S.R. (1947)

Main Variant

Transcription
PLOUGH MONDAY AND THE
MUMMERS' PLAY

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE SURVIVALS

By S.R.

THE Mummers' Play, having
served its purpose at Christ-
mas time, reappears on the
Monday, commonly called Plough
Monday, following the feast of the
Epiphany in a new version which
bears many resemblances to the
old. A great deal has been writ-
ten of late of the Mummers' Play,
and there are some who would
find its origin in the distant past.
Of the Plough Monday play little
has been written, but if it has no
claim to antiquity, it does bear
every sign of being the work of the
men of the countryside.

When the Mummers' Play was
broadcast the other evening, it was
good to find that the voices of the
performers were allowed to come
through on the air in their native
richness. Perhaps there were some
listeners who did not appreciate
the differences in versions, or
found them trivial. In the main,
the Mummers' Play always tells
the same story. Whence does it
come?

It has been held that the theme
of the play is a survival from
pagan times, and that it symbolises
the offering of a human victim.
The idea is fanciful. What
evidence is there of the survival
of the tradition through the ages?
There is no mention of the play or
of any of its characters by Shake-
speare or contemporary dramatists.
The director of the recent broad-
cast thought that the play had
been printed between two and three
hundred years ago and widely dis-
tributed. If so, how call one
account for the fact that, not a
single copy of such printing has
survived?

Mummers' Play Origin?

The oldest version in print of the
Mummers' Play, which has so far
been found is dated 1794, but part
of the text is believed to have been
used in a play probably performed
in Bartholomew Fair, twenty years
earlier. The great popularity of
the play dates from the beginning
of the last century. Versions of it
were printed in Hone's Year Book
for 1826, and there can be no doubt
that they were widely used and
became the stock pattern for sub-
sequent versions.

In the second and third quarters
of the last century the play was
commonly sold by the vendors of
chapbooks and broadsides. A

€printer at Belper in Derbyshire is
known to have produced a popu-
lar version in 1846, and for more
than 20 years, from the early
sixties to the late eighties, it was
one of the most widely sold publi-
cations of the house of Heywoods
of Manchester. Herein, then,
lies, the secret of the popularity
of the Mummers' stay, and of its
origin, Variations from the
printed text were numerous, and
can easily be detected by the
reader or the listener. They are
due to cleverness, or want of it in
the performers of the play whose
years at school had mostly been
few.

About the age of the Plough
Monday play there can be little
dispute. It was evolved from the
Mummers' Play in the mid years
of the last, century, or possibly a
little earlier. Sir E. K. Cham-
bers thinks it is confined to Lin-
colnshire and the districts ad-
jacent, though the celebration of
Plough Monday with other cere-
monies is more widespread. One
of the villages in Nottinghamshire
in which it had established itself
is Cropwell Bishop, and 25 years
ago an old inhabitant remembered
the frequent visits of a member of
the Harby mumming troupe,
Harbv being just on the border
of Lincolnshire.

Clayworth Example.

In a book on the Mummers' Play
containing versions collected by R.
J. E. Tiddy, an Oxford don, who
had a great interest in the subject,
was included one of the Plough
Monday plays collected from Clay-
worth in this county. At the time
of the publication of the book, the
writer enquired of the school-
master at Clayworth what he knew
of the play and was told he had
never heard of it.

Clayworth, however, is not far
from Retford, where the Mum-
mers' Play was well established in
the last century. There is a record
of a Retford troupe in which one
member wore an animal's head,
said to be the sign of a very old
version. The characters in the
Clayworth version are Bold Tom,
the Recruiting Sergeant, the
Farmer's Man, a Lady bright and
gay, old Eazum Squeezum, and the
Doctor. The play ends with
rhymes put together by a village
poet which are proof of its Lin-
colnshire origin:

  We are the country plough lads,
  That plough for little wage,
  That plough through mud and mire.
  The mire it is so very deep,
  The water runs so clear.

In the appendix to a story of "A
Cavalier Stronghold," published
in 1890, Mrs. Chaworth Musters
printed a version of the Plough
Monday play, which she had ob-
tained from one of the Cropwells.
The characters were: Tom the
Fool, the Recruiting Sergeant,
the Ribboner, the Doctor, the
Lady, Beelzebub, Dame Jane, and
the Farmer's Man. There are con-
siderable resemblances in this to
the Clayworth version, where the
Lady makes entrance, saying:

  In comes I, a lady bright and gay,
  With fortunes and sweet charms.

In Mrs. Musters's version the
Lady says:

  Behold the lady, bright and gay,
  Good Fortunes and sweet charms.

In the same version it is Dame
Jane who falls before Beelzebub,
and is raised by the doctor, who
says:

  She is in a trance.
  So raise her up and let her dance

"In a trance" are the words

used by the doctor in the Clay-
worth version, but here it is a man
who is the victim.

Thirty-four years after the pub-
lication of Mrs. Musters's book,
the writer obtained from the
village schoolmaster the version
then current in Cropwell Bishop.
The characters were the same, ex-
cept that the lady had disap-
peared, and was replaced by Old
Easem squeasem, who had appro-
priated to himself part of the
business usually performed by
Beelzebub. It was again Dame
Jane who became the victim, but
the patter of the Doctor had been
much modernised.

The speech of the Farmer's Man
is one of the best in the play.

  In comes I the farmer's man,
  Can't you see the whip in my hand.
  I can go and plough the land,
  And turn it upside down.
  Straight I go from end to end.
  And neither make a baulk or bend,
  To my horses I attend
  As they go marching round the end.

This is practically the same as in
Mrs. Musters's version. except that she
makes the second line, "Don't you
see my capping hand." An obvious
corruption of the text which she had
failed to amend.

Cropwell Bishop Version.

The Cropwell Bishop version ended
with a dispute between the ploughmen
and their master, who says:

  "You ain't ploughed your acre, I'll
  swear and I'll vow,
  For you're all idle fellows that follow
  the plough."

This reads very much like a scene
from real life, and it finishes with:

  "The master turned round with a
  laugh and a joke,"

Mrs. Musters' ending is much happier.
The troupe go out singing;

  We thank you for civility
  And what you gave us here,
  We wish you all goodnight
  And another happy year.

Sir E. K. Chambers has printed a
composite version of the Plough Mon-
day play based on a manuscript in the
British Museum, which appears to be
as old as the Hone versions of the
Mummers' play proper. lt also comes
from Lincolnshire, but though in struc-
ture it is the same as the Cropwell
plays, the resemblances in the text are
not many. The same can be said of a
comparison with the Clayworth play,
but, curiously, the song which closes
that play appears in almost the same
words at the beginning of the play
found in the British Museum:

  Remember us poor ploughlads
  That run through mud and mire.
  The mire it is deep,
  And we travel far and near,

Why should the observance of Plough
Monday be so general in the country-
side, and its play confined to an area
comparatively small? There is room
for research here, but it may only
prove that the transformation of the
Mummers' play into one suitable for
performance on Plough Monday was
the work of village worthies gathered
round the fireside of the local inn.