“In comes I, Old Father Christmas. Am I welcome, or am I welcome not?” So begins many a mummers’ play as they erupt into the room in celebration of Twelfth Night!
Twelfth Night, when children and fools are kings, and bosses and adults are fools and children, when the forces of Light and Dark meet in a climactic moment, is the night of the Three Kings. It’s also the event for which Shakespeare wrote a wonderful play…..and which, in many parts of North America and the British Isles, includes MUMMERS.
What the heck are Mummers?
Mumming arises out of the same tradition as sword dances, and ethnohistorians believe they grew out of ancient agrarian societies, with a ritualized sacrifice to ensure the renewed fertility of the land and the people as part of the battle between the old and new year, between winter and spring, between the darkness and the light.
Wikipedia says,
“Mummers Plays (also known as mumming) are seasonal folk plays performed by troupes of actors known as mummers or guisers, originally from the British Isles (see wrenboys), but later in other parts of the world. They are sometimes performed in the street but more usually as house-to-house visits and in public houses. Although the term mummers has been used since medieval times, no play scripts or performance details survive from that era, and the term may have been used loosely to describe performers of several different kinds. Mumming may have precedents in German and French carnival customs, with rare but close parallels also in late medieval England.”
As a performer and performance historian, my perspective on mumming is a little different. Certainly, most Mummer “scripts” have, as Wikipedia will tell you, a Doctor, George (Prince, Sir, King, Knight), a Turkish Knight, and often a clown and/or Father Christmas to work the crowd and provide audience interaction.
There’s also always a dance, with bells on the legs, and often sticks or swords. More importantly, from my point of view, is that the script offers a set of characters and interactions that lifts performers into a state of humorous and tender interaction with the audience, whether members of a household, people on the street, or storytellers and families gathered together.
Everywhere, some of the script is the same
Because Mumming is an oral/performative tradition, ‘scripts’ of old performances are essentially ‘captures’ by listeners. Some Mummer groups continue to train newcomers without a written script, while others use a script as a structure upon which to improvise. Below are 3 versions of the same scene, one from the Beerfordbury Bugle, a Czech one, and one from Middletown, CT.
Number 1:
Father Christmas Is there a doctor to be found, all ready, near at hand, to heal this deep & deadly wound, and make bold slasher stand?
(Have fun getting the audience to shout “Doctor, Doctor, Doctor” here. Kids enjoy this.)
Doctor (running on, chased by assistant if he has one) Yes there is a doctor to be found, all ready near at hand, to ease the hurt and mend the wound and make the slasher stand.
Father Christmas Where hast thou been, and where come from?
Doctor I’ve been to Italy, Spitally, France and Spain, all round England* and back again (*or wherever it is you’re performing.)
Father Christmas What can’st thou do, and what can’st cure?
Doctor I can cure all sorts of diseases. Anything that pains or displeases. the Itch, the Stitch, the Palsy, the Gout, the Raging Pain both inside and out. If the Devil’s in a man I’ll fetch it out. Give me an old woman, fourscore and ten – I’ll make her young and plump again. In fact I can do most anything, and then come back and do it again.
Father Christmas What is thy fee, doctor?
Doctor Fifteen pounds it is my fee the money to lay down. But as ’tis such a rogue as he – I’ll cure him for Ten Pounds (*Assistant looks at him with disapproval)
Number 2:
Father Christmas Is there a doctor to be found, all ready, near at hand, to heal this deep and deadly wound and make the Turkish knight stand?
Doctor YES here’s a doctor to be found, already near at hand, to heal this deep and deadly wound and make the Turkish knight stand
Father Christmas What is thy fee, doctor?
Doctor Five guineas and a loaf of bread I charge to raise one from the dead. But as he looks so odd and funny, I’ll take the bread. Forget the money. (doctor’s assistant is deeply distressed)
I have a bottle by my side. The fame spreads far & wide. A drop on head. A drop on heart. Rise up Sir Knight and take thy part. (Business between Doc & assistant culminating in a cure by Magic Elixir)
In the Czech version, he was then offered Fosters as a pick-me-up and died of sheer disappointment.
Number 3:
Doctor I can cure all sorts of disease; anything that pain or displease – the itch, the stitch, the palsy, the gout, the pain within and the pain without. Here is a box of my pills. Take one in the morning, two at noon, and swallow the box at dinnertime, and if the box don’t cure you, the lid will.
Father Christmas What is thy fee, doctor?
Doctor Fifteen pounds it is my fee the money to lay down. But as ’tis such a beast as he – I’ll charge you Fifty Pounds (Assistant looks at him with admiration bordering on the erotic. Or great, sudden and very pleasant surprise – it doesn’t really matter, the expression is very similar.)
Father Christmas Try thy skill, Doctor!
Doctor I have a bottle by my side, the fame spreads far & ………
Assistant (stage whisper) interrupting … We haven’t got a bottle
Doctor Why not?
Assistant Tosspot drank it …..
Doctor (Stage whisper) What have we got?
Assistant (looking in bag) A Sock
Doctor A Sock?………
Assistant (looking again) … Yep!
Doctor (resolutely) Sock!
Assistant Sock!
(Doctor waves the sock under the dragon’s nose, bringing it instantly back to life)
On this night of topsy-turvy, between darkness and light, I wish you joy in the year to come!
