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Author Topic: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?  (Read 2400 times)

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tedrick

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while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« on: November 01, 2011, 12:26:33 AM »

Hey everyone - reading Kenneth Grahame's Golden Age - and ran across this description - is this a description of something similar to Morris dancers?

Quote
Twelfth-night had come and gone, and life next morning seemed a trifle flat and purposeless. But yester-eve and the mummers were here! They had come striding into the old kitchen, powdering the red brick floor with snow from their barbaric bedizenments; and stamping, and crossing, and declaiming, till all was whirl and riot and shout. Harold was frankly afraid: unabashed, he buried himself in the cook's ample bosom. Edward feigned a manly superiority to illusion, and greeted these awful apparitions familiarly, as Dick and Harry and Joe. As for me, I was too big to run, too rapt to resist the magic and surprise. Whence came these outlanders, breaking in on us with song and ordered masque and a terrible clashing of wooden swords?
[/color]

Is Grahame still a well known author?

Reed
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2011, 12:52:15 AM »

Sounds like a Longsword dance and play to me (:) Grahame is still well known for Wind in the Willows, which I think is one of the greatest children's books ever written.
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tedrick

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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2011, 01:09:27 AM »

Thanks -
were mummers kind of like Christmas carolers?

If you like Wind it the Willows you would like Grahame's other 2 books, Golden Age and Dream Days - they are more a wistful reminiscence of lost Edwardian era childhood written from an adult's view -

The copies I have are illustrated by Maxfield Parrish -
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2011, 01:24:33 AM »

Mummers are to Shakespeare what Morris is to Ballet. It's basically a folk play, they are all more or less the same, riddled with euphemism and very good fun. Up North the mummer's play and the sword dance were often combined into one, with the dance taking place half way through the play, usually ending in someone's head being chopped off.

It has now occurred to me (it is 1am after all) that actually there are other reasons for having swords other than for use in Longsword, so it's probably just the play on it's own. Plus Grahame I think was in Berkshire at the time, whereas Longsword is from Yorkshire and Durham.

If and when I get time to read anything I shall take a look at his other books (:)
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2011, 07:36:51 AM »

Mummers are to Shakespeare what Morris is to Ballet. It's basically a folk play, they are all more or less the same, riddled with euphemism and very good fun. Up North the mummer's play and the sword dance were often combined into one, with the dance taking place half way through the play, usually ending in someone's head being chopped off.
As Ukebert has said, Mummers Plays all follow a similar pattern. They do vary according to location and they have also gradually altered over time, with the players improvising and ad-libbing bits here and there, often putting in lines with local humorous connotations, to the accompaniment of banter from the onlookers. Usually the play enacts the story of St George and the Dragon and there are a key set of characters, e.g King/Saint George, a (Turkish) Knight, the king of Egypt and his daughter, the Dragon, Father Christmas who often acts as a sort of narrator or chorus, and the Doctor. There is usually a traditional form for the dialogue: characters usually enter the plot with the words "In comes I, ......."   Essentially the plays are all about death and resurrection; there is usually a fight scene in which the Knight is killed (treacherously!) and the Doctor is called in "In comes I, the Doctor" followed by an elaborate listing of his prowess and successes. Common to just about all the plays is the Doctor's line "I have a little bottle and I call it Elecampane" which he then proceeds to administer to the dead Knight who makes a miraculous recovery. It all ends up happily ever after, of course.

The whole business takes only a short time, 5 - 10 minutes usually and is often performed in a very small space - frequently inside a pub, or else just outside, and is rarely performed in a formal stage setting.

Here are a couple of videos which capture the flavour of Mummers plays:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8lzIW2fw_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwNobLnvkVU

Here's a version which incorporates a fragment of a longsword dance at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToBKayTeu-c

There are many others on Youtube.
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2011, 08:12:58 AM »

Reading the original text, there is nothing to suggest morris or even sword dancing, except that it is quite common for members of morris and sword teams to put on mummers plays at the appropriate time of year.

Quote
stamping, and crossing, and declaiming, till all was whirl and riot and shout...
...terrible clashing of wooden swords?

I think this refers to the fight scene which is a component of nearly every mummers play and would be the most frightening and memorable part to an impressionable child.
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2011, 12:31:07 PM »

Reading the original text, there is nothing to suggest morris or even sword dancing, except that it is quite common for members of morris and sword teams to put on mummers plays at the appropriate time of year.

Quote
stamping, and crossing, and declaiming, till all was whirl and riot and shout...
...terrible clashing of wooden swords?

I think this refers to the fight scene which is a component of nearly every mummers play and would be the most frightening and memorable part to an impressionable child.


I know, as I said, it momentarily escaped my comprehension that the sole use of swords is not in fact for dance...
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2011, 05:47:23 PM »

(...) Wind in the Willows, which I think is one of the greatest children's books ever written.

one of???
It's my absolute favorite... And thanks to this thread, now I am adding another book to my reading list...
-Andy

Lyn

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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2011, 07:31:00 PM »

One of those books which people can quote from without ever having read. Love it. Now must try the other two........thanks for that!
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pikey

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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2011, 09:39:42 PM »

Mummers often carried swords, but the dance was very simplified, often just a clash and a hilt and point ring followed by a lock. Swords were usually wooden. Mummers usually went round at Christmas, usually starting just before, and continuing through the 12 days. It sometimes became an excuse for grown men to beg, sometimes even bullying householders to give beer, bread and cheese. I was privileged to know an old village fiddler, Billy Harrison, from Nunburnholme, east of York, who remembered being scared of the mummers when they came round at the end of the 19th Century.

Mummers were in many parts fo England, somewhere I have a copy of the mummers play from Longborough, in the Cotswolds (which was also a hot bed of Morris Dancing!)

They were sometimes called Guisers, or if they dragged a plough around with them, Plough Boys of Plough Stots (Goathland Longsword still sometimes do this, the village where Heartbeat was filmed!).

Yep- I'm a sword dance anorak.........

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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2011, 01:41:27 AM »

The Plough Stots in Clifton (York) certainly terrified my great grandmother!
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2011, 02:16:09 AM »

(...) Wind in the Willows, which I think is one of the greatest children's books ever written.

one of???
It's my absolute favorite... And thanks to this thread, now I am adding another book to my reading list...
-Andy

I think that it's difficult to look at this objectively, since what one reads in early childhood makes one highly biased to it in later life. I think that although I did enjoy some books more than Wind in the Willows, upon rereading them all, I'd say that Wind in the Willows is by far the best written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it again last year. It is a truly superb book.
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2011, 02:24:02 AM »


http://phillymummers.com/history.htm

Reeds:  You are probably aware that there is a mummer tradition in the U.S. In Philadelphia, on New Years, there is a famous Mummers Parade.  The Mummers dress up in outlandish costumes rivaling those in Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  There is also a tradition of marching string bands made up mostly of Tenor Banjo or Plectrum banjo players. I am sure this custom comes down from the English and Europeon tradition of Mummery.  Charlie
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2011, 01:07:41 PM »

As pikey will no doubt recall (you were there boyo!) whne we were young we did Escrick Mummers' Play, now we are old(er) we do Escrick Sword Dance. No comment.
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #14 on: November 03, 2011, 12:33:55 AM »


I think that it's difficult to look at this objectively, since what one reads in early childhood makes one highly biased to it in later life. I think that although I did enjoy some books more than Wind in the Willows, upon rereading them all, I'd say that Wind in the Willows is by far the best written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it again last year. It is a truly superb book.

Last year, i had the immense pleasure of reading it to my son... I also read the (modern, and very well written) sequels, which I recommend -- and the last one is a tearjerker!

pikey

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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #15 on: November 03, 2011, 09:25:19 AM »

As pikey will no doubt recall (you were there boyo!) whne we were young we did Escrick Mummers' Play, now we are old(er) we do Escrick Sword Dance. No comment.

It was the Escrick Sword Dance Play, which was only ever done before the long (very long.......) Escrick Sword Dance.  It doesn't seem to have ever been done by itself.

In many other Yorkshire villages the play survived but the sword dance that accompanied it was lost.
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Re: while reading Kenneth Grahame - Morris reference?
« Reply #16 on: November 03, 2011, 11:09:36 AM »

Whilst we're in literary mode...the first verse of Seamus Heaney's The Last Mummer:


Carries a stone in his pocket,
an ash-plant under his arm.

Moves out of the fog
On the lawn, pads up the terrace.

The luminous screen in the corner
Has them charmed in a ring

so he stands a long time behind them.
St. George, Beelzebub and Jack Straw

can't be conjured from mist.
He catches the stick in his fist

and shrouded, starts beating
the bars of the gate,

His boot crack the road. The stone
clatters down off the slates.

The rest's pretty good, but, sadly lacks any melodeon related message...

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