful, old-fashioned dresses, dancing the old-world dances accompanied by a string quartette and oboe, will ever forget the charm of the performance. Miss Chaplin chose some of the most complicated of the dances for revival, and has made the dancing of them a real art. Some years later, Mr Cecil Sharp published a number of Playford’s tunes and dances which were performed by the young ladies of the South-Western Polytechnic, generally as illustrations of his lectures on folk-dancing. They are now given by the Folk-Dance Society at their performances. His method of giving the dances is different from Miss Chaplin’s, because his pupils, unlike hers, do not use any steps, but only give the figures with a walking or running step, which is the same in all the dances. Which method is best is purely a matter of taste.

Through Miss Chaplin, the Folk-Dance Society, and the Espérance Guild, the country dances are now once more danced by numbers of people all over the country, and it is to be hoped that they will never again recede between the covers of a dancing-master’s book.

The country dance tunes are often ballad tunes.

The tunes played to-day by country fiddlers are often found in early books of opera and printed collections of airs.

For instance, the tune of Tink-a-Tink, a country dance collected by Mr Sharp and published in Set II. of _Country Dance Tunes, collected from Traditional Sources_, is a song in the Opera “Bluebeard,” by Michael Kelly, published in 1799.

“The Butterfly” in Set I. of the same series is apparently a remembrance of the once popular “I’d be a Butterfly,” the words and melody by Thomas Haynes Bayly. It is included in many books of airs.

The tunes did not always gain by passing through the hands of the village musician.

IX. THE PRESENT-DAY REVIVAL OF THE FOLK-DANCE

Twenty years ago the folk-dance had almost entirely disappeared, and the first definite effort made to reawaken it was that made by Mr D’Arcy Ferrers, who in 1886 revived the Morris dance in Bidford-on-Avon and round about that neighbourhood. This created great interest at the time, an interest which has since never wholly died out, though but for Mr D’Arcy Ferrers it is probable that the dances of that neighbourhood would have completely disappeared. At that time the traditional “side” had been disbanded, and Mr Ferrers reconstituted the dances from the little that remained in the memories of one or two old men.

He also taught them the tune of Arbeau’s Morris dance which they used as “Morris Off,” and to which they invented a dance which is quite in keeping with other traditional dances.

Later, in 1906, Lady Isabel Margesson interested herself in the dancers, and invited Mr Cecil Sharp and Mr H. C. MacIlwaine to Foxlydiat House, Redditch, where they took down the tunes and dances which were published in their first _Morris Book_. Later Miss Florence Warren went there to teach both these dances and others which had been collected in the meantime. The Bidford dances were also collected by Mr John Graham and published in _The Morris Dances of Shakspeare’s Country_. In a recent edition of his _Morris Book_, Mr Cecil Sharp has omitted these Bidford dances, or retaken them from the Ilmington men, from whom they are believed to have originally been learnt.

But a more important revival took place in 1899, when Mr Percy Manning revived the Headington “Side,” for in this case most of the dancers belonged to the traditional “Side.” An entertainment was given at the Corn Exchange in Oxford, and the following interesting account of it appeared in the local papers:—“When the men danced in unison to the strains of a somewhat primitive fiddler quite a pretty effect was produced, whilst to the onlooker the spectacle was at once a convincing proof of its antiquity, so grotesque were the actions and gestures of the performers. The dance partakes somewhat of the nature of a hornpipe: there is a good deal of action in it, and it cannot be accused of too much sedateness or gravity. The troupe in each dance were accompanied by a fool, generally known as the Squire, who wore a diversified dress, consisting of a silk hat, decked with coloured ribbons, a white smock, and breeches, and one white and one brown stocking. He carried a stick with a bladder and a cow’s tail at either end and frequently applied the stick to the back of the dancers.”

The dances given at this revival were “The Blue-eyed Stranger,” “Constant Billy,” “Country Gardens,” “Rigs o’ Marlow,” “How d’ye do, Sir?” “Bean-setting,” “Haste to the Wedding,” “Rodney,” “Trunk Hose,” and “Draw Back.”

