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The Truro cordwainers' play: a "new" eighteenth-century Christmas play - Research article: focus on traditional drama

Folklore, April, 2003 by Peter Millington

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True Location and Date of the Manuscript

While the available biographical information for the actors is incomplete, there is nonetheless sufficient information, taken with physical aspects of the manuscript, to reach some firm conclusions. The first is that the true location where the play was performed was Truro rather than Mylor. This is because Truro/ Kenwyn is the only place where all the actors' names come together at the same time.

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For the same reason, the second conclusion is that the play was performed by a generation born between 1768 and 1772. The four known marriages for this generation were at roughly the same age between 1790 and 1795, and in 1803 at least four of the five actors were working as cordwainers. In fact, members of the Rowe and Williams families were still listed under Truro as boot-makers and shoe-makers in Pigot's Directory of 1830 (Pigot 1831). Naturally, the actors' deaths were not synchronic. The three known deaths were between 1827 and 1849. In addition to their shared cordwaining trade, there are documented links between the families. Most directly, Henry Crossman witnessed the marriage of Pentecost and Jane Langdon. Less directly, James Solomon--Willam's father--married Mary Crossman. Finally, a member of the Rowe family--Mark Rowe--witnessed the will of William Solomon.

The biographical dates, plus the nature of the paper and handwriting of the manuscript, all firmly point to date in the late eighteenth century or early nineteenth century. The characteristics of the watermarks and the orthography suggest that the date is more likely to be eighteenth century. This is also supported to some degree by the subject matter of the text. It includes references to military events in the mid eighteenth century, but does not have any references to people or events from the Napoleonic Wars. This suggests that the play predates the Napoleonic Wars, especially as Napoleonic heroes featured in nineteenth-century folk plays in many parts of England, including Cornwall (for example, Sandys 1833, cx).

The text is relatively long and sophisticated for a folk play, and probably required actors of mid-teenage to late teenage as a minimum. Local practice appears to have been for the plays to be performed by young unmarried actors. The earliest marriage among the actors was 1790 and, if the correct John Rowe has been identified, he may have moved to live in Camborne when he married in 1793, if not before. Consequently, it is possible to deduce that the play was performed sometime in the late 1780s. This makes it one of the oldest available English folk-play texts.

Textual Parallels

The text of the Truro play is a pastiche containing a mixture of lines from traditional folk plays, literary sources, and lines that appear to be unique to Truro. Their approximate relative contributions are as follows:

* 40% of lines, found in other folk play texts.

* 15% of lines, Addison's (1707) Rosamond: an Opera.

* 10% of lines, the ballad King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France (c. 1730).

The Truro cordwainers' play: a "new" eighteenth-century Christmas play - Research article: focus on traditional drama

Folklore, April, 2003 by Peter Millington

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