The History of Morris Dancing, 1438-1750 / / John Forrest.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Forrest, John,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©1999
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Early English Drama
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (456 p.)

Morris dancing, one of the more peculiar of the English folk customs, has been greatly misunderstood. Traditional scholarship on this custom has been based on the assumption that morris dancing is one of the pagan calendar rituals, a preconception held by many folklorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Now, building upon his previous work with Michael Heaney of the Bodleian Library in Annals of Early Morris, John Forrest carefully analyses a wealth of evidence to show that morris dancing does not, in fact have pagan or ancient origins. His examination of early documentation draws morris traditions into the wider area of communal customs and public celebrations, showing the passage of dance ideas between groups of people who until now have been considered folklorically distinct. Careful, detailed, and encyclopedic, The History of Morris Dancing, 1458-1750 is an essential reference work for specialists in English drama and social historians of the period.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Illustrations -- Tables -- Introduction -- 1. Theories of Origin -- 2. The Contexts -- 3. Earliest References -- 4. Royal Court -- 5. Urban Streets -- 6. Church Property -- 7. Church Proscription and Prosecution -- 8. The Public Stage -- 9. Rural Locations -- 10. Assemblies and the Country Dance Hall -- 11. Private Premises -- 12. Endings -- Appendix A: Methodological Issues. The Early Morris Database and Archive -- Appendix B: Visitation Articles Banning Morris -- Appendix C: Mr Isaacs Morris 1716 -- Appendix D. Extant Churchwardens’ Accounts -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index