Questions about Folk Drama (Mummers or Christmas Rhymers)

Reference code: FOL.QUES/21
Level of description: Series
Title: Questions about Folk Drama (Mummers or Christmas Rhymers)
Scope and content: 1. Are mummers or Christmas rhymers still active in your district?
If not, when last did they appear (an approximate date will do)?
2. By what name were they known in your district (mummers, Christmas rhymers, Hogmanaymen, strawmen, strawboys, guisers, or some other name)?
3. When (approximate dates in December or other months) did they commence and when did they end their activities?
4. Was there more than one group in your district, or did each group operate in a distinct and separate area?
5. How many individuals comprised the group, and did this number vary from year to year, or did it remain constant?
6. Did the group always consist of males, or were girls ever included? If girls were included, what parts did they take?
7. How were the words and details of performances passed on or remembered? Who organised the group? Were printed versions of the words ever used (it would be important to locate any of these if they survive)?
8. Why did the mummers or rhymers perform their little plays?
9. How and where did the group present their performance (e.g. in the kitchen or outside the house; had a space to be cleared for them; who watched them, the family only, or everybody in the district gathered in one place)? Were the mummers or rhymers made welcome, or were they ever turned away?
10. Did the audience ever enter into the performance of the play in any way, or did they remain completely silent during the performance?
11. Did the performance include music and instruments, songs, dances, either before, during, or after the little play? Please give as much detail as you can.
12. Were any characters included in the performance who had no special reason for being there, i.e. they had no words to say, or they sang a song only, e.g. clowns or “fools”? How were they dressed and equipped?
13. Did a character ever appear who was dressed as a woman but was always played by a boy or young man? Did this character have any words to say, and did she bear any relationship to any of the other characters?
14. Can you give the names of the following characters?
a) Who presented or started the play?
b) Who was involved in the fight?
c) Who called for the doctor?
d) Who collected the money at the end?
15. From the following list of characters whose words are known to us, please mark off those known in your district, and after their names give notes about their dress or disguise and their equipment:
Captain
Captain Room
Captain Mummer
Captain Clew
Leader
Master Nan
Room Room
Rim Rhy
Rin Rhyme
Father Time
Father Christmas
St. George
Prince George
King George
Grand Turk
Turkey
Turkish Champion
St. Pat(rick)
Prince Pat(rick)
Sir Pat(rick)
Sir Rook
Galatian or Goloshan
Oliver Cromwell
Old Woman
Turkey Champion’s Mother
Doctor Brown
Doctor Black
“A doctor pure and good”
Doctor Scott
Doctor Sure
Doctor Ding-Dong
Doctor Sturdy
Doctor Quack
Beelzebub
(Big Bellied) Ned
Uncle Ned
Jack Straw
Big Head (and Little Wit)
The Green Knight
(Lord) Wren
Philosopher
Turkey Bill
The Darkie
Snoopity Sneezer
Napoleon
Hogmalay (or Hogmany)
Horrible
Horrible Horrible
Tom Fool
Slick Slack
Clown
The Lady
Many Ann McGonagle
Miss Funny
Biddy Funny
Honour Bright
Devil Doubt
Divilly Doubt
Buck Sweep
Johnny Funny
Tom Funny
Johnny Honey
Tom Honey
Fiddle(y) Funny
Pay-box
16. Was any other custom known in your district which also involved groups of young men or boys going round the houses of the district, who had words to say, or who sang songs (e.g. Wrenboys)? Give brief details of what was involved.
17. Is the following rhyming riddle known in your district, and if so, do the words follow exactly those given here? What is the answer to the riddle?
Through a rock, through a reel
Through an old spinning wheel
Through a miller’s hopper,
Through a bag of pepper,
Through an old sheep's shank bone,
Such a riddle was never known.
18. If at all possible, can you provide any or all of the words spoken by the characters in the mummers’ or rhymers’ play, in their correct order?