Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/105



HE description of mummers in Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, and in Brand's Popular Antiquities, is inapplicable to the amusement generally known as "the Mummers" in England, both now and in past times, although fast dying out; and as there does not appear to be any published account of the latter, perhaps the following may be worthy of publication as a record of this old pastime.

The mummers, as described by Strutt, were men and sometimes women, disguised in any uncouth manner, at times with the skins and horns of various animals, to startle or amuse an audience by their strange appearances, but with no form of speech or action. The mummers I allude to were more like players, having certain characters and parts to perform, and probably connected with customs handed down to us from very early times and stage performances.

I do not remember seeing the mummers perform more than two or three times, and that must have been in 1815 and 1816; but in those days the speeches of the mummers were as well known to boys as "Hey diddle diddle! the cat and the fiddle," or "Little Jack Horner sat in a corner," are now known to children as nursery rhymes, and I have no doubt that at this time these mummers' speeches are still known in many parts of the country, although, as in the inclosed MS., much muddled up. Vol. 4.—Part 2.