Kingston to Kenilworth: Early Plebeian Morris

Abstract

MANY attempts have been made over the years to elucidate the origins of the morris dance in England. This paper is not one of them. Rather, it attempts an essential preliminary to such an endeavour, namely a description of the context of the dance in the earliest period for which we have records. In particular, it will examine the records relating to dancing by the ordinary people of England. Many of these records relate to parish entertainments, and the paper will begin by exploring one of the most detailed such accounts; after which it will describe the ways in which the dance developed in the period up to the early 1570s, which date marks a watershed in the history both of the dance and of attitudes towards it. The first book of the Kingston-upon-Thames churchwardens' accounts has been quoted on innumerable occasions, because it contains some of the earliest, and among the most detailed, records of what W.E. Finny misleadingly called 'Mediaeval games and gaderyngs'; and among the games were our first examples of morris dancing in local popular entertainments.' The book covers the period 1504-38. For 1504-06 we have summary accounts rendered in June specifically for a 'Kinggame' but in 1507 a marked change takes place, and the accounts become much fuller. As well as a King, Robin Hood appears. Both collect money from Whit Sunday to Thursday. In addition the King still has his Kinggame on one of the days, for which a separate note of receipts appears in the accounts.2 In other words, multiple attractions were being presented. It is in this year that the morris dancers appear:3