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Mumming
The trouble with starting to investigate mumming traditions is that it's very addictive!
The more you find out, the more you want to know, and between 'Stations of the Sun' and the web, there's an awful lot of material out there.
For instance, there's a wonderful site that has the text for a large number of traditional plays. This web site has a staggering amount of material on traditional folk plays.
Here's on fairly typical example: a St George/Turkish Knight combination Note that the definitive feature of this kind of play is the presence of the quack doctor. The two warriors may change their names, but the doctor is always there to revive whichever one gets slain.
The supporting cast may vary and often includes characters who appear to have very little connection to the plot.
This picture of the Eydon mummers is an interesting one for several reasons.
Firstly, it demonstrates the vast gulf between American mumming parades (which do have a very faint historical connection to mummers plays in that they both involve 'guising' (being dressed up) and they both tie in with Christmas or Easter.
The British mummers play is not about the costumes. The costumes can range from newspaper tatter jackets, morris costumes, straw costumes, but the most common are probably simplistic costumes that simply show you who the characters are. The aim is not (and never has been) to have detailed fancy dress. Faces may or may not be blacked up depending on local tradition.
In this particular play, the characters are from left to right the Duke of Cumberland (the local, and very unusual villain), St George, Old Molly (a man in drag, of course. Lots of Mollys seem to have beards, probably deliberate casting for maximum comic value), the Fool, Beelzebub and the doctor.
Now, here's where the addictive bit comes in.
You will notice that Beelzebub carries a pan. In the script for this particular play, Beelzebug says:
On my shoulder I carries a club
And in my hand a dripping pan
(snatches St George's 'helmet' off him for 'dripping pan'.)
Don't you think I'm a handsome man?
Just to show this isn't unique, here's another similar bit from a Cheshire Souling play (very similar tradition , just done under another name)
On my shoulder I carry a club,
In my hand a frying pan to fry the ham and eggs in.
One day I thought myself a jolly old man,
The reason this intrigues me so much is that nobody knows (as far as I'm aware) why on Earth Beelzebub should carry a frying pan!
Because, here's the really good part...
I was wondering about writing a mumming play for the Guides and thought that the Cerne Abbas Giant might be a nice local touch for the villain. He's our localish chalk hill carving:
IF you look at the photo, you'll see that a short way above his right hand is an earthwork. It's roughly square. People used to have May Day celebrations there.
What's the earthwork called?
The Frying Pan...
I can't find any record of how long it has been known by that name. There is no surviving record of any mumming play using the Cerne Abbas giant (there are a couple with giants, but they're usually connected to Saladin). Hutton reckons the giant is probably only about 400 years old and mumming plays really only have a 300 year history. Furthermore, what (little) evidence there is seems to link the giant to Hercules rather than Beelzebub. And yet, I wonder. Was the earthwork given that nickname after a group of mummers performed their "On my shoulder I carry a club and in my hand a frying pan"?
I'm pretty certain the link has to be that way round, because of the low number of surviving plays with giants in them.
But it does mean, that if I try and write a new play, it will probably have Beelzebub in it somewhere, even if I'm the only one who knows why!
The more you find out, the more you want to know, and between 'Stations of the Sun' and the web, there's an awful lot of material out there.
For instance, there's a wonderful site that has the text for a large number of traditional plays. This web site has a staggering amount of material on traditional folk plays.
Here's on fairly typical example: a St George/Turkish Knight combination Note that the definitive feature of this kind of play is the presence of the quack doctor. The two warriors may change their names, but the doctor is always there to revive whichever one gets slain.
The supporting cast may vary and often includes characters who appear to have very little connection to the plot.
This picture of the Eydon mummers is an interesting one for several reasons.
Firstly, it demonstrates the vast gulf between American mumming parades (which do have a very faint historical connection to mummers plays in that they both involve 'guising' (being dressed up) and they both tie in with Christmas or Easter.
The British mummers play is not about the costumes. The costumes can range from newspaper tatter jackets, morris costumes, straw costumes, but the most common are probably simplistic costumes that simply show you who the characters are. The aim is not (and never has been) to have detailed fancy dress. Faces may or may not be blacked up depending on local tradition.
