Add MS 44870

THE 'REVESBY PLAY': the text of a play of the mumming type, partly in verse, entitled (f. 3) 'The Plow Boys, or Morris Dancers', followed (ff. 15, 16) by 'A Song, called Landlord & Tennant', a copy evidently contemporary with a performance at Revesby, co. Linc., 20 Oct. 1779, noted in a different hand on f. 1 (actually at Revesby Abbey, the seat of Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., according to Sir H. Ellis in his revision of J. Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, i, 1813, p. 401). Names of the local actors are recorded on f. 2 b and of the singers of the song (in another hand) on f. i. Edited, with a few verbal variations, by T.F. Ordish, The Folk-Lore Journal, vii, 1889, pp. 331 - 356. Reprinted, without the song and with emendations, by J. M. Manly, Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama, i, 1897, pp. 296-311, and Sir E.K. Chambers, The English Folk-Play, 1933, pp. 104- 123. See also C.R. Baskervill, 'Mummers' Wooing Plays in England', Modern Philology, xxi, 1924, pp. 225- 272; Brit. Mus. Quart., xi, 1936, pp. 23, 24; and E.C. Cawte, Alex Helm, R.J. Marriott and N. Peacock 'A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain', Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Soc., ix, no. i, Dec. 1960. pp. 1-41 (where the present MS. has the siglum 'B Mad'). Paper; ff. ii + 16. Quarto. A.D. 1779. Original marbled paper covers. The title 'Morrice Dancers at Revesby' appears in a modern hand on a label on the front cover (f. i). Belonged to Sara Sophia Banks (sister of Sir Joseph

Banks) in 1780 (signature, f. 2) and later to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., Principal Librarian of the British Museum (d. 1869): given by him (see note by the donor, f. ii) to William John Thoms, F.S.A. (d. 1885), and by the latter to Sir George Lawrence Gomme, F.S.A. (d. 1916). Presented by Alice Bertha, Lady Gomme.