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SONG BOOK I
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK
PART I.
BERKSHIRE DANCERS. WHOSE TRADITION GOES BACK TO 1700.
■•The Squire" holJmg ftie sworJ. wooden cup. and collection box. also flie pole
on which is mounted the bull's head and horns lormerly carried by fl,e '■ Mayor
of the Morr.s" (see Chapter 2).
h'rontispiece. S'"M-
THE
Espdrance Morns Book
(CURWEN's Edition, 5694
PART I.
A Manual of Morris Dances Folk-Songs and Singing Games
By MARY NEAL
Honorary Secretary, Esperance Girls' Club, 50 Cumberland Market, London, N.W.
THIRD EDITION.
LONDON : Price Five Shillings,
J. CURWEN & SONS Ltd.. 24 BERNERS STREET. W.
COPYRIGHT U.S.A. 1910 BY J. CURWEN & SONS LTD. Part II is issued at ihe same price, and contains many new features.
■^^ ^ ciC\
To
Emmeline and F"rederick Pethick Laavrence,
True and unfailing friends of
The Esp^rance Club,
This book is Dedicated
for Old Sake's Sake.
(V
CONTENTS.
r
TEXTUAL. PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi
INTRODUCTION. By E. V. Lucas vii
ILLUSTRATIONS ix
I. SET TO MUSIC I
II. THE DANCES
III. THE MORRIS STEP
IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE DANCES
V. THE FOLK-SONGS
VI. THE GAMES 13
VII. COSTUMES 15
VIII. ENTERTAINMENTS 16
3 6
7 13
MUSIC.
MORRIS DANCES-
morris on 19
Shepherd's Hay 20
Rigs o' Marlow 20
Country Gardens 21
Jockey to the Fair 22
The Maid o the Mill 24
Pop goes the Weasel 24
Princes Royal 25
Sally Luker 26
A-NUTTING WE will GO 26
Constant Billy
Morris Off
27 27
FOLK-SONGS-
My Lady Greensleeves 31
A Wassail, a Wassail 32
Twenty, Eighteen The Proposal Little Sir William
Lavender Cry
The Barkshire Tragedy
III SINGING GAMES—
Wigamy, Wigamy, Water-hen Old Roger's Dead
Looby Loo
London Bridge '., '.
When I was a School Girl; '>; Here we come up the Greengrass ; ; Here come three Dukes . . :■:"' :
34 36 40
41 42
47
48
50 52 53 54 56
APPENDICES.
I. SOME OPINIONS OF THE DANCES AND OF THE ESPERANCE INSTRUCTORS 57
II. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS 59
III. SPECIMEN PROGRAMME 63
IV. APPARATUS 64
{ VT )
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
TN this edition it will be noted that the instructions for the dances have been somewhat elaborated.
Originally they were intended chiefly as a reminder to those who have already learned the steps and the dances, as it was felt then, as it is felt now, that the dances should be learnt in the first instance from a teacher who had had them direct from a traditional dancer. But so many are unable to learn in this direct way, and especially is this the case in America and the Colonies, that Miss Warren has added considerably to the matter she contributed to the first volume.
I have just returned from a tour in the United States, and Miss Warren is still there, training dancers and giving displays.
MARY NEAL.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
Thanks are due to : —
Mrs. Tuke for noting the tunes of the dances collected in Berkshire.
Miss Alice Gillington for permission to use the games in this book, all of wliich she collected.
Miss Lucy Broadwood for permission to use songs from her collections.
Mr. Fuller Maitland for permission to use songs from his collections.
Miss Florence Warren, who wrote the descriptions of the dances.
Mr. John Graham for permission to use dances from his collections.
Mr. J. W. Marsh for song " The Proposal," collected by him.
The many friends who have given me permission to use photographs.
The Proprietors of Punch and the Editors of the Pall Mall for permission to reproduce articles.
Mr. E. V. Lucas for permission to reproduce his Introductory Article from the County Gentleman.
Monsieur Charles Geoftroy for the coloured sketch illustrating the costumes.
Many others who have kindly helped in other ways to make the book of use to those who wish to help in the revival of English Folk Music.
THE ESPERANCE GUILD OF MORRIS DANCERS.
A Guild with this title has been formed. All men and women of good will who wish to see a fairer and a happier life for the people of England are eligible for membership, with a minimum subscription of 10s. annually ; elementary school teachers^ London, 5s., Provincial, 2s. 6d. annually. Members may attend at one of the classed 'llpp fC-r .nint jmonthH; in the year at the Esperance Club for Morris Dancing and Children's Singing Games : IVJondai'S, 8.30, men ; Friday, 7 and 8.30, women. A reserved ticket is supplied to members for one conrevt ,§. •y.^4r, giwn by the Esperance Club, and there are other advantages named in the syllabus of the Guild. •'. '..';■'.'.;', :
Crosby Hall, erected in HfeG'iE-Bishopsgate' Street, has been re-erected at More's Gardens, Chelsea, facing the Thames, and the Directors have placed the Hall at the disposal of the Guild for a monthly meeting, to take place on the first Thursday in every month. A monthly practice of Folk Dance takes place, in which the aim is to have no spectators, but to have everybody present joining in the dancing. Members of the Guild pay 6d. at the door, others Is.
The syllabus gives the terms for teachers sent into the country, and the terms for daily teachers in and near London. Miss Mary Neal is the hon. secretary.
5691
( vii
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK.
INTRODUCTION.
By E. V. LUCAS.
TT is a great pleasure for one who is not musical, anil ■■■ has been in his time much harassed by scholarly compositions, to attend a concert and find that every song has melody, and simplicity, and charm. Such was my experience a few nights ago, when I listened, in a kind of trance, to some score of old English songs sung by a little company of sweet voices from a girls' club. If all music were like this, if all singing were like this, I said, I would lose my heart to sound ; I would haunt concert rooms with the assiduity with which I now avoid them.
The contemplation of the most satisfying work of art, in whatever medium — the recognition of perfection — always carries with it, with me, a smarting of the eyes, a tendency to gulp. And since I have noticed in a theatre that whereas intentional pathos rarely touches me, yet if, after various vicissitudes, a consummation devoutly to be wished is achieved, I am for a moment quite un- manned, I am constrained to believe that the feeling of satisfaction has a closer association with the lachrymose gland than is either dignified or convenient.
Sorrows, whether my own or another's, I can bear with more or less composure, but confront me with a perfect thing in literature, art, or music, and I am momentarily a wreck. This is absurd, but there it is. Hence for a good half of this evening of old English song I could not see the platform at all, except through a mist, such was the effect of these lovely, lovely airs. Music, when it touches me, touches me too deeply for words, and has me utterly at its mercy.
Here, however, it was not only the music ; it was the idea too. It was the thought of this lost England of ours — the exquisite freshness of the early days — the old simphcities and candours. I do not suppose that human nature has changed very much, but there must, all the same, have been a very different spirit abroad when these were the people's songs than inspires us to-day. What do we hear sung in the villages to-day? Last year's music hall successes. It was the thought of the loss of that spirit that perhaps formed part of my emotion. I do not know that the words had much to do with it ; one did not hear them all, except the refrains. But the idea of a sweet and simple England was intensely vivid, and
5694
possibly one was conscious, too, of the contrast between these songs and the singers themselves — the songs all lucid open-air gaiety, and the singers the members of a club for working girls in the north-western district of this grimy latter-day London. Here, at least, for an hour or two, they seemed to be doing what they were born to do — so different a lot from that which circumstances have given them. " Blow away the morning dew " they sang, with all the vigour and happiness that young girls can display, waving their innocent arms as they did so ; while one knew that some of them had never seen a dewdrop.
Since that evening I have come into possession of the four series of " Folk Songs from Somerset " which Mr. Cecil Sharp has already published through Simpkin & Co., to be followed, I hope, by others. Of course, they want the fresh young voices of these eager children to do them full justice ; but even on the piano they are wonderfully moving and beautiful. No songs could be simpler — a single note to a single syllable, as it should be — but only rarely are they at all obvious. In most cases the next note is not the note that one expected ; at least not the note that I expect. Perhaps if one had to pick out the most distinguished and beautiful of all, one would say " Lord Rendal ; " but it would be with a very fond and lingering backward look to " Mowing the Barley " and " Midsummer Fair " (the Somerset version of " Widdi- combe Fair " with a less rollicking but tenderer setting) and " Seventeen come Sunday," and the haunting " Keys of Heaven," and the wistful cadence of " How do you do, sir? " the refrain of one of the best of the morrice dances.
These morrice dances alone would draw me by invisible threads to any hall where they were given — not only for their own unusual alluringness and gaiety, but for their essential merrie Englandism. Merrie ! Only super- ficially, I fear, for here again I was carried into the realms of melancholy. The revival of an old dance must perforce bring with it thoughts of the old dancers. There is always a certain wistfulness about the memory of old dancers, as Thackeray knew well ; but how much more so when they are not the dancers of the ballet but the dancers of the village green? Perhaps if there were a more general singing of these songs and more dancing of the dances
(viii)
(as Mr. Sharp wishes for lliem), one would be less affected. But to hear them for the first time is to be too suddenly attacked.
Will some one who knows about music tell me why it is that I wake every morning with the shadow of a tune in my head — the shadow, not the substance ; and perhajM it is wrong to say in my head, because it is just outside it really, beyond reach? By day, with the strongest desire to recapture an air, I cannot ; but I wake, morning after morning, with my hand almost on the elusive quarry. Can it be true that our dreams give us what life is always holding back ! Am I, who so long to make melody, and know not a note — am I a musician in my sleep? I awoke this morning fresh from " Mowing the Barley," but alas ! I have not approached it since. . . I wonder if others are like this.
What is it that has happened to English music? I asked myself as I listened. Where is England in English music to-day? We have English composers in plenty, but what has their country done for them, or they for their country? One may hear modern English music by the week and select no single phrase that has any native racial character in it. Yet how exquisite was the natural English music (before Germany came in) these old songs
5004
j)rove. Will there be no genuine music again? . . . Well, even if there be none, we have a taste of the beautiful, tender, humorous, real thing in these old songs ; and may they be widely sung !
A word more as to one very curious thing that I noticed. Near me was sitting an old lady with a somewhat bitter cast of countenance. I had caught sight of her soon after I sat down, before the performance began, and I observed the rather testy way in which she shrugged into her cloak and resented a draught, real or fancied, and her general air of peevishness, and mentally decided that she was probably not good to live with. Then came the singing, and I forgot her absolutely ; forgot everything, in fact, except Merrie England ; but suddenly chancing to catch sight of her again, I noticed that her expression had become benign and sweet. Wordsworth's words sprang to my mind as I watched her :
And beauty, born of murmuring sound. Shall pass into her face.
Nowhere, I thought, is an additional reason for popularising these exquisite songs. Every note shall be a brooding dove. We will sing peace and happiness into Englishmen. ■ — Reprinted from "The County Gentleman."
(ix)
MORRIS ON (p. 19).
SHEPHERD'S HAY (p. 20).
(X)
RIGS Q- MARLOW (p. 20i
JOCKEY TO THE FAIR (p. 22).
(xi)
MAID 0' THE MILL (p. 24).
LITTLE SIR WILLIAM (p. 40).
THE JEWS WIFE'S HOUSE, LINCOLN.
"Mother went to the Jew's wife's house And knocked at the ring."
i XIV )
SHEPHERD'S HAY (o. 20)
ALL IN ip. 26).
XV )
BEAN-SETTING (see Book II).
AN ESPERANCH DANCER WITH BERKSHIRE TRADITIONAL DANCERS.
( Nvi )
|
M |
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MISS FLORENCE WARREN.
Head Instructress of the Espe'rance Club.
MISS MAY START.
Who teaches the games to the Esperance Children.
MORRIS DANCES AT RED HOUSE, ASCOT.
CHAPTER I.
SET TO MUSIC.
" O fellow, come, the song we had last night, Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain ; The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, And the fair maids that weave their thread with bones Do use to chant it."
Tweljlh Niglit.
I HAVE been wondering how to express in words the interesting development which began in the Esperance Girls' Club in September, 1905, and which since then has gone so far beyond the limits ol that Club that to-day it is in the best sense of the word national both in scope and in importance. It seems to me that the title which I have chosen for this chapter expresses, in the best way, the movement for the use in daily life of our English folk-music, and gives some indication of its purport and meaning.
Begun in all sincerity and good faith for the greater happiness and well-being of some hundred girls and boys, with no consciousness then that there was more in this folk music than just that, I know to-day that our work, our aims, that all we most care for has in truth been set to music. I know too that folk-music has its roots deep, deep in the rhythm of earth and iieaven and sea; that those who spin and weave have no tangled threads, no puckered cloth when the shuttle and the loom go with the rhythm of a song. I know that, as long ago the sailor worked to the sound of the "chanty," so all work as well as play may be set to a song. And so in' our work many a difficulty has melted away, lagging feet have gained new energy, life harmonious and more abundant has filled out the form of social work. A door has been opened away out into a new country, which is yet as old as England itself, and we have learned sometliing of that realm of imagination and beauty, of fear and of a sheltering power which is all around us in our childhood, and which comes again to us from the childhood of the world in the simple folk who may still be found remote from town and city life, dwelling by deep and silent waters, by swiftly running rivers, deep in the woods and in sheltered valleys among the hills.
To bring a little of this serene and joyous life into the hurried, keen, and vivid life of city dwellers, and to return it once more to the new generation of country folk with some of the added charm of this vivid life has been the work of the Esperance Club.
It happened in this way. For many years we had made music and dancing and play-acting some of the features of the Club work. One night a week for several winters we had practised Scotch dances, reels, and strathspeys ; one winter we practised Irish jigs, reels, and Irish folk-songs. It is good for boys and girls to dance and sing, and it is good for them to act. I have seen the transformation of a naughty little girl into Saint Elizabeth of Hungary for one night a week work wonders. I have seen the effect of acting the part of a queen or a great lady, add some permanent dignity of character and bearing, and few would have recognised in the stately minuet dancers of one year the mischievous Irish jig dancers of the year before. Every year for some ten years we had performed a cantata at Christmas time, which our friends were kind enough to say they enjoyed, and the learning of which kept the girls happy during the long winter evenings. But an interview with Mr. Cecil Sharp
in the Morning Post, read by Mr. H. C. Macllwaine, who was then our musical director, on English folk-songs, set us on a new track.
Looking back it seems symbolic that the first English folk-song sung by the Esperance Club should be " The Seeds of Love." In a fortnight from the singing of the first folk-song I could only say that the Club had gone mad, for the girls were perfectly into.\icated with the beauty of the music. Since then I have learnt a good deal about folk-music, and I can better understand what it was that made such instant appeal to these English girls.
Folk music is the creation and the possession of the people. The words and tunes of the songs have come generation after generation from the heart of the English folk. Each generation and each individual who has sung them has added or omitted some little touch, and so to-day in these songs which have been mostly collected from old people eighty and ninety years of age is the very heart and soul of English sentiment.
The folk-songs are full of the love of the land, of the flowers, and of healthy joyous life. There is no senti- mentality, only the true sentiment of life and of passion. The decadent verse maker of to-day would not under- stand the love making of the country side, illustrated as it is by the song of birds, the blossoming of flowers, and the mystery which is only felt by those of simple and child- like mind.
There is plenty of adventure, too, in the folk-songs which tell of pirates and highwaymen, of press-gangs and battles by sea and land.
By the time we had learned some six or eight songs we wanted to find some dances which would fit in with the spirit of the folk-songs, and on enquiry I found that the tradition of morris dancing still lingered in country districts, and I had given to me the names of two men in Oxfordshire who still danced the morris. I went into Oxfordshire and found that these men had had a set of morris dances in their family for five generations directly handed down from father to son. I invited them to London, and set them to teach these dances to the members of my Club. Thus began that revival of morris dancing which is part of the national life to-day.
In two evenings we had learnt six or eight dances, the men telling me that these London girls had learnt more in two evenings than they could teach country lads in six months. We have since learned that the London girl is as quick to teach as to learn, and in one week she has often taught six dances to fifty or sixty children. Lately, in two weeks four hundred elementary school teachers learnt the dances from Miss Warren.
We first sang the songs and danced the dances at our Christmas party in 1905, an historic occasion as it turned out. The result was startling and delightful. One after another came to me and said how beautiful it was, and I was urged to give a more public performance. This we did, and in April a concert was given at the Small Queen's Hall. Every seat was taken, and some fifty people were turned away from the doors. The Daily Chronicle said it was " a little entertainment which may indeed light such a candle in England as will not immediately be put out." This proved a true prophecy, for since then over twenty concerts have been given in the Small Queen's Hall, and we have been all round the
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK.
environs of London as far as Barnct, Haslemere, Maiden- head, and Reading. We have twice been to Yorkshire, and been most hospitably entertained for the night. Next summer I am meditating a fortnight's tour by motor 'bus from London to Yorkshire and back, giving a display in a different town or village every day but Sunday.
The ne.xt step was that I began to be asked by country people interested in village life, by Poor Law teachers, drill instructors, school - mistresses, club leaders, and others where the songs and dances could be had. All wrote with the same idea, the need of bringing back into the lives of the English people their own folk music, an inheritance which the dwellers in cities had lust entirely, and which was fast slijiping away from the country people as the old folk one by one died, leaving no record behind, or a record safely imprisoned in the archive? of learned societies or between the covers of collectors' books.
Answering letters about the songs was comparatively easy ; one wrote and said where they were to be had in book form. But with the dances it was different. These had not been published, and there was then no manual of instructions. So very tentatively at first I began sending out the members of my Club whom I thought the best dancers and who would be the most intelligent teachers. This again proved an historic event.
Since then we have rivalled the traditional John Kemp, " the nine-days' wonder," who danced the morris from London to Norwich. The first county into which I sent Miss Florence Warren was Norfolk, and since then she and six or eight others have danced the morris from one end of England to the other, north, south, east, and west. To-day there are two counties in which we have not taught, and into one of those our pupils have penetrated. By the time this is in print it is possible these two will have been included. In some counties we have ten or twelve centres, and I believe we have taught in every town of any size in West Sussex.
Besides this we have taught girls' clubs, boys' clubs, polytechnic schools, and private individuals in all parts of London, and many of our pupils have given demonstra- tions both in London and in the ccjuntry to their own and their onlookers' great enjoyment.
This autumn the Board of Education, in the new Syllabus of Physical Exercises, has included morris dancing, reels, lilts, and other country dances. So we have started dancing classes especially for elementary school teachers, which are very well attended. From time to time we shall give these teachers an opportunity of seeing the traditional dancers at work, so that they may be equipped to hand on the dances to the school children in the traditional form and spirit.
Everywhere the same result has followed. Clergymen and helpers of all classes write to me that quite a new life and interest has sprung up in their midst. Clergy who have despaired of getting beyond the apathy and dulness of modern village life have reached people through the medium of the folk music. Music is the one art in which the otherwise inarticulate can express themselves, and so we have in this music the truest meeting ground for all classes. For the first time we have something in our possession for which others are glad to ask, and which we are glad to share. This revival of the ]iractire and
use of our English folk music is, as many helpers have told me, part of a great national revival, a going back from town to country, a reaction against all that is demoralising in city life. It is a re-awakening of that part of our national consciousness which makes for wholeness, sane- ness, and healthy merriment.
We can never, as a nation, go back to the days when country life sulhced for csery thing. The town has come too near to the country for that. But an interchange between town and country is what we must look for in the future. The musician will go into the country and will set down for us dance and game and song from the old folks in whose memory the music still lives. The town folk will learn them and add something to them of their own life and generation, something of the charm and vivacity of the city, and they in their turn will teach the young folk of the village.
Letters still come not only from all parts of England, Inil from our colonies and foreign countries, Jaj)an, Bulgaria, India, and the Canary Islands. The etfect which having somelhing they are able to give has had upon those who are passing on these songs, games, and dances is quite beautiful. The hospitality which they have cn;oyed in the country, the hospitality win h they have given to the country folk who have come to teach them, has been a great joy to both sides, and as time goes on and we discover more of these traditional dancers, we hope to make our Club room a centre to which those will come who not only wish to learn the old-time steps and tunes, but who will enjoy seeing the tra- ditional dancers face to face, and who in this way will catch the true and essential spirit of the almost lost art. As I wiite I am just arranging for another set of dancers, only nov/ discovered by me, to come and dance at the Esperance Club.
From being merely a Working Girls' Club in an out- of-the-way part of London, wo liave become jiart of a national movement, and to-day in the oldest haymarket in London, which is Crown land, and under the Com- missioners of Woods and Forests, may be heard the fascinating strains of Shepherd's Hay, I\Iaid o' the Mill, Constant Billy, and other old-time melodies, the tinkle of the morris bells and the clap of the morris sticks. Tiiis practice of folk dances and songs and games has had a splendid all-round effect on the general conduct and character of the Club meml^ers, as any movement which takes us out of our own little life and interest should do. It has added a certain dignity to the smallest thing we do.
It matters not what the actual agent is so long as that part of us is touched where lives the deepest and best of our nature. It is to tliis that music in tune and rhythm speaks, it is this to which unconsciously the child responds, and it is this v/hich is going to make English children more alive, alert, and strong, and more responsive to the best ideals and traditions of our land. One has always felt that the national treasure was not all in gold and silver and merchandise, nor with the great and learned, but that somewhere, somehow, it was in the people themselves. It has seemed to us that in this music we have made a great discovery of a hidden treasure, and that having discovered it we have become a medium through which others may discover it too.
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK.
CHAPTER II.
THE DANCES.
" Harke, harke, I hear the dancing And a nimble morris prancing ; The bagpipe and the morris bells That they are not farre hence us tells."
Old Madrigal.
IN writing this chapter 1 want to go right back to first impressions and give a word picture of what is so difficult to understand, without a Hving dancer, a picture of the essence and spirit of the Enghsh folk dance.
It is a far cry from the twentieth century with its teeming city life, its culture, its effete and luxurious civilization, and its self-consciousness away hack to the Elizabethan reveller, to the days when England was merry England because her heart was young, to the days when men took life in lioth hands and lived spaciously, fighting, loving, adventuring, and making their dancing and singing express the surging life within them. A writer in the Times of July loth, 1909, says that the virility and vivacity of the morris dances prove that they were not the inven- tions of a down-trodden peasantry, but of free-born freedom- loving Englishmen. And once when an old sailor, himself a folk-song singer, saw some of the Esperance girls dancing he said to me, "That is the dancing of my heart, it's clean dancing, and I would not have missed the sight for two big apples! " These sayings recall to me my first imjiressions as I watched the first two countrymen who came to teach the London girls to dance the morris. Freedom, cleanness, sturdy vigour, robust jollity in most of the dances ; an added seriousness of ceremonial in others.
But there was a total lack of self-conscious ])osturing, of anything finicking or dainty, nor was there any resemblance whatever to ordinary ball-room dances. Now that these dances are sanctioned by the Board of Education for use in our nation's schools, it is of the utmost importance that their special national character should be preserved. The very success of the revi\al of their practice brings its dangers.
A lady, who is on the staff of one of the colleges of physical training, told me the other day that, thinking to make the morris dance more graceful and more suited to modern use, she had, when teaching it, modified it here and there, altering it where she thought it could be made prettier. Then she came to a performance given by the Esperance Club, and immediately saw that she had quite spoiled the dances, and she said to me, " I see now how entirely right you have been in keeping true to the traditional way of dancing and to the spirit which inspires it. I see now that by altering the dances I completc'y spoiled them." Neither in describing these dances can such words as subtlety and delicate nuances be used. No words less descriptive of these peasant dances danced to rejoice in the strength of fisticuffs, in the planting of seeds in spring, in the hunting of Judas Iscariot, who stands for all time as the treacherous friend, the riding to the fair of " Jockie," and scores of other simple, healthy, imlettered ideas, could possibly be imagined. No, if we do not admire vigour, stamping, virile o]ien-air dancing, with thick shoes and tinkling bells, the clash of sticks, and the bright colours of tlie ribbons and rosettes we must go elscwliere for our dances and to subtler people than the English peasant.
Lately I spent some time talking to an old man, a generation older than the Oxfordshire men who first taught the dances in London, and I collected many stories and old traditions about the revels in connection with the morris, and always the same atmosphere was there, all was simple, direct, unselfconscious, vigorous.
There are some interesting traditions in connection with these dances which go back to the year 1700. At that time the people in one street outside the borough outnumbered those in the town proper, and thought they ought to elect the mayor. A beast was slaughtered and roasted, and a fight took place for the horns. These were won by the people of the one street, who elected their own mayor, who had the privilege of carrying the horns mounted on a pole in the morris dance. A set of horns is still in existence mounted on a bull's head made of wood, painted black, and with flaming red nostrils and lips. The date 1700 being painted across the head.
Our old friend who taught us the dances had been mayor of the morris nine times. " The squire," another dancer, carries a sword and a large wooden cup and a tin box for collections. All these are still to be seen, and are those in the photograph of the Berkshire morris dancers. These dances are danced round the town on June igtli, and are in connection with a fair which takes place on June 2ist, the longest day. This date and the old tra- dition of the slaughtered beast seems to point to the fact that these dances are survivals of some ancient pagan festival connected with the worship of the sun. As we further investigate these matters and follow up all the clues there will doubtless be many interesting traditions brought to light which, from an arch;co!ogical as well as a merry-making point of view, will be well worth knowing.
Another old morris dancer, aged 72, who used to dance in his youth in Oxfordshire, told me that in his \'illage the head of the morris carried a lamb in his arms and at intervals he put the Iamb down while the dancers danced in front of it. They danced near Whitsuntide, and the ceremony was called " Lamb Ale." This again seems to connect the morris with a pagan ceremonial sacrificial rite.
In reading a book on the history of theology called " Orpheus : A General History of Religions," by Salomon Reinach, I was interested to come across the following passage : —
In a chapter on the Art of the Cave-dwellers, he says, speaking of the pictures of animals pierced by arrows, that perhaps these pictures were drawn with the idea that the reality might be brought about by the image. " We find the same conception in the Jliddle Ages, when a spell was cast upon an enemy by sticking pins into a waxen image made in his likeness. Here we lay hold of the magic origins of art, the object of which is to attract tlie animals, which served the tribe for food, by a sort of fascination. It is very probable that these animals were the totems of the different clans, that tl.e caves were the scenes of totemic ceremonies, and that the engraved or sculptured objects made of reindeer horn and called coniiiuniJer's halons ))layed a magic part in the worship." (I am quoting from the translation of Florence Simmonds.) Is this possibly the origin of the batons used in the morris
THE ESl'ERASCE MORRtS ROOK.
dance? The fact that the morris is almost certainly a survival of a pagan religious ceremonial makes even this possible.
This again looks as if we might trace in the " baton " used in the morris dances a survival of some very ancient pre-Christian ceremonial dances.
Miss Lucy Broadwood called my attention to the similarity between the dance tune used in " Shepherd's Hay" and that used by Britaimy peasant children at the summer fete of shepherds.
She sent me the following tune luul a little account of the ceremony : —
ANN .\LIKE.
(LWi'iTL Diis Patres, dialecte de Cornouailb )
"Chants Populaires dc la Bretagne. T. H. de la ViLLiiMARQui;, IS^e. J, Allegretto.
pilg^^gjEg^^
m
ns^^p?^
Villcmarque ?ays that children have their fete as well as the grown-uj)S, at the end of autumn, when " la Fete des Patres " (sliepherds) is held. After a day spent in feasting, dancing, and singing (on some wide " lande " where the little shepherds and shepherdesses usually have tended their flocks) the children return home singing the old song, given above.
Ce qui a fait donner a cettc chanson Ic nom dc AHke, c'cst qu' avant dc la conimcnccr, Ics petits patres, niontcs sur des arbrcs, so jettent trois fois cc mot, d'unc montagnc a I'autre, en gardaiit lours troupcaux, le gaigon prond le premier la parole de la sorte : " Ali ! Ice ! all ! ke, ali ! kc ! " ".'\vis ! viens " (repealed). Et, ajoutant le nom dc la jcune fille qu'il veut appelcr il lui dit. "Le!" {" ecoutc ! ") Si cllc ne veut pas ecouter elle s'ecrie : " N' cann ked — de " {" Je nc vais pas vraiment "). Si, au contraire, cllc consent a I'entcndre, clle repond : " Me ia ! ie " (" Je vais, oui "). Et aussitot son icunc compagnon entonne la chanson (Ann Alike) jusqu'a la dcrniere strophe, que la petite fille chante seule avec telle variantc qui lui plait."
Chants Pop. de la Bretagne, Tome it, pp. 548-550.
There is also a similarity between parts of the ceremony and the singing game called " Green Grass."
The Britanny version of Shepherd's Hay points again to some religious ceremony connected with the seasons and the gathering together of flocks and herds.
Miss Lucy Broadwood also sent me the following mteresting note on the Cornish Furry Dance : —
" Furry " has various pronunciations and variants. I think that it may possibly be a corruption of " Farandole " (=Furrydance). See the account given by M. K. Soleville in his " Chants Populaires du Has Quercy (1889) : —
"Ces danscs, encore en usage dans le Bas-Longuedoc et la Provence, ont completement disparu du Quercy. On donnait Ic nom de farandolcs a de longucs chaines de danscurs ct de
danscuses, qui, parcourant Ics clicmins ou Ics rues, sulvaient, dans leurs ondulations, Ics courbes dccritcs par le chef dc file dc la dansc." Soleville gives three airs, two of which arc in 2-4 time, and one, " Al Fount de Mountmurat," in 6-8 lime. This latter is the same air as " Malbrouk s'cn va't en guerre " (ist half only).
Is "Hal-an-tow" also a corruption of Far-an-dole ?
A Cornishman has told nie that soaie ethnologists say that the Cornish people are of Basque origin. If so it is not surprising that the farandole, formerly danced in lias Quercy and i)rovinces adjoining the Pays de Basque, should linger still in Cornwall.
These suggestions are jotted down for what they are worth — merely as suggestions. "
But at Fishguard, in South Wales, I saw some stick dances very like Shepherd's Hay in form, which had been taught by two Irishmen, and these men told me it was a war dance and danced in connection with a mummers' play. This play had twelve characters, all warriors, and included Nelson, Wellington, Prince George, St. Patrick, etc.
This rather suggests the idea that when the morris was first danced in England it came from Morocco and represented a figld between English and Moors, heathen and Christian.
Very little is really known as to its origin, but as facts come to light and clues are followed up we may be able to reconstruct its history. I shall always be grateful to those who will tell me of morris dancers in the country or of any remains of the tradition or folk lore in connection with the subject.
As far as I know, the P)erkshire dances, with the exception id Princes Roval, are published for the first time. It may be of interest, therefore, to give a little account of them and of the way in which we discovered them. I was speaking at a very out-of-the-way village when a young man, who had sung a folk-song as part of the evening's entertainment, asked me if I had ever heard of a dance danced in a certain small town in Berkshire, and which had as part of its regalia two horns mounted on a pole. I said " No," and asked for the address of the family said to be the keepers of the old tradition. This I got, and wrote off to the oldest member of the family. The reply was delightful. It began :— " Honourable and respected Miss, I am that party which lias the old dances, and T shall be proud to show them to you. Yours to command."
I found out, however, that the old man could neither read nor write, but had deputed a friend to write. This in itself is a recommendation in the exponent of folk art — largely a lost art in these days of compulsory education.
After letters exxhanged, my friend Mrs. Tuke and T arrived in the town to find the old man waiting at the station. We had a sort of triumphal march through the town, he being greeted from one and another with evident interest. I learned later in the day that the town had considered my letters a hoax, and that the meaning of the old man's evident pleasure in walking through the town with one of us on either side of him was in effect saying, " You see, the ladies have come after all, they are no hoax."
He conducted us to a room in a small inn which he had secured for us, and then the fun l.iegan ! He was a little nervous and not a little forgetful, and the con- certina which he ])layed not ^■ery satisfactory. Whenever he forgot the tune he told us the note was missing in his instrument. Later, in London, when he came to the Esperance Club, I got him three more concertinas and
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK
they had a way of getting damp every now and then when he put them in the fender to warm. In the end, however, we got the tunes by dint of patience and making him feel at home with us. When he came to town he brought with him his " 3'oung brother," a grey-bearded man, wonderfully agile on his feet, who very soon had our girls dancing the dances he knew.
" They do step it well, miss," he told me, " I never saw a man step better." The learning of a new morris is an interesting sight.
The tune having been taken down, is played on the piano, the old men marshall six girls into the middle of the room ; there is a babel of voices, everyone seems to be pushing everyone into her place. The piano stops, a committee is held, all talking at once. The pianist turns to me in despair. " They'll never get the dance, they can't understand the old man's broad Berkshire dialect, it's no use." " It's all right," I reply, " you wait, I've seen all this sort of thing before ; in twenty minutes they will have got it." And sure enough in less than that " Sally Luker " is going merrily and to the entire satisfaction of the teachers. The other dances go through the same stages, and in two evenings we know all those which the men can teach us.
Later on is given a description of the general morris steps and the formation of the dances for wliich the tunes are given, but I hope that in every case those wanting to learn will have a teacher who will do what no book can do, to teach the dance in the right way.
In my opinion the ideal teachers are those who have learned these dances direct from the country dancers, and who in the nature of things are in tune with them.
The principal things that make the working girls so suitable as teachers is their youth, simplicity, and their extraordinary vitality and charm. I might hesitate to use these words had I not in my possession scores of letters
in which it is almost amusing to watch their constant recurrence.
It is no wonder that these free-born laughter-loving healthy girls, who are not two generations away from the peasant class from which they sprung, should have travelled from one end of England to the other taking back to country children their joint inheritance of dances and games.
After all, if folk music is the spontaneous expression of a people's life, we of our generation too have a contri- bution to make to it. And it is this contribution which I believe these Esperance instructors have given to the movement for the revival of folk music which is going on to-day.
There must be nothing in this revival which cannot be done by the average boy and girl ; it must be kept, in the true sense of the word, a " vulgar " movement, under- standed of the common people.
I am only afraid of the hindering touch of the pedant, of the professional dance and music teacher. The move- ment must be kept clear of all pedantry and of everything precicux. These dances must from time to time be learnt direct from the peasant, and be handed on by the simple-minded, the musically unlettered, the young and the happy. I thought it would take five years to cover England with merry-making boys and girls. Now that the schools can help, it looks as if we should do it in half the time. Reports of progress still pour in, the merry are becoming more merry, and the young more youthful, and even the laggards in health and happiness are coming into line, and I feel we have in this folk music a weapon which will do as much as anything else to check physical deterioration, and to make English boj's and girls what every lover of our native land would like to see them — upstanding, clean living, and joyous.
THE ES PL RANCH MORRIS BOOK.
CHAPTER III.
THK A [ORRIS STEP.
" And all of their singing was ' Earth, it is well ; Ami all of their dancing was ' Life, thou art good.' "
Bliss CartnuH.
IN describing tlie morris dances it will be well to say before going any further that there is no actual set step wliich can be distinctly called the morris step. In saying this, I know that I am going against the ojnnion of some authorities, but my experience now extends over four years, and during that time the Esperance Girls' Club has been in touch with ten different traditional dancers from different counties in England, and our experience has been that each county and almost each neighbourhood has its ov.'n par- ticular variant of the dance. For instance, a book
describing the Headington dances was shown to the men of Bidford, and the descrij)lion of the step was read to Ihem. They at once said it was all %vTong. A dance learned at Ilminglon was said by the Headington men not to be a morris at all, though included in a book of morris dances. The Headington men say there is no such thing as the foot being drawn back in the morris dance, but two men living within seven miles of Headington, and who have documentary proof of tradition going back to the year 1700, never used the foot put forward, but in every case did the step, which was one, two, three, and the foot kicked backwards, exactly like the picture of the morris dancers on the stained glass window in Staffordshire.
Again, I had two men up from Northamptonshire, and they did the step hopping first on one foot and then with the other leg making two distinct movements, one forward and one to the side, with no sign of a back kick at all. In Lancashire again the step was quite different ; it had evidently been influenced by step dancing, of which it was distinctly reminiscent. One must be prepared, therefore, when going from place to place, and getting fresh dances, to find the actual step different in every place, and yet, curiously enough, when the dance is being danced, one gets very much the same impression of the whole. This, I think, is due a great deal to the vigour, robustness, and general agility with which the dance is danced, and to the ribbons, bells, handkerchiefs, and sticks which accom- pany it. One can lay down no laws, for I have known the same men change the step on three consecutive visits to London, so that at the end one could scarcely recognize it as the same step. Another difficulty is that the country dancer at his best is unselfconscious, and dances quite spontaneously, and that merely pulling hiin up and asking him to repeat the step causes him at once to change, so that even in one evening with one teacher in one dance, one often evolves quite a variant. Of course all this very much adds to the difficulty of writing a description of a dance, because if the first impressions were (juite exact, by the time the book was in print the dancer might have changed his mind and be doing a different step. I think it is largely owing to the different dancers who ha\-e taught
them that the sending out of the teachers from the Esperance Club has been such a success, because they have seen so much of the country dancers that they have thoroughly imbibed the spirit of the traditional way of dancing.
At the beginning of each dance the musician plays the first section through once ; this is called " Once to yourself." It might be noted here that Jlorris dance tunes are not of necessity traditional tunes, as the dancers often took popular contemporary tunes and adapted them to their purposes. " Jockey to the Fair" is an instance of this, being undoubtedl}' a composed tune which enjoyed great popularity at the end of the eighteenth century.
Miss Florence Warren, our head instructress, has often been asked to write flown the dances, exactly as she teaches a class, without technical terms or involved description. This has been done. A shorthand writer took the description of the dances from Miss Warren, just as she gives them to a class of children, to make sure that they are clear and simple. In all of these dances, a " side " consists of six dancers, who stand in the following positions :
|
6| |
5 j |
|
|
41 |
31 |
|
|
2i |
M |
|
|
AUUII' |
;nce. |
5094
THE ESPE RANGE MORRIS BOOK.
CHAPTER IV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DANCES.
IN the dances of the particular set which include Country Garden, Rigs o' Marlow, Shepherd's Hey, and Constant Billy the form is the same, with a slight variation in Shepherd's Hey, noted later. Each dance consists of a series of evolutions, which are : chain, cross-over, and back-to-back, and in between each of these movements occur the steps and hand movements particularly characteristic of each dance. The evolutions — chain, cross-over, and back-to-back — are done to eight bars of the music, and the steps for accomplishing them are : —
I Spring on the right foot ^^ R. Spring on the left foot ^ L. Spring on the right foot ^ R. Hop on the right foot = hop R.
/ Spring on the left foot = L.
T bar I ^P""^"? °" *^^^ right foot = R. "I Spring on the left foot = L. [ Hop on the left foot = hop L.
/■Swing the right foot behind and alight on both feet = both. Hop on the back foot and take the front one away
to side = hop. Swing that foot behind and alight on both feet
^ both. Hop on the back foot and take the front one away =^ hop.
I bar-
I bar— Feet together and jump.
The dancers would do well to bear in mind the following general rules for performing the steps. Try to dance on the ball of the foot towards the toe. The effect should not be of stamping or of scraping, but one should make a clean clear tap on the ground. The less noise made the better ; it is the bells that we must hear, not the stamp of the foot. The unemployed leg should, in general, be straight, but not stiffened. The effect should be one of naturalness and ease. At the beginning of a step the foot which is about to be used is thrust forward, and is brought back into position on the ground in order to make the first step or spring. At the moment the foot touches the ground the other foot is thrust forward. In making the hop, the unemployed foot should not be raised too high from the ground ; but the hop itself should be a high one, as this act of restraining the unemployed leg should give the effect of a shake to that leg, which makes the bells "speak" The approximate position of the feet can be seen in the lower picture on p. ix.
These dances, with the exception of " Rigs o' Marlow," all start the same way, and the same steps are used as for chain, etc. The set stand in position, the music plays 4 bars, a slight jump is made on 2nd beat of 4th bar, and the set then all dance forward, doing R L R hop R, L R L hop L, and retire doing both, hop, both, hop, together, and jump ; they then make a right about turn and do the same thing the other way, and on " together," being in their places they face partners and
jump ; this will be called Down and back turn ; Up and back face.
Chaiit.~You start facing partners, and the leaders and ends have to change places. To do this they all four turn out and dance towards each other ; at the same time the centres follow their leaders, so when leaders and ends meet the centre should be in her leader's place ; the leader then goes in fro:it of the end girl to her (end) place ; the end girl dances to leader's place — she will have to pass in front of centre, who will return to her own place. This is a half chain and takes 4 bars ; to complete chain do the same to own places, centre always following her leader.
In Chain, the dancers should have reached the places they are making for by the time they have finished R L R hop R, L R L hop L, so that both hop, both hop, etc., should be danced in position.
Cross-over. — To do this you cross to your partner's place, right shoulders touching, doing R L R hop R, L R L hop L. By this time you should have turned in her place ; you then do both hop both hop together jump, and cross to places in the same way.
Back-to-back.— You meet your partner, right shoulders touching, doing R L R hop R. You then pass round her without turning on L R L hop L, and back to your own place on both hop both hop together jump ; you then repeat, left shoulders touching.
Step for Ch.\in', etc.
Beats . . I I Feet.... R
hop R I L R
Beats . Feet ...
12 3412 both hop both hop ! together
; 4 ; hop L
3 4 jump
SHEPHERD'S HEY {Stick Dance).
The evolutions in this dance are the same as those just described, with one exception. In this dance crossing is done by a movement called " go-and-come," which is a little different from the ordinary crossing and back-to- back. The dancers cross by a slanting movement, bearing a little to the left, and come back without turning on the same track ; they then cross bearing to the right, and return on their own tracks.
The evolutions therefore are as follows : —
Partners knock sticks on last beat of " Once to yourself."
Down and back, turn ; Up and back, face partners. 8 bars.
Dance ; chain. 16 bars.
Dance ; go-and-come. 16 bars.
Dance ; back-to-back. 16 bars.
Dance ; go-and-come. 16 bars.
Face as at start and dance the same step as for chain in position for 8 bars double quick time. Finish by flinging both hands above head and cry.
For down and back and all evolutions, the step is the same as described above.
THE EST' FRANCE MORRIS BOOK.
The Dance in this case is : —
Hold sticks upright in right fists and knock together six times with partner on alternate sides of the stick (as picture, p. xiv).
Keep sticks crossed and dance right, left, right, hop right ; then left, right, alight on both feet (p. ix).
Repeat from clashing sticks.
When sticks are not being clashed, they must be held upright in fists, and at 3rd beat of 4th bar in chain, etc., they have to be knocked once. There is }io step during this clashing of sticks.
Beats . . Sticks.. Feet ..
In this diagram x marks the beats on which the sticks are struck ; b = alight on both feet.
|
ba |
r 5 |
bar o |
l>ur 7 |
bars |
||
|
I 2 |
3 4 |
I |
2 3 |
4 |
1^34 |
I 2 3 |
|
X X |
X |
X |
X X |
R L R R |
L R b |
ir-,t and 2nd iieats in bar 12. 3rd and 4th beats in bar 14.
(I) I (I)-
(2)-
1st beat, bar 15.
(2) iftt beat.
RIGS 0' MARLO]V iStkk Dcincc).
In this dance partners tap sticks twice in the Sth bar in chain, cross, etc., every time it occurs. The sticks are held tightly in the centre as if for knocking. The right hand side (2, 4, 5) hold them horizontal, and the left hand side (i, 3, 5), tap the end nearest to them with the tops of their own sticks.
The step is : —
Left, hop left (i bar) ; right, hop right (i bar) ; and so on, except when tapping sticks.
The evolutions of this dance are as follows : — Partners tap sticks on ist and 2nd beats of last bar of
"Once to yourself." Start on left foot. Hop down four bars, back four bars, tap on last two
beats. 8 bars. Down four, back four, tap twice. 8 bars. Face partner. Tapping. lO bars. Chain. 16 bars. Tapping. 16 bars. Cross. 16 bars. Tapping. 16 bars. Back-to-back, ib bars. Tapping. 16 bars. " AH in, " i.e., face as at start and strike sticks on last
beat.
Tapping :—
Right hand side holds sticks horizontal, left side taps twice on ist and 2nd beat of bar 10. Then left side holds sticks horizontal, and right side taps twice on ist and 2nd beat, bar 12. Right side holds sticks horizontal again, while left side taps on 1st and 2nd beat of bar 14, and ist and 2nd beats of bars 15 and 16 (as diagram). The round dot shows the position of the hand.
(li-
st art.
-(-)
T.\PPIN'G.
1st and 2nd beats in bar 10. (I) .-
(2)
(I)-
(2)
The whole figure is then repeated — Feet. bars I), 10 bars 11, 12 bars 13, 14 bars 15, 16 ist time L L L L I R R R R I L L L L I R L R L 2nd time R R R R I L L L L I R R R R I L R L R
Thus the whole of tapping is as follows : —
Beats Sticks Feet
|
ar 9 |
10 |
II |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
|
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
|
X \ |
X X |
X X |
X X |
|||
|
L L |
L L |
R R |
R R |
L L |
L L |
R L |
16
I 2 X X
R L
16 I 2
X X
L R
COUNTRY GARDENS [Handkerchief Dance).
In this dance a handkerchief is held in each hand by the four corners, and while dancing down and back turn, up and back face, chain, etc., the hands are moved in the following way with the feet : —
|
B |
ir q |
10 |
II |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
|
Beats |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
I 2 |
|
Sticks |
X X |
X X |
X X |
X X |
|||
|
Feet |
RR |
R R |
L L |
L L |
R R |
R R |
L R |
Feet . . . • R L R Hands . . ' down
hop R up
Feet . Hands
both hop ; both hop circle circle
L R L
down
together down
hop L up
jump up
For "Once to yourself" four bars of music is played ; at 3rd beat in 4th bar all make a slight jump and throw hands up to about level of face, then —
Down and back turn.| o u .<,
Up and back face. J
Hand clapping. 4 bars.
Half chain. 4 bars.
Hand clapping. 4 bars.
Half chain. 4 bars.
Whole chain. 8 bars.
Hand clapping. 8 bars.
Cross. 8 bars.
5694
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK.
9
Hand clapping. 8 bars.
Back to back. 8 bars.
Hand clapping. 8 bars.
All in. Face as at start.
Hand clapping is as follows : all clap hands twice, partners clap right hands ; all clap twice, partners clap left hands ; all clap twice, partners clap right hands ; partners clap left, then fling hands above heads, this takes four bars ; at the same time you hop on alternate feet as follows : —
|
Beats . . Hands . . Feet . . |
I 2 both both L L |
3 R L |
4 L |
I 2 both both R R |
3 4 L R R |
|
Beats . . Hands . . Feet . . . |
I 2 both both L L |
3 R L |
4 L |
I 2 left togc'thor |
3 4 up jump |
CONSTANT BILLY {Stick Dance).
Hold sticks in centre. Always tap once on 2nd beat in 4th bar in chain, cross, etc.
Partners tap sticks (as in " Ri^^s o' Marlow") on last
beat of "Once to yourself." Down and back turn. \ g . Up and back face. I Tap sticks. 4 bars. Half chain. 4 bars. Tap sticks. 4 bars. Half chain. 4 bars. Whole chain. 8 bars. Tap sticks. 8 bars. Cross. 8 bars. Tap sticks. 8 bars. Back-to-back. 8 bars. Tap sticks. 8 bars. All in. Face as at start.
Tapping is as follows : —
Start. 2nd beat, bar 5.
. (I) i
(I) . 1
•—(2) \
i
2nd beat, bar 6.
(I)
(2)—
(2) 2nd beat, bar 7.
(I)-
ist beat, bar 8.
(2) 2nd beat, bar 8.
(2)
Feet
Feet for Tapping. bar 5 I bar 6 | bar 7
JOCKEY TO THE FAIR {Morris Jig).
This is a solo dance, and can be danced by one, two, or more persons. A very effective number is five, and in that case the dancers should stand thus : —
4 I 2 3 5
No. 1 does each movement first, and the other four all dance together after her, meeting in centre thus : —
A handkerchief is held in each hand.
In this dance the most common step is that used in the first two bars of chain, etc., in the other Dances, that is R L R hop R, and to save writing it out every time it shall be called 123 hop. The dance is as follows : —
Once to yourself. — On the 2nd beat of bar 8 the hands are thrown up and a jump is made.
First 8 bars of music. — i 2 3 hop six times, both hop, both hop, together and jump.
Bars 9 to 22. — In the first two bars of this music a new step occurs ; it will be called " side step " and is as follows : Put left foot in front of right, make a quarter turn right, and with feet in this position go to left corner, taking weight of body first on left foot then on R L, R L, R L, Ihcn hop on L, and swing R foot in front of L. Make a quarter turn L, and do ihe same to right corner, taking weight first on R, then on L R, L R, L R, hop R. During side step the hands are circled 8 times. Face front and dance forward, 123 hop si.x times, then back to place, doing both hop, both hop si.x times together and jump. In side step, dancer goes in this direction : —
Start.
THE CAPERS—
In this new movement, called " Capers," the dancer's object is to jump as high as possible, keeping the knees straight. A spring is made first on R foot, then on L, then jump with both feet together, then again R L R jump, R L R jump, R L R jump, then after a quick hop on L foot dance 123 hop twice, and both hop, both hop together and jump. The hands in this are as follows :-
Hands Feet
Hands Feet
down up down up down up down up
I 2 jump 4 56 jump 8
down up down up down up down
9 10 jump 12 13 14 jump
Or, if preferred, circles may be made as follows : — Hands. . down up circle down up circle circle down Feet . . I 2 jump 4 5 6 jump 8
L L
R R
L L
bar 8 R L
Hands Feet
up circle circle down up circle circle , 9 10 jump 12 13 14 jump
10
THE liSPE RANGE AfORRIS BOOK.
The dancer then repeats from bar 9 of music — that is side step, capers, and again side step, and at end of side step third time, instead of doing both hop, both hop six times, slie only does it four, and finishes with four capers and cries.
When there is more than one dancer, the music is played twice for each movement.
These are the movements with music ; —
Music, First 8 bars. — i 2 3 hop, six times, etc.
Bars 9 to 22. — Side step, etc.
Bars 23 to 34. — Capers, etc.
Fig. I. Hands : — down
Bars 9 to 22.— Side step, etc.
Bars 23 to 34. — Capers, etc.
Bars 9 to 22. — Side step and all in.
Jockey to the Fair can also be danced in a different manner. A figure called Ifalf-Capers is danced in the first movement, and the Capers are varied.
The start is made with left foot.
Bars I to 8. — i 2 3 hop | 1 2 3 hop [123 hop | 123 hop I side step | side step, feet together | caper R L j R feet together | as in the following illustration :^
Feet :— L R L hop L R L R hop R L R L hop L R
circle up circle circle down up
L R hop K L R L hop L Side step
Bars 9 to 22. — Side step as in ist version of Dance. Bars 23 to 34. — Caper R, spring on L bending body forward and with R leg thrown back | R L | spring on
R, body forward L back, L|RL|RL, R|L, RL I R L R hop R I I 2 3 hop | i 2 3 hop | both hop both hi>p I together, jump |
R L (Rb) Caper^
R (Lb) L
^m
M
£EEr=£^
R hopR
R L hop L
In
these illustrations — ft = feet together. Rb = right foot behind. Lb = left foot behind.
It will be seen that in the 5th and 6th bars of Fig. II two quick capers are made.
MAID OF THE MILL—
This dance is danced by knotting handkerchiefs, holding the unknotted corners in the right hand so that partners are joined by the handkerchief.
The step is : —
Right foot just in front of left, hop on it \
Left foot just in front of right, hop on it J
At the same time a slight swing is made with the body to the side of the front foot ; that is to say, when the right foot is in front there is a slight swing to the right ; and when the left is in front a swing to the left ; the whole giving the effect of a sailor's roll. This is the step throughout.
The evolutions are as follows : —
First 4 bars. — Hop down two bars, back two bars, face partners.
2 bars.
Second 4 bars. — Hold hands above heads, cross under handkerchiefs, left shoulders touching. When you get across, turn so as to be able to look at partner, when you will find yourself standing on the slant. You then turn backwards under your own hand to place.
Third 4 bars. — Leaders and bottom couple turn and dance towards each other, leaders dancing under centres and taking handkerchiefs over bottom couple, bottom couple dancing under both leaders and centres. Cross as in second 4 bars.
Hold handkerchirfs as high as eyes and dance 4 bars, while the hobby horses dance underneath the raised handkerchiefs.
Cross as in second 4 bars again.
All face opposite direction from start, and begin dance all over again. This can be danced until the leader calls " All in."
POP GOES THE WEASEL (Country Dance)—
Form up in two lines. Top couple join hands and dance in a ring with the left hand dancer of the second couple, who, at the words " Pop goes the Weasel," darts under the hands of the others and goes back to her place.
THE ESPE RANGE MORRIS BOOK.
11
Repeat with the right hand dancer of the second couple. Top couple then take hands and dance down the lines and back, top couple and second couple take hands and dance round each other and change places. The top couple repeat dance with third couple ; after changing places with them they dance with fourth couple, and so on down the line until they have danced with every couple. The second couple, when they have changed places with top couple, stand still while top couple dance with third couple, but when they have changed places and top couple are dancing with fourth couple, the second couple dance with third and follow top couple down the line, and so on with every other couple ; when they get to the top they stand still once, and then start dancing down the line until all are dancing.
ABINGDON DANCES. SALLY LUKER—
This is a corner dance. It differs from the previous dances in that the centres never take part, only the four at each corner. The evolutions are as follows : —
Dance down and back to eight bars of the music in same formation as in previous dances, but don't turn.
Face partners and dance. 8 bars.
First corners back-to-back. 8 bars.
Second corners copy. 8 bars.
Dance eight bars in position, facing partners.
All dance round to right in circle, when half way face partners, 8 bars ; return to places, 8 bars.
Dance in position, facing partners, for eight bars, then gradually get into a big circle for eight more bars, and at end all jump on both feet into centre.
Throughout this dance the step is :^
Spring on the right.
Spring on the left.
Spring on the right and hop on the right.
Then : —
Spring on the left.
Spring on the right.
Spring on the left, and hop on left.
Thus the step is much the same as the polka step, and the feet should be moved in the same way, and not thrust forward as in the other dances. When the hop is made, the unemployed foot is kicked out behind. The movement of the dancer is from side to side with each group of steps, right when he begins on the right, left when he begins on the left. The hands are moved as follows : —
Movement. . right
Feet R L R hop R
Hands down up
left
L R L hop L down up
Added to this, on the ist beat of each 8 bars, a spring is made on the right foot, the body is thrown forward with arms up, and the left leg lifted behind ; and on the 3rd beat a hop is made on the right foot.
In corners, back-to-back, a different step is used, as follows : the right foot is slightly raised behind, the body is bent forward, and four slight hops are given on left foot ; this takes one bar ; you then hop four times on right foot and put left up in front, and so on for seven bars ; the hands go down when foot is raised behind, up when the foot is raised in front. On the 8th bar the spring is made as described in the previous paragraph.
PRINCES ROYAL—
The steps for this dance are the same as "Sally Luker," with the exception of a side step to be described below.
The evolutions are as follows : —
Dance down and back, and spring. 8 bars.
Face partners and dance. 8 bars.
Side step. 6 bars.
Clap both hands on ist and 2nd beats ; on jrd beat put right hand out towards partner. Repeat this for ne.\t bar. 2 bars.
Leaders, walking, change places with the bottom couple, middles stand a few paces back that they may pass easily. 4 bars.
Side step. 6 bars.
Repeat clapping. 2 bars.
Leaders return to their places. 4 bars.
Dance for 16 bars as " Sally Luker."
Jump to centre.
Side step. — Both sides start with the right foot, taking four steps to the right and drawing up left foot, with the right hand up, and left hand just out in front, then four to the left, drawing up right foot, with the left hand up. Then take two to the right, right hand up ; two to the left, left hand up ; then clap hands. All this is done facing partners.
Note that there is a spring and hop at the end of each movement as in " Sally Luker."
A-NUrriNG WE WILL GO—
In this dance the set stand in the same formation as for other dances, and the step throughout, hands and feet, is the same as in " Sally Luker."
Dance down and back, turn. 8 bars.
Up back face. 8 bars.
Dance facing partner. 8 bars.
Back to back, as in " Country Gardens." 8 bars.
Dance facing partners. 8 bars.
Back to back again.
Dance facing partners. 8 bars.
Then gradually spread out into big circle at end of another 8 bars. All make a jump into centre with hands up.
In this dance, as in " Sally Luker " and " Princes Royal," a jump is made at end of every 8 bars.
12
THE ESPERANCE ML) KRIS BOOK.
CHAPTER V.
THE FOLK-SONGS.
I WANT to make this chapter as practical and as hcli)ful as possible to those who projiose to teach the folk- songs to children, boys and giils, and to any who are what all true folk-song singers are — musically unlettered.
The songs should be first of all sung quite simply and naturally by the instructor to the class, and it will very soon be evident whether the pupils like it or not, whether it api>eals to them and takes their fancy ; if it does not, it is best to drop it at once. If it does, they will be alile to sing it quite easily when they have heard it about lour times. It may be necessary to go over the words once or twice if the song is a long one or if the story is not very clear, but as a rule the folk-song tells a story, and so the words are quite easily learnt. The Esperance girls and children have never seen the words of the songs, and I hope no one who learns them through this book ever will. To-day our pu])ils can sing about fifty songs, and the result is that wherever there happens to be half a dozen of our singing class together, on the sea, rowing up the river, out in the woods and meadows on our summer holiday, or where one is working a sewing machine in a West-end shop, or doing housework at home, no matter where or in what occupied, the folk-songs are sung, and it is one of my joys to-day to know that these songs are lightening the hours of labour in many a London and country work- room, and enhancing the joy of many a holiday hour.
The ne.xt question is what amount of acting and gestine is permissible. I hope no one will ever call these songs " action songs," the words convoy an entirely wrong impression. Consulting with a lady of experience in village folk dance, song, and drama, we decided to describe some of the songs as " folk-songs with gesture." This seems the best way to describe what is quite natural to children and young folks in singing dramatic songs.
My plan is to take away all chairs, put the class in the centre of the room, and then see what they naturally do to express the meaning of the song. Their impulse is generally right. Then one criticises anything unsuitable, or ugly, gives a few hints, but in the end leaves them pretty much to themselves. Anything which justifies the term "action song" that is, any stereotyped action, must be rigorously excluded. I have seen children v.ho, seen and not heard, might well have been taken for a class of drill students ! This is a danger for songs, dances, and games, now that they are included in the school curriculum, and if it becomes a fact will utterly destroy the meaning and beauty of the revival of the use of folk music.
I think the two best sets of child singers and dancers I have seen whose gestures and singing were most beautiful
were the Infant school scholars at Leicester and the children at the Sompting school in Sussex.
It cannot lie too often repeated that at all costs the singers and dancers and instructors must be made to enjoy the dancing and singing, otherwise we have only added to the burdens of life in introducing these songs and dances into the school, and have done nothing that makes for its uplifting and joyousness. The dance and game teachers sent out from the Esperance Club do not profess to teach the songs, but they will be found most helpful in suggestions as to the general spirit and way of singing them. They will gladly pass on to others all they have learnt in their own class.
It would be a counsel of perfection to suggest singing the songs as the traditional singer does, without accom- paniment, though here and there will be found someone with an exceptional voice who can sing a solo unaccom- panied, but, speaking generally, the piano will be necessary, and is the best instrument for the purpose.
Although we always say, when sending out a teacher of the dances and games, that we do not undertake to teach the songs, rumours constantly reach me that the songs are taught — that is merely that they are sung and learnt as traditional music should be learnt, and as the songs were originally learnt and handed on from one goneration to another. Only nowadays the songs are sometimes handed back a generation or two as well as taught to the children.
I had a letter this week which jileased me very much, and this is an extract from it : —
" I have taught many of the songs ; yesterday in church it was given out that the folk music class would be Tuesday instead of Wednesday, because most of the village people come to look on and enjoy it just as much as the dancers. Many of the old people in the village have asked if I would go and sing to them — they cannot get out."
And so to-day, in the very heart of rural England, the children are dancing and singing, and the old folks sit at home and the singer goes round, and once more they hear the songs of their youth and rejoice. Who can say how far this movement will go towards so changing and brightening village life, that the fatal exodus towards the cities may be at any rate held in check?
Who can say how much the deeper and inner life of the English peasant may be stirred to new vigour and new awakening? Who can say what effect this new awakening may have on the ultimate ideals and destiny of our native land?
THL tSPERANCE MORRIS BOOK.
13
CHAPTER VI,
THE GAMES.
For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance, And the merry love the fiddle.
And the merry love to dance."
W. B. Yeats.
AS in the songs, the gestures and the " business " used in the games should, as far as possible, be left to the initiative of the children. It has been my good fortune, for many years, lo take parties of children out of the city away into the country for a summer holiday, and nothing has impressed me more than the charming and dramatic way in which the children play when left to themselves. I have often lain on my back out in a wood, shut my eyes and pretended to be asleep, and then, when they were absorbed in their play, had a quiet look at them and listened to their improvisations. The more they play the old English singing games in this way the better, and the way in which they most easily get the spirit and the right gestures is, I think, by being told the story of the game in a dramatic way and being made to understand what lies at the back of it, and then left very much to themselves.
WIGWAMY, WIGWAMY, WATER HEN—
The other night I began to teach children this game, which they had not seen before. I began by describing a mother out in the woods with her children. She suddenly sees an old woman picking up sticks, and, in a friendly, neighbourly way, says to her, by way of passing the time of day, " What are you picking up sticks for? " The old woman answers quite simply and naturally, " To light my fire." But something makes the mother ask again, " What are you lighting your fire for? " To which the old woman replies with a touch of irritability, " To boil my kettle." It begins to dawn upon the mother, in spite of the commonplace surroundings and quite natural reply that things are not quite what they seem, so she says, "What are you boiling your kettle for?" The old woman replies in a harsh and grating voice, slowly and deliberately, with a look at the children, " To boil my knives and forks." Then terror enters into the heart of the mother. Her children crowd round her, and with a cold shiver of horror she says very slowly, " What are you boiling your knives and forks for? " The murder is out, so to speak. The old woman in the woods, apparently innocently picking up slicks, makes a dash for the last child furthest away from the mother, and says, " To cut off your little girls' heads." There is a general stampede, the old woman catches the child, and the game begins all over again ; but as the chorus " Wigamy, wigamy, water-hen," etc., is being sung, the mother, pointing with her finger, looks backwards and counts her children, throwing up her arms with a tragic gesture when she realises that one is missing. I told the children the story something in this form, and with all my experience I was astonished at the dramatic power which they managed to put into it. The simple little nonsense rhyme, with the dialogue at the end, was some- how filled with the tragedy of great things, and the child-
mother represented all the tragedy of the bereaved motherhood of the world ; and the curious and quite inexplicable part of it all is that the children enjoyed it — even the tragedy perhaps more than the comedy.
OLD ROGER IS DEAD—
The children stand round in a ring with arms crossed on their breasts, and at the refrain of each verse, "Dead and gone to his grave," bend slowly backwards and forwards. Four children should stand just outside the ring, and should enter as follows : At the verse " Old Roger is dead and gone to his grave," a child comes slowly into the ring, lies down flat with closed eyes. At the verse " They planted an apple tree over his head," another comes in, stands at old Roger's head, stretching out her arms over him, and at the next verse, " The apples were ripe and beginning to drop," slowly drops and raises her arms. At "There came an old woman a-picking them up," a child comes in, pretending to pick up apples from the ground and putting them into her apron. At the last verse Old Roger, with a dazed look, gets up very slowly, gives the old woman a knock, whereupon she goes " hipperty-hop " out of the ring, followed by Old Roger.
The children might also be told about this game that it represents the ancient Ijclicf that the souls of men after death entered into trees and other living things, and that Old Roger, having entered into his old apple tree, naturally resented his old apples being stolen.
LOOBY LOO—
The children dance round in a ring, singing : —
" Here we go. Looby Loo, Here we go, Looby Light, Here we go, Looby Loo, All on a Saturday night."
Then they stop, point the right hand out into the ring, turn round, point the right hand outside the ring, and then shake it and turn back, facing the centre of the ring as they sing :—
" Put your right hand in. Put your right hand out, Shake it a little, a little. And tiun yourselves about."
This is done with the left hand, the right foot, the left foot, ears, noses, and noddles, until the final verse : — " Put yourselves in. Put yourselves out, Shake them a little, a little. And turn yourselves about."
When all the children go into the middle of the ring, spread themselves out, shake themselves all over, and give a turn right round.
Each verse ends with a sharp clap of the hands and a call on the last note of the tune.
14
THE hSl'ERANCK MORRIS BOOK.
LONDON BRIDGE—
This is a game in which it is gDod to tell the children the drama which lies at the hack of it. They should be told how in olden days a human sacrifice was laid at the foundation stone of every bridge, and liow when London Bridge was broken down every suggestion for its re- building was known to be of no use until " the prisoner " was secured and accused of some crime. How, in less barbarous days, a ransom was accepted instead of the sacrifice. Once the children understand the world truth lying underneath this old-world story, and a mind picture is drawn for them, they will act it in exactly the right spirit. The actual formation of the game is as follows : —
Two of the bigger children join hands and raise them to the level of their heads to form a bridge. The other children take hands, two and two, raise them to about the level of the shoulder, hold out their skirts with the other hand, form a line, and with a little dancing step, one, two, three, and a little hop, go round and round each time under the " bridge " until the line is reached " Some one's stole my guinea gold chain," when the smallest child, who should lead the procession alone, dancing as in the coloured picture, is caught by the " bridge " and held, while the other children stand round in a ring singing the verse with gestures of consternation when the prisoner is caught and the accusation made of having stolen a chain. In the last verse " the bridge " walks away, still holding the prisoner, and the other children follow with bowed heads and mournful gestures. Or it can be played as directed on the music page.
WHEN I WAS A SCHOOL GIRL—
In this game the children have the joy of imitating their ciders in as many different ways as occur to them, and the game may be indefinitely prolonged by their ingenuity or that of their teachers. The children join hands in a ring, singing the first part of the verse until they come to " It was this way and that way," when they stop and do the appropriate action. For instance, " When I was a school- girl," they go slowly round, making a book of their two hands, at which they look very intently. At the verse, " When I was a teacher," they stand, turning from one
side to the other with an admonismng finger held up to the child next to them, first one side, then the other. At " When I had a husband," they walk round anri-in-arni chatting and looking very pleasant to one another, and so on to any number of verses.
GREEN GRASS—
This is another game illustrating courtship and marriage. The children divide into two sides and one side dances backwards and forwards saying, " Here we come up the green grass," etc. Then one of them says, " Will you come? " to a child on the opposite side. The first answer is " No." Then the inviting side sing " Naughty girl," etc. The invitation is given again, and this time the answer is " Yes." Then the child who said " yes" joins the first side, and they dance round in a ring, singing " Now we've got our bonny miss." The game then begins again and goes on until every child has joined the ring.
THREE DUKES—
This game is a survival of an old marriage custom, and represents the exogamous marriage. Three children, who represent the dukes, prance backwards and forwards, singing " Here come three dukes a-riding." The other side, representing the maidens of another tribe or village, advance and retire singing " What is your good will, sirs? " And so on, each side singing alternate verses until the last is reached, " Through the kitchen," etc. Then the three dukes dance in front of the maidens, scrutinising them, finally choosing three, when the game begins all over again with " Six dukes," " Twelve dukes," until all the maidens are chosen.
This game gives great scope for dramatic action, as the " dukes " can express great scorn in singing " You're all as black as charcoal," and the maidens can be quite as scathing in their reply, " We're quite as clean as you, sirs ! " The " dukes " come up very stiffly in the verse " You're all as stiff as pokers," and the " maidens " bend very low in their reply.
niE ESPE RANGE MORRIS BOOK.
15
CHAPTER VII.
COSTUMES.
Solo. — Do you know what sports are in season ?
Silvio. — I hear there are some afoot.
Solo. — Where are your bells, then your rings, your ribbands friend, and your clean nap- kins; your nosegay in your hat pinned up?
From "Women Pleased," Fletcher.
I HAVE had so many enquiries with regard to the best costumes for dancing the morris dance, that a chapter on that subject will not be out of place. The morris dance was originally a men's dance, and there are still survivals in country districts of the costumes worn in the old days. We have generally adopted that worn by the Bidford men in Shakespeare's country, and this is very nearly illustrated by the coloured picture in this book. But it may be taken for granted that the more colour that can be introduced into the dress the better, as in old days there was a rivalry amongst the women as to who could send her man out to dance the morris decked in the brightest colours. The best adaptation of the dress for to-day is, I think, as follows : White knee breeches, grey-blue thick stockings (which can still be had in country districts), and fairly thick shoes. A set of bells should be worn strapped round the upper part of the shin, the bells being sewn on different coloured braids. The shirt should be frilled, and the braces should be decked with bright coloured ribbon, on which rosettes are sewn, as in the picture. The hat should also be decorated with plaited coloured ribbons, and the sleeves of the shirt tied with black or coloured ribbons as in the picture. I do not think the tall hats by any means a necessity, though they are certainly worn at the present day by the Bidford men. A close-fitting cap with lapels over the ears is sometimes worn, and I do not think the ordinary slouch hat, gaily decorated with ribbons, is out of place. For boys, the same costume can be worn, the set of bells, ribbons, etc., merely being made of suitable size in proportion. I have a set of the original bells in my possession, which reach further down the leg than those in the picture, and the bells are sewn on to a piece of canvas which is covered with inch long pieces of coloured cloth, made after the fashion of the hearthrug, which most of us have at some time or other had presented to us by an old soldier or sailor.
For Girls and Women. As there is no traditional dress for women morris dancers, I will describe that which has been made jiopular by the Esperance girls, and the first idea of which was given to me by friends at Haslemere. The ghls should be dressed in bright-coloured cotton frocks. The bodices should be tight fitting, and the skirts gathered or pleated on to them, only, however, allowing enough fulness to hang comfortably when dancing. The skirts should well clear the ankles, and the dancers should be encouraged to have very little starch in frocks or petticoats. The stockings, as the men's, should be blue-grey, and the shoes stout and easy, and, where possible, ornamented with plain steel buckles. Muslin aprons and fichus, white collars and cuffs may be added to make ^-variety. I think there should be as much difference as possible in the colours of the dresses and little changes of make, so long as simple lines are observed, because, as the idea is a
village festival on a village green at holiday time, of course no two people would be dressed alike, and I do not myself like the dresses which I have seen at different per- formances where the children were all dressed rigidly alike, however pretty the costume was, so that any variation in the dress of men or women is, I think, an advantage. One man, for instance, might have his shirt gaily decorated with loops of coloured ribbon, even when the others keep to be-ribboned braces. The dress of the fool also makes a good variety, and may be worn by one of the dancers of either sex. We have generally adopted a straight-down dress of a bright orange brown, scalloped round the edges, with a bell at the end of each scallop, and a cap all in one with it, fitting tight over the head, with holes for the cars, and two horns made of the same stuff padded with cotton wool, and a bell at the end of each. The fool's dress may also be made of a tunic of dark spotted print with a frill of some bright spotted material, and a cap very much the shape of a small tea- cosey, covered all over with odds and ends of ribbon, artificial flowers, and bits of feather. The fool always carries a short stick, at one end of which is a cow's tail, and at the other end a bladder, which is blown out, and with which he flicks and whacks the dancers as the spirit of fun takes him. The girls should wear a cottage sun bonnet, made of print, either of the same colour as the dress, or of a colour which harmonises with the dress. I have found a very pretty effect for a fair girl in an apple green dress with a pink sun bonnet, a pale blue dress with a deep violet sun bonnet, a bright blue dress with a white sun bonnet, and so on, and for dark girls nothing looks so charming as a good scarlet or crimson dress and bonnet with white fichu arrangement. The girls should wear a strip of elastic round the ankles on which bells are sewn.
For the Children. The girl children should be dressed in bright coloured cotton frocks, made, if for a special occasion, with tight- fitting, rather long bodices, short puffed sleeves, and skirt pleated or gathered on to the bodice, and little tight-fitting caps, generally called Dutch bonnets, and which every village mother knows how to make. The ordinary coloured print frocks in which the children go to school will, however, quite serve, and I think if the mothers were warned beforehand, in most instances they would make a point of buying pretty colours, and then very little expense would be entailed in dressing the children, as the little bonnets can be added for a few pence, and they, at any rate, should always be made of the very brightest coloured sateen. I use violet, orange, emerald green, indigo blue, scarlet, etc.. and they give a delightful touch of colour when the frocks are, perhaps, a little faded from being washed. I do not like the effect of white pinafores over the dresses, nor are white dresses effective either indoors or out. The little girls also wear bells round the ankles. Each dancer — men, women, and children — carries a stick and two white handkerchiefs, which are used in the various evolutions of the dance. The boy children should be dressed as the men are, tall hats can be had from a shop at Eton, the address of which is given at the end of the book.
16
THIi ESPE RANGE MORRIS BOOK.
CHAPTER VIII.
ENTERTAINMENTS.
IN getting up an entertainment, a great deal depends on the spirit in which it is done, and the great thing is for the performers to enjoy it as much as those who look on. If it is out of doors, I do not think a stage is necessary ; in fact, it rather spoils the appearance. The sound of the bells, if the dancers know their business, sliould quite sufficiently mark the rhythm, and the morris dance can be quite suitably performed on a well-mown and well-rolled lawn. A square of about 20 ft. should be allowed for a set of si.\, and the ]iiano, if one is used, should be put on a board of wood, and as far as possible concealed by plants, branches, etc. It is often possible so to arrange it behind bushes that the player can see the dancers without being seen, and where this can be done it is most desirable. The children should enter dancing and waving their handker- chiefs, as they do in the first part of each dance, the effect and the sound of the bells being most charming. Many little additions to an open-air performance may be made, as for instance : Miss Warren, when conducting an open- air display at Hull, arranged the lawn like a meadow at hay-making time, and had a swing put in the background, and a see-saw. The children were told, when not actually performing, to make hay and enjoy themselves on the swing and see-saw, the only stipulation made being that they should keep absolute silence. The result proved very delightful, and children and audience enjoyed them- selves enormouslj'.
At an indoor performance it is much more difficult to create a right atmosphere and spirit for a folk music concert. It is important, above all things, to keep out the theatrical element, and for this reason the utmost simplicity of stage arrangements should be observed. The platform at the Small Queen's Hall, where we have given most of our performances, is 25 ft. by 22 ft., and two sets of dancers (si.\ in each) have danced, the rest of the performers standing round at the back. About thirteen children have played the games. It is more effective on a platform of this size if only si.x dance at a time, different " sides " taking turns, while the others look on. The whole comjiany can, of course, dance the Morris On and Morris Off. A curtain of fireproof green
material should be hung across the back of the platform. The far sides may be decorated with plants and flowers, but care should be taken to have nothing in front which will obstruct the view of the dancers' feet, so that it is best to keep the decorations strictly to the two ends. The piano, where one is used, should be as far as possible hidden l>y ])alms, etc., taking care, however, that the pianist can see the performers. We have not found it answer, however, to have the jiiano off the platform, as with children it is difficult to keep them in tune when they are too far away from the instrument. This is all the stage property wliich we have ever had, and I very strongly advocate a rigid adherence to its simplicity. Children, especially, have enough imagination to turn a green curtain and a few plants into magic woods and meadows full of wild flowers and singing birds, and will get quite enough inspiration from them to throw themselves heartily into the music. The children should be told that they are their great -great -grandfathers and great -great -grandmothers dancing on a village green, and that there is no audience, but that they arc only to enjoy themselves in the best possible way.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS—
Of course a piano is quite out of place either indoors or out, and yet we are at present almost obliged to use it, because, unless the performers are very good and quite in spirit of the music, it is difficult to keep up the verve and spirit without a piano.
I have in my possession an old pipe and a tabor to which the dances used to be danced ; the men from whom the tunes were written played them on a concertina, and I have tried fiddles and mouth organs. I think boys should be encouraged to learn to play the dances on fiddles and concertinas, especially for outdoor dancing, playing by ear, and being able to stroll about amongst the dancers, quite at their ease. But as to singing, I am afraid we shall have to keep the piano, until the revival of folk-singing has taught people to sing as the old folks do — without accompaniment.
5<5'M
THE MORRIS DANCES
CONTENTS
PAGE
MORRIS ON .....^. 19
SHEPHERD'S HAY 20
RIGS O' MARLOW 20
COUNTRY GARDENS 21
JOCKEY TO THE FAIR 22
THE MAID O' THE MILL 24
POP GOES THE WEASEL 24
PRINCES ROYAL 25
SALLY LUKER 26
A-NUTTfNG WE WILL GO ....,„ 26
CONSTANT BILLY 27
MORRIS OFF 27
9694
RcprMuu-d h\ llic cviiftrsy i;/ the Pivpridors of ' Pitncli
MERRIE ENGLAND ONCE MORE.
19
MORRIS ON.
This is the tune with which the Berkshire dancers always begin.
Tune-'The Girl I've left behind me."
FIDDLE
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#
^^
Repeat ad lib.
-f-F-
r ' t
^^# > m-
g
f
^
r
r r
20 Each dance is independent. The instrumentalistplays the first section once before dancing begins. The music is repeated over and over again until the leading dancer calls out' all in!' The fiddle and piano parts are complete. Either or both may be used for the accompaniment. O XJ T7* T~) XJ TT* T3 Ti O T T \'\7'
From "Shakespearean Bidford Morris Dances!'
J=115
^
f
rnj J
m
f 'yi
PIANO.
(ad lib)
r r
^
mE¥
S
J J r
f
f
^
V V
^
^
w
1^
J •' ^ J • J *
n
i=
F^
^^^ r r
JTI^^-^
.^ ^ ^rlr r r
f
■' Denotes the beats on which the sticks are struck.
Play bars 1 tci 4 lo yourself and twice fur dancing. Bars 5 to H twice. Bars 1 to 4 twice. Bars 5 to 8 twice. Bars 1 to 4 twice. Bars 5 to 8 twice. Bars 1 to 4 twice, -5 to 8 twice. Bars 1 to 4 twice at usual pace, and twice quicker.
Copyright, U. S. A., 1910, by J. Curwen * Sons Ltd.
RIGS 0' MARLOW.
The title is a corruption of 'RAKES OF MALLOW," a once popular ballad. J 168. _ Collected and arranped by GEOFFREY TOYE.
FIDDLE. - ■ — " - -
PIANO.'
^'IJJjJiJiJ I'japqMg
^
V^V
g^
V^ V
^
— ^ — ^'^ '•- I — ^ — >>^ I — I 1
CjiOcij-HJ^l^^^
10
I
^^
&
i
1'^ > 13
m
14
15
16
^i^m
m
4
2-
-J
i_
-ni'|_-' mc.i^^fp-r^
N
^^
^V^— IEl5
Play bars 1 to 4 unct to yourself. Fur dancing play the whole 16 bars, fuur tirrn-s ihruugh, repeating each half of the tune.
Copyright, U.S. A., 1910, by J. Curwen & Suns Ltd.
21
COUNTRY GARDENS.
The tune is & variant of "A COUNTRY GARDEN!' popularly known as 'THE VICAR OF BRAY."
J «120.
Collected and arranged by GEOFFREY TOYE.
m f m
S
wr=±
t=d
=2:
mf
S=i^
P^i P
^
^
\>>i ^ '
■E^EE^
PIANO.
V"
f=^
mF^
^ia
m
^
I
w-~t
r r f \F r 0 . } n
'^m
^^^
^s
m^
$
Ff
T
r^
--i * ■:
* ^ ■#■
^
^i
i:__Jl
J
m
V V
^ rrr r r
V V V
V V_ V
r p
^
±i
10
11
12
^rn J J.
^TT3J J
^=^^
:^:^^^=^
F^
F^^^
Se
7-S^
I
i
t
s
* ^
18
14
15
16
S
^m
^
S
^S
»=f
i— J
r
s
V denotes the beats on which the hands are clapped.
Once to yourself (bars 1-4). Play 4 times through making the repeat 1st time only.
22
JOCKEY TO THE FAIR.
FIDDLE.
— 116.
Coll«-cted and arranged by GEOFFRKY TOYE.
^
^
iS
^
^
r=r^-* ^ im
SHAKE UP.
w
^
J-H=^
#
*=*
PIANO.
mf
md-> '
jt fi-
s
f ff '■-
^
Ifcpl
^^
*— ^
JN J ^
^^
^^
p^f^CT
^
T~'T"ri
en p :l :\i ;f t\f ^m
^
m^
«
^
E ^- J ^ a^
^
^
SIDE STEP
10
11
la
^^
i^
P
^
C''>;|,' 1 -1
i^=^
i
^eI^
# 1^
F- -0- ■•-
^f—^
f w f
f ir'rr J, ^J^^
15
€-J ^
13
16
¥4=^^
Pt^
iE£*
^
s
r
m
m
23
17 18 19
m
^ *
v J J rr
i
20
21
^
^m
s
• < ^ J
rr
CAPERS. J ■ 104
J.
» HIJ. J
^
m
0 » *
23
23
24
S
26
^
r •; I
^^
^
m^
J ^ J J J -t- <;
S f
27
f U J
28
29
m
30
-^ J ^
iS:
^
^
=6=
^7 ^7
f^
:S
3
♦=F
^m
^
"> II
31
3
32
33
y-r^
^m
M
s
34
8^-3
» >
^ES
1^=^
I t^ i g
i
i«
2?.S.
S
feiE
-"1-^
Play bars 1 to 8 once to yourself. For dancing play bars 1 to 34. Then bars 9 to 34. Finish with bars 9 to 22. If this dance is performed by more than one dancer each section is played twice.
24
THE MAID O' THE MILL.
From Frank Kidsoii's "Old fountry Dance and Morris Tunes" by permission.
Moderate. J-= 88.
FIDDLE
%T?rr r
Bt
S
^^^
i^
T.—r~^
&
f^-f^-^
m
^^
fe=^
^m
ttm:
^^
tailLkir %rr r i crf^mtL^ ciz i r""^!' »
Play bars 1 to 4 to yourself first. Play 3 times through then finish with bars 1 to 8.
POP GOES THE WEASEL.
Play through as often as required.
PRINCES ROYAL.
Taken from Berkshire Dancers at the Esperance Club, by Mrs. Tuke.
J .- 118.
25
Berkshire version.
i ^^ir r r r iicx;^ r
t=»^
:j\^ J J u
I
ig
m
s§
s
J J J J
^a^
fee
W
FP^Ff
=f
PIANO.
(ad lib.)''
"(r^'l^c r
l?=*
g^^^^
^
^ J J J
^S
■= ^ • Ig
i^^
^J J J J
^
^S
^te^
('■'^^ r r r r
^
.rni
^
#^
d d ^
10
12
13
14
^
^^
^
i^
I
^f
^
f^
^
^^^
p J J
^
^
S
^
p^^
• d ' •
15
16
18
19
20
±^
TTI , ^
n
^=i=*
:z±v:
S
i
ij ji
^
J
m
w^
Play bars 1 to 8 to yourself, then twice for dancing. Play bars 9 to 24 twice. Finish with bars 1 to 8 played twice.
26
SALLY LUKER.
Taken from Berkshire Dancers at the Esperance Club, by MrsTuke.
J^'.
^=PFf
^m
J1lJJj|J-J'JrlJ]5
FIDDLE.
PIANO, (ad lib.)
?
^
jhipJ^J J-)
^m
^^^^
^
(''H'^r^-^
^
^
J
^
t
^
^^^
m
*=¥
g *
j^ jt J'j f
10
12
^m
^
g
^
*
(r\ J r r
Ji
fe^
^^-^
Play bars 1 to 4 to yourself, then four times for dancing. Play bars 5 to 18 twice. Play bars 1 to 4 twice. Play 5 to 18 twice. Finish with bars 1 to 4 played four times, or until "ALL IN" is called.
Copyright.U.S.A., 1910, by J. Curwen i Sons Ltd.
A -NUTTING WE WILL GO.
J.
Taken from Berkshire Dancers at the Esperance Club, by Mrs Tuke.
M*; jJ J r lg
^m^
y-r""7^
^m
FIDDLE.
PIANO
(ad lib.)*'
^
1 " ' «»
^^
rrJJiJrJ^N^
E
^
m f -zn.
frH <'. f r
^
^
^
JviJ
^JJJ
J jij
P
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
j^-jftftMJ
jm
^
p jijpp^^l^^^^^^
=f=T
S
^
"=^
U
^
?p
itta!
Play bars 1 to 8 to yourself, then twice for dancing. Play bars 9 to 16 once, 1 to 8 twice, 9 to 16 once, 1 to 8 twice,9 to 16 once, then for the finish 1 to 8 once.
Copyright, U. 8.A., 1910, by J. Curwen * Sons Ltd. !;894
CONSTANT BILLY.
From "Shakespearean Bidford Morris Dances"
27
FIDDLE
h
^
S
itrS:*
^
^
^^
-^^T^
^
3=-a:
^
*
^^^^
^
i i''J7i
10
11
12
4=3
^
^
^
g r r r
f=^
r c f c
tZj
IJJ^
^^_ — i
^
t \f^l"
Play bars 1 to 4 once to yourself, and twice for dancing. Bars 5 to 12 twice. Bars 1 to 4 twice. Bars 5 to 12 once. Bars 1 to 4 twice. Bars 5 to 12 once. Bars 1 to 4 twice. Bars 5 to 12 cnce.
MORRIS OFF.
(Invariably used for the finish of the dances.)
J = 80
jl^TJJ
4 0 0 0 f ff>
FIDDLE.
PIANO.;
(ad lib.)^
^=3fc= ' ^ S
:*:
TT^-^JrTi
^^
^f=^
ist
^m
i
m
^S
^m
Play once to yourself, then to dancing as often as required.
REPEAT CUES FOR THE ACCOMPANIST.
The ftjllowinq- fiq-ures indicatt^ the number of bars to be pl.ivcii or repeated. The same intbrmation is given at the foot of each dance, but it is here given again in a brief and graphic form for ready reference.
SHEPHERD'S HAY.
||: 1-4 :i|: 5-8 :ii: 1-4 :|1: 5-S ■,[. 1-4 :ii: 5-8 :'|: 1-4 :;|: 1-4 :|l
RIGS O' MARLOW.
||: 1—8 :i|: *)—!() :!i four times.
COUNTRY GARDENS.
il 1-8 |: 9-1 (> :||: 1-1(1 :ii 1-1(5 l|
JOCKEY TO THE FAIR.
II l-U II 9-34 II 9-22 ii
MAID O' THE MILL.
Ii: 1-16 ::l 1-1() II 1-8 II
PRINCES ROYAL. II: 1-8 :i|: 9-24 :i|: 1-8 :|l
SALLY LUKER.
I|: 1-4 :ii: 1-4 :|1: 5-12 :||: 1-4 :||: 5-12 :i|: 1-4 :ii: 1-4 :|i
A-NUTTING WE WILL GO. II: 1-8 :|1 9-16 Ii: 1-8 :ll 9-16 ll: 1-8 :|| 9-16 II 1-8 il
CONSTANT BILLY.
II: 1-4 :|i: 5-12 :1|: 1-4 :|| 5-12 l|: 1-4 :il 5-12 l|: 1~4 :il 5-12 II
OTHER DANCES.
Repeat ati' lib. " Once to yourself" must always be played.
THE FOLK-SONGS
CONTENTS
CAGE
MY LADY GREENSLEEVES 31
A WASSAIL! A WASSAIL! 32
TWENTY. EIGHTEEN 34
THE PROPOSAL 36
LITTLE SIR WILLIAM 40
LAVENDER CRY 41
THE BARKSHIRE TRAGEDY 42
5694
31
MY LADY GREENSLEEVES.
J- =120
Key G
d :— -.d Id :-.r :m I r :- -t
Old English Air, arr.by P. E.F. , :- :t, I d :- :1. ll,:-.t, :d. \
VOICE .
PIANO.
1. A . las! my love you do me wrong, To cast me off dis .
2. I bought thee petiLcoats of the best, The cloth so fine 3. Thy smock of silk both fair and white, With gold em . broi.dered
/^4. Greensleeves now fare . well! a . dieu! God, I pray, to
courteously; For I have lov.ed you so long, De . light.ing in your com.pa.ny.
as might be; I gave thee jew. els for thy chest, And all this cost I spent on thee,
gor.geously; Thy pet . ti . coat of sen.dal right: And these I boughtthee glad . ly.
pros.perthee! For I am still thy lov.er true: Come once a gain and love me.
^- - ^
For O green . sleeves was all my joy! AndO green
^
rt
^as3i
^
sleeves was ray de-light! AndO
^
^^
m
m^
"T^
l^ ,
w
^
Vi/
Is :- .f :m I r :- .t, :8, is, :- :t, I d :- .t, -.1, It, :- :sc, I 1,:-:- 11,:-
^
N ^' 8 f
M ^- J J
i
^^
sleeves was my heart of gold! And who but my La . dy Green . sleeves?
green
32
A WASSAIL, A WASSAIL.
from "Sussex Songs"by permission of Miss Lucj Braadwood & Messrs Leonard & Co.
J*
:m, I 1^ ^ Im :r I d ^t, 11, :se, I 1, :t, Id :r
WW
VOICE.
i
r— ^
A was - sail, a was . sail, a was.sail we be . gin, With
i*
^
^E
m m
^
T
^ g r J
^ttTt
PIANO.
^^#^
irt
J
^^
P
-Wi'^ ''
te:
1, :ni In :r I d :t, II, :se, I 1, -.t. Id :r I m il m :fe I s :— Ife :m
a
i^
y— ^
^
su-gar plums and cin-na-mon, and o. ther spi . ces in; With a was . sail, a
\} l-J J J ir.
^^
^
^^^=^
ffi
fTf
^rr^
tr
^s
^
kt.
L
^^
^
^ ^ ^ r r LCr
1 :— Im -.m I d :— It, :1, I r :— Id :r I m :— If :— .r I m : Im :r
S
^
l&
was . sail, a jol . ly was . sail. And may joy come to you and to
^
fet
J J- ;
J r J J
S
^^^^
rr
-J
^=^
^^-j J J J
i=^
^^-^
i^=p
f=fT=^
d :1, It. :se. I 1 :- Im :fe I s :- Iff :m I 1 :- Im :m Id :- It, :1,
33
r :— Id :r I m :— If :— .r I m
y'i> J J J I fi
-g-ir '' r r
d -A, \t, ^, ! 1, :- i- II
^ J J .J I -J ^
^
sail, And may joy come to you and to our was
k'lrj J J |J . ^- ;■
J . J J
m
sail.
*
IM"
^
'J J j J
r
4-
i=^
i=^
^
-i ^ J
j^j
Effi
f=f=^
f
"F^^r
Good master and good mistress, as you sit by the fire. Consider us poor wassailers, who travel thro' the mire;- With a wassail, etc.
Good master and good mistress, if you will be but willing, Come, send us out your eldest son with sixpence or a shilling;- With a wassail, etc.
Good master and good mistress, if thus it should you please, Come, send us out your white loaf, likewise your Christmas cheese;- With a wassail, etc.
Good master and good mistress, if you will so incline, Come, send us out your roast beef, likewise your Christmas chine;- With a wassail, etc.
If you've any maids within your house, as I suppose you've none. They'd not let us stand a.wassailing so long on this cold stone;- With a wassail, etc.
For we've wassailed all this day long, and nothing could we find, But an owl in an ivy-bush, and her we left behind;- With a wassail, etc.
We'll cut a toast all round the loaf, and set it by the fire, ''We'll wassail bees, and apple trees, unto your hearts,desire;- With a wassail, etc.
Our purses they are empty, our purses they are thin, They lack a little silver to line them well within;- With a wassail, etc.
Hang out your "^silver tankard upon your golden spear, We'll come no more a.wassailing, until another year;- With a wassail, etc.
For other versions of the time see Gilberts Carols, and Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, Vol 2, P. 752.
'^Alluding to the custom of repeating certain rhymes to the bees and apple trees. ^Or 'silken handkerchief as some sing.
34
TWENTY. EIGHTEEN.
Sung by a carpenter at Bcsthorpe, Norfolk, to the Rev. J. T. Howard, and collected by John Graham for The Musical
Htrt,ld, Scpterr;bcr. 1S9I.
An ';!d settler in Massaehu.sstts fifty v«ars &gv used to sinjr at the end nf ttie refrain," I ve done." instead of ' And one'.' This sug- gest! that th.' "Charniing cr».-.iure" h»d to say "Yes" or ''Ko'' by the time the f'^ures were counted.
Allegretto.
VOICE
PIANO
It, .1, ;tj ^ I d :d It, .!, :t, .s,
^1
fc=t
(HE.) Ho! von . der stands a
charm . ing crea . ture,
-T .
¥
inp
^
\^
d :d !r :m i
.d I d .r :rri .f
1 :t, Id
^^^
S
^
3-^^E
^
Who she is I do not know; Fll go and court her for her beau . ty, Un
EEC
^=i
^.
f:__CJL^
i^^
5E^
f=T
il s :s Im :r
I m :1, llj ^ I d :d_J_, It, :s, I d :d .1, It, :s, 1
I I I I-- -^
P?^
S
3^5
til she do say "yes" or "no." Twen.tv, eight _een, six . teen, four . teen,
r7\ I -,_
w
^
^
^~Tm.
r f
j»
Twelve, ten, eight, six, four, two, none.
nine . teen, seven.teen, fii . teon, thir . teen e .
r :n .f
^ N-
:t. li. :2!
/^
^^^55?
5
lev . en, nine, and seven, five, three and one.
Hoi Madam, I am come for to court you,
If your favour I may gain: And if vou will entertain me
Perhaps I may come this way again. Twenty, eighteen, Ac.
3.
Ho! Madam, 1 have rings and jewels.
Madam, I have house and land Madam T have wealth of treasure?; All shall be at your command.
Twenty, eighteen, &c.
(SHE.) 4
Ho! what care I for your rings and jewels,
What care I for your house and land? What care I for your wealth of treasures? All T want is a handsome man.
Twenty, eighteen, &c.
(HEcrSHE?) 5.
Ho! first come cowslips and then come daisies,
First comes night and then comes day; First comes the new love, and then comes the old one,
And so we pass our time away.
Twenty, eighteen,&c. (SHE.) 6.
Ho! the ripest apple is the soonest rotten,
The hottest love is the soonest cold; Lovers" vows are soon forgotten,
So I pray, voung man, be not so bold. Twenty, eighteen, Ac.
Copyright, U. S. A., 1910, by J. Cur we n & Sons Ltd.
36
THE PROPOSAL.
Allegretto.
Collected by Mr J. W. Marsh, of Westfield School, Woking.
Arcompaniment by P. E.F. :8 .s 1 1 .d' :t .1 Is : .m I
Key F.
HE.
d .r :m .f
^
^
¥^
^^^^^
S
VOICES.
:^=±
Madam, I present you with six rows of pins, The
W-
19-=-
r^
p^
jjsf •--r, . r -^
PIANO. <
/
#
^^
f .f :r \v\ .m -.d .d I r :t, Id : .d I s .s -.s .8 Im :m
b J J J J' J' j
^^
^=t^=^
^^
ve . ry first of. fer. ing my true love brings; And, mad. am, will you walk with
^m
^=^
* 5t
^
naz
f :f Ir : .r I m .m :d .d Ir :t, id :- I-
SHE. d .r :n .f
V/IJ-/ J-
^
?^^
^EEf
^--»
me, me, me? And, madam, will you mar . ry me?
I will not accept your
i
I
i
^3
^^1
?=?
p
^E
tr% P
B
1 .d :t .1 Is : .m If .f :r Im .m :d .d I r :t, id
f=f=f^
; J J J' J- J- 1 1^^
^
«.. N
six rows of pins, The ve . ry first of. fer. ingyour true love brings; And,
i
m
ft
^
:s .s Im :m I f :f Ir : .r I m
J J |J J
:d .d Ir rail.
■A. Id :- I-:
371
^
f«« T*
• m
d •
sir, I'll not walk with you, you, you, And, sir, I'll not walk with you.
Mad. am, I present you with a lit . tie sil.verbell, To call up your ser.vants when
1^1 j-tT7^^
'TT^'7^
i
wp a tempo
»");, O'
^
:t. Id : .d I s .s
Im :m
f :f Ir
^
^
^^
* <r
^^
you're not well. And, mad. am, will you walk with
me, me, me? And,
T
mad _ am, will you walk with me?
I will not accept your
J^J J J
f
^^
^
A
m
1 .d' :t .1 Is
.s I f :r .r In :d .d I r :t, Id : .d
^ e g g c r ^ F I ^ ^ ^-^ ^ ^' I ^ J ^ ^ ^
lit. tie sil.ver bell, To call up my ser . vants when I'm not well; And,
^^i
4
l==4
#
^
38 II
s :s .s Im ;m
J J U J
f :f Ir .rim :d .d Ir :t,
, rail.
=^
^
^J-J J LI
4 I J -^
sir, ril not walk with you, you, vou. And sir, I'll not walk with you. — — . — ^^, ,
f-^
4=^:^ r I r I P^
> c=i:k
)«=?:
rail.
5"^
^=?=^^
f
IZZ
HE.
Id .r :m .f a tempo
1 .d' :t .1 Is : .s I f .f ;r Im .n -.d .d
7/£
7=^:^
L^J^^-^qr:g
^=^-g4f-^
N-t^
2=^
w— ^
Madam, 1 pre.sent you with a lit .tie gold. en ring, The ve . ry best of.fer.ingmy a tempo
id : .d I s .s :s .S Im
f :f Ir
^^ -4 * =: d — L-4c — \^ ^ ]^ ' t i ' '
%J
true love brings. And, rnad.am, will vou walk with me, me, me? And,
f
<^L~> ^
r r^ r-f=Pf=f
^
S^^
i
g
\fS£
S3:
^
SHF
m .n :d .d Ir :t, I d :- 1- : li d .r :m .f is :s I 1 .d' :t .1
^E^-^^^^-^¥rr=^^^^^.-^r^
^d
9i=i
Yes, I will accept your lit .tie gold .en ring, The
madam,willyou walk with me?
/ \
L
^^m
s
^
i;J t^j
^^t
jP
"tdt:^.
^E
^
=^=F
»! f .f :r Im .m :d .d I r :t, Id : .d I s :s Im :m If :f Ir : .r ^ m ^ ^ accel.
i^g^^^^?=^^^g^J J J U-V^^E^
^^
f^
ve . rv best of . fer.ing your true love brings, And I will walk with you. you, vou. And
rail.
:d
:t, I d :- 1-
A little slower.
li d .r :in .f HE
1 .d' :t .1 Is
39,
^
^^m.
^
^ ^
-4-
ff V y
_a._«,-.
¥—^
h^
will walk with you.
You would not accept my six rows of pins, The
MA
rail.
f=?=^^j=^
^
^=m
^
j$z
■6h
1
-J.
i
I f .f :r
:d .'d i r
:t, id
.f Is
^=40=:^
^
gE^„J i.
itsrr^:
^ES
^
-jg— ill
±=j(^
ve . ry first of.fer.ing my true love brings, And you would not accept my
m
'§
=^
i
i
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lit. tie sil.ver bell," To call upyourservants when you're not well i But you would accept my
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40
LITTLE SIR WILLIAM.
Andantino.
Accompaniment by permission from "English County Songs" by J. A. Fuller Maitland.
VOICE.
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Eas . ter . day was a hul . i . day, Of all days in the year; And
Mo . ther went to the Jews wife^ house, And knock, ed at the ring. Saying
The Jews wife o . penedthe door and said, "He is not here to - day; He is
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all the lit. tie school fel-lows went out to play, But Sir Wil . Ham was not there. "Lit. tie Sir William if you are there, O let your mo. ther in!*'
with the lit. tie school.fel. lows out on the green, Playing some pret . ty play."
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41
Mother went to the Boyne water,
That is so wide and deep, Saying "Little Sir William, if you are there,
O pity your mother's weep."
"How can I pity your weep,mother.
And I so long in pain? For the little penknife sticks close in my heart
And the Jew's wife has me slain.
Go home, go home, my mother dear.
And prepare my winding sheet; For tomorrow miorning before eight o'clock
You with my body shall meet.
"And lay the Prayer -Book at my head,
And my grammar at my feet; That all the little schoolfellows as they pass by
May read them, for my sake.
From Miss Masons Nursery Rhymes & Country Songs, by permission.
This is of course a version of the Legend of Saint Hugh of Lincoln, which appears as the Prioress's Tale in Chaucer. '"Sir" is obviously a corruption of Saint."
LAVENDER CRY.
From"English County Songs" by permission.
Andante, i
K<:y.CT :d .r In :- .1 :m
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J. A. FULLER MAITLAND. .1. i s. .d :d : .r \
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Will you buy my sweet lav.en.der? Sweet bloom.ing lav. en.der, O
PIANO.
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buy my pret . ty lav.en.der.
Six - teen branch . es a pen. ny!
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(Sung in the streets of K'e?isington about /8-SO. Quoted, by permission,from''English County Songs."
42
THE BARKSHIRE TRAGEDY.
From"English Count}- Sr.ngs"by permission.
Allegretto grazioso
Key D.
VOICE.
J. A. FULLER MAITLANI).
:m is :s :f Ir :m :f \
PIANO.'
West Coun.tree,(With a hey down, bow down.) .\ varmer he lived in the
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if my love'll be true to me.
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2 As they were walking by the river's brim (With a hey down, bow down !) The oldest pushed the youngest in.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to nie.)
3 O sister, O sister, pray gee nie thy hand
(With a hey down, bow down !) And I'll gee thee both house and land."
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me)
4 " I'll neither gee thee hand nor glove,
(With a hey down, bow down !) I'nless thou'lt gee me thine own true love."
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to mc.)
5 S<> df'wn she sa!d<, and away she swam,
(With a hey down, bow down !) Until she came to the miller's dam.
(And I'll be true to my love, it my love'll be true to me.)
6 Tlie miller's daughter stood by the door,
(With a hey down, bow down !) As fair as any gilly flower.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
7 " O vather, O vatber, here swims a swan,
(With a hey down, buw down !) Very much like a drownded gentlewoman."
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
8 The miller he got his pole and hook,
(With a hey down, bow down !) And he fished the fair maid out of the brook.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
9 " O miller, I'll gee thee guineas ten,
(With a hey down, how down !) If thou'lt fetch me back to my vather again."
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me )
10 The miller he took her guineas ten,
(With a hey down, bow down !) And he pushed the fair maid in again.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
11 But the Crowner he came, and the Justice too,
(With a hey down, bow down !) With a hue and a cry and a hullabaloo.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
12 They hanged the miller beside his own gate,
(With a hey down, bow down !) For drowning the varmer's daughter Kate.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
13 The sister she fled beyond the seas,
(With a hey down, bow down !) And died an old maid among black savagees.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
14 So I've ended my tale of the west countree,
(With a hey down, bow down !) And they calls it the Barkshire tragedee.
(And I'll be true to my love, if my love'll be true to me.)
The tune from G. K. Fortesque, Esq. ; the words from " The Scouring oj tlie White Horse."
This is one of the very many variants of the' ballad usually known as " Binnorie," which appears in different forms in man\ countries. The peadiarities of the English ballad arc the presence of a third sister, not required by the story ; the fact thai the maiden was alive when she reached the mill ; the brutal cruelty oj the miller ; the crowner ; the fate of the miller : and the horrible ending of the elder sister.
THE GAMES
CONTENTS
PAGE
WIGAMY, WIGAMY, WATERMEN 47
OLD ROGER'S DEAD 48
LOOBY LOO 50
LONDON BRIDGE 52
WHEN I WAS A SCHOOLGIRL 53
HERE WE COME UP THE GREEN GRASS 54
HERE COME THREE DUKES 56
0(v-!
47
WIGAMY, WIGAMY, WATERMEN.
From Alice E. Gillington's "Old Surrey Singing Games"by permission.
Taking Captives.
One of the elder children is chosen to he Mother, and collects all the others one by one behind her. Another represents the old woman and sits on the ground with her pinafore oner her head pi viend- ing to pick up sticks. Th" rest, holding on to the Mothers skirts and to each other's frocks, go roxmd and round, singing.--
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Key E>. (In :m :m Ir :m -.1 I n :- :r Id :- -.r I pi :- :m Ir :m :f I m :- :r Id :- :- t Wi- ga-my, Wi- ga-niy, Wa-ter-hen! I've sold mv but-ter-milk all a - gain!
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^^
"Wig;uny, Wigamy, Waterhen!
I've sold m)'' buttermilk all again!
When I get more,
I'll sell it by score,
And that's the way the buttermilk goes!"
They stop in front of the old woman. Mother.'-
"What are you picking up sticks for?" ^
Old Woman :-
"To light my fire!" Mother;-
"What are you lighting your fire for?" Old Woman:-
"To boil my kettle!" Mother :-
"What do you want to boil your kettle for?" Old Woman >
"To boil my knives and forks!" Mother:-
(gathering the children closer behind her)
"What are you boiling your knives and forks for?" Old Woman. -
"To cut off your little boys' and girls' heads!" Makes a dart after the hindmost child, and if she succeeds in catching one, takes it off with her, and begins to pick up sticks as before. Mother goes round with the childre?i singing the same as before, and the same questions and answers are asked and answered, till the next child is caught; and so on to the last.
4S
OLD ROGER'S DEAD.
Krom Alice E. Gillington's "Old Hampshire Singing Games' by permission.
Two in the jniddle, one kneeling down to represent Rogei- the other one represents the old woman. The rest join hands and go round the old couple singing;-
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49
All stand still and go through the movements of planting a tree:-
"We planted an apple tree over his head,
Over his head,
Over his head;
We planted an apple tree over his head
On a cold and frosty morning!"
All make downward movements with their hands ;-
"The apples got ripe and they all fell down,
All fell down,
All fell down. The apples got ripe and they all fell down, On a cold and frosty morning!"
Old woman in the centre comes forward and goes round inside the ring, as if picking up apples and putting them in her apron. The rest sing:-
" There came an old woman a- picking them up, Picking them up. Picking them up; There came an old woman a- picking them up On a cold and frosty morning!"
Old Roger gets up suddenly and thumps the old woman before him round the ring. The rest sing:-
"Old Roger gets up and he gives her a thump, Gives her a thump, Gives her a thump, Old Roger got up and he gave her a thump On a cold and frosty morning!"
(Old woman goes round ring limping and hobbling)
The rest sing:-
" Which made the old woman go hippity hop, Hippity hop, ~ Hippity hop.
Which made the old woman go hippity hop On a cold and frosty morning!"
The ring breaks up, and two more enter the middle, and so on to the end, till all have been inside ring.
5694
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50
LOOBY LOO.
From Alice E. GilIington's"01d Surrey Singing Games,'' by permission.
Ring Dance.
The girls form a ring, and dance round singing:-
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Key F. (Id :d :d Im :— :d I s :— :— I— :— -.m Id :d :d Im :— :d I r :— :— I—:— : S Here we dance Loo - by Loo! And here we dance Loo - by Light!
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Here v.e dance Loo - by Lum! All on a Sat. ur. day night!
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7>^^« Mejy stop and sing:- "Put your I'^ft hand in!" (extending the left hand torvards centre of ring):- "Piit your left hand out!" (Extendi)ig left hand away outwards from ritig:)
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1. Put your left hand in,
2. Put your right hand in, etc.
3. Put your, self all in, etc.
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And put your right hand out!
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Turning back and shaking hand with a quivering movement towards ring- centre again.
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(Id :— :d Im :— :d Is :s :s Is :s :s Is :— :s If :— :r Id :— Shake your hand a lit. tie, a lit . tie, And turn your.self a . bout.
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All twirl round in their places. Then they dance round again singing:-
Here we dance Looby Loo!"' etc.,
Then stop, and go through the same movements with th^ right hand:-
"Put your right hand in! And put your right hand out! Shake your hand a little, a little. And turn yourself about!"
Then with the left foot, the right joot, with the dance betrveen each halt; and finally all draw to the centre of ring, following the movements whilst they are singing:-
''Put yourselves all in! And put yourselves all out! Shake yourselves a little, a little, And turn yourselves about!"
Final dance routid-.-
"Here we dance Looby Loo! And here we danoe Looby Light! Here we dance Looby Lum! All on a Saturday night!"
52
LONDON BRIDGE.
From Alice E. Gillingtons ''Old Hampshire Singing Games," by permission.
Form up in couples holding Jinnds across, as in ''Oranges and Lemons" for three to pass under, singing:-
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Where are you three fox . es going, Fox . es going,
r .m :f fox . es going.
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Where are you three fox . es going,
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ho! Mer . ry ho!
The foxes answer:- |
"We re going up to London town
London town^ London town!
We're going up to London town, Heigh ho! Merry O!
The rest reply:-
London Bridge is broken down, etc. Heigh ho! Merry O!
The foxes :-
"Build it up with pins and needles etc. Heigh ho! Merry O!
Reply.-
''Pins and needles will break down, etc. Foxes.—
"Build it up with cabbage stumps, " Reply.-
'Cabbage stumps will wither away." Foxes:-"Buiid it up with gravel and sand" etc. Reply:-
"Some one's stole my guinea- gold chain
Guinea-gold chain,
Guinea- gold chain, Some one's stole my guinea-gold chain, Heigh ho! Merry O!
The two first drop their arms and catch the fox who goes out of the game,- then the song begins again with:-"Where are v u two foxes going?" then:-"Where are you one fox going?" till the third fox is caught.
WHEN I WAS A SCHOOL GIRL.
From Alice E. Gillingtons "Old Hampshire Singing Games," by permission.
53
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Key G. l:s, I d :— :r Im :— :f I s :— :— Im :— :m I f :— :— Ir :— :r I m :— : Id :— :8, I d :— :r Im :— :f ( When I was a school girl, A school girl, a school girl. When I was a
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school girl, \^'as this way went I!
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(Walk round crying.) When / came home from school," etc, etc. (Jump and skip around.)
"When my teacher hit me," etc, etc.
Was this way went she! (Clap hands together. )
"When /clean my shoes," etc, etc.
"W^hen /wash my face," etc, etc.
"When /brush my hair," etc, etc.
"When / left school," etc, etc. (Whirl and dance around.)
"When / was a kitcheti maid," etc, etc.
W^as this way went I! (Washes up dishes.)
"W^hen*/ was a housemaid," etc, etc. (Sweeps the ground.)
"When / was a parlour maid," etc, etc. (Shakes the cloth.)
"When /was a cook," etc, etc. (Beating up eggs.)
When /got married!" etc, etc. (Walk arm in arm in pairs.)
"When / went washing, rinsing, ironing," etc, etc. (Go through the movements of each.)
"When /had a baby," etc, etc. (Rock to and fro.)
"When my baby died" (Hands over face, crying.)
When my husband died," etc, etc. (Wave handkerchiefs.)
"When / died myself,
Myself myself,
When / died myself,
Was this way went I!" etc, etc. (All fall to the ground.)
Accents fall on the words in italics.
54
HERE WE COME UP THE GREEN GRASS.
From Alice E.Gillington's "Old Surrey Singing Games" by permission. Choosing Partners.
Tivo gi7is walk backwards and forwards in front of the others, who stand in a row, holding hands. They pace up four steps, and retreat four steps, singiyig:-
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Key G. »! d :d :d Id :- :m Is :- :- Id :- :d I r :- :- Ir :- :d i t, :- :- Is, :- Here we come up the green grass, The green grass, the green grass!
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Fair maid, pret-ty maid, come a- long with me, Til show you a black-
:r bird
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If .f :s .f Im : sit-ting on a tree!
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I r :r 'r Side by side!
Id :fn Is :d I d :t, Id :-l Take poorft^wnzej for a ride.
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Spoken to the girl named:-
Will you come? If she answers:- "No!" the two who are out spin each other round and round, sinking:
55
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Jld :- :d Id :- :m Is :- m Id :- :d I r :- :r Ir :- :d I t, :- :1, Is, Naugh-ty girl, she won't come out, She won't come out, she won't come out!
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I d :- day.
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If she answers:- ''YesP' they lead her out, and the three dance round, singing:
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<id :- :d Id :- :m is :- :m Id :- :d Ir :- :r Ir :- :d i t, :- :1, Is, :- Now ■we've got a bon - ny ring, A bon - ny ring, a bon - ny ring;
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Is :- :m Id : bon - ny ring.
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day.
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Then the three walk backwards and forwards again in front of the others, singing:
"Here we come up the green grass!"
And so on, till all are chosen out.
56
HERE COME THREE DUKES.
From Alice E. Gillington's"01d Surrey Singing Games'' by permission Three boy& mount three others on their backs and walk to the girls singing:.
Key G. *:8, I d :- -.d Id :- :m I 8 ^
Here come three Dukes a - rid
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ing, Sir Ran - som, Tan - som. Tar - dy O!
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The maids sing in reply:- "Pray, what is your intention, Sirs? Intention, Sirs, intention, Sirs, Pray what is your intention. Sirs, Sir Ransom, Tansom, Tardy O!"
The Dukes:-
"We have come forth to marry O' Marry O! marry O! We have come forth to marry O! Sir Ransom, Tansom, Tardy O!"
The Maids:-
"Pray, which of us will you have. Sirs?" etc. The Dukes:-
" You're all as black as charcoal!" etc. The Maids:-
" We're just as clean as you. Sirs!" etc. The Dukes;-
"You'rc all as stiff as pokers!" etc. The Maids:-
"We can bend as well as you, Sirs!" etc.
The Dukes:-
"Down the kitchen and down the hall, Choose the fairest of them all' The fairest one that I can see 'Name of girlj Come over to me!" The girt is chosen, joins the Dukes, who ride backwards and forwards singing "Here come four Dukes/' etc. then 'five Dukes," etc. until all the girls have been chosen.
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK.
57
APPENDIX I.
SOME OPINIONS OF THE DANCES.
The Countess of Beauciiamp writes : —
Both Lord Beauchamp and I were more than pleased with
* * * and with the way she taught all the children, and the two rectors and one vicar of the three parishes were delighted with her, also the school teachers and all who came into touch with her. The performance was quite charming — a great success — in spite of the rain, and everyone enchanted with it and much interested. In instructing the children,
* * * was always so nice with them, very firm, but at the same time so gentle and patient. She is so charming herself, and won the hearts of all.
Sister Amy Agnes, C.S..\.S., writes : —
I have been given a copy of "Set to Music," which I think is beautiful. j\fay I ask you to send me another copy so that I can at once order the songs and dances to teach our girls. I enclose two stamps for the same. 1 am sending you one of our Reports so that you may know of another set of girls? whose lives will be more attuned, by God's grace, to the divine music of the universe. I gave your book to a priest whose church is in the worst slums in Edinburgh, and he too is hoping to have his club girls taught as it recommends. This is the Festival of the Holy Angels, and I shall pray that some of their joy may come into your heart, and may God bless you for your love and care of His children. — I am, yours very faithfully, in Christ, Sister Amy Agnes, C.S.A.S.
Rev. Ingham Brooke writes : —
I have had no time to write, and tell you how I enjoyed Thursday night, and how more than wonderful I thought it all. I have always maintained that the East End ought to missionize the West End, and it seemed to me that your girls were bringing a very beautiful gospel to all of us who watched them. I was quite cheered up by it all, not by any means merely by the dancing and singing, which were, of course, enjoyable enough in themselves, but by the whole spirit of the Club. The dancing you can teach, but the spirit is only created by long years of personal influence. I only hope you will go steadily on with the work you have begun in the country, not regardless of the critics, but " undiscouraged " by them. I only wish there were loo such clubs as yours in England. * * * * * * j^g^g finished her engage-
ment with us to-day for the second time. Her three weeks' teaching in Barford — a fortnight now and a week in October — has given great satisfaction, and the classes have been a great success in every way. I consider she has a natural gift for teaching, and her simple, unostentatious, quiet manner make her very welcome in this house. I have very great hopes that the singing of these half-forgotten melodies may revive the love of music in this neighbourhood, and that the actions may develop the dramatic powers of expression among the children. « * * x may say, in conclusion, that though I have worked at this kind of thing in East London, Halifax, and in the country, I have never met with anything for clubs or schools, boys, girls, or adults, which has given me greater satisfaction. There are many forms of Corybantic philanthropy, but this is by far the best that I have met with in a long and varied experience.
Mrs. Lund writes : — We have found * a great success.
56q4
quite delightful, and the classes
Rev. a. M. Boswell writes : —
I wish to thank you most heartily for inviting us to your display at Queen's Hall. * * * j a,m exceptionally glad some did come, because they are filled with a desire of repro- ducing. Particularly one boy who came has caught the enthusiasm — he is a lad who has the power of leading a Bible class into disorder ; and now he is keen on morris dancing. I have good hopes of seeing him lead others into disciplined enjoyment. I was exceptionally delighted with your girls' exhibition, and specially when their enjoyment was so manifest. I must also express my pleasure at seeing how the instructress you sent us managed. Her patience and good cheer is admirable.
A Lady of Cheshire writes : —
I am writing to thank you for sending us such an efficient and pleasant teacher for morris dancing. We have had a most delightful week, and the girls are all immensely pleased. * * * has proved a most excellent teacher, and it is quite wonderful how much she has managed to teach in such a short time.
Miss Walton, of a Liverpool Training Home, writes : —
I think it may interest you to know that one of the Victoria Settlement children whom » * * tau.ght came to this little Home for domestic training. At the end of her training I placed her with some nice English people who had lived for some years in America, and she is now teaching morris dancing to the little daughter of her mistress and her young friends, and tlicy arc to dance at an entertainment which is being given in aid of a local charity. I think for a little servant maid of i6 this is very good reading, don't you ? She was reckoned the best dancer at the Settlement, and is such a happy little person. The sound of folk-songs is often in the Home too, for I encourage the girls to sing them whilst doing their needlework. They come to us at 14 straight from the schools, and I always ask them if they have learnt any folk-songs at school, and those who have not soon learn them from the others. I shall never forget the pleasure I felt soon after I came here when I heard in the Home one day the tunes I had learnt to love.
The Secretary of the Nottingham Branch of the Froebel Society writes : — I am desired by my committee to compliment your Association upon the possession of so capable and energetic a teacher as * * ■*. She conducted the work of training our scholars last week in a most admirable manner, and the demonstration on Saturday last was an unquestioned success, so much so that 1 am instructed to call a meeting of the Propaganda Committee for the 21st instant in order that the question of engagement of "■ ■* * for our large demonstration in either February or March next may be settled.
The Head Teacher, Romford, writes : —
My teachers and I are charmed with the morris dances that * * * is teaching to our scholars. We all think * * "' is a most brilliant teacher, and the way the children can alreadv do the dances is simply marvellous.
5«
THE ESPE RANCH MORRIS BOOK.
The Lady Betty Balfour writes : —
Your little teacher, * * * had a splendid class last night, and made a capital beginning. I thought her a first-rate teacher — so quiet and dignified, and yet with such wonderful vitality and life. One of our schoolmasters writes to me about her to-day : " ' What a splendid teacher ' every- one says. It is a treat for teachers to meet with one so thoroughly imbued with the teaching gift. I hope the class will do her credit."
W. Lloyd Edwards, Esq., D.P.H.. School Medical Officer, Barry, ii'rites : — Morris Dances. — In our public elementary schools of Barry the requirements of the Board of Education as to dancing steps as an addition to the purely educational pliysical drill has been met by the old English country dances, and more recently by the introduction of morris dancing. This in many ways is peculiarly adapted to our schools. In the first place the children are very fond of it and enjoy it thoroughly. The movements are simple and arc easily learnt, whilst the vigour required gives it a really healthful character. From the recreative point of view it is most useful, as anyone seeing a group of children doing the morris dances would readily agree. The only danger is that enthusiasts may claim too much for it. Morris dancing can never replace a physical training system, such as Ling's, designed to exercise all the muscles of the body. Nor can it entirely replace those stately dances which give grace of carriage to the children, but for all that morris dancing ought to be encouraged from its physical exercise as well as from its historic point of view.
Mrs. Arnold Glover writes : —
A long time ago I was present at a little Christmas enter- tainment at your Club, and have since been a very interested looker on from the outside. Fortune has been kind in giving me many happy Club experiences and girl friends. May I enclose my little gift of one guinea with my love for your delightful experiment which I have watched develop all round the town and the country-side.
.j|, ^, j|.
Miss La Trobe Bateman writes : —
We were quite sorry to part with * * » yesterday. She worked so hard, and taught capitally. Her classes were much enjoyed by all who took part, and I think they all got on well. She was very good with the boys, especially (as I know how naughty those boys can be!), and they were far too interested in their morris dance lessons not to take them seriously and get on well.
j^, .;j, j^
Mrs. Warren writes : —
I hear on all sides the warmest appreciation of the per- formance. Everyone was delighted with it, and they all admired the simplicity and unselfconsciousness of the girls. I met the Professor of Literature, Mr. Walter Raleigh, last night, and he was most enthusiastic. I long to see and hear those girls and children again. I lost my heart to them all. Thank you for the immense pleasure you gave us all.
H. LocKWOOD, Esq., ivrites : —
1 gladly comply with your request to write you something about morris dancing in Poor Law schools. It will always be a pleasant recollection to me, that, having seen " a morris " danced by some of your girls at the Esperance Club. I was so taken with it that I forthwith set to work to get it introduced into the Poor Law schools of the Metropolitan district, of which I was th. n General Inspector. Once introduced, its success has in every instance been assured. Not the least of its rec mmendations is that the girls regard it as play, rather than drill, or lessons, and whereas clubs and dumbbells are hung in their places and racks at the end of a drill and forgotten till the next, with the morris, groups of girls may be seen any time in their dayroom or playground practising, with criticisms and explanations, the steps and figures, and so it is with tlie younger girls and the song dances. Please under- stand that in instancing this tliere is implied no disparagement of either club or dumbbell exercise, both excellent in their way, I merely wish to emphasise that there seems to be some- thing wliich specially appeals to young hearts and bodies in tliL'se charming old tunes and " measures." I can't resist the temptation to conclude with a personal note. One result of bringing the Esperance Club and P.L. schools together was a series of letters to you from your pioneer instructress, * * * which you were good enough to show me ; these written witli no thought that they would be seen by any- one but yourself, are simply and yet cleverly descriptive of all she saw, and one after another they testify convincingly to the I'.appy, well-cared -for lives of the children in every school she visited ; this testimony, based on the observations of an exceptionally intelligent and wholly unbiassed young teacher, coming from the inside, is worth, in my opinion, a sackful of Inspectional Reports, not excepting my own ! and it has been a real pleasure to me that the letters conclusively confirm my own settled conviction on the subject with which they deal.
One of II. M. Inspectors writes :--
This afternoon I have seen a disciple of yours — Miss Johnson of Sompting School — whose school children did some of the morris dances very creditably. Even during the interval in the playground I noticed the children dancing by themselves ; it is clear that these Sussex children respond to the influence as much as London folk.
Miss Bellows, Gloucester, writes : —
Those of us who have been learning the morris dancing from ♦ * * to teach to others, so thoroughly enjoyed both the dances and the way in which they were taught that I feel it is only due to you to write and tell you so. I know Miss Lemon has written, but my writing is from the point of view of one of the learners. I am sure we could not have had a better teacher, nor one who could better have shown us the spirit of morris dancing as it is intended to be. We owe you a debt of gratitude for sending one who has charmed all who have seen her. A friend of mine who came to the Club one night while » * » was here, said she just reminded her of Botticelli's "Spring." And spring is just what I think everyone must think of in watching her.
THE ESPE RANGE MORRIS BOOK.
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APPENDIX II.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
DAILY NEWS. Mar. 2ird, 1906.
The Esperance Club, of which Miss Mary Neal is the hon. secretary, meets at 50 Cumberland Market, N.W., and consists of working girls who for the most part follow sedentary occu- pations. To make life more interesting to them socially is the object of the promoters of the Club, and singing and national dances form a part of the week's programme. The songs are learnt by ear, so that it will be seen that the study of music as an art is not pursued. School cantatas were sometimes taken up, but of these the girls became tired ; and last summer a friend suggested to Miss Neal that the old English folk-songs collected in country districts by Mr. Cecil Snarp would be the very thing for her Club. The experiment has been tried with brilliant success.
* « *
" The teaching of these songs to the girls," said Miss Neal, " had the effect of magic. They were always singing them, at home and at work. Then I thought we would have them instead of a cantata for our Christmas party. I brought from Oxfordshire one of the men whom Mr. Sharp had seen dance, and in two evenings he taught the girls six dances that had been in the family for five generations. I never saw such charming dances, and I have had a good deal of experience. Those who attended our party said the entertainment was the prettiest thing on the London boards. So we are going to repeat it at the Queen's Hall. The girls are in costume. One of them, by the way, wears her great-grandmother's wedding dress."
" I think," said Miss Neal, enthusiastically, "that I have struck a really good thing. I want to get specimen dances from all over England, and have them taught to Londoners in social work. I never would have a cake-walk in the Club, for I don't think we ought to depend for our songs and dances upon niggers."
PALL MALL. March zyth. 1906. By permission.
" An old Song " is the conventional zero of valuation — and no wonder when you can buy a new one in the gutter for twopence. A century ago you might have sold your old song for a shilling — to a gentleman in Grub Street, who would lick it into shape according to his own ideas, add a verse or two to give good measure, and pass it on, " freshly done up," to a publisher of " broadsides " for, shall we say, half-a-crown. You— to make vour part probable in the transaction — were a hawker, whose business it was to know a shilling's worth when you caiiie across it, and hearing a new ditty in country kitchen or at country fair, you stowed it in your mental wallet against your return to the marts of town. You did not forget it because you could neither read nor write, and people without those accomplishments are consoled by the possession of a menrory.
An intelligent posterity would have been all the more grateful to you (let us develop our fond imagination) if you had noted the tunc as well as the matter, and if your literary customer and his publisher had thought it important enough to ask for. But they didn't, and if posterity wanted the tune, it should have been there to pay for it. You got that shilling honestly, at any rate, amongst your Autolycus takings.
Those melodies which you failed to cage are still soundmg by English firesides and English hedgerows— not so loudly as of yore, and sometimes only in the cracked quavering voice of a bedridden old woman, with whose rushlight soul they will presently sigh themselves forth from the void. You may still catch tliem — imprison them within bars of notation— if you are quick, enthusiastic, patient, and tactful— especially tactful. How can you really care for a silly old creature's song ? Are you not laughing at her in your sleeve, or putting a clumsy disguise on your vulgar curiosity or pompous chanty ?
Clear yourself of these suspicions, and you may lure the shy bird, and in time accumulate a fine collection of the vanishing species. Expert fowlers like Mr. Cecil Sharp and Mr. Marson will surprise you with their accounts of the multiplicity of folk-songs that still await the recorder— but await him only for a few more years, until the last " illiterate " has gone to rest, and the last memories in England have succumbed to the corrosion of elementary education.
The folk-song flies before the railway. It nestles with especial cosiness in Somerset, in Lincolnshire, and indeed, in all the backward parts. It is in a Sussex village that the old gaffer lives who can sing you five hundred ditties, and not all —no, not by any means— to the same tune. That worthy is, so to speak, the Kimberley diamond of the treasure-seekers, but they have made other finds only less remarkable. Singers with a repertoire running into these figures are not frequent, but still very far from unique.
The folk music, both in song and dance, has been saved from corruption by the wholesome shelter of neglect. By its want of relation to reading and writing and other implements of vulgarity it has been preserved from insensitive interference. Those who know declare that it is almost sub- conscious. Attention rests only on the words ; you may sing them over to any tune in the world, and the veteran from whom you have garnered it will declare that " you've got it quite correct, sir." Wliat you have " got" may be m a literary sense chiefly the rubbish with which the Grub Street gentleman aforesaid overlaid the ingenuous charm of some age-long lyric. What you are really seeking is the melody which he never heard and could not therefore improve out of
The beauty of spirit of this spontaneous, unregcnerate, and truly national music are becoming known amongst the elect. .\nd with that knowledge has arisen a question of a practical character— whether the indigenous melody thus discovered does not open up new lines of popular culture amongst the class to which its origin must be credited. Those who have heard the folk-songs sung here and there by the children of the people declare that the effect has a freshness and reality unattained by any other efforts at the inculcation of true music. "They are English girls, and it is in their bones," was the comment of one who heard the Esperance Club choir sing "Madam, will you walk ? " and "Hares on the mountains. The rendering of folk-songs and dances arranged for at the Queen's Hall in the beginning of next month will serve to submit the issue and its suggestions to the judgment of a wider criticism.
DAILY CHRONICLE. Apr. 3rd, 1906.
A little entertainment that may indeed " light such a candle in England " as will not immediately be put out, delighted last night an overflowing audience at Queen's Hall. It was nothing less simple and homely and cheering then the singing of some old English folk-songs and the dancing of old English dances by the girls of the Esperance Club— all regular London work- girls from Cumberland Market.
The songs were, of course, in themselves, not an entirely fresh revelation. Their very names are racy of the soil, fragrant with the breath of the countryside—" Mowing the Barley " " Blow away the morning dew," " The trees they do grow high," " The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies O ! "*
The entirely new and wonderful part of the experiment, however, has been the teaching of these beautiful old songs to the Cockney girls.
In the case of the Esperance Club— as last nights per- formance showed— nothing could have been more magically successful.
• From "English Folk-songs (or Schools " (]. Curwen & Sons Ltd., 2S. Cd.).
6o
III I: i:si'tiR.\.\( 1-: MORKIS liOcK.
THE SATVIiDAV UEVIEW. A ptil \\th, i.«/..
A very successful and dcliijhtfnl result it seemed to me. Anyone who has paused to watch children dancing to the tunes of a street organ must have been struck by the grace and precision, often the rhythmic beauty, with which these children dance. Where do they learn to dance so well ? I am told there is no tutelage — simply a tradition. It is in them to dance thus. Some of the steps they dance are of great antiquity — older than the morris itself — and may still by experts be discerned among the various other steps that have in the course of time been evolved. * * «
Anyhow, these girls did really seem to be taking to the morris and the folk-songs like ducks to the water, .listhetically these songs are enchanting, " Blow away the morning dew." " The blue-eyed stranger," " There come three dukes a-riding," " Mowing the barley," " Constant Billy." " Hares on the mountains," " The trees they do grow high " — are not the mere names of them enough for enchantment? But a merely sesthctic performance of them would hardly yield you their finest flavour — the flavour of the very soil from whi'li they have grown. It ir, a far cry from the hedgerows to tlie cit>-. But children of the city have in them more of the qualit\- needed for the folk-songs than could be instilled into an\' professional singers, I suppose the Espcrance girls, fluslied with their applause, will give their performance again, \Vc must be careful not to spoil them.
BRISTOL TTMLS AND MIRROR. June zj^th. 1906.
It is high summer and our English villages are at their very best. The old folks are sunning themselves at their cottage doors, and the young folks are full of life and health. At East Harptree this week I heard the sounds of music which was new to me, and which yet was full of the very spirit of dance and revel. One felt tliat merry feet must be keeping time with it, I followed the sounds and, sure enough there were the dancers, children and young girls, dancing the old-time morris dances, as they must have been danced in Merrie England of long, long ago,
* * *
The revival of these dances had come by way of London, for the instructors were two working girls. They, in their turn, had been taught by two Oxfordslnre peasants, in whose family the dances had been handed down for five generations. The intention is, that these dances shall be revived in many English villages, and that these and the folk-songs of the country shall once again set the spirit of innocent revelry free, and help the young folk to dance and sing, as did their forefathers, before cities and towns claimed them for factory and office desk.
DAILY CHRONICLE. Jan. 4th. i.^o;.
Almost as long ago as " once-upon-a-timc," one of the merry things that went to the making of " Merrie England " was the morris dance. As Cupid makes love for the love of the thing, so those old happy Englishmen danced out of the pure joy of living. It was good to be alive in those days — as now and always. But those things were simpler. Sincerity was hardly counted a virtue, as most, well-nigh of necessity, led simple and sincere lives. They lived near to Mother Earth. She found them their work in life, and was largely mistress of their sorrows, hopes, and joys. And so it came about that they paid their tribute for tribute, stamf)ing the earth upon all their revels, played in the open under the kindly sun. And the earth being whimsical and full of quaint humours, whimsicality and quaintness run through all the folk-songs, and dances get at the blood — being English — that is in you.
THE TIMIlS. Jan. s'h. ion;.
Morris Dances. — Clear enough proof was given on Thursday for any who might still be in need of it that the old
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English folk-songs and morris dances arc alive again, not only in the sense that they have been noted, recorded, and published (for that by itself may only mean that scholars and antiquaries are being touched), but alive in the sense that they are appealing to what political economists call " the common people " — that is to say, to the classes who will not follow the changes of musical fashions, but will only sing and jilay such things as, for instance, of the Esperance Working (;irls' Club, who gave performances both in the afternoon and evening of Thursday, in the small Oueen's Hall, showed that such songs as " Blow away the morning dew," " Mowing the Barley," " Hares on the Mountains," and others really did make a strong musical appeal to them ; they also showed that they could go through these old songs and dances with admirable rhythmical precision, with a pitch tliat even at the end of the evening never gave signs of dropping, and with a sense of enjoyment that is so often lacking in the ordinary concert performances.
THE BOOKMAN. Eeb. 1907.
The jaded modern, who believes that there can be nothing unsophisticated in this twentieth century, needs an occasional reminder that the world is really still quite young. No better such reminder could be had than the performances of folk-songs and morris dances given during the last few months at the Queen's Hall. This rendering by Eondon girls of old tunes collected in the West Country, and taught to the per- formers by Mr. Cecil Sharp and Mr. H, C, Macllwaine, is no copy of the antique. It is a revival in the true sense of the word. The impulse to sing is older than the art ; and artificial poetry is. after all, ultimately but the imitation of tliis primitive spirit of songs. One might theorise at any length on the lyric instinct, but to attend one of these performances is of greater profit. For it is to rediscover the morning of the world with the dew yet glistening, and to get beyond all theories. We arc glad to understand that a volume of these songs and dances is shortly to be published.
PUNCH. Nov. 13//1. 190-. By ^crinissinn.
" Come, lasses and lads ! " Among many nKncmcnts that have for their excellent object a return to the land and the cultivation of old simplicities, none wears a more inviting mien than that which originated with the Esperance Club for Working Girls some two or three years ago, and has by this time attained to such a stature that a public conference is to be held at the Goupil Gallery on November 14th to consider the steps by which it might be, if not exactly nationalised, at any rate organised to the full. We refer to the revival of folk-songs, games, and morris dances, which, under the direction of Miss Neal and Mr, H, C. Macllwaine*, of the Esperance Club, and ^Ir, Cecil Sharp the musician, has led to several charming performances at the Queen's Hall, where such enthusiasm was enkindled that, through the generosity of certain of the audience, in many villages of England at this moment teachers are at work instructing the children in the steps of those delightful measures to which our ancestors danced when England was merrie, and training their young voices to sing the old unsophisticated country songs, in which every note is as clear and pure as a drop of dew. In this way the Esperance Club, through the public spirit of a few individuals who love the past, has become a missionary centre to spread happiness and fun and melody cast and west and north and south. But the Club is small and its exertions are limited, and hence this conference for the search of a jjractical way to increase the number of teachers, and so give tlie songs and dances a wider and wider and wider recognition, until all England is dancing and singing once more, and once more is merrie. Mr, Punch wishes the conference success with all his heart.
signed irom the Esperance C!ub and Mrs. Tuke
THE ESPERANlE MORRIS BOOK.
6i
MORNING POST. Nov. isth, IQ07.
Last night's conference at the GoupH Gallery should certainly increase public interest in the revival of English folk-songs, singing games, and morris dances, which has led to several delightful performances at the Queen's Hall, and many a pretty pageant of song and dance in the half deserted village of the English country-side. The work of the Esperance Club deserves every encouragement, since it makes for the greater gaiety of country life, and is the intelligence department of an artistic campaign against the devastating influence of the latest ditty from the so-called music-halls. Indeed, the whole move- ment for the revival of English folk-musicdeserves the sympathy of every true lover of good music. It has always been said that the English are not a true musical people, and the national habit of self -depreciation — really a form of the pride that apes humility — has caused us to belie\e that, unlike every other country in Europe, England possessed no folk-music. Dr. Burncy's statement in his history of music, much valued a centurv ago, to the effect that ".the Turks have a limited number of tunes, to which the poets of the country have continued to write for ages, and the vocal music of our countrymen seems long ago to have become cqual'y circumscribed," is an early expression of this foolish, fallacious belief which has long ago been a commonplace of criticism in this country and abroad. In point of fact the English peasantry ha\o always been as fond of their traditional music and dances as the country folk of Hungary. Russia, or Norway ; and, strange to say, a vast body of folk music with characteristics dif- ferentiating it from that of any other country has survived into the present age. Thousands of English folk-songs have already been collected, and thousands more await the collector in the remote districts of England where the blighting influence of town life has not destroyed them, as the far-flung smoke from town chimneys destroys the rarer wild flowers. We have had no composer of the first rank since PurccU, because up to the present this foundation of a really national school of composition has remained unrevealed. Now that the work of taking down the traditional folk-songs from the life of those who still sing them, for the most part very old people living in nooks and corners of Somerset (where Mr. Sharp has collected between one thousand two hundred and one thousand three hundred true folk-songs) and other counties remote from the great cities, has progressed so far, we may hope for an English variant of Glinka or Grieg. Apart from such far-reaching considerations, there can be no denying that these folk-songs and folk-dances are altogether worthy of remembrance and revival, that they are destined to become popular, and that they will deserve their popularity. A door has been opened into a new country, which is yet as old as " Merrie England " — and already the approach to it is thronged. The secretary of the Esperance Club receives scores of letters daily from country people interested in village life. Poor Law instructors, drill teachers, girls' school mistresses, club leaders, etc., asking where and how the songs and dances can be had. It is astonishing how readily school children learn them ; the other songs they are taught at school are acquired with difficulty and kept for school use, whereas the folk-songs are memorised at once " by a sort of spiritual sixth sense " and sung in playgrounds. What has been called the ancestral memory comes into operation here, no doubt. Children easily learn that which a long line of their ancestors have known by heart. It must be remembered that folk-music is the creation and possession of the people. The traditional tunes and words have come generation after generation from the heart of the English peasantry. Each generation and each individual who has sung them has added some little touch, and so it happens that in the songs collected from old people, sometimes eighty or ninety years of age, are found the very heart and soul of English sentiment — a very different thing from the senti- mentality of the modern English ballad, which is too often manufactured to sell. The grace of the morris dancing is well expressed in Mr. Bernard Partridge's charming cartoon in this week's issue of Punch, though the music of pipe and tabor is imheard. The Esperance Club— but let it take an all-English name — deserves help in its projjaganda, and we have every reason to believe that help will be forthcoming as a result of last night's conference.
MORNING POST. Nov. ihlh. 1907.
One fine grey morning handbills announcing an open-air entertainment by members of the Esperance Working Girls' Club fluttered along the promenade, and it was decided to see the show, such as it might be. Rain fell during the per- formance in a pretty rose-haunted garden under a wide- branched tree, but for two at least of the company of spectators the rain-drops were other-worldly tears of old-time happiness. All that was seen or heard seemed a spiritual emanation from the shining green turf, a pageant of white voices and woven gestures conjured out of the half-forgotten past — only half- forgotten, because none of us has altogether lost the ancestral memory of " merrie England " and the ancestral hopefulness that goes with it. We had the freedom of fairyland that afternoon ; our souls put on the green livery of the only Good People. There was morris dancing by fair, fresh maidens in the old simple dress of the country side, bearing tiny staves or waving white handkerchiefs in either hand. They wore infinitesimal bells on their trim ankles (Socrates would have admired them, and so did I), and their manners towards one another were as pretty as their dancing. Seeing these dancers, I fully understood the criticism of the old much-travelled sailor who left Somerset so many years ago to follow the sea : " This is the dancing of my heart, and I would not have missed the sight for two big apples." Then there were folk-songs of various kinds, the artlessness of the singing being the per- fection of art. The delights of free open-air living with " the Wraggle-taggle gipsies " were so melodiously expressed that for the rest of the long day and for the night that followed that, existence in a room, a tank of stagnant air, seemed utterly impossible. That song must have made many a tramp in the nearer and further past. Then examples were given of the delightful action-songs, in which bean-setting and mowing the barley and other rustic pursuits — half work, half play, and all good fellowship — are made the choral background of simple love story. A girl with the tanned complexion and blue black hair (bound in a scarlet kerchief) of the dead but undying Nut-brown Maid, sang her confession of love ; there were faint fluctuating colours in her voice, a rainbow of sound on thoughts of tears, and yet not a touch of the artist's self- consciousness in her manner. Art sat within arm's length in a sweet, pale incarnation under the aspect of a tiny grande dame, and she praised the solo singer, and at the end would have given her a gift of heather. Art was in the mood of a turning opal ; through the white shimmering of her serenity shot crimson flashes of some nameless subtle emotion. Yet these simple, fragrant things touched her heart, I think. Once or twice her eyes seemed too bright to be tearless.
The work of the Esperance Club makes for the fostering of the love of one's country, which is one aspect of a nation's will-to-live, and it is to be hoped that these pageants of song will presently be heard in every village throughout the land.
Pageantry of a kind has of late become popular. But even the best of this year's historic shows had the faults of a too literal translation and " Puck of Pook's Hill " is worth them all many times over. The true pageant is the pageant of folk song and folk dance which is the sound and movement o£ the blood in the lieart of England.
DAILY TELEGRAPH. June 26th, 1909.
PcLi:-sONGS aii'D PAWCJiS. — In the picture gallery of Bridge%vater House, yesterday afternoon, a charming enter- tainment \r'a3 given, and it is to be regretted that the miserable weather of che afternoon prevented many from coming to witness so interesting a display as it proved to be. The performers, it should be said, are members of the Esperance Club, w'liich is composed entirely of working girls, as dress- makers, milliners, and such callings. They were assisted by a number of children drawn from the public elementary schools, and the enjoyment of all in their pleasant task was obvious. The stage was appropriately surrounded with foliage, and had masses of daisies in front, which formed a delightful setting for the simple cotton or muslin gowns, with deep white collars and gaily-hued sun bonnets, that were worn by all. Miss Mary Neal, to whose enthusiasm as honorary secretary the
62
TllF. ESl'EKANiE M()!<I<IS IJOOK.
Club owes so much, was present, and in conversation on tlic subject mentioned that since the Club had given its first performance three years ago 300 clubs, villages, and schools had been taught the dances and songs that this organisa- tion had itself learnt so effectively. Perhaps a leading reason of its success had been that in all cases the dances had been shown and taught them by dancers from the counties, who had inherited old traditions regarding them, and in no case has the professional teacher intervened.
THE TIMES. Oct. 26th. 1909.
EsrfiR.\NCE Club. — A performance of morris dancing and folk-songs was given by about 50 children belonging to the Esperance Club. It is always delightful to watch the girls and boys of this Club at their play. They arc so bright and happy and natural, and so unlike what one usually associates with anything that can be called a " movement." And yet in a very real sense they stand at the head of a movement which in four years has spread all over England. When the singing of folk-songs and the playing of old English games and the dancing of morris dances were first introduced into the Esperance Club, with all the hope and all the faith in the world, Miss N&al and the others who have helped in the labour of love can hardly have looked forward to a time when they would be sending Esperance missionaries to all the
counties of England to preach the gospel of the happiness which all children seem to find in these childish games and dances that were once, what they are rapidly becoming again, an integral part of the peasant life of the nation. Of those in which the Esperance children took part on this occasion some, such as " Bean Setting," " Hunting the Squirrel," " Old Roger is dead," and " London Bridge," take us back in thought to very ancient times, to the days of pre-Christian husbandmen, and Judas Iscariot, and barbaric bridge-builders. And in all of them, especially " When I was a young girl," and " Mowing the Barley " and " Gently, Johnnie, my Jingalo," and " Looby Loo," with their taking tunes and little dramatic actions, the children are exactly what children ought to be in their games. Merrily and unselfconsciously (for all their public performances) they are playing at being grown up. In their print frocks and pinafores and many- coloured sun bonnets they made a charming picture on the platform, and the audience were very enthusiastic about ilieir perfurniancc. In an excellent little speech which she made between the two parts of the programme, Miss Neal, the organizer of the movement, drew attention to the fact that it has this autunm received the official blessing of the Board of Education. Their new syllabus adopts folk-songs and morris dancing as a regular part of the curriculum in elementary schools ; and no one who has seen the Esperance girls can doubt that that will be a very good thing for the children of this country.
THE ESPE RANGE MORRIS BOOK.
63
APPENDIX III.
SPECIMEN PROGRAMME OF FOLK SONGS, MORRIS DANCES AND CHILDREN'S SINGING GAMES. .
PART I.
Morris Dance " Morris On " THE ENTIRE COMPANY
" MORRIS ON " The tune of " The Girl I left behind me " is the traditional air to the nctonipaniment of which the Morris Dancers of Berkshire always used to make their entrance.
Morris Dance " Constant Billy " BOYS
Game • " When I was a School Girl " CHILDREN
Song - " Little Sir William " GIRLS
Morris Dance " Sally Luker " GIRLS
Game - " Old Roger is Dead " CHILDREN
This is an illustration of the ancient belief that the souls of the dead entered into a tree or some other object.
Morris Dance "Country Gardens" -
Game - " London Bridge " CHILDREN
This game is universally acknowledged to be a very ancient one. Knowing the importance of holding bridges in early days it is not surprising that the fall and rebuilding of so important a one should become the subject of a game. The widespread and barbarous rite of the foundation sacrifice may be shown here.
Song - "The Bar kshire Tragedy " GIRLS
Morris Dance " The Maid o' the Mill "---.-
Game - "Here we come up the Green Grass' CHILDREN
Song - "The Proposal" GIRLS
Morris Jig " Jockey to the Fair" • - FOUR GIRLS
Song - "The Lavender Cry" GIRLS
Interval of Fifteen Minutes.
PART II.
Morris Dance "Shepherd's Hay" GIRLS AND BOYS
Game - "Here come three Dukes a-riding " -..--..- CHILDREN
Song - "A Wassail" GIRLS
Morris Dance " Princes Royal " GIRLS
Game - ' Looby Loo " CHILDREN
Song - " Twenty, Eighteen " GIRLS
Morris Dance "Rigs 0' Marlow " GIRLS AND BOYS
Game - " Wigamy, Wigamy Water Hen " CHILDREN
Morris Dance " Pop Goes the Weasel " GIRLS
Song - " My Lady Greensleeves " CHILDREN AND BOYS
Morris Dance " A-Nutting we will go " GIRLS
Morris Dance "Morris Off" THE ENTIRE COMPANY
" MORRIS OFF" It is interesting to note the difference between this tune and the other Morris tunes. The dancers are now supposed to be somewhat weary after the day's revel. There is in this dance a suggestion of pleasant fatigue and a home going through the lanes and meadows to the cottage, to supper and to bed.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
5094
64 THE ESPE RANGE MORRIS BOOK.
APPENDIX IV.
MUSIC.
All music can be bac' from the Hon. Secretaiy, Esperance Club. 50 Cumberland Market, London, N.W.
BELLS AND STICKS.
Each girl dancer requires twelve bells and one stick.
Each man dancer requires thirty bells and one stick.
Bells (3d. per dozen) and sticks (2d. each) can be ordered from the Esperance Club.
The girls wear simple print or muslin frocks in bright colours, white fichus and sun bonnets, buckled shoes. Information where dresses and bonnets can be made inexpensively can be had on application from the Esperance Club.
The boys wear white frilled shirts, trimmed with coloured knots of ribbon, knickerbockers (white it possible), and top hats trimmed with plaited ribbons. Second-hand top hats can be had very inexpensively for morris dancers from E. C Devereux, Hatter, 127 High Street, Eton, Bucks.
All information respecting teachers, entertainments, and lectures to be liad from the Esperance Club.
The following is
Messrs. Curwen's List of Apparatus for Morris Dances.
List of Bells, Rosettes, Hats, Beansticks, &c., on Mire or Sale. NET PRICES TO SCHOOLS.
BELLS. 3d. per doz. (post, id.); 3 - per gross (post. 3d.). At least two dozen should be allowed for each dancer.
LEG PADS with loud bells. 2/- per pair (post. 3d.) ; 10/6 per set of 6 pairs (post. 5d.). The pads are made of leather, and have two buckles.
HATS. Old Silk Hats, 2/6 each (post, and packing, Sd.^i ; 13/6 per set of 6 (carriage forward).
BEANSTICKS. Eighteen-inch sticks, id. each (post, id.) ; i/- per doz. (post. 5d.). The sticks are of white wood, sand-papered.
BRAID for STREAMERS.
ijin. wide. 2d. per yard; 3/- per piece (24 yards). I in. wide. lid. per yard ; 2/- per piece (24 yards). In red, white, and green (the morris colours). Yellow and blue can also be supplied.
ROSETTES. Small tricolour rosettes with streamers, lAd. each (post, id.); i/- per doz. (post, id.)
LEG rADS and HATS may be hired at the following rates per week: Set of 6 hats, 3 -; Set of 6 pairs of leg pads, 3/- Carriage both ways is paid by the hirer.
5694
The Esperance Morns Book,
A Manual of Morris Dances, Folk. Songs, and Singing Games, by
MARY NEAL,
HON.SEC. OF THE ESPERA\'CE GIRLS' CLUB.
FIRST LIST OF PRESS NOTICES.
PUNCH.
It is Beatrice, is it not ? in Much Ado About Nothing — or Much To-do About Nothing, iiS tlie programme boys outside the Lyceum in its great days used to call — who says that a star danced and under that she was born. What then of the members of the Esperance Club, who, with Miss Neal as their moving spirit, have been working so hard and gaily for several years now to bring about a revival in England of the old songs and dances ? Were they not born under dancing stars too ? Surely. And if they had their way this planet of ours might look to the other planets and stars as if it danced too. Miss Neal has just compiled " The Esperance Morris Book," with a history of the movement since 1905, when the girls' feet first began to be too much for them as they danced and sang while ordinary dull persons walked and talked, down to the present time when they have to their credit hundreds of villagers all over England in whom the old melodies and happinesses have been implanted. This admirable achievement is recorded ; instructions as to the songs, dances, and singing games are given ; and a selection of them follows, arranged for the piano. Thus any one possessing the book has, so to speak, a tourist's ticket for Merrie England and a complete outfit while there. May it find many possessors and more readers !
THE OUTLOOK.
Nobody who has ever attended one of the Esperance Club concerts is likely to forget his or her experience, such is the beauty and bewitching intimacy of the ancient melodies (most of them in the natural modes) and so keen the delight of the players in the songs and morris dances and singing games which make up the programme. It is clear that all of them, from the grown lads and lasses to the merest dots of children, would have just as much pleasure in their festival of play (work it is not for them, since they are all untouched by the taint of professionalism) if only birds and flowers were present to see and hear. The haunting loveliness of the " old lavender " cry, still heard in the streets of London, is present in these folk-songs. Even more haunting (if that be possible) are the morris tunes, such as " Shepherd's Aye " or the " Morris Off " with its suggestion of the tiredness that is a pleasure rather than a pain, a sauce to one's supper, and an incentive to timely sleep and pleasant dreams. Then there are the singing games, which are still played in the streets of London. They are so old and gay, these infinitesimal tragedies and comedies as artistic and as artless as Greek dramas ! What is to be done with this newly discovered May-day music ? It must not remain a buried talent of a nation wrongly called unmusical. In the first place, a knowledge hereof must be spread throughout the country from Land's End to " merry Carlisle," and further afield than that — into the demi-Englands beyond the narrow seas. A beginning has been made of that joyous task.
SHEFFIELD TELEGRAPH.
The popularity of morris dancing continues to grow. It is so charming a combination of movement and music, ol sociability and health-giving exercise that it is not only recapturing the country-side, but is invading the large cities, and especially London. In the " Esperance Morris Book," just published in handsome and complete style by J. Cur wen
and Sons, Miss Mary Neal tells how the revival of morris dancing, which is a part of the national life to-day, began. The flame has spread like wildfire, as hundreds of villages and towns can testify. Messrs. Curwen's book with music, pictures, instructions, and a batch of selected folk-songs should add further to the boom in morris dancing.
VOTES FOR WOMEN.
" To set all England dancing." That was the wild and impossible dream that came to Miss Neal's mind when her attention was once turned to " the morris." Wild and impossible dreams sometimes come true. Miss Neal is one of the intrepid dreamers who are the essentially practical people of the world. Every day sees the revival of the morris, now in one county of England, now in another. The story of the discovery of these dances, and of the subsequent development of the movement for their revival, is told in " The Esperance Morris Book." With such a book for guidance there is no reason at all why a performance of folk- dance and folk-song should not be given in the schoolroom of every village throughout the country. Such an enter- tainment should not be the end but the beginning of the revival of folk-music in the village, where once again should the sight be seen of children dancing " Shepherd's Aye " in the school playground and the young folks footing " Jockey to the Fair " upon the green. To-day, the town is giving back to the country the old dance and the old songs. May the publication of the " Esperance Morris Book " give yet another stimulus to the spread of English folk-music through- out our native land, and help to make English boys and girls in city and hamlet what every lover of his country would like to see them — " upstanding, clean living, and joyous." — E. P. L.
THE MORNING POST.
Miss Mary Neal has been the life and soul of the revival of English folk-music, which, but for her practical energy and enterprise, might have meant little more than an addition to the vast accumulation of forgotten or half-forgotten musical literature — the dust-heaps of silenced sounds in which the historian and technical expert rummage to their heart's content. But for her and the Esperance Club it might have been necessary to discover the traditional songs and dances a second time, and it would have been too late then to find any of the old Morris-men to show us how " Shepherd's Aye " and the rest should be rendered in the old English style of self-forgetting simplicity. It follows that everybody interested in the revival (that is to say, every true lover of the true England) should read the " Esperance Morris Book," which gives specimens of folk-songs, morris dances, and singing games, and a vast deal of commonsense criticisms and useful explanations.
THE DAILY NEWS
Devotes the magazine page (May 5th, 1910) to an article on " The revival of the Morris dance," with sketches and photographs, and a review of " The Esperance Morris Book."
Excellent reviews of " The Esperance .Alorris Book " have appeared in " The Times," " Westminster Gazette," and many other leading papers.
PRICE FIVE SHILLINGS. POSTAGE 4d.
London : J. Curwen & Sons Ltd., 24 Berners Street, W.
The Growth and Future of Morris Dancing.
An infcn'icw in tlic " Musical Herald^' i^'ith J/iss Jllary A\(i/, Espaaiicc (jifW Cliili.
" Miss Neal, you have told the story of the beginning of your folk-music work in ' The Esperance Morris Book.' Will you tell the Musical Herald something about its developments ? "
" With pleasure. Where shall 1 begin ? The work now absorbs the whole of my time and that of a secretary. I fear you will not have room to describe all that we are doing, but I can give you some instances of the enthusiasm with which the movement is being taken up. I have a list of addresses of persons interested. Recently I sent a notice to about one-third of the names on this list, announcing that I have had put at my disposal a large house at Littlehampton, and proposed to hold there an Easter vacation course for teachers. The notice was copied into one or two educational papers. I thought that, if successful at all. I might hope to fill the house after two or three months' canvassing. Between fiftj- and sixty people could be taken. In three days I had to stop all circularising, and could have filled the house three times over. To avoid some of the disappointments a smaller house and some additional rooms have been engaged. We hope to give teachers a comprehensive course of folk-art, combined with a delightful holiday at the seaside and on the Sussex downs. Morris dances will be taught by Miss Florence Warren. Singing games by Miss May Start. Folk-songs by Mr. Clive Carey. Lectures will be given by the Hon. Neville Lytton and others. I am going to lecture on the religious ideas which persist in folk-lore. On Easter Sunday (what day more appropriate ?) Mr. F. R. Benson will possibly speak on Shakespeare and the resurrection of the dead. In more detail, the General Secretary of the Festival Association will speak about the features of the next celebrations at Stratford-on- Avon. It is clear that we must organise this vacation teaching on a bigger scale in the summer, and I shall welcome applications from teachers who would like to join a course in August."
" Is there something special about the next Shakespeare anniversary ? "
" Folk-song and dance competitions are being organised, and will be held in the Town Hall and Corn Exchange at Stratford-on-Avon. Children from elementary schools will compete in nine classes (open and local) on the Qth May. in folk-songs, morris dances, traditional English country dances, and solo jigs. On the following day there will be similar
compet tions for adults, including novices. For these contests wc are sending a good many teams from pujiils in our classes. It there is sufficient encouragement a ummer school of morris dancing will be held in connection with the Shakespeare commemorations."
" What is being done by the Esperance Club ' "
" The work has outgrown local interests. Besides the Club premises in Cumberland Market, an office is being main- tained. The time has come to unite scattered forces. The Esperance Guild of Mo ris Dancers is being formed, consisting of those people in England who want to see the development of song, dance, game, and drama originated by the people themselves. A small subscription will entitle members to join any classes or attend freely any public appearances of the Club. Intending members should write for information to me at 50 Cumberland Market, London, N.W.
" How is your training carried on ? "
" Six teachers are constantly on tour, sometimes eight are at work. A teacher usually spends a week giving lessons daily in one place ; she may be re-engaged for six weeks or at once introduced to a neighbouring society. One education authority sug.gests having one teacher engaged for three months at different places within the county. We scarcely know how to overtake the work. It has come upon me like a torrent, which has been increased by the recent circular of the Board of Education recommending morris and other country dances. Wc have given over twenty concerts in the Small Queen's Hall, others at Kensington Town Hall, and we have been all round the environs of London. Next summer I am ineditating a fortnight's tour by motor 'bus from London to Yorkshire and back, giving a display in a different town or village every day but Sunday. We have taught girls' clubs, boys' clubs, polytechnic schools, and private individuals in all parts of London. We have started classes especially for elementary school teachers, which are very well attended. Everywhere the same result has followed. Letters come from all parts of England, the colonies and foreign countries. This revival of the practice and use of our English folk music is ]iart of a great national awakening, a going back from town t(.) rountrv, a reaction against all that is demoralising in citv life. In this music we have made a great discovcr^• of a hidden treasure."
Some Developments of the Revival of Folk Dances.
.'In infciT'iriV in ilic " O/iSii-ivr."
One of the most interesting entertainments to be given in association with the May-Day Festival will take place at K' jn Town Hall next Thursday evening, when the
E„^- iCe Club and Guild of iMorris Dancers will recall many of the folk-songs, singing games, and dances, which are fast becoming only a memory of the past.
For several years Miss Mary Neal has thrown he self with characteristic energy into a movement for rev ving these quaint and charming o'.d dances, which arc so racy of the soil, and her efforts have been rewarded with a large measure of success. Instruction in Morris dancing is now included in the physic I educational code of the elementary schools, so that children can be taught these pictu -csque measures in school hours.
" I am the happiest woman in England," Miss Neal told a rep esentative of The Observer, " for I see a chance now of children learning to dance. I have six or eight teachers giving instruction in these dances from one end of England to the other, and they are nearly worked to death. A week or two ago I was judging six teams of morris dancers at Newbury, and on May 6 I am judging eight teams at Battersea Town Hall. Children taught by my Esperance Club members will also take part in the folk-song and dance competitions at Stra' ford-on- Avon next week during the Shakespeare Festival celebrations, some of the teams coming from as far north as Hull and as far South as SouthamiJton."
It is Miss Neal's ambition to induce the London County Council to allow her club to give performances of tliese songs and dances in the parks, say once a week, during the summer months, the music being supplied by the band. By this means, at a purely nominal cost, the public would become ac<]uainted with these pretty folk relics and share lier desire to sec them perpetuated.
It is also part of Miss Neal's scheme that a knowledge of these songs and dances should form a national bond, not only in England, but for English residents in remote parts of the colonies, where many a dull hour might be enlivened by tripping a livelv morris. It was to emphasise this idea that she had a Union Jack fixed to the top of the maypole at her holiday hotel for working girls at Littlehampton, where a class for training teachers was crowded out this Easter. From 7 a.m. until II p.m. each day of the course these working girl students applied themselves to mastering these old measures at the hotel of the " Green Lady."
.\t the Kensington Town Hall on Thirsday a special feature will be the presence of se\-cral traditional dancers and singers, some of whom taught the Esperance Club, and one of \\hom last danced a morris on the King's wedding-day. There will also be shown regalia of traditional dancers, going back at least to the year 1700. Several old morris customs in connection with the dances will also figure in the programme.
Miss Neal is going to take a party of morris dancers from the Esperance Club over to Brussels to dance at the Exliibition.
BRIEF LIST OF
Morris and Country Dances, Folk Songs, Singing Games.
Our Folk Music List, gratis and post free, contains full particulars, contents, and illustrations of these works.
THE ESPERANCE MORRIS BOOK (5694). By Miss Mary Neal. A Handbook to folk music, containing also a large number of songs, games, and dances, with the music. Price 5/-.
DANCES.
The Hornpipe (1365). Recorded by Miss Cowper Coles. Price 1/-.
Greensleeves, and other old Dances (5704). Arranged by Miss Cowper Coles. Price 2/-.
Shakespearean Bidford Morris Dances (5623). Collected and edited by John Graham. Price 2/-.
Lancashire and Cheshire Morris Dances (5713). Collected and edited by John Graham. Price 2/-
Ancient Dances and Music (5675). As revived by Miss Nellie Chaplin. Price 2/-.
Court Dances and others (5707). Revived by Nellie Chaplin. Price 3/6.
Old English Country Dance and Morris Tunes (5645). Collected by Frank Kidson. Price 2/-.
Old English Country Dance Steps (5681). Arranged by Miss Cowper Coles (music in the two foregoing).
Price 2,'-. Guild of Play Book, Parts I, II, and III (5634). By Mrs. Kimmins. Dances arranged by Mrs. Woolnoth.
Price 5/- each. Old Devonshire Dances (5640). Edited by Mildred Bult. Price 1/-. Folk Dances of Europe (5692). Collected and arranged from various sources. Price 2/6. Maypole Exercises (5261). By Miss E. Hughes. Edition with a fresh set of photographs now on sale. Price 1/-. Maypole Dances (5711). By W. Shaw. Price 1/-.
FOLK SONGS.
English Folk-songs for Schools (5120). Collected and arranged by S. Baring Gould, M.A., and Cecil Sharp,
B.A. Staff, 2/6; Vocal, both notations, cloth, 1/-. Words only, 3d. ; cloth, 6d.
Eight Hampshire Folk-songs (5627). Collected by Alice E. Gillington, Price 1/-. Dialect Songs of the North (5712). Collected by John Graham. Price 1/-. Old Christinas Carols (5702). Collected by Alice E. Gillington. Price 1/-.
SINGING GAMES.
Alice E. Gillington's Collections. Old Hampshire Singing Games (5673). Price 1/-. Old Surrey Singing Games (5668). Price l/-.
Old Isle of Wight Singing Games (5685). Price 1/-. Breton Singing Games (5703). Price l/-.
Children's Plays from Old English Fairy Tales (5680). Arranged by Ursula C. Hutchinson. Price 1/-,
NoTE.^ — Bells, rosettes, hats, beansticks, maypoles and braids can be procured from the publishers.
215/10.10
LONDON : J. GURWEN & SONS Ltd.. 24 BERNERS STREET, W.
SHAKESPEAREAN BIDFORD MORRIS DANCES.
Collected and Edited by JOHN GRAHAM.
Third Edition. Curwen's Edition, No. 5623-
A Young: Troupe of Morris Dancers.
CONTENTS. Jhepherd's Hay. Constant Billy.
Old Woman tossed up in a Blanket. Brighton Camp, 01 Billy and Nancy Closs Caper, or Princes Royal. Abraham Brown.
Blufi King Hal. Heel and Toe.
We won't go home till morning. Morris Ofl.
Cuckoo's Nest.
With an introduction, description of the dresses and danc«s, and hints OQ their adaptation to Schools. AccorapaniraeDts for violin and pianoforte are provided.
Price Two Shilling-s.
OLD COUNTRY DANCE AND MORRIS
TUNES.
Selected and Edited by FRANK HIDSON,
with an Historical Account of the Morris Dance.
Third Edition.
Curwen's Edition, No. 5645.
All in a hurry. Bab at the Bouster. The Blanket. Buttered Pease. Cockle Shells. The Faithful Shepherd. The Fiddler's Monis. The Glory of the North.
CONTENTS
Helston Furry Dance. The Maid of the Mill. Maids' Morris. May Day. Tabourot's Morris. Three Sheep Skins. Woman's work is nevel
The steps of several of the dances doles' book
rill he found in Miss Cowper
Price Two Shilling-s.
LOXDO.V: J. CURWKN & SONS
OLD ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCE STEPS.
English Country Dances of the 17th Cetitury.
Revived by MISS COWPER COLES.
Curwen's Edition, No. 568t.
WOMAN'S WORK.
All in a garden green.
Cockle Shells.
Staines Morris.
The Faithful Shepherd.
Woman's work is never don
Dargason, ot the Seda All in a hurry. Three Sheepskins. Maids' Morris. Buttered Pease.
Music— The music of Nos. i, 3, and 6 will be found in Curwm's Edition, No. 5675, price i/-. That of the other dances is in Curwen's Edition, No. 5645, price 2/-.
Price, cloth, Two Shillings.
CHILDREN'S PLAYS.
From Old English Fairy Tales.
Arranged by V. C. HUTCHINSON.
Curwen's Edition, No. 5680.
These little plays, with their quaint dialect, have the tang of the folk-song and morris dance. They introduce the element of acting and dressing up, which children always love, to the old English entertainment. The (airy tales used are The Magpie's Nest, Tom Tit Tot, The Well Ql World's End, and Childe Rowland.
Price, cloth, One Shilling.
Ltd , ?.-> REKNEKS STkElCT. \\'.
ANCIENT DANCES AND MUSIC.
Revived by NELLIE CHAPLIN.
Enlarg-ed Edition. Curwin's Edition- No. 5675.
STANES MORRIS.
CONTENTS.
All in a garden green. Dargason, or The Sedany. Hampstead Heath.
Once I loved a maiden fair.
Trenchmore.
Stanes Morris.
The steps are given in this etiUirged edition. Price Two Shillings.
OLD DEVONSHIRE DANCES.
Edited by MILDRED BULT.
Curwen's Edition, No. 5C40. CONTENTS.
Temp^te. Circassian Circle. Cross Hands. Haste to the Wedding.
Triumph. Follow my Love. Brixham Reel.
The traditional dances of a North Devon village. Directions, photo. graphs, and music are included. The lady who edits the CollectioD has for some years taught these dances.
Price One Shilling-.
OLD HAMPSHIRE SINGING GAMES AND TRILLING THE ROPE RHYMES.
Collected by ALICE E. GILLINGTON.
Curwen's Edition, No. 5673-
LONDON BRIDGE.
As played in Surrey ; not Hampshi:
CONTENTS^
All ai'duiid the valley, [sabella
Old Roger's dead. Jenny Jones. There stands a lady. Green Gravel (ist tune). Green Gravel (2nd tune). The Three Jews. Nuts away. Wallflowers (ist tune).
Lily Flowers (2nd tune).
London Bridge.
My fair lady.
The Farmer's in his Den.
Gipsies in the Wood.
When I was a school-girl.
Bobby Bingo.
Down by the river side.
The Holly, Holly O t
Price One Shilling-.
OLD ISLE OF WIGHT SINGING GAMES.
Collected by ALICE E. GILLINGTON.
Curwen's Edition, No 5685.
The wind, the wind blows high.
See this pretty girl of mine.
The Dairy ho I
Bingo.
The Jolly Miller.
Rosy apple, lemon, or pear.
Threadle the needle.
Oats and beans and barley.
Babes in the wood.
A-hunting we will go.
When I was a lady.
My man John.
The grand old Duke of York
Hark, the robbers.
English Soldiers.
Yellow Gravel.
London is the capital.
There stands a lady.
Sally Waters.
Down in the meadows.
How many miles to Barbary Land
Here comes a Duke from Suanj
Grandmother's needle.
Price One Shilling:,
LONDON: J. CURWEN & SONS Ltd., 24 BERNERS STREET, W.
OLD SURREY SINGING GAMES AND SKIPPING-ROPE RHYMES.
Collected by ALICE E. GILLINGTON.
Curwen's Edition, No. 5668.
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FOLK DANCES OF EUROPE.
Collected from various sources, chiefly Swedish.
Curwen's EJitmn, ,Vo. ^''.93.
REAP THE FLAX (The Spinning Wheel)
CONTENTS.
LUMP OF SUGAR.
PLAY DANCES—
.Gustaf's Skol
Rosy Apples. Climbuig up tlie hillside. Here come tliree Dukes. Mv nam^ is Sweet William. Sally go round the moon. Poor Jenny sits a-weeping. Draw buckets of water. Spanish Merchants. Wigamy, Wigaray, Water-hen. Our boots are made of leather. The Milking Pail.
has go
My young mj
Roman Soldiers.
The Keys of Heaven (There stands
a lady). Here we come up the green grass Monday Night. Looby Loo. Early in the morning. Eight o'clock Bells. Skipping-rope Rhymes. SkippiiJg-rope Flower Game.
.Swedish .German . Swedish
HARVEST AND TRADE DANCES—
English Harvest Dance English
Finnish Harvest Dance Finnish
Vintage Dance French
Reap the Flax Swedish
Shoemakers' Dance
Price One Shilling.
MAY-POLE EXERCISES.
By Miss E. HUGHES.
Curwen's Edition, No. 5261.
MERRY DANCES (Short)—
Clapping Dance Klappdans Swedish
Hop ! Mother Annika .Hopp Morr Annika. . .Swedish
Hopping Dance German
Rovenacka Bohemian
Mountain March Norwegia
Bleking Swedish
Bounding Heart Sjalaskuttan Finnish
Lottie's Dead Lett' ist tod Swedish
Tell-Tale Ella Skvaller-Ulla Finnish
Petronella Scotch
MERRY DANCES (Longer)—
Old Polka Swedish
Trallen Swedish
Mountain Polka Fjiillnaspolska Swedish
The Goddesses English
Sappo Finnish
O-xen Dance Oxdansen Swedish
Price Two Shilling-s and Sixpence.
C(.)NTi:nts
First Practice—" The Suigle Plait." Second Practice — " Girls in the Centre." Third Practice — " The Waterwheel." Fourth Practice—" The Gipsy's Tent." Fifth Practice—'* The Double Plait." Sixth Practice — " The Spider's Web." Seven'-h Practice — " The Barber's Pole." Finale.
Photographs of the different practices arc given, with full directions and music.
The latest edition has a new set of photographs. Price One Shilling.
EIGHT HAMPSHIRE FOLK SONGS.
Collected by A. E. GILLINGTON.
Curwen's Edition, No. 56^7
As down in a Valley.
The Banks of the sweet Primroses.
Brannen on the Moor.
The Broken-down Gentleman.
The Dawning of the Day. In Sheffield Park. The Robber and the Lady. The Young Fisherman.
Loxnox
(TRWKN iV SONS Ltd.
Price One Shilling:.
24 f,]':rni-:rs stri;i:t. w.
SONGS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS.
Dedicated by perraission to theil Royal Highnesses Prince Bdward and Prince Albert of Wales.
One hundred National Airs, selected and arranged for Schools by W. H. HADOW.
Curwen's Edilim, No. 5462.
Specially uamcd by Dt. Somervell in a circular addresseJ to the Training Colleges. Contains almost all of tie English songs named in the list approved by the Bofird of Education, and many others in addition. For unison singing. Graded as to difficulty.
Contents.
-ELEMENTARY.
A faimer he lived
A Song tor Bnglaud • Pegoiie, Dull Care
Blind Beggar's Daughter, «Blue BpII of Scotland. The
Come, live with me flFarmer's Song, The
From Oberon m Fairyland
Gather ye rosebuds aGod save the King aGolden Si'imbers
H^rk th<- slumbers •Hunt IS up. The
. Th«
ojohn Peel ojollv MillPr aKeel Row. Tlie
Land and Sea
Last Ro«e of Summer, The
Meeting of the Waters, The oNow, Robin, lend to me
Fast three o'clock
Pedlar Jim
Song Time
Spring Song aYou Gentlemen of Bngland
II.— iNTERMEDIATB.
■Auld lang-syne
Autumn Song ab^ihfl's Daughter, The • Barbara Allen
Bonnie Charhe'a now awa' aBonnie Dundee aBritish Grenadiers, The
Dear harp of my country aDnnk to me only aDarly one morning •From the village steeple
(All through the night) •Good morning, pretty maid
e, The
oHarp that on
Island. The aMen oi Harlech aNew-inown hay, The (W:lh Jocke
Now here's to the kingdom
O give me a cot aOak and the Ash, The flRoast Beef of Old Bngland Thf oSince 6rst I saw your face aSong of the Western men aVicar of Bray, The
Wanderer's Song
Toung Richard
III ADVANCED.
• A-huDUng Wf will (O aHlow, blow Ihou winter wind
Cavalier Song aCavalier, The (Polly Oliver) «Come, lasses and lads
Fvening Song aBvening Song (Flight of the Barls) aPairest Isle
• Heart of oak •Hunting the Han
Market-day oMaypole, The aMermaid. The aMinsU-el Boy, The Morning Song Song of the Loom oSpniig is coming, The aUnder the greenwood 1 •Useful Plough, The •Where the bee 9ucli»
IV DUETS AND CHORUSES.
• Bav of Biscay
Come, brave companloni
• t>olce Domum Haik to the BeUs
• Here's a health unto His Majesty
• Hope, the Hermit
•II was a lover and his lass Jacobite Song
oLjss of Richmond Hill ..Now IS the month of Ma\Hn| •Prince Charlie's Farewell
(Farewell. Manchesterl
• Rule, Britannia •Sigh no more, ladies
When the king enjoyi
• Ye manners of Bnglan*
Section v.— INSTRUMENTAL.
Approved by the Board of Education
Fifth Edition.
ENGLISH FOLK SONGS FOR SCHOOLS
COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY
S. BARING GOULD, M.A., and CECIL SHARP, B.A.
Curwen's Edition, No. 5120.
The fifty-three songs in this book have, with three exceptions, been taken down from the lips of countr} singers, and have been especially chosen fur use in schools. They meet the Snggestioni of the Board of Education
A folk-sing-er from whom Mr. Sharp n than 100 ancient tunes.
CONTENTS. Ballads.
The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies O.
Lord Rendal.
The Old Man and his Wife.
The Shepherd's Daughter.
The Twu Magicians.
Cold blows the Wind.
The Golden Vanity.
Flowers in the Valley.
Blow away the niurniug dew.
The Setds of Love.
Hares on the Mountains.
Creeping Jane.
The Poor Old Horse.
High Germany.
Sweet England,
Daboling in the dew.
The Three Huntsmen.
just aa the tide was a-fluwing.
The Meny Haymakers.
Slrawtwrry Fair.
Sir John Barleycorn.
The Coasts of Barbary.
Henry Martin.
Henry Martin {2nd version).
Lord B a tern an.
The Outlandish Knight.
Lord Thomas and Fair Bleano
Henry V and King of France
Golden Glove.
The Simple Plaughboy.
Sweet Nightingale.
The Fox.
The Country Farmer's Son.
The Cuckoo.
The Jolly Waggoner.
Let bucks a-hunimg go.
The Evening Prayer.
The Saucy Sailor.
The Loyal Lover.
Outward and Homeward Bound.
The Dark-eyed Sailo'.
Near London Town.
Infants' Song^s.
Sly Reynard.
A Frog he would a-wooing go.
The Frog and the Mou^ie.
The Old Woman and the Pedlar.
Simple Simon.
Cock-a-dcodle doo.
The Sailor and the Mouse. Robin a-Thrush. One Michaelmas Mom. The Foolish Bov. Mowing the Barley.
Voeal Edition, both Dotations, U.
[May also be had with pianoforte accompaniment, 2/0 ; cloth. 3/6.]
Price, Staff Notation, with accompaniments, 2s. 6d.
Vocal Edition, both notations, cloth. Is.
Words only, 3d.; cloth, 6d.
LONDON
CURWEN & SONS Ltd., 24 BERNERS STREET, W.
GUILD OF PLAY BOOK OF FESTIVAL AND DANCE.
Compiled by Mrs. G. T. KIMMINS.
Dances arranged by M. H. WOOLNOTH.
Programs for Mayday, Empire Day, Michaelmas, and J * Md I'.nglish Customs and Dances adapted fnr Children ; regarded particularly from the standpoint of health culti
milar festivals . Ball ICxercises, re. The dances
and exercises are those used at the Bermondsey Settlement.
; Edition, No. s^^.
PART II.
Piefatory Note. By the Rt. Hon. and Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of London, President of the Guild of the Brave Poor Things and of the Guild of Play.
The Music of the Book.
Prefatory Note. By the Rev. Alderman J. Scott Lidgett, M.A., L.C.C., Warden of the Bermondsey University Settlement.
Introduction of Story of the Guild uf Play Children's Pageants. Steps for General Practice.
The Origin of the Organized Play
Special Characteristics of the Scheme.
; at the Guild of Plav
S iggested Programmes and Materials for Use for — An Early English May Day (p. 4). A Modern May Day (p. 12). Empire Day (p. 18).
Midsummer Eve, or St. John's Eve (p. 24). Michaelmas (p. 28). All Hallow E'en (p. 28). St. Nicholas Day (p. 31). Christmas {p. 33). New Year's Day (p. 34)- Twelfth Night, etc. (p. 38).
With notes, descriptions, and full details as to music
Tde adaptation of Old English Customs and Dances fo with notes and figures.
use of Childn
The Famous Greensleeves Song and Dance, before 1580 (p. 5).
Dance of Garlands (p. 7).
A May-pole Dance (p. g).
A Specimen Morris Dance with flandkerchiefs {p. 11),
A Dance of the Seasons (p. 13).
A Spring Flower Dance (p. 15).
Midsummer Rose Dance (p. 25).
St. Nicholas Shoe Dance (p. 32).
Christmas Dance (p. 35).
Sir Roger de Coverley (p 36}.
Holly and Mistletoe Dance (p. 37).
Frost and Snow Dance {p. 37).
Icicle Dance (p. 37).
Cushion Dance (p. 39).
Sellenger's Round (p. 41).
Minuet (p. 43).
, which have been specially performances.
for Guild of Play
Ball Biercises. regarded particularly from the curative standpoint, and therefore useful for Special Schools, Cripple Play Centres Convalescent Homes, and Vacation Schools.
Of Part I, the Journal of Education says —
" Of the making of books of work and of lessons there is no end, and a book of play will therefore be all the more welcome. ... In answer to the ever-increasing number of teachers and educators generally who, from time to time, witness the festivals at the Bermondsey Settlement, we have at last a Guild of Play book. It gives us a history of the folk- ■ongs and carols of Merrie England, together with the most popular of these songs and their musical accompaniments ; suggested programmes for our great national festivals, and notes, descriptions, and full details as to music and costumes. Nut the least important part consists of some valuable recreative and remedial exercises. The book is a most con- venient size and shape for the piano, and Miss Rennie has surpassed herself in the drawing of the delightful Kate Greenaway pictures of the uaint dancers. The get-up makes it an admirable gift book wherever there are children, from the luxurious nursery to the slum playground."
Price, in paper boards, 5s. ; postag^e 4d.
The Tale of Prince Richard's Mumming.
The same being a representation by the children of the Guild of Play from the Bermondsey University Settlement of the famous Christmas Masque made by the citizens of South-east London for the entertainment and diversion of young Prince Richard, son of the Black Prince, a.d. m76. in the Great Hall of the Manor of Kenniiigton beside Lambeth.
Prologue.
Dance of the Pages and Maidens.
Two Christmas Dances :
ffl] The Carole " Good Christian men. rejoite."
[b] The Yule Dance. An Ancient Measure. The Mumming Dance. The Wassail Song and Dance. The Ancient Craft Dance of the Tailors [Scissors and
Cottons]. The Egg Dance. A Grecian Ball Dance. The Heritage Waltz.
Processional Kanle, " Listen, Lordings, unto me." Carol : *' Merrily ring the Christmas bells."
A Christmas iu Old Bermondsey House —
A Yuletide of the period when Sir Thomas Pope was appointed by Queen Mary as the guardian of the Princess Elizabeth shortiv after Wyatt's insurrection. The feast was planned by Sir Thomas Pope in old Bermondsey House in honour of the Princess Elizabeth, at his own cost, and even in the days of magnificent pageants was one of marked importance.
This Children's Pageant has 9 speaking parts, g dances, 4 carols. Full directions as to dances are given, with words, music, and illustrations ; the whole forming a complete guide to representa- tions by any number of children.
Prologue.
The Feu de Joie.
Country Dance (Ap Shenkin).
Carol : '* Good King Wenceslas."
Minuet for Eight.
Trenchmore : a Country Dance.
Off she goes : a Country Dance.
The Dance of the Hobby Horse.
Carol : " The Boar's Head."
Let's have a Dance.
A hunting we will go.
A Sword Dance.
The Waits' Song.
The Rosemary Dance, or Dance of Kemembrance-
Additional items —
The Llangattock March, by J. W. Kimmins.
A Child's Slumber Song, by the Lady Hen- y Somerset
Price, in paper boards, 5s. ; postag-e 4d
PART III, containing: National and Continental Dances, is also published at the same price.
LONDON
( IkWEN cS: SONS Ltd, LM BKkXKKS SLRELL. W.
JUL 1 a iMS(
MMm
MIKM
•*t
1 -