In this particular play, the characters are from left to right the Duke of Cumberland (the local, and very unusual villain), St George, Old Molly (a man in drag, of course. Lots of Mollys seem to have beards, probably deliberate casting for maximum comic value), the Fool, Beelzebub and the doctor.
Now, here's where the addictive bit comes in.
You will notice that Beelzebub carries a pan. In the script for this particular play, Beelzebug says:
BEELZEBUB
In comes I, BeelzebubOn my shoulder I carries a club
And in my hand a dripping pan
(snatches St George's 'helmet' off him for 'dripping pan'.)
Don't you think I'm a handsome man?
Just to show this isn't unique, here's another similar bit from a Cheshire Souling play (very similar tradition , just done under another name)
Beelzebub
In comes I, Beelzebub,On my shoulder I carry a club,
In my hand a frying pan to fry the ham and eggs in.
One day I thought myself a jolly old man,
The reason this intrigues me so much is that nobody knows (as far as I'm aware) why on Earth Beelzebub should carry a frying pan!
Because, here's the really good part...
I was wondering about writing a mumming play for the Guides and thought that the Cerne Abbas Giant might be a nice local touch for the villain. He's our localish chalk hill carving:
IF you look at the photo, you'll see that a short way above his right hand is an earthwork. It's roughly square. People used to have May Day celebrations there.
What's the earthwork called?
The Frying Pan...
I can't find any record of how long it has been known by that name. There is no surviving record of any mumming play using the Cerne Abbas giant (there are a couple with giants, but they're usually connected to Saladin). Hutton reckons the giant is probably only about 400 years old and mumming plays really only have a 300 year history. Furthermore, what (little) evidence there is seems to link the giant to Hercules rather than Beelzebub. And yet, I wonder. Was the earthwork given that nickname after a group of mummers performed their "On my shoulder I carry a club and in my hand a frying pan"?
I'm pretty certain the link has to be that way round, because of the low number of surviving plays with giants in them.
But it does mean, that if I try and write a new play, it will probably have Beelzebub in it somewhere, even if I'm the only one who knows why!
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It's interesting to note that the Bible gives no connection between Beelzebub and clubs (though it's always possible that the club was chosen in order to rhyme with Beelzebub). But he's carrying these items instead of the pitchfork that is more commonly associated with devils.
One of the plays has a mention of the frying pan being used to fry eggs - maybe an Easter connection there. Though again, why is the devil the one who gets to have the egg association? Or is it because hell is hot enough to fry an egg?
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Mumming
I am very interested in mumming traditions particulary the mAri lloyd traditions with the horse which are *really* creepy.
"Midnight Midnight Midnight, hark at the sound of the clock..." Actually I' d better hark at at as I have to up at 5.30 for work!
Please write a play - this stuff needs to evolve and continue !
Re: Mumming
In the Coventry mystery play (which isn't the same as mumming plays), the devils have clubs. (http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/videos-pics/coventry-history/city-history/city-history-1251-1500/2001/03/22/secrets-of-the-mystery-plays-92746-11001224/)
"The saved in the Doomsday play wore pure white leather and the doomed wore blackened faces and yellow clothes painted with flames - each soon found his or her way into the smoking, flaming Hell's Mouth assisted by a devil with a wool-filled leather club."
no subject
But if Dripping Pan is a name given to topographical features of that approx shape, that would more support the link being the other way round... Has the Cerne Abbas Giant always been seen as a giant (ie. rather than being a normal-sized person depicted on a large scale)?
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(I can't see anyone copying a mummer onto a hill. Mumming was simply too small-scale an operation done by poorer people for a bit of cash.)
I can't see any likely connection between the Lewes pan and Beelzebub.
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Sorry, that's not what I meant by "the other way round" -- I meant, perhaps the earthwork had that name from early days because of its shape, so the giant was long thought of as holding a frying pan. And then the mumming Beelzebub, maybe associated with the giant because of his club, was given a pan as well to match.
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But part of my puzzle is why a devil has a club rather than a pitchfork...
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I won't even begin to tell you of some notes I have for plays with an SF theme!
Thanks for posting this.....
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Glad to be of help - smile.
Folklore traditions of every kind fascinate me.
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I've ordered a copy of Stations in the Sun - I can't wait to read it!