Folk Play Links - Folk Plays in Literary Works

Compiled by Chris Little



From time to time, folk play performances and their preparations have been incorporated into literary works, sometimes as incidental events (as in Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays), and sometimes as part of the plot (as in Yonge's The Christmas Mummers).


Baring-Gould, Sabine

001 - Mehalah : A Story of the Salt Marshes [1880, Chapter XV 'New Year's Eve']
002 - Richard Cable, the Lightshipman [Part XXV, pp.354-355 1888]

Beerbohm, Max

003 - A Straight Talk (Preface to "Snt George. A Christmas Play") [from his A Christmas Garland, 1912 - parody of George Bernard Shaw]New

Beverley, Jo

004 - A Mummer's Play [by Jo Beverley, in A Regency Christmas, by Mary Balogh, Jo Beverley & Sandra Heath, Signet, 1995 - Summary of a murder mystery novella where the investigator infiltrates the suspects house with a mummers' play.]

Birtwistle, Harrison

Michael Nyman based his libretto for Birtwhistle's Down by the Greenwood Side (1969) on the "Normalized text" in E.K. Chambers' The English Folk-Play (1933).

005 - Alison Jones's Opera Plot Summaries. Harrison Birtwistle's 'Down by the Greenwood Side'
006 - Down by the Greenwood Side [Booklet for sale: 1969]New

Bond, Edward

007 - The Fool [Book for sale: in ]
008 - The Traditional Mummers' Play in British Political Drama: Edward Bond's 'The Fool', 1975 / Vincent Woods' 'At the Black Pig's Dyke', 1992 [citation of Martin W. Walsh, at 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 8th-11th May 2003]

Bonham, E

009 - How they spent Christmas Eve at St. Cadge [from her Christmas in Cornwall 60 Years Ago, 1898]

Bottrell, William

010 - The Smugglers of Penrose [from his Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, 1873]

Caselton, Charlie

011 - Meanwhile Gardens [Chapter 128 - Brief allusion to Mummers only]

Chaworth Musters, Mrs. Lavinia

She wrote the historical novel A Cavalier Stronghold: A Romance of the Vale of Belvoir (1890), portraying life and events as she imagined it during the Civil War at her manor house home - Wiverton Hall, Nottinghamshire. One chapter has a plough play being performed anachronistically in the Hall. The text of the local play, actually performed at Cropwell in the late 19th century, is given in an appendix and is available in our Text Collection.

012 - A Cavalier Stronghold [abstract]

Chesterton, G.K.

013 - Chesterton: A Bibiliography for Beginners, by Dale Ahlquist [Includes summary of Chesterton's "Mummers' Play", The Turkey and the Turk]
014 - Strange Britain [Photo of Beaconsfield Mummers, about 1950. Beaconsfield text, allegedly composed by G.K. Chesterton]
015 - The Mummer [from his A Miscellany of Men, 19??]

Craig, Alisa

016 - Mystery Readers International: Murder For Christmas?? by Patricia J. Fanning [summary of her Murder Goes Mumming, 1981]

Craik, Dinah

017 - A Life for a Life

Croker, Thomas Crofton

018 - Recollections of Old Christmas: [extract - Preface]

Cupples, George

019 - Kyloe-Jock and the Weird of Wanton Walls [in MacMillan's Magazine, Vol.II, 1860, p.381 - "guisards"]New

Ewing, Juliana Horatia

Mrs. Ewing was a successful Victorian children's author, whose stories first appeared in Aunt Judy's Magazine. Her story The Peace Egg (1871) is centred round the performance of a Christmas play - the title being taken from one of the chapbook texts that were current at the time. In 1884, she published A Christmas Mumming Play, a script that she had compiled from five different versions, with a lengthy introduction. The story and the play tended to appear together in later book editions of her works. The script is available in our Text Collection.

020 - Juliana Horatia Ewing and Her Books [by Horatia K.F. Gatty, 1885 - Gatty's biography of her sister, including: Part II, which describes her publication of The Peace Egg and her compiled script.]
021 - The Peace Egg and A Christmas Mumming Play [[1887] - her Christmas story & composite Christmas play, plus illustrations]
022 - The Peace Egg and Other Tales [18?? - her Christmas story & composite Christmas play]

Gordon, Jaimy

023 - She Drove Without Stopping [by Keith Waldrop, in CONTEXT, No.7 - Article about the author]

Grahame, Kenneth

024 - The Golden Age [18??, Chapter 'Snowbound' - mummers]

Grant, James

025 - The Scottish Cavalier [1852, Part II pp.284-285 - "guisards"]New

Hall, Robert Lee

026 - Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Christmas Murder [Book for sale:]

Hardy, Thomas

Return of the Native (1878) is probably the most famous example of a folk play being incorporated into an English novel. This appears in Book 2, Chapters 4 to 6, with the main performance taking place in Chapter 5. Hardy subsequently published a separate, somewhat embellished, Dorset text of The Play of St. George (1928).

027 - Real Conversations [extract from William Archer, 1904, pp.34-36 - Transcript of a Feb. 1901 interview covering Mummers]
028 - Barron's Booknotes: Return of the Native
029 - Book Rags Book Notes: Return of the Native
030 - "If there is any difference, Grandfer is younger" by Arthur Hopkins's for Hardy's The Return of the Native [Illustration for the Monthly Serialisation showing Mummers at rest.]
031 - Dorset County Museum photo [Photo of the Hardy Players, 1920]
032 - Hardy Players [List with 1923 performance(s)]
033 - Hardy's Egdon Heath Project: Launch Day [2001 performance and pictures of mummers' play from Raymond Sargent]
034 - Hardy's Mummers [by Robert Squillace, in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol.41 No.2, Sep. 1986, pp.172-189 - JSTOR subscription required]
035 - New Hardy Players New
036 - Return of the Native [Anniversary edition] [extract from 1920, p.154 - Photo of "Blooms-End"]
037 - The Dynasts [1903, 'Preface' - "… taking the shape delivery of speeches, with dreamy conventional gestures, something in the manner traditionally maintained by the old Christmas mummers,"]
038 - The Return of The Native [? edition] [1895]
039 - What did the Egdon Mummers Sing [citation of Peter Robson, in The Hardy Review, Vol.III, 2002, pp.85-88]
040 - Why All the Drama? The Significance of Mumming in Hardy's "The Return of the Native" [citation of Randy Jasmine - Abstracts for Individual Presentations at AFS Annual Meeting, 1999]

Hughes, Thomas

041 - Tom Brown's Schooldays [? edition] [1856, Chapter I - mummers]

Infinitepryde

042 - Repeat Performance

Keddie, Henrietta

043 - Phemie Millar [1854, Vol.III p.191 - Guisards]New

Kemp, Audrey

044 - The Orpheus Books [Chapter 13]

Kingsley, Charles

045 - Westward Ho! [1855, Chapter IX - mummer's plays]

Kingston, William Henry Giles

046 - Hurricane Hurry [18??, Chapter I - "geese-dancers"]

Lamprey, Louise

047 - Masters of the Guild [1920, Chapter XVI - a mummers performance]

Lawrence, David Herbert

D.H. Lawrence's first published work was a short story - An Enjoyable Christmas: A Prelude - in which the performance of a Christmas Guysers' play and its preparations provide the background for the plot. It was published at his request under the name of his friend Jessie Chambers in the Nottinghamshire Guardian (1907). Guysers are also mentioned briefly in his novel The Rainbow (1915). Neither story gives much detail about the play itself, although they will have been drawn from the folk plays of his home town Eastwood, and neighbouring villages in Nottinghamshire. See Traditional Drama Forum, No.8, Oct. 2001 for the text of A Prelude and an article on Lawrence's references to Guysers.

048 - The Rainbow [extracts - passages relating to Guysers]
049 - The Rainbow [Chapter including a visit by the Guysers.]

Lodge, David

050 - Small World [extract, in which the character Miss Maiden describes a mumming play from Rugby, and how it represents the death and rebirth of the life-force.]

Marchant, Ian

051 - Panchester Plough Play [unpublished interlude from his The Battle for Dole Acre, 2001]

McCormack, Eliza/White, John

052 - At Face Value: The Life and Times of Eliza McCormack/John White [by Don Akenson - Subscription required for Questia 'Online Library']

McIntyre, Hazel

053 - To Raise the Dead [extract from her Iron Wheels on Rocky Lanes, 1993]

Melwood, Mary

054 - The Small Blue Hoping Stone [Book for sale: - incorporates the Derby Tup play from Carlton-in-Lindrick, Nottinghamshire]

Nadger, Arthur B.

055 - Mumming - Brampton Bugle - Mummers [Spoof satirical pseudo-mediaeval prose composition against mummers from "Nadger's History of England"]

Oxenham, Elsie J.

