English Folk-Song and Dance

by Frank Kidson; Mary Neal

I. THE MORRIS DANCE TO-DAY

Before the revival of Morris dancing in 1905, there was only one description of the steps and evolutions of the dance, and that was in Orchesographie et Traicte en Forme de Dialogue, by Thoinot-Arbeau, published in 1588.

This is so interesting that I have had a photograph of it taken from the copy in the British Museum.

The Morris dance may be roughly divided into five kinds—processional, corner, handkerchief, stick dances, and solo jigs.

The corner dances are danced with handkerchiefs and so are the processional and jigs, but there are also others where handkerchiefs take the place of sticks.

Since 1905 Mr Cecil Sharp has published instructions for the Morris dance in a series called the Morris Book, with the tunes as played at the present day. The first two volumes of the series were written in collaboration with Mr H. C. MacIlwaine, and with the help of Miss Florence Warren, of the Espérance Guild of Morris dancers, from whom the steps of most of the dances were taken down as she had learned them from William Kimber, of Headington.

I have also edited, with the help of Mr Clive Carey, Mr Geoffrey Toye, and Miss Florence Warren, two volumes called The Espérance Morris Book, and Mr John Graham has collected Midland, Lancashire, and Cheshire dances in two volumes.[3]

It is probable that these books contain complete instructions in the steps and figures of the dance and are a fairly complete collection of the existing dances, and that others still in the Collector’s books, but not yet published, may only be variants. There is a varied and extensive terminology used by the old dancers, and it is often difficult to arrive at the exact meaning of certain expressions, for each set of dancers has its own phraseology, which varies considerably from that of other sets even when they are not many miles apart in locality. The following are some of the terms used:—“Shake up” and “foot up” for the first figure of a dance; “hey up” or “hey sides up,” “back to back,” “hands across,” and “capers.” “Gipsies” must be seen to be understood, and “galley” is a turning round on your own axis with a single or double shake of the leg, which seems to be better done the older and more shaky the dancer is.

Each village has its own steps and its own evolutions, and the evolutions generally follow the same order in each dance, the particular steps of that dance being done between the evolutions.

This is a very usual order in which the dance is done—

Foot up or Shake up.	Special step.
Special step.	Back to back.
Hey up.	Special step.
Special step.	Hey up and All in.
Hands across.

But it would take a whole volume to describe each step done by each “side” of dancers, and by the time this book was in print other variants would have arisen, if any of the “sides” had danced in the meantime.

For practical purposes one has to decide on the most typical step one has seen and adopt it for those to whom one is responsible for teaching the dances.

But the characteristics of all the dances are vigour and virility, and there is nothing in the least like the posturing with pointed toe which characterises the ordinary ball-room and stage dances.

The following is a complete list as far as I know of all the Morris dances collected and published since the revival in 1905:—

Bean-setting.	The Maid of the Mill.
Laudnum Bunches.	Bobbing Joe.
Country Gardens.	Glorisheers.
Constant Billy.	The Gallant Hussar.
Trunkles.	Leap Frog.
Rigs o’ Marlow.	Shooting.
Bluff King Hal.	Brighton Camp.
How d’ye do, Sir?	Green Garters.
Shepherds’ Hey.	Princess Royal.
Blue-eyed Stranger.	Lumps of Plum Pudding.
Hey diddle Dis.	The Fool’s Dance.
Hunting the Squirrel.	Derbyshire Morris.
Getting up Stairs.	Derbyshire Morris Reel.
Double set Back.	The Cuckoo’s Nest.
Haste to the Wedding.	The Monk’s March.
Rodney.	Longborough Morris.
Processional Morris.	Heel and Toe.
Jockie to the Fair.	Bobby’s Joan.
Old Mother Oxford.	Banks of the Dee.
Old Woman tossed up	Dearest Dicky.
in a blanket.	London Pride.
Bacca Pipes jig.	Swaggering Boney.
Flowers of Edinburgh.	Young Collins.
The Rose.	All’s for the Best
Field Town Morris.	and Richmond Hill.
Step Back.[4]	The Boatman’s Song.
I’ll go and enlist for a Sailor.	The Tight Little Island.
Sherborne Jig.	The Girl I left behind Me.
None so Pretty.	The Rose Tree and
Cross Caper, or	The British Grenadiers.
Prince’s Royal.	Garryowen.
We won’t go home	With a Hundred Pipers.
till Morning.	Ninety-five.
Abraham Brown.	Draw Back.
Morris Off.	Bumpus o’ Stretton.
Long Morris.	Lively Jig.
Cross Morris.	Morris On.
Three Cans Morris.	Sally Luker.
Nancy Dawson.	A Nutting we will go.

In addition to these Mr F. Kidson has also published a set of Country and Morris dance tunes, but without instructions as to the dances.

Although this list gives a very fair idea of the traditional Morris dances still lingering in country places, two things must be borne in mind—first, that many of these dances with different names are practically the same dances; another tune and a very slight alteration in the step is quite enough for a Morris dancer to say he has another dance to show; and secondly, that the collectors have not yet finished their work. I have in my possession quite a long list of people and places as yet unvisited which may yield dances yet unrecorded, and Mr Cecil Sharp has announced many dances and variants collected but not published.

The Folk-dance has been found in the following counties:—

Gloucestershire.	Monmouthshire.
Oxfordshire.	Yorkshire.
Berkshire.	Lancashire.
Northamptonshire.	Cheshire.
Lincolnshire.	Northumberland.
Derbyshire.	Warwickshire.
Nottinghamshire.	Worcestershire.
Sussex.	Surrey.
Cornwall.