Originally prepared for textual analysis during his PhD research on the 'Origins and Development of English Folk Plays' by Peter Millington (2002).
Original spelling and typography is retained, except that superscripts, long s and ligatured forms are not encoded.
Line identifiers are those used for line types in the Folk Play Scripts Explorer.
"1. RIPON SWORD-DANCE-PLAY
The words of this play were first noted down by Dr.J.C.Husband, of Ripon, in 1920. An additional, and rather nore complete, version was given to him a few years later. Where the two versions differ, the alternative words of the first version are printed beneath the corresponding words of the second version [[after] in square brackets in this electronic copy].
The tunes with the third version of the words were notes by Dr.C.H.Moody, of Ripon, in 1925. I have to thank Dr. Husband, for permission to publish the words and tunes. [[The tunes are not given] in this transcript. They are for the first and last verses of the play.]
The Ripon Sword-Dance seems to have been very like the Kirkby Malzeard Dance, if it was not actually the same dance. It is interesting to note that this play was known locally as 'The Words of the Ripon Sword-Dance', and is not called the 'Christmas Play' or 'The Mummers'."
Peter Millington's Notes:No speech designations are given in the original, and there are only a few stage directions. Some changes of character can be deduced from the wording of the next, as can some character names, but these interpretations may be subjective.
[MIDI music sound file] [ABC music notation]
[MIDI music sound file] [ABC music notation]