She wrote a long series of books for girls called 'The Abbey Girls', based on the adventures of pupils at a girls' boarding school. Folk dancing was a recurrent theme in her plots, and Mummers featured in the 11th of the series - Abbey Girls Go Back to School (1922).

056 - Abbey Girls Go Back to School [1922 - includes the performance by Mummers.]
057 - Mummers [by Val Mackay, in The Abbey Chronicle, No.9, p.7 - Relating to Oxenham's books]

Peacock, Thomas Love

058 - Crotchet Castle [1887, Chapter XVIII - mummers]

Pilling, Ann

059 - The Beggar's Curse [Book for sale: - The novel's plot includes something sinister in the ancient rituals of the village play.]

Proulx, E. Annie

060 - The Shipping News [Project about the novel]

Putney, Mary Jo

061 - A Holiday Fling [extract from in her Christmas Revels - talking about staging a mummers' play]

Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas

062 - The Prince of Abyssinia's Post-Bag : II. The Great Fire on Freethy's Quay [from his The Delectable Duchy, 1906 - mummers, guise dancers and darkey-parties]

Reade, Charles

063 - Put Yourself in his Place [1870, Chapter XIII - Mummers performing a sword dance play]

Roberts, Gillian

064 - The Mummers' Curse [1996 - A murder mystery from the 'Amanda Pepper Mysteries' series, set during the Philadelphia New Year Mummers' parade - Synopsis and Chapter 1]

Rogers, Mike

065 - Coln Rogers [Short Christmas story involving a Mummers' play]

Rosenthal, Pam

066 - Almost a Gentleman [Interview with the author]

Saffron

067 - Curiosities, Grotesqueries, Follies & Strange Customs [Semi-truthful hoax article on English folklore, including a photo of "The ‘Ganderman’ of Linctus Peverell village in the Cotswolds"(in fact a picture of Heptonstall Pace-Eggers' Tosspot, with intro and song lifted from Round the Horne by "Rambling Syd Rumpo"), and a so-called Pace-Egging procession Burscough near Ormskirk]

Scott, Walter

068 - Marmion [Introduction to Canto Sixth' - "Who lists may in their mumming see, Traces of ancient mystery; White shirts supplied the masquerade, And smutted cheeks the visors made; But oh! what maskers richly dight Can boast of bosoms half so light!"]

Stanton, Bill

069 - Moss [This part of the novel includes preparations for, and perfrmance of a Derby Tup play at Christmas]

Sterndale, Mary

070 - The Life of a Boy [1821, Vol.I pp.117-120 - mummers]New

T., Pamela

071 - Duty & Desire [Passing mention of Mummers only]

Thompson, Flora

072 - Lark Rise to Candleford [Passing reference to mummers only]

Thorndike, Russell

073 - The Courageous Exploits of Doctor Syn [[1939], Chapter IX - covers a performance of the Dymchurch-under-the-Wall Mummers, Kent - PDF File]

Vyvyan-Jones, Marc

074 - The Barefoot Book of Rhymes Around the Year [Book for sale: - includes a mumming play at Christmas-time]

Woods, Vincent

075 - A knock upon the door: Dramaturgical Approaches to At the Black Pig's Dyke [citation of Michael Vanden Heuvel, at American Conference for Irish Studies: Mid-Atlantic Regional: Material Ireland/Virtual Ireland, University of Maryland, College Park, 24-25 Oct. 2003,]
076 - At the Black Pig's Dyke [Book for sale:]
077 - The Traditional Mummers' Play in British Political Drama: Edward Bond's 'The Fool', 1975 / Vincent Woods' 'At the Black Pig's Dyke', 1992 [citation of Martin W. Walsh, at 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 8th-11th May 2003]

Yonge, Charlotte Mary

078 - Doctor Peter Lamb - A Mystery Solved [by Peter Millington, in Traditional Drama Forum, No.3, Oct. 2001 - suggesting the Doctor's name derives from a character in Yonge's novel.]
079 - Soaps Suds Again [in Review of the Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship, 8, Winter 1998/99 - itself in Monthly Packet, Jan. 1884, pp 57-62]
080 - The Christmas Mummers [1858 - extracts from the chapter in which a Mummers' play in performed, probably based on a Hampshire text.]

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© 2000-2008, TDRG. Contact: Chris Little, Last updated: 24/04/2008