GUISE-DANCING

Evening Star, Issue 21055, 18 March 1932, Page 1

GUISE-DANCING

♦ AN ANCIENT CORNISH CARNIVAL The herring fishery has been a bad one, and the boats throughout the season have fared “very slight” in consequence. Alany families are heavily in debt, and there is little money circulating in the streets and alloys where the fishermen live clustered about the ancient harbours. But though it is mid-winter and the hearts of the older generation are heavy, remembering better days, the season of carnival comes again to youth. Not the carnival of tho South, with its elaborately-staged processions and flowery battles which usher in the spring to Alediterranean shores. