Introduction

England has a number of traditional plays performed exclusively by male non-actors (including female parts) from within the community, handed down in oral tradition with lost origins.  These take a number of forms and in this section will be explored.

The traditional folk plays are known as 'The Mummers' Play' and are often based on the legend of Saint George.   This is claimed by some as an ancient tradition but seems reliably to date back to the early 18th century.  In fact the title describes a wide variety of plays handed down by word of mouth with varying forms and costumes.  Mummer's plays are in fact mystery plays like the Christian ones of Medieval Britain with a cultivated air of strangeness.

The mystery of the plays origins and meaning

The covering of the players in animal or nature costumes to modern eyes seems curious even unsettling.  In the Mumming play a character is killed and revived as is the Padstow Horse in the May Day revels in the village (Cornwall England).  This is a possible symbolic representation of death and rebirth consistent with many other forms of similar 'illumination' performance. For example in the third degree initiation of freemasonry there is a similar symbolic ritualised death and rebirth, it is also possibly interesting to note that freemasonry was formalised and growing amongst the middle classes a few decades before the certified arrival of Mummer's plays.

In the case of Mumming the death of the old year and the coming of the Summer is possibly implied although there is no definitive knowledge of the intentions and history for the plays.  Early folklorists of the early twentieth century claimed the plays as part of an unbroken pagan heritage but this possibility has gradually been disproved.  Members do talk though of continuing a tradition and this seems an important element of the plays.

The plays are mainly performed at Christmas with repeated performances up until Plough Monday when separate but related plays are performed.  Given that this lies in the middle of the fallow Winter period the plays may simply have been a way of funds raising for the local rural population who were not earning whilst off the land, an element that continues through to today often for charity.  Indeed the demanding of funds and the rowdy nature of the performers often made the Mummers unwelcome with many written accounts to their drunkenness and threats.  Only the former accusation could be drawn today.

Where are the plays performed?

Mummers' or Mumming Plays are performed in the street and often the performers would call at houses in the vicinity causing much excitement and enjoyment, they would be given food and drink similar to carol singers and then perform their play.  This would happen every year without fail with the players moving from house to house.  Their costumes could be formal dress for the characters through to complete coverage as shown in the following pictures.  Other popuolar places included pubs and community halls.  The Mummers' could often arrive unannounced and begin performing as though it is their right although over time this became a more planned circuit.

Mumming plays were performed at Tudor courts and were seen as one of the more formal and accepted festivities for the community.  They were also part of the working population and would tour the local area moving from pub to pub with hospitality from a kindly landlord or drawn from the funds collected.

At Marshfield, a picturesque village in the Cotswolds, England the Mummer's Plays are held in the street each Boxing day.  The play is repeated four times as the players move up the central street stopping at the pubs en route for drinks and mince pies.  The players prize their role and learn by voice only, the plays are not written down.  The roles are inherited from within the community upon retirement, illness or death.

Often the players do not mingle with the crowds, deliberately seeking to appear and vanish to heighten the ceremonial and strange elements of the plays.  Indeed performances have been given in empty streets, it is not the watching but the performance that matters with the actors attesting to the importance of continuing the unbroken tradition of performance.

How were the plays handed down?

 To preserve the tradition young men would join guilds that carried on the Mumming tradition and would at certain points of the year raise funds for its performance in Church and community ales.  These informal often village based guilds were numerous during the late medieval to Stuart period and were dedicated to Saints and specific festivities.  These guilds were broken up during the Puritan Reformation but in the Mummers which formally came later the unofficial grouping to continue the tradition still goes on.  The Mummers would learn the plays orally and although they are now written down these are mostly modern reconstructions done at the start of the twentieth century by earnest folklorists.  The performers would be drawn from father to son, handing down their role with only retirement or death bringing in new players.  The continuity and tradition seem to be a major part of the annual ritual for those involved.

Few original Mummers play texts survived although archival research has produced more script than was originally the case as the tradition was celebrated by early folklorists such as Violet Alford.  However many of these folklorists tried to show Mumming as directly pagan in origin which has proven not to be the case over the years.  Indeed although claimed by these over enthusiastic folklorists as ancient and pagan, the plays clearly seem to derive from the late 17th century onwards and in particular in the 18th century.  It is possible that ancient threads of story telling were absorbed into the stories but they were written in a Christian society with a strong Puritan streak at the time.

Characters in the plays

The roles of the play were St George, a Turkish Knight, a comic Doctor, Beelzebub and over time other characters would come in and out.  Although the plays take place popularly during the Christmas period they also are performed around Halloween and Easter.  There are many plays with the characters mainly consistent although with some additions and losses for individual plays.  Some communities retain elements of earlier medieval Robin Hood plays with a Robin Hood or Sheriff of Nottingham or the strange man as woman derived from Maid Marian.  These Robin Hood characters had their own popular plays in the 15th-16th centuries but fell out of fashion and were absorbed or evolved into the more flexible Mummers.  The traditional figure of Father Christmas also appears in some of the plays.  It was during the 15th century that as boredom with the character of Robin Hood grew that popular interest in St George grew and he became symbolic of England (although of course he never set foot here).  It is likely that this acted over time as a stimulus that led to the development of the plays.

Mummer's plays are often comic in tone with a formal structure but allowing for many comic asides and there is an element of community celebration and humor in the performances.  However the plays are not pantomine in nature and taken very seriously by the performers.