It was during this revival at Headington that Mr Cecil Sharp first took down the tunes of the Morris dances which he afterwards gave to me in 1905. But this revised “side” of Morris men did not survive very long, and in 1905 or before had again given in and no longer danced down “The High” at Whitsuntide as in the old days.

But it was in 1905 that the real and, as I believe, permanent revival of the folk-dance first took place, and it happened in this way. For many years the Working Girls’ Club, of which I am the honorary secretary, had devoted much time to learning national dances, and had already learnt the Scotch dances direct from two Scotchmen and the Irish dances from an Irish lady, so that we were quite ready to learn the English dances in the same way. Mr Cecil Sharp told me about the Headington Morris dancers, and gave me Mr William Kimber’s address. I went to Headington and arranged for him and his cousin to come to London to teach the members of my Club. That first evening was a revelation to me, for I had never seen these London girls, with their natural aptitude for dancing in any form, quite so eager or so quick to learn. In two evenings they had mastered about four Morris dances, and were told by the instructors that they had got the dances quite perfectly.

The following account of that evening is taken from the first book of instructions by Mr Sharp and Mr MacIlwaine—

“The result of their coming far out-ran our fondest anticipations. The Morris, like the 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 spring-time. 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 clashing of staves, its intricate figures and steps hitherto unknown—in 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. It was even so with the other dances; to see them shown was to see them learned.”

That first evening’s Morris dancing was the beginning of many happy hours of practice culminating in a demonstration of the dances and songs at a Christmas party held in the rooms of the Passmore Edwards’ Settlement in 1905. The revival of the folk-dance, which was at once realised as genuine by many who were there, resulted in a more public performance in 1906, and from that date until the present day a series of Concerts has been given in London and within a radius of thirty miles around, and as far north as Yorkshire and south as Sussex. Besides this, the dancers were almost at once invited to teach the dances, and at the present time have taught in every county, and in villages, towns, schools, clubs, factories, and educational institutions from one end of England to the other. In 1909 the Board of Education sanctioned the dances being used as part of the course of physical exercises and organised play, but until after that sanction the members of the Espérance Club were the only teachers who had learnt their dances direct from the country dancers. The girls soon taught their men friends, and to-day as well as the girls we have several “Sides” of men who both teach and give displays of the dances. Since the visit of the first two Headington men, I have had over twenty dancers up to London, from Headington, Abingdon, Oddington, Yardley Gobion, Northampton, Lancashire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire, and other places, all of whom have contributed something to our direct knowledge of the dances still to be found in the country; and with Mr Clive Carey and others I have visited different centres of dancing with a view to bringing the dancers to London to teach, collecting all I could about old customs surviving around the dances and getting acquainted with the dancers. I have also sent some of our club members to the country with the same end in view. There is, therefore, at the present time a very strong link between the traditional dancers in the country and the young people in London who are busy practising and passing on the dances, and there is no longer any fear now that the dances will die out completely and be lost to the coming generations.

At first all we had to depend on when teaching the dance was the memory of our working girls who had first learnt the dances, and the manuscript of the music which Mr Sharp had taken down from the men who taught us. Thus it became necessary to make the record more permanent and to leave some guide to the dances with those whom we taught. Mr Sharp and Mr MacIlwaine, with the help of Miss Florence Warren, who danced again and again while the actual steps were being recorded, then published a book of tunes and instructions for the dances, and these have been followed by three more sets of the dances. Mr John Graham published two volumes very shortly after, and Mr Clive Carey, Mr Geoffrey Toye, and I followed with two volumes of tunes and instructions. We are all still engaged both in searching for dances, teaching them, and recording them for future use, and though probably the best and most characteristic dances are now duly recorded, still one is never sure where the work is really ended, and we shall always be glad to hear from any readers of fresh dances, which we shall be glad to investigate and, if genuine, record for future use.

In 1907 Mr Cecil Sharp and I disagreed over the constitution of a committee, and from that date have worked on entirely separate lines. I have kept very carefully to the traditional lines, making a great point of having those whom I send out to teach taught by country dancers without the intervention of professional dance instructors, so that to-day, after eight years’ practice, I believe they are dancing as much like the original dancers as is possible.

After the recognition of the traditional dances by the Board of Education, Mr Sharp started a school of teachers at the London South-Western Polytechnic, and the teachers sent out from there have also taught in different parts of the country. As lately as 1911 these young ladies from the Polytechnic have formed the nucleus of the Folk-Dance Society, with Mr Sharp as Director, while the Espérance Club, as the Espérance Guild of Morris Dancers, also continues its work.

In 1910 I organised a vacation School at Littlehampton in Sussex, when sixty teachers from County Council Schools in different parts of the country met to learn the folk-dances, and later that year I transferred the School, with Miss Florence Warren and Mr Clive Carey as instructors in dance and song, at the request of the Governors of the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon to that place, and about two hundred availed themselves of the opportunity of learning the songs and dances.

At this point, owing to Mr Sharp’s criticism of our methods, it was decided to hold a conference to discuss points of difference with a view to making the work at Stratford-on-Avon both national and permanent. In view of this conference, I resigned my position as hon. secretary of the Folk-Dance School at Stratford-on-Avon. But no conference was held, and Mr Sharp was appointed Director of the School.

The School organised by the Espérance Guild was taken back to Littlehampton, and is held there every Easter.

A belated conference was held two years later, with no practical results.

It is hoped that in future some National Centre will be formed which will bring together all those interested in the collection and perpetuation of our English folk-dances, so that nothing of this National treasure be lost to future generations.

X. CONCLUSIONS

In the foregoing pages we have seen how in primitive times dancing was inextricably interwoven with all religious ceremonial, even when that religion took the earlier form of magic and the dancing was part of a ceremonial to induce the growth of crops or the rising of the morning sun. We have seen, too, how later the more advanced teaching of the Greek and Christian religion was partly expressed and symbolised in dance and rhythmic gesture. We have seen these same dances as part of the popular festivities of the folk, gathered around May-day festivals, rude drama, wakes, lamb ales and rush-bearing, and attached still to the Church as part of the festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide.

And finally we have recorded the existence of these dances in villages and country towns in different parts of England at the present day, their recent revival, and the success which has attended their reintroduction to the present generation.

It is of the utmost importance that the nature of these dances should be clearly kept in mind by those who are responsible for their continuance. Until six years ago they were unrecorded in manuscript or print, they were only in the memory of the remaining Morris men, most of them old and quite unlettered, and there was no language in which to express the steps and evolutions but that invented by these peasant men. Neither could these cryptic sayings, such as “foot up,” “half hands,” “hey sides up,” “gipsies,” “half rounds,” etc., etc., be interpreted except by a patient watching of the dancers on the few occasions when they could be got together to give a demonstration.

The following account of an old dancer will give the atmosphere of the folk-dance and an idea of the way in which the Espérance Guild teachers have themselves learned the dances. I was speaking in a village at a “sing song” one evening when a man asked me if I had ever heard of certain dances and offered to give me the names of the then surviving dancers. I said “No,” and he gave me the names.

I wrote to one of two brothers who still had the traditional dances and received the following reply:—

“Honourable and respected Miss,—

“I am the party what has got those dances, I shall be proud to show them to you, yours to command.”

Eventually I went to see him, spent an afternoon in the bar parlour of a jolly little inn, and invited him and his brother up to London.

When they began to teach we found they had only one adjective between them and it was “perpendicular,” and this word had to do duty many times during the evening. We were told we must “dance perpendicular to one another,” “perpendicular to the music,” and finally that we had got the dance “quite perpendicular”!

But I think we got hold of the dance, and that our boys and girls dance it much better than if they had been taught it by a professional dancer with technical terms and a settled technique; anyway, they love the dance, and it is always encored when we give it in public.

What, then, is the natural way for these ever-changing, ever-evolving dances to be passed on? I unhesitatingly say that they should be learnt in the first instance from the traditional dancer and passed on in the same way. The written instructions are only useful as a reminder of steps and evolutions, and should never be made an unalterable and fixed standard. For if folk-dancing has been evolving through all these countless generations, who shall fix the exact moment when evolution ceased and the steps and evolutions became fixed and unalterable? So far as I have seen traditional dancers, I have noticed that not only does every side in every village dance a little differently, but each man has his own way with the steps, and still further, the same man may dance differently every time he does the dance. I am behind no one in the desire that these dances shall be as accurately transcribed and as carefully taught as possible, and that the general character and atmosphere shall be preserved, but it is just because of this desire that I would have the dances as far as possible left to the interpretation of those who are unhampered by technical knowledge and unconfined by technical terms and academic restrictions.

