...." And there we found
the same tune which Tabourot gives for the dance that he described, as we
have already told. It is the tune of "Morris Off," which we reproduce in
our books of tunes. Just a few weeks earlier we had taken down, at
Redditch, from the fiddler of the Bidford Morris-men, the same tune,
note for note, as Tabourot gives it. Here in truth is a signal instance
of that persistence and continuity which is always cropping up, to the
lasting amazement and delight of the student of Folk-music--to the
delight more especially of the student who, like ourselves, holds that in
our Folk-music is a treasury not to be hoarded for the delectation of the
scholar, but to be expended with both hands for the revivifying of a
national spirit.

The Morris, then--once also the Moresc--of England; La Morisque and
Morisco of France; the Moresca of Corsica, danced by armed men to
represent a conflict between Moors and Christians--is in all reasonable
probability Moorish in origin: never mind if in our own country it is
become as English as fisticuffs, as the dance called "How d'ye do" will
show--wherein our own folk, after their own manner, have suggested
strife, as in the Corsican variety. Holland, as is told by Engel, was
infected too; industrious research, in fact, will probably show that the
Morris in some shape or other was known throughout Europe, and beyond. As
for the date of its introduction into England that is impossible to state
with certainty; but most authorities point to the time of Edward III.,
maybe when John of Gaunt returned from Spain, as probably the earliest
when Morris-men were seen in England. It is said also that we had it from
the French; another lays its introduction to the credit of the Flemings.
The window with its Morris-men shown in our frontispiece is probably of
the time of Edward IV.

Schemes of wider research, however, we are content to leave in the hands
of the intrepid Folk-lorist. We are concerned here to extract from a mass
of notes and references some outstanding few, to remind practising and
potential Morris-dancers of to-day that this new-old art, if not
indigenous, has been, like many another foreign importation, assimilated
much to our advantage.

The Morisco, from which our own Morris has obviously descended, seems to
have been originally both a solo and square dance, the latter being
performed by sides (that is, sets) of six. The solo Morris existed all
along, and still exists.