The Earliest Reference to the Morris Dance

The author rehearses fifteenth-century forms of the words for 'morris' as a dance or performance and adduces a new antedating of the earliest occurrence of the word in English, from 1448. In 2002 John Forrest and I announced in Notes & Queries the discovery of a new example of the use of the phrase 'morris dance' from 1448, antedating the earliest entry known to the OED by a decade. (1) This was in one of a series of inventories from Sir John Fastolf's Caistor Castle in Norfolk. The inventories (for details of which see our previous article) described the contents of the castle, including a tapestry in the Winter Hall which depicted a morris dance. One of the other inventories was from 1462, the third--possibly preceding our 1448 list--was undated. The undated list called it a 'morysch daunce', the 1448 text a 'morysk Daunce', and the 1462 one a 'Morys daunse'. In the article we noted that using a phrase such as 'morris dance' to identify a tapestry implied that people reading the list would understand the phrase, and, therefore, that the dance was known in England at the time. This is despite the fact that all the earliest references allude to fine objects produced by craftsmen--to this tapestry, and two references to silverware from 1458. (2) But were these all examples of works of art imported from the continent? Perhaps the dance itself was not known in England until later. The first references indicating a performance of any kind are from 1466/67, when a 'moruske' was apparently performed at the household of Sir John Arundell at Lanherne in Cornwall, (3) and from 1477, when the Drapers' Company paid for a morris dance that was part of the Midsummer Watch in London on St Peter's Eve (28 June). (4) It was therefore with great interest that I encountered a note in Anne Lancashire's recent book, London Civic Theatre, that 'a harper, piper and morris dancers' were paid by the Goldsmith's Company in 1448. (5) Her source was unpublished research by Professor David Parkinson of the University of Saskatchewan, and I am enormously grateful to both of them for sharing further details of the reference with me. The reference occurs in the Wardens' Accounts and Court Minutes and is part of a set of payments made to entertainers, and for food and drink, by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths at their annual feast on St Dunstan's Day, 19 May: (6) Soluciones & Expensa In ffesto Sancti Dunstani ... Item In primis paid vn to the v. marces Ministrelles Item for xij, hattes for the Ministrelles x.. s. Item for their drynk xx d Item to Careawey harper xij. d Item to Iohan Pyper ij. d Item to the Moryssh. daunsers vij. s. ... The amount is comparable with the payment made to the one of the musicians (the harper), once the 7s. is divided among several dancers, but nowhere near the amount spent on the minstrels, who also had their hats and drink paid for. Our only other early reference to a guild performance for a guild's own enjoyment (as opposed to the public spectacle of the Midsummer Watch) is from the Carpenters almost sixty years later, when morris dancers were paid 8d. on 11 November 1507. (7) More important, however, is that this is explicit evidence for morris dancers performing in England almost thirty years before the next 'definite' reference (the Drapers) in 1477, and almost twenty before the more enigmatic household 'moruske' in Lanherne in 1466/67. The Goldsmiths' reference is very probably also the earliest occurrence of the phrase in English. I write 'probably' because the Goldsmiths' account book is a little ambiguous. The wardens were appointed at the Feast on 19 May each year, and the retiring wardens rendered their account at the same feast. It is not explicit whether the St Dunstan's Day payment each financial year relates to the first event of the wardens' year or the last. …

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