In September 1912, I had up to town from Bampton two traditional dancers who imparted three dances, “The Rose Tree,” “Glorisheers,” and “The Flowers of Edinburgh,” to a group of working boys and girls. About two months later these same boys and girls were teaching others the three dances. Looking on with great interest were six children, whose average age was eleven, all from elementary schools. These children had already learnt several of the Headington and Bidford dances, but had not seen the Bampton dances, the steps of which vary considerably from those of the two other places. In about an hour, as I thought it was rather dull for the children, I said, “Let me see if you can dance ‘The Rose Tree’ while the elder ones have a rest.” The children were delighted with the suggestion, and to my surprise went through the dance almost perfectly as to both step and evolution. A few corrections and two more attempts, and the dance was quite correctly danced. This being a fact of which this is only one of many proofs, it is quite evident that a series of demonstrations by those who know the dance is all that is needed to pass it on to those interested enough to watch. There seems to be in these traditional dance movements something natural and inevitable, so that it is more easy to dance them correctly than to do them wrongly, and I think it is in this spirit that they should be taught. There is nothing strained and difficult, nothing artificial or exotic; all is simple, dignified, vigorous, and joyful.

For this reason I have sometimes regretted that the folk-dance has become officially recognised as part of the school curriculum, and I regret too the necessity for books of instructions. I would rather the dances had remained in the memories of dancers and that the right atmosphere had been secured only by the verbal telling of folk-tale and legend. But books seem to be a necessity to-day, and lest again we lose our national heritage of dance, perhaps it is well that some records have been made.

Another point that should be emphasised is that there should be as much interest as possible aroused in the collecting of these dances, and as much publicity as possible about the places where they are danced, the time of year when they can be seen, and the dancers who still hold the tradition. Probably the best dances are already in print; still, surprises of treasure still undiscovered may await us, and even if every known dance is already collected and published, nothing but good will come of this being done again and again by different people at different times. This will keep the traditional dances from becoming set and rigid, and will give a delightful air of spontaneity if at any folk festival, while all dance correctly, each dances a little differently from the others. Nothing is less to be desired than that any school or any individual should take possession of this national treasure; let all who are interested give of their best, whether as collectors, teachers, organisers, or writers, to the preservation of our National Folk-Dance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

In the space of the foregoing book it has been impossible to give more than a limited account of English Folk-Dance. Students are, therefore, referred to the following books—

“Dancing.” Badminton Library. By Mrs Lily Grove. 1895.

“Educational Value of Dancing and Pantomime.”
By Dr Stanley Hall, Clarke University, Worcester, Mass.

“Illustrations of Shakespeare and of Ancient Manners.”
2 vols. London, 1807. By Francis Douce. 1807.

“The Witch of Edmonton.” By divers well estimed Poets,
W. Rowley, T. Dekker, J. Ford, etc. 1658.

“History, Natural and Experimental, of Life and Death.”
Lord Bacon. 1638.

“Every Man out of His Humour.” Ben Jonson. Act II. Sc. i.
1600.

“The Gypsies Metamorphosed.” Gifford’s Edition,
reprinted by Lt.-Col. Cunningham. 1875. Vol. II.

“Women Pleased.” J. Fletcher.

“Survey of London.” By Strype. 1791.

“Orchesographie. Et Traicte en Forme de Dialogue.
Par lequel toutes personnes peuvent facilement
apprendre et pratiquer l’honneste exercice des
dances.” Par Thoinot-Arbeau (_i.e._ Jean Tabourot)
demeurant-a-Langres. (22nd Nov., 1588.)

“The Vow Breaker, or Fair Maid of Clifton.”
William Sampson. 1636.

“Old Meg of Herefordshire for a Mayd Marian, and
Hereford towne for a Morris-dance; or twelve Morris
dancers in Herefordshire of 1200 years old.” 1609.

“Survey of London,” 1598, p. 72. Stowe.

“Antiquites Vulgares.” Bourne. 1725.

“Natural History of Cornwall.” Borlase. 1758.

“The British Bibliographer.” Vol. IV.

“Popular Antiquities.” Brand. The early and the later editions.

“English County Songs.” Collected by Lucy E. Broadwood
and J. A. Fuller Maitland. 1893.

“Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda.”
By Leopold Von Schroeder. 1908.

“Old English Sports, Pastimes, and Customs.”
By Rev. P. H. Ditchfield. (Methuen, 1891.)

“Festivals, Games, and Amusements, Ancient and Modern.”
By Horatio Smith. (Colburn & Bentley, 1831.)

“A Picture of the Manners, Customs, Sports and
Pastimes of the Inhabitants of England, from the
arrival of the Saxons down to the Eighteenth
Century.” By J. Aspen. (J. Harris, St. Paul’s
Churchyard, 1825.)

“Book of Days.” In 2 vols. Chambers. (W. & R. Chambers,
London, 1863.)

“The Mediaeval Stage.” In 2 vols. Chambers. 1903.

“Glig-Gamena, Angel-Deod, or The Sports and Pastimes
of the People of England.” By J. Strutt. (London, 1801.)

“Old Country Life.” By S. Baring-Gould. (Methuen, 1890.)

“Shropshire Folk-Lore.” Edited by C. S. Burne,
from the collections of Georgina Jackson.
(Trübner, 57 Ludgate Hill, 1883.)

“Rush-Bearing.” An Account of Old Customs. By Alfred Burton.
(Brook & Chrystal, Manchester, 1891.)

“Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair.” By H. Morley.
(Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly, 1880.)

“Popular Music of the Olden Times.” 2 vols.
By William Chappell, F.S.A. (London, 1855-59.)

“Lancashire Legends, Sports, etc.” By J. Harland and T. Wilkinson.
(J. Heywood, London, 1882.)

“Household Tales and Traditional Remains.”
By S. O. Addy. (D. Nutt, Strand, 1895.)

“British Goblins—Folk-Lore.” By Wirt Sikes.
(Sampson Low, Marston, 1880.)

“Manners, Customs, and Observances.” By Leopold Wagner.
(W. Heinemann, London, 1894.)

“Hone’s Year Book.” See vols. I., II., and IV.
(T. Tegg, 73 Cheapside, 1832.)

“Brand’s Popular Antiquities of Great Britain.”
By W. Carew Hazlitt.
(J. Russel Smith, 36 Soho Square, 1870.)

“Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore.”
By C. Hardwick. (Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1872.)

“The Gentleman’s Magazine Library.” Edited by G. L. Gomme.
(See vol. on Manners and Customs, also vol. on
Popular Superstitions.) (Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, 1883.)

“The Study of Folk Song.” By Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco.
(G. Redway, York Street, 1886.)

“Folk-Lore.” Mr Percy Manning’s contributions to this Journal.

“Dictionary of Music and Musicians.” 4 vols.
Edited by Sir George Grove.

“The Pirate.” Sir Walter Scott.

“Nine Days’ Wonder performed on a Journey from London to Norwich.”
Kemp. 1600. (Arber, _English Garner_, II., 1903.)

“Shakespeare and his Times.” 2 vols. Dr Nathan Drake.
London, 1817.

“The Environs of London.” 4 vols. Daniel Lyson. 1792-96.

“Shakespeare and Music.” Edward W. Naylor, M.A., Mus. Bac.
London, 1896.

“Lancashire and Cheshire Morris Dances.” By John Graham.

“Shakespeare Morris Dances.” By John Graham.

“The Morris Book.” 3 vols. By Cecil Sharp and H. C. MacIlwaine.

“The Morris Book.” 1 vol. By Cecil Sharp.

“Sword Dances of Northern England.” By Cecil Sharp.

“Espérance Morris Book.” 2 vols. Edited by Mary Neal.

“Dances of the Olden Time.” A. Moffat and Frank Kidson.

INDEX

Addison’s allusions to folk-song, 3, 80
Aird, James, his _Selection_ (1788), 29

Ballad, the narrative, 53
Ballad sheets and song garlands, 79
Ballad printers, 80
Baring-Gould, Rev. S., 43
Barrett, Dr W. A., 43, 44
“Basket of Oysters,” 29, 30
Bewick, Thomas, 61, 84
Bibliography of folk-song and folk-music, 86
“Bonny Labouring Boy,” 23
Boughton, Mr Rutland, 47
Broadwood, Rev. John, 41
Broadwood, Miss Lucy E., 43, 44, 75
Bunting, Edward, _Ancient Music of Ireland_, 33
Bussell, Mr F. W., 44

Cante-fable, the, 15
Carols, 23, 74, 113
Chanty, the sea, 72
Chaplin’s, Miss Nellie, revival of ancient dances, 157
Chappell, William, 41
Churchwardens’ accounts, 112, 136
“Cock o’ the North,” 31, 32
Country dance, the, 152
Cox, Captain, his collection of ballads, 80

Dance rhythm, 111
Dibdin, Charles, 61
Dickens, Charles, his _Nurse’s Story_, 18
Dress, 136
Drinking songs, 62

Elizabethan Morris dancing, 119
Engel, Carl, _Study of National Music_, 22
Espérance Working Girls’ Club, revival of Morris dancing in, 161
Execution ballads, 66
Extra characters, 141

Ferrers’, Mr D’Arcy, revival of Morris dancing, 158
Folk-dance, definition of, 97
Folk-music and folk-song, changes in, 25
construction of, 19
conventional passages in, 34
Folk-song, definition of, 10
different classes of, 52
difficulty of localizing, 39
diffusion of, 37
Indian, 12
movement for collecting, 40
Society, its origin and members, 45
suggested origin of, 11
the noting of, 47
Fool, the, 142
Fraser, Mrs Kennedy, 74
French songs, their popularity in England, 6
Furry dance, 150

Gardiner, Mr H. Balfour, 47
Gilchrist, Miss A. G., 22, 46
Goosey dancing, 151
Grainger, Mr Percy, 46
“Greensleeves,” 5, 27, 28
Grove’s _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_, 22

Hebrides, songs of the, 74
Highwayman songs, 64
Hobby-horse, the, 143
Hone’s, William, _Ancient Mysteries_, 76
Humorous songs, 62
Hunting and sporting songs, 70

Jacobs’, Mr, _English Fairy Tales_, 15
“Joan’s Placket is torn,” 32

Labour, songs of, 71
Lancashire Morris dance, words of, 135
Laneham’s “Letter,” 80
Legge, Mr Robin H., 74
Love songs, 57

Manning’s, Mr Percy, revival of Morris dancing, 160
Mason, Miss A. H., 43
Mayor of the Morris, 142
Modern dancers’ dress, 139
Modes, the ecclesiastical, 19
Moore, Thomas, _Irish Melodies_, 29
Morris dances, list of, 128
Morris dances, where found, 130
Morris dancing, books on, 125
Morris dancing in later times, 122
“Morris,” derivation of word, 99
Mummers’ play, 99
Musical instruments, 132
_Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda_, 146
Mystic songs, 57

“One Moonlight Night,” 22
Orange, the story of, 17

“Paddy the Weaver,” 29
Pastoral songs, 60
Percy’s, Bishop, _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_, 47
Pictures of Morris dancers, 119
Playford’s _Dancing Master_, 153
Poaching songs, 64
Present-day teaching, 170
Pressgang songs, 69
Primitive religious customs, 102, 144
Printers of ballads and garlands, 80

Rhythms, mixed, 49

“Sailor loved a Farmer’s Daughter, A,” 33
Salii, the, 101
Sea chanties, 72
Sea songs, 67
“Shamrock Shore,” 24
Sharp, Mr Cecil J., 15, 47, 75
Sharp’s, Mr Cecil, revival of Morris dancing, 159
Sheppard, Rev. H. F., 44
Singing-games, 77
Soldier songs, 66
_Spectator_ quoted, 3, 80
Stanton, Mrs, 33
Stokoe, Mr John, 42
Stratford-on-Avon, 166
Sword dance, 145

Tolmie, Miss, 74
Treasurer, the, 144
Tunes, 130

Vacation School at Littlehampton, 166

Walton’s _Compleat Angler_, 79
Williams, Dr Vaughan, 47

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