When we saw our friend Kimber (mentioned
elsewhere) dance his Morris jig to the tune of "Rodney," had our other
old friend Tabourot been present in the spirit--maybe he was--he need
have altered nothing in the description we have quoted but to substitute
for the boy with his face blackened a sturdy English yeoman, and to note
some differences in the get-up of the dancer. The solo dance has been
performed also at Bampton, between tobacco-pipes laid crosswise on the
ground--to the tune of the "Bacca Pipes" jig, or "Green
Sleeves"--suggesting the Scottish sword-dance, and in many other
fashions.

Another feature in the history of the English Morris, which by this time
may be called impossible to account for with any exactitude, is that in
the elder days the Mummers and their plays, the Robin Hood games and
other ancient diversions with their characters and customs, became
allied--or rather mixed up--with the Morris-men, upon May-day and
occasions of festivity such as the Leet-ales, Lamb-ales, Bride-ales, &c.
To what extent they were allied, or mixed, will probably baffle even the
combined powers of all our archaeologists to discover. In an old woodcut,
for instance, preserved on the title of a penny history (Adam Bell, &c.)
printed at Newcastle in 1772, is apparently the representation of a
Morris dance, consisting of--A Bishop (or friar), Robin Hood, the Potter
or Beggar, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian. Robin Hood and Little
John carry bows of length befitting the size of each. The window, too,
shown in the frontispiece is proof that the Morris-dancers were attended
by other characters. The following, from Ben Jonson's "The Metamorphosed
Gipsies," supplies further evidence to the same effect:--

They should be a Morris dancers by their jingle, but they have no
napkins.

No, nor a hobby horse.

Oh, he's often forgotten, that's no rule; but there is no Maid
Marian nor friar amongst them, which is the surer mark.

Nor a fool that I see.

But other characters, introduced for whatsoever reason, gradually
disappeared, until the Morris company, as a general thing, consisted only
of the dancers, the piper--that is, the musician--and the fool.

The hobby-horse, described later, was habitually associated with the
Morris, until the Puritans, by their preachings and invective, succeeded
in banishing it as an impious and pagan superstition. This accounts for
the expression, "The hobby-horse quite