The strange costumes

Many of the costumes for the Mummers hide their faces and this acts as both increasing the mystery and liberating the performers around those they would know and love.    This is consistent with the concept of 'guising', going in disguise as part of festivities.  So masks, streamers, hats with strips hanging down and blackened faces are variously used to strange and beguiling effect.

Costumes of the Mummers vary considerably from turning jackets inside out or with some groups have paper strips covering their entire bodies, these may originally have been leaf based like the Jack-In-The-Green character but now the preserved costumes are often still used.  Each year care and attention is paid to preserve and restore the original costumes, the act of which is as important as performance.  Some areas have 'black faced Mummers' consistent with some of the black faced Morris dancers.

The costumes originally seemed to strip away the personality and identity of the player making them all look the same however over time and certainly in the 20gth century revival players such as the doctor took on their own distinct representative costumes. 

The various types of play

The plays fall generally into one of three areas:

1. The 'Hero Combat' play. 

2. The 'Wooing' Play

3. The 'Sword' play.

The Hero Combat play is the most popular form found in the middle of England running from the South coast through to Lancashire and Cumbria (with notable expections further north).  This is the St George based version of the play with mock battles (for example with the Turkish Knight), death and then resurrection by the doctor.   This form of the play also includes the 'Souling' or 'Soul Caking' in Chesire such as at Antrobus which includes a wild horse character and is performed on All Souls day.  A picture of the play is shown on this page.  Souling plays include a song and 'Souling' is a song based folk tradition that also does not require a play.  In  Hero Combat plays the descriptions used by the players varies a lot from 'Jolly Boys' in Hampshire, 'Tipteers' in Surrey/Sussex and 'White Boys' on the Isle of Wight.

'Pace Egging' is from Lancashire and is performed at Easter.  The play has distinct characters and has it's own song like the Souling plays.  The performers for these plays call themselves 'Pace Eggers'.

The 'Robin Hood' plays pre-date what we now think of as Mummers' plays but fall into this category and were p[robably part of the origins of the tradition.  Some Mummers' carry on the tradition of Robin Hood plays.

The 'Wooing' play is found exclusively in the East Midlands of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire where it is known as a 'Plough' play or a 'Recruiting Sergeant' play.  This play is performed on Plough Monday, the first Monday after January 6th (twelve day after Christmas).  Performers are called 'Plough Jags' or 'Plough Stots'.   This play has a man asking a lady to marry him, is refused and is persuaded to join  the army by the Sergeant.  The lady is then enticed into marriage by a fool character.  The man and the fool then fight and as in the Hero Combat play one dies and is resurrected. 

Plough Monday plays often tied into carrying the farm plough around the community and raising funds.  From Plough Monday onwards the plough could be used again to prepare the land and there is speculation the plays and carrying the plough were a form of communal blessing.  However the plough jags would be cross if they were not tipped with money and were known to plough up people's gardens.

The Sword play takes place from Yorkshire up to Northumberland and takes place in conjunction with linked sword dances such as at Goathland on the edge of the Yorkshire moors near Whitby.  The sword dancers lock their swords around the neck of a performer who is then ritually killed (decapitated) and as in the other forms is then revived.

The characters in the plays

The 'Bold Roomer' who calls for room and introduces the play.

Father Christmas who calls for the Doctor and negotiates his fee to revive the fallen character.

St George / King George the valiant (and often vein) lead character who takes part in and usually wins the mock sword battle.

The Turkish Knight usually in the South of England who is the other character in the mock battle.

Bold Slasher or other variant, similar character to Turkish Knight.  In northern counties this character is placed by the Black Prince of Paraadise.

The Doctor who is called upon to revive the fallen character and with his bag of pills provides some light relief.

Beelzebub and Little Johnny Jack often bulk out the characters.  Other characters are often Big Head, Devil Doubt or Twing Twang.

In Robin Hood plays there are obviously Robin Hood and Little John.

In Wooing Plays the lady is a male player as 'Dame Lady Jane' or some variant.

In the Sword plays these are driven by a fool or clown.

Who performed the Mummers'?

Mummers' plays are performed by males exlcusively in a bold, exclamation style without actorly pretense.  Originally the players were drawn from the working class community in groupings, so for example the Plough Monday plays were performed by Plough Hands and so on.  The performers carried on family participation handing down the roles on death or retirement.  It was a matter of pride and continuity to take part within the family.  The revived form of Mummers from the twentieth century onwards is typically more middle class in nature as it is a deliberate rather than spontaneous communal act.

Areas of interest

The masked play in 'The Wicker Man' is clearly derived from The Mummers Play but with a more pagan direction and using archetypes such as the Salmon of Knowledge drawn from mysticism.  As can be seen from the preceding text this is conjecture by drawing a more magical element out of the plays as claimed by the early folklorists.  While interesting this is unproven and ultimately unimportant to the performers.

Folk-rock bands such as the Albion Dance Band led by Ashley Hutchings and his former band Steeleye Span have presented the Mummer's Plays on stage as part of their revived traditional folk music shows.

For those wishing to read more about the Mummer's Play we recommend the following book.  'An Introduction to the English Mummers' play: Room, Room, Ladies and Gentlemen' by Eddie Cass and Steve Roud published by the English folk dance and song society.  Click here to search for this and other related books at Amazon.