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THIS is the result of several years of work on the 'Mummers' Play'
and related performances, although we have discarded the word
'Mummer' because it is only one of many words used, and
substituted the term 'English Folk Play'.
We have defined several types of Play, searched books and
manuscripts for descriptions, and listed every place which we know
had a Play, giving a brief summary of the type of performance in
each instance. These places are listed county by county so that
areas where the Play has not been recorded are obvious.
Our sources for each location are shown by symbols, usually of
four letters [1], and there is a list giving the full details of these
sources. Many writers have copied their material from earlier
books, so that a well-known account may not be the original, and
these secondary references have had to be omitted because of their
large number.
In the course of our reading we have drawn some conclusions
on the origin and significance of these Plays, and these conclusions
with a more detailed account of our methods, are given before the
lists. Some specimen texts, exactly reproduced from manuscripts
which were previously unpublished, may help to illustrate our
points.
We have very carefully checked our material for errors and
inconsistencies, but work of this kind can be upset by the misreading
of a single letter, and it is possible that some errors remain.
For these we apologise, and shall be glad to have them drawn to
our notice. [2]
The publication of this Table and Bibliography does not mean
the exhaustion of all sources, but merely that our records show no
other examples at present. If any others are known to readers we
should be glad to hear of them: even during the final typing of
this manuscript further examples were made known to us by
interested helpers, and we should be grateful if this help could be
continued after publication. Only by a concerted effort can the
continuing Index be improved and the distribution maps made
more reliable. Some time must elapse before all the results are
finally assessed.
The reader new to our methods will find five sections: Method,
Discussion, List of Places, Texts, and List of Sources, and the
parts of these which he may want are given in detail in the list of
contents.
1967
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