Beacon Villages
Under Cosdon Beacon Dartmoor Devon UK
| Beacon Villages Journal | The Ramsley Pace Egg Mummers |
| Let's take things one step at a time, shall we? Why Ramsley? Well, unless someone writes in to the contary, I think the only reason is that Dave and Shirley live there and they are in the centre of many of the dressing up ... er ... cultural re-enactments in the area. OK, why Pace? Nothing to do with speed. Some people woulf have you believe it's dialect for 'peace'. Wrong! It's derived from the old name for Easter. Of course, then it makes sense - Easter Egg - although St Georges Day would make it a bit unseasonal, wouldn't it? Now for the last bit - Mummers. That's an easy one. Mimers, they don't speak. Ah, but they do! Let's take a break, look at some pics and come back to it. | |
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| You will have gathered that the story goes something like this: There's a chap in a dirty old mac, with an upturned nose, who is telling us the tale of when St George, fresh out of dragons, gets into a fight with a knight (with the N on his back) and, of course wins. The guy in the mac gets upset over this and calls out "Is there a doctor in the house?". Luckily there is and, although a quack, he brings our knight back to life (which is just as well or they'd have to drop the 'Ramsley' bit). | |
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The audience are in raptures as our knioght recovers but then, without too much warning, St George is set upon by a coalminer from the moors (or is that a moor from Morocco?). Valiant as ever, our hero despatches this fierce foe and then finds himself in trouble with the King of Egypt and a strange old white haired bookie. |
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The King has a red headed, long sleeved friend called Hector who is called in to avenge the King's daughter who was engaged to the coal miner. (Are you colonials keeping up?) Hector fares no better and St George (who symbolises England against the Kernows) wins again. It is now time for the guy in the mac to go round with the hat saying "It's only a story" and then the Mummers can repair to the bar to spend their earnings. |
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Mummers plays can be traced back to the crusades " Hero/Combat plays are the most common form of English folk play. They normally start with an introductory prologue, which is followed by challenges and a sword fight between the hero and an antagonist. One of them (not always the villain) is "slain" and the Doctor is brought in to perform a cure. To end the play, one or more supernumerary characters may enter to ask the audience for a reward. The whole affair often finishes with a carol or seasonal song. King/Prince/Saint George is the most frequent hero of the play, but others may be found in particular sub-types of the play. Antagonists vary with sub-type, and in some cases there may be more than one combat." "The egg is taken as a handy symbol of life in many parts of the world, especially in association with springtime, when the crops show their first sign of life. So ... the Pace-eggers go round, begging for eggs and, in some cases, performing a version of the mummers' death-and- resurrection play. Strictly, the play is considered to belong to midwinter, but the folk aren't always as punctilious as the folklorists, and in this instance the drama and its song have strayed from their winter date. In the fullest version, sundry masked heroes appear, fight, are slain, and brought back to life by a comic doctor." http://www.folkplay.info/index.htm
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