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What is Mumming?
Shakespeare Morris not only does Morris dancing, but there is a sect of us who are Mumming performers as well!
We mainly perform in the lead up to Christmas, and through to Twelth Night. However, we also perform on several special occasions during the year such as St Barnabas Day {11th June} and Apple Day {Saturday & Sunday closest to 30th October}.
Mummers' plays were preceded by the Roman holy day of Saturnalia, which featured people masqueraded. When Christianity took over and Saturnalia and Yule became Christmas, the mummers' became incorporated into it. In 1377, the citizens of London dressed in Mummers' outfits to amuse King Richard II. Although some people took the Mummers' to be obnoxious behaviour and was banned by King Henry VIII, who himself likes to disguise himself as Robin Hood!
The Mummer's plays are related to similar myths and legends world wide, such as the Greek Myth of Persephone. Like these, the Mummers' play always has a cycle of death, followed by resurrection by magical means. In the Mummers' plays this cycle involves a fight between the Hero and the Villain in which one (or both) get killed. The corpse is then magically brought to life again by the Doctor.
There then follows some 'business' by other characters, mainly as an excuse to extract money from the audience. This money was traditionally spent on drink and was probably one of the main reasons for the preservations of the plays up to the Victorian times, when such goings on started to be looked down up on. The plays were passed down orally and some have became garbled over the years, as each player would only know their own part, not those of the other players. This has lead to some strange lines and names, for example in one play the villain's name has changed from the Turkish Knight into a 'Turkey Snipe'.
There are over 900 Mummers' plays of one sort or another recorded in Britain and the names of the Hero and Villain reflect local traditions. The Hero is usually England's Patron Saint, St George, although in some plays this was changed, presumably in Hanovarian times, to King George III.
Some Scottish Mummers' plays have William Wallace as the Hero. The Villain varies more widely and he may be the 'Bold Slasher', the 'Turkish Knight' or the 'Black King of Pardine'. In some plays from the south of England, 'Old Boney' (Napoleon) makes an appearance as the Villain.
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