Within the memory of some of the oldest dancers the dancing was always accompanied by singing, and old Master Druce, of Ducklington, told us that the Morris could not be properly danced without singing. He could, however, only remember a few of the words of one dance—“The Lollypop Man.”
The Bampton men gave us a few odd verses of one or two songs, but I am afraid the real song will never be recovered, for, as one old man put it to a friend of mine, “the words are too clumsy for girls.”
Miss Gilchrist gave me the words of a Lancashire Morris which we have often used with very good effect—
“Morris dance is a very pretty tune, Lads and lassies plenty, Every lad shall have his lass, And I’ll have four and twenty.
My new shoone they are so good, I could dance Morris if I would, And if hat and coat be dressed, I will dance Morris with the best.
This is it and that is it, And this is Morris dancing, My poor father broke his leg, And so it was a’chancing.
Bread and cheese and the old cow’s head Roasted in a lantern, A bit for me and a bit for you, And a bit for the Morris dancer.”
Even in this doggerel there are traces of the old sacrificial rite of animal sacrifice in which the head was considered as the most sacred part of the animal and much coveted. It was generally awarded to the victor or victorious side in a fight for its possession.
The Morris dance dress had two characteristics; it was the holiday attire of the dancers and it had added to that certain special ceremonial features. These were bells, ribbons, sticks or swords, and handkerchiefs.
In the Kingston-on-Thames Churchwardens’ Accounts (1536-37) the dresses of the Morris dancers are thus described:—They consisted of four coats of white fustian spangled, and two green satin coats with garters on which small bells were fastened. In an old tract called “Old Meg of Herefordshire for a Mayde Marian, and Hereford Town for a Morris Daunce” (1609), the musicians and the twelve dancers have “long coats of the old fashion, high sleeves gathered at the elbows, and hanging sleeves behind: the stuff red buffin striped with white, girdles with white stockings, white and red roses to their shoes: the one Six, a white jew’s cap with a jewel and a long red feather: the other a scarlet jew’s cap with a jewel and a white feather.” Scarves, ribbands, and laces hung all over with gold rings, and even precious stones are also mentioned in the time of Elizabeth. Miles, the Miller of Ruddington, in Sampson’s play, “The Vow Breaker, or the Fayre Maid of Clifton” (1636), says he is come to borrow “a few ribbands, bracelets, eare-rings, wyasyters and silke girdle and hand-kerchers for a morris.”
