IX. THE PRESENT-DAY REVIVAL OF
THE FOLK-DANCE
Twenty years ago the folk-dance had almost entirely disappeared, and the first definite effort made to reawaken it was that made by Mr D’Arcy Ferrers, who in 1886 revived the Morris dance in Bidford-on-Avon and round about that neighbourhood. This created great interest at the time, an interest which has since never wholly died out, though but for Mr D’Arcy Ferrers it is probable that the dances of that neighbourhood would have completely disappeared. At that time the traditional “side” had been disbanded, and Mr Ferrers reconstituted the dances from the little that remained in the memories of one or two old men.
He also taught them the tune of Arbeau’s Morris dance which they used as “Morris Off,” and to which they invented a dance which is quite in keeping with other traditional dances.
Later, in 1906, Lady Isabel Margesson interested herself in the dancers, and invited Mr Cecil Sharp and Mr H. C. MacIlwaine to Foxlydiat House, Redditch, where they took down the tunes and dances which were published in their first Morris Book. Later Miss Florence Warren went there to teach both these dances and others which had been collected in the meantime. The Bidford dances were also collected by Mr John Graham and published in The Morris Dances of Shakspeare’s Country. In a recent edition of his Morris Book, Mr Cecil Sharp has omitted these Bidford dances, or retaken them from the Ilmington men, from whom they are believed to have originally been learnt.
But a more important revival took place in 1899, when Mr Percy Manning revived the Headington “Side,” for in this case most of the dancers belonged to the traditional “Side.” An entertainment was given at the Corn Exchange in Oxford, and the following interesting account of it appeared in the local papers:—“When the men danced in unison to the strains of a somewhat primitive fiddler quite a pretty effect was produced, whilst to the onlooker the spectacle was at once a convincing proof of its antiquity, so grotesque were the actions and gestures of the performers. The dance partakes somewhat of the nature of a hornpipe: there is a good deal of action in it, and it cannot be accused of too much sedateness or gravity. The troupe in each dance were accompanied by a fool, generally known as the Squire, who wore a diversified dress, consisting of a silk hat, decked with coloured ribbons, a white smock, and breeches, and one white and one brown stocking. He carried a stick with a bladder and a cow’s tail at either end and frequently applied the stick to the back of the dancers.”
The dances given at this revival were “The Blue-eyed Stranger,” “Constant Billy,” “Country Gardens,” “Rigs o’ Marlow,” “How d’ye do, Sir?” “Bean-setting,” “Haste to the Wedding,” “Rodney,” “Trunk Hose,” and “Draw Back.”
It was during this revival at Headington that Mr Cecil Sharp first took down the tunes of the Morris dances which he afterwards gave to me in 1905. But this revised “side” of Morris men did not survive very long, and in 1905 or before had again given in and no longer danced down “The High” at Whitsuntide as in the old days.
But it was in 1905 that the real and, as I believe, permanent revival of the folk-dance first took place, and it happened in this way. For many years the Working Girls’ Club, of which I am the honorary secretary, had devoted much time to learning national dances, and had already learnt the Scotch dances direct from two Scotchmen and the Irish dances from an Irish lady, so that we were quite ready to learn the English dances in the same way. Mr Cecil Sharp told me about the Headington Morris dancers, and gave me Mr William Kimber’s address. I went to Headington and arranged for him and his cousin to come to London to teach the members of my Club. That first evening was a revelation to me, for I had never seen these London girls, with their natural aptitude for dancing in any form, quite so eager or so quick to learn. In two evenings they had mastered about four Morris dances, and were told by the instructors that they had got the dances quite perfectly.