MISCELLANEOUS.

18. Worcester Cathedral.

19.

20.

80.

Hereford Cathedral. 74.

MSS. Rob. Burscough, 82, in Catal. MSS. Angliæ. 21. MSS. Symonds D'Ewes, 150. Catal. MSS. Angliæ. 22. Trin. Coll. Dublin, G. 326.

23. In the author's possession. 101 stories.

24. Ibid. 50 stories.

25. Ibid. 34 stories.

PRINTED EDITIONS.-It has been already stated that the Latin copy of this work has never been printed. The following are all translations into English, No. 1 may be that ascribed to Leland; the rest are by Robinson.

1. No date, printed by Wynkyn de Worde.

2. 1577. T. East. From Robinson's Eupolemia, as above.

3.

1595. T. East. 12mo. In the author's possession. Contains 43 stories. 4. No date. R. Bishop. 12mo.

5. No date. Stansby. 12mo.

6.

R. Bishop.

12mo. 44 stories.
12mo.

1648. 7. 1663. J. B. for A. Crook.

12mo. 44 stories. E. Crowch, for A. Crook. 12mo.

8.

9.

1668. A. J. for A. Crook.
1672.

10.

11. 1703.

for R. Chiswell.

1689. for T. Bassett, &c. 12mo. 44 stories.

12mo. The same as that of 1668.

DISSERTATION III.

ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH MORRIS DANCE.

It is the observation of an elegant writer, that disquisitions concerning the manners and conduct of our species in early times, or indeed at any time, are always curious at least, and amusing. An investigation of the subject before us, if completely and successfully performed, would serve to fill up a chasm in the history of our popular antiquities: but this must not be expected. The culpable indifference of historical writers to private manners, and more especially to the recreations and amusements of the common people, has occasioned the difficulties that always attend inquiries of this nature, many of which are involved in impenetrable darkness; whilst others can only receive illustration from detached and scattered facts, accompanied by judicious inferences and opinions.

It will be necessary, in the first place, to attempt some definition of what the Morris dance originally was: this may be best accomplished by the aid of etymology, which will generally be found a faithful guide, when managed with discretion. It seems, however, on the present occasion to have been too slightly treated in a work of considerable labour and ingenuity, the author of which has expressed an opinion that the Morris dance originated from that part of the ancient ceremony of the feast of fools, in which certain persons habited like buffoons, with bells, &c., joined in a dance. He then proceeds as follows: "The word Morris applied to the dance is usually derived from Morisco, which in the Spanish lan

guage signifies a Moor, as if the dance had been taken from the Moors: but I cannot help considering this as a mistake; for it appears to me that the Morisco or Moor dance is exceedingly different from the morris-dance formerly practised in this country; it being performed with the castanets or rattles, at the ends of the fingers, and not with bells attached to various parts of the dress.* I shall not pretend to investigate the derivation of the word Morris; though probably it might be found at home: it seems, however, to have been applied to the dance in modern times, and, I trust, long after the festival to which it originally belonged was done away and had nearly sunk into oblivion."+

Now if the term in question had been exclusively used in England, there would have been some weight in these observations; but when we find it adopted by most of the European nations to express a dance, the origin of which both English and foreign glossaries uniformly ascribe to the Moors, we must pause at least before we consent to abandon the only clue that presents itself to assist us. The genuine Moorish or Morisco dance was, no doubt, very different from the European morris; but there is scarcely an instance in which a fashion or amusement that has been borrowed from a distant region has not in its progress through other countries undergone such alterations as have much obscured its origin. This remark may be exemplified in chess and cards, which, beyond all doubt, were invented in India or China, and spread, by means of the Arabians, progressively throughout Spain, Italy, France, England, and the north of Europe. But the above writer has cited a passage from the play of Variety, 1649, in which Spanish Morisco the is mentioned; and this not only shows the legitimacy of the term morris, but that the real and uncorrupted Moorish dance was to be found

This will hereafter appear to be a mistake.

+ Strutt's Sports and pastimes of the people of England, p. 171.