"A petygree of the Plouboys or modes dancers songs": The Morris Dance at Revesby: A Facsimile of the 1779 Manuscript in the Lincolnshire Archives

The importance of the Revesby play has been recognised since it was first drawn to the attention of scholars by T. F. Ordish in 1889. However, its place in the wider scheme of the history of traditional drama remains unclear. The existence of this new manuscript would suggest that earlier views that the text of the play was the work, in part, of the Banks family are now unlikely. This version is in a hand seemingly unfamiliar with the contemporary conventions of written playscripts and appears to be the rough draft of a past performance upon which the fair copy in the British Museum was later based. However, we are still left with many questions, not the least about the date of the performance. Smith, in a so-far unpublished paper given at a Traditional Drama Group Conference in 1981, has argued that a date in December of 1779 is more likely than the annotated date of October that year; this would put the time of the play much closer to an accepted seasonal norm for folk plays.

But just how old is this text? The authors in their introduction suggest that there is evidence of performances by Morris dancers at Revesby as early as 1723, but was this a performance of a play? If so, it would reposition Revesby among the earliest known references to a traditional drama in addition to being the earliest known full text of a folk play. But that is to jump to a conclusion which is not warranted by the evidence we have so far. It does, however, highlight the importance of this text and indicates that a "move towards developing a fuller understanding of the Revesby entertainment and also the context in which the performance occurred" (p. vi) is central to our understanding of the early history of traditional drama in England. One must hope that the hints in the introduction of continuing research into the Revesby performance by the authors will lead to the much-needed full-scale evaluation of the play and its context in the near future. In the meantime, we can only be grateful to the authors for their work in making this manuscript available to scholars.

Eddie Cass, NATCECT, University of Sheffield

COPYRIGHT 2001 Folklore Society
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning