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The Peace Egg Book: an Anglo-Irish chapbook connection discovered - Research article: focus on traditional drama
Folklore, April, 2003 by Eddie Cass, Michael J. Preston, Paul Smith
A comparison of the text of Carr's The Peace Egg Book and The Christmas Rhime ... chapbooks from Smyth and Lyons and Joseph Smyth [8] shows, however, that this is not a straightforward case of simply reprinting one text from another. For example, segments of The Christmas Rhime ..., comprising part of the Turkey Champion's speech, [9] the final speech, [10] and the concluding song, [11] have been omitted from The Peace Egg Book. Together these changes indicate that a degree of conscious editorial intervention has taken place. Conversely, Carr's text differs from all known editions of the Christmas Rhyme Books in a number of ways, the most striking being the substitution of "Belzebub" for "Devil Doubt" in lines seventy-two to seventy-three of The Peace Egg Book. [12] None of the changes that appear in The Peace Egg Book are to be found in the later Belfast chapbooks, with the exception of the omission of an obscure stage-direction in line 46 in the early Belfast chapbooks and its more modern use of capitalisation. [13] This indicates that The Peace Egg Book is not the immediate source for the later New Christmas Rhyme Books. The overall textual similarity, however--as well as identical typesetting accidentals, such as the inconsistent use in both texts of "Prince George" but then "knight George"--seems to be evidence for the transmission being from one printed text to another, rather than through some hypothetical oral intermediary. [14]
To summarise, The Peace Egg Book seems most likely to have been based on an early Belfast original, and logically from a printed text produced before 1836-38, such as The Christmas Rhime.... However, this does not exclude other possibilities. There may well have been an as yet unlocated printed precursor, a text upon which both the early Belfast chapbooks and The Peace Egg Book were based. Similarly, there could have been a printed intermediary text, such as the unlocated edition by Charles Dillon of Cork (c. 1824-41), which could have followed The Christmas Rime ... and provided the basis for The Peace Egg Book. Although both scenarios are logical possibilities, we do not intend to encourage mere speculation concerning "lost chapbooks."
Carr's use of the title The Peace Egg Book indicates the chapbook's possible transitional status. Carr's choice of text and his use of the term "Book" in the title demonstrates a link to the earlier Belfast Christmas Rhime or, The Mummer's own Book ..., a strategy also adopted by the Belfast printer John Nicholson in his subsequent editions of The New Christmas Rhyme-Book. In contrast, the reference to "The Peace Egg" in the title, [15] while differentiating Carr's edition from the earlier Irish chapbooks, acknowledges the Pace-Egg play tradition already existing in Lancashire at that time. [16] Carr therefore appears to have been trying to produce something that would appeal to both Irish immigrants in the Manchester area and the local English population. Regardless, The Peace Egg Book appears to be a dead-end in terms of its publishing history. Despite The Peace Egg Book being one of the earliest chapbooks containing a traditional play text, it appears not to have influenced the texts of any of the known later editions of the English Peace-Egg chapbooks, including Carr's own The Peace Egg, or Saint George's Annual Play for the Amusement of Youth.
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