The Truro cordwainers' play: a "new" eighteenth-century Christmas play - Research article: focus on traditional drama

Folklore, April, 2003 by Peter Millington

Abstract

The Christmas play hitherto attributed to Mylor is here re-ascribed to Truro in the late 1780s, using biographical information concerning the actors and physical characteristics of the manuscript. It becomes the oldest Saint George play to feature Father Christmas and the Turkish Knight, and has textual parallels with Irish folk plays.

Introduction

The subject of this paper is a manuscript folk play text that has hitherto been ascribed to Mylor, Cornwall (SW8235). A transcription was first published by Thurstan Peter (1916) who stated that it was "used" by performers in the latter half of the nineteenth century. However, the more I looked at the text, and compared it with early manuscripts from Lincolnshire [1], the more I felt that the "Mylor" text must have been written down earlier, in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. My reasons for thinking this were initially nebulous, based on a combination of spelling practices and the inclusion of large passages of literary text.

Helpfully, the script gives the names of the actors who performed the play. In theory, therefore, it should be possible to tell from biographical information in official records when and where these people lived, and thereby determine a likely performance date. In the course of pursuing this line of research, the original manuscript was also located, which meant that the nature of the paper and handwriting could also be taken into account.

Previous Studies

The "Mylor" play is a long text of forty-one speeches, written semi-literately with dialect spellings. In essence, it is a standard Hero/Combat play, with Saint George and the Turkish Knight, although it is padded out with various large additions, two of which are from known literary and ballad sources. The script names five actors and, as the play has fifteen characters, they obviously doubled-up parts. In fact, the distribution was remarkably equal, with each actor playing exactly three different characters--even the actor with only ten lines in total.

The text is well known to traditional drama research, having appeared in print three times. The manuscript was first published by Thurstan Peter as a literal transcript in Notes and Queries in 1916. Regarding its provenance, he states:

   I have in my note-book ... a curious and interesting copy made by me
   from a MS. used by some Cornish performers in the latter half of the
   last century. The players of this Cornish version--which I
   subjoin--went from house to house and performed in the open,
   borrowing a mat "for the Turkish Knight to die on" if the ground
   were damp.

   The libretto is from a MS. in the possession of John D. Enys (1905),
   who got it from Mylor. The original is written by a very illiterate
   man; but I have followed it closely for fear of wrong conjecture.
   For the same reason I have kept the lines of the original (Peter
   1916, 330; original emphasis).

The Royal Institution of Cornwall now holds the relevant notebook. Peter's transcript appears in his Notebook no. 2 (Peter 1905), but the only accompanying notes comprise the second paragraph quoted.

It is from Peter's statements that the place and date of performance have been taken. However, Peter also referred to the play in his earlier book The Old Cornish Drama (Peter 1906). He highlighted the mixed historical subject matter of the play--mentioning "the incident of Henry V and the tennis balls" and the seizure of Quebec--and quoted one short passage. He gave the anecdote about borrowing mats, as follows:

   "A friend tells me that he well recollects as a child that the
   performers borrowed mats on which to die!" (Peter 1906, 47).

It seems likely that the friend was J. D. Enys, and therefore that this anecdote came from his personal memories of the 1840s or 1850s at Enys, Penryn (SW7936), which is adjacent to Mylor [2].

Also in 1906, the text was the subject of a query from "Ygrec" in Notes and Queries (Ygrec 1906). This item does not add anything to the provenance of the script. Rather, it requests the identity of a quoted extract, which we now know to be the ballad King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France (c. 1730). The real identity of "Ygrec" was presumably Thurstan Peter.

Peter's notebook contains two loose items (one letter and one postcard) from R. J. E. Tiddy of Trinity College, Oxford. It would appear that Peter had lent him his notebook. In his letter dated 26 April 1914, Tiddy comments:

   I will copy it as soon as I can and return the book to you. Mylor is
   a few miles from St Just where my father's family comes from so I am
   particularly pleased to have this play ... (Peter 1905, loose letter
   dated 26 April 1914)

On 2 May 1914, Tiddy sent Peter the postcard:

   I return your Notebook with very many thanks. The Mylor play is
   quite the most interesting I have come across, and I wish I had time
   to set to work on it at once. I am extremely glad that you copied it
   literatim.

   I have no doubt that you can decipher it a good deal better than I
   could, but in the long vacation I shall attempt to "restore" the
   text and will, if I may, send my attempt to you for comment, though
   I do not of course wish to trespass on your time. I expect you have
   already recognised the Ballad fragment in it, but in case you have
   not identified it, it is in Child's English and Scottish Popular
   Ballads (Nutt 1906) no. 164 "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France."
   I must try collecting in Cornwall and if I do get enough
   specifically Cornish material I will remember your kind suggestion
   about the Royal Institution. Yours very truly R. J. E. Tiddy.
   (Peter 1905, loose postcard dated 2 May 1914)