the same way by other nations to express a dance, that both English and foreign glossaries alike ascribe to the Moors. That the dance is not exactly the same with us as the fandango, the real Morisco, can by no means be considered as invalidating this argument, for similar deviations from originals have taken place in other borrowed amusements. Mr. Douce well exemplifies this by the alterations made in the games of chess and cards, both of which, it is generally agreed, were invented in India or China. Some again would derive this dance from the Pyrrhica Saltatio of the Romans, the military dance of their Salii, or priests of Mars, which in all probability originated with the Greeks. That the Pyrrhica saltatio has descended to modern times is beyond all question. We have it, or had it, a few years since, amongst ourselves under the name of the sWORD DANCE, and it still exists in France as the dance of fools or Mattachins, "who were habited in short jackets with gilt paper helmets, long streamers tied to their shoulders, and bells to their legs; they carried in their hands a sword and buckler, with which they made a clashing noise, and performed various quick and sprightly evolutions." But, notwithstanding some points of similarity, the sword-dance and the morris-dance are not the same, and their names as well as character denote their respective origin. From whatever source the Morris-dance may have been derived, it would seem to have been first brought into England about the time of Edward the Third, when John of Gaunt returned from Spain. The principal characters of it generally, though not always, were Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Scarlet, Stokesley, Little John, the Hobby Horse, the Bavian or Fool, Tom the * Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 435. Piper, with his pipe and tabor, the Dragon, of which last we have no mention before the time of the fanatic Stubbes,*—that is not before 1585. But it must be distinctly understood that the number of characters varied much at different times and places-so much so indeed that it is impossible to give anything like an accurate account of all the changes. Sometimes," says Douce, we have a Lady of the May simply, with a Friar Tuck ; in later times a Maid Marian remained without even a Robin Hood or a Friar ;" and the hobby-horse was often omitted;† either from design or accident, even 66 * Stubbes is bad enough of all conscience, but he had plenty of fanatics to keep him in countenance, as absurd and as sour-faced to the full as he could be. Thus Fetherstone (Dialogue agaynst light, lewde, and lascivious dancing: 1582, 12mo. sig. D. 7.) as quoted by the indefatigable Douce, says, The abuses, which are committed in your May-games are infinite. The first whereof is this, that you doe use to attyre in woman's apparrell whom you doe most commonly call May-marrions, whereby you infringe that straight commandement, whiche is given in Deut. xxii. 5, that men must not put on women's apparrell for feare of enormities. Nay, I myself, have seene in a May-game, a troupe, the greater part whereof hath been men, and yet have they been attyred so like unto women, that theyr faces being hidde (as they were indeede) a mane coulde not discerne them from women. The second abuse, which of all other is the greatest, is this, that it hath been toulde that your morris-dancers have daunced naked in nettes; what greater entisement unto naughtiness could have been devised? The third abuse is that you (because you will loose no tyme) doe use commonly to runne into woodes in the night time, amongst maidens, to fet bowes, in so muche, as I have hearde, of tenne maidens, which went to fet May, nine of them came home with childe." The good old times, as some choose to call them, were no doubt exceedingly profligate, but they can scarcely have been so bad as represented by the fanatic cotemporaries. Clod. They should be morris-dancers by their gingle, but they have no napkins. Cockrel. No, nor a hobby-horse. Clod. Oh, he's often forgotten, that's no rule; but there is no Maid Marian nor Friar amongst them, which is the surer mark. when Maid Marian, the Friar, and the Bavian or fool were continued in it. Other figures also occasionally mingled with them, as appears from Tollett's window, such as Flemings, Spaniards, a Morisco, &c.; but there is too much uncertainty as to the actual meaning of these figures to warrant our drawing any conclusions. In regard to the costume of these characters, that also varied, and seems in some instances to have followed the fashion of the day. Fortunately we are able to give a very good general idea of it from the account Mr. Tollett has left us of a stained or painted window,* which appears from time immemorial to have ornamented a room in his house at Betley in Staffordshire, but to which there belongs no tradition. Maid Marian.-Golden crown on her head; in her left hand, a flower, seemingly a pink, as the emblem of summer; purple coif; surcoat, blue; cuffs, white; skirts of her robe, yellow; sleeves, carnation; stomacher, red, with a yellow lace in cross bars. Friar Tuck.-Full clerical tonsure; in his right hand chaplet of white and red beads; corded red girdle, ornamented with a golden twist and tassel of the same; russet habit, denoting him to be of the Franciscan order, or one of the grey friars, so called from the colour of Cockrel. Nor a fool that I see. B. Jonson's Gipsies Metamorphosed, vol. vii. p. 397, Gifford's edition. And again: "But see the hobby-horse is forgot. Fool, it must be your lot To supply his want with faces And some other buffoon graces." The Satyr-Id. vol. vi. p. 483. *This account will be found at full length in the appendix to Shakespeare's Henry IV. part i. Steeven's ed. 1803. their garments; stockings, red; a wallet, hanging from his girdle, for the reception of provisions. The Fool.-In his hand the bauble, which is yellow; on his head a coxcomb-hood with ass' ears, the top of the hood rising into the form of a cock's neck and head, with a bell at the latter; it is blue, guarded or edged with yellow at its scalloped bottom; doublet, red, striped across, or rayed, with a deeper red, and edged with yellow; girdle, yellow; left side hose, yellow, with a red shoe; right side hose, blue, soled with red leather. Tom Piper.-Bonnet, red, faced or turned up with yellow; doublet, blue; sleeves, blue, turned up with yellow, something like muffetees at his wrists; over his doublet a red garment like a short cloak with arm-holes, and with a yellow cape; hose, red, and garnished across and perpendicularly on the thighs with a narrow yellow lace. The Hobby-horse.-It is hardly necessary to explain that the hobby-horse was represented by a man equipped with as much pasteboard as was sufficient to form the head and hinder parts of a horse, the quadrupedal defects being concealed by a long mantle or foot-cloth that nearly touched the ground; the man's legs stood for those of the horse, while his own were represented by two stuffed legs fastened at the sides; but this modern sort of centaur may still be seen upon the stage in various burlesques, and must therefore be familiar to most of our readers. Its appearance in ancient times may be thus described: The colour of the horse was a reddish white, like the blossom of a peach-tree; in the horse's mouth was a ladle,* ornamented with a ribbon, * In later times, it would seem that the fool held the ladle; thus in Nashe's old play of SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT"Ver goes in, and fetcheth out the Hobby-horse and the morris daunce, who daunce about. to receive the spectators' pecuniary donations; crimson footcloth fretted with gold; golden bit; purple bridle with a golden tassel, and studded with gold; the rider's mantel purple, with a golden border latticed with purple; crown of gold; purple cap with a red feather; coat, or doublet, yellow on the right side, and red on the left with buttons. He was evidently a juggler, and played off legerdemain tricks, for the amusement of the populace, as appears by the sword in his cheeks in this painting, and also by many scattered hints in the old dramatists, more particularly Ben Jonson. In later times—that is to say, about the reign of Henry the Eighth the Morris-dancers wore dresses of gilt leather and silver paper, and sometimes coats of white, spangled fustian, with streamers fluttering from the sleeves. They had garters also about the knees, to which bells were attached, and carried purses at their girdles. Sometimes too they had bells on each leg to the number of twenty or forty, and sometimes they jingled them in the hands. The allusions to such customs are frequent in our old writers for the stage. It was also usual for the characters to decorate their hats with a nosegay, or with the herb, thrift, formerly called our Lady's cushion. Thus Soto, in WOMEN PLEASED, says, when rebuking one of his subordinates for coming before him unmorriced, "Where are your bells then? Your rings, your ribons, friend, and your clean napkin ? "VER. About, about, lively, put your horse to it, reyne him harder, jerke him with your wand, sit fast, sit fast, man; foole, hold up your ladle there." Sig. B 2. * Of all the figures in Tollett's window, this is the only one that has buttons upon it. + See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 473. Beaumont and Fletcher's Women Pleased, act iv. scene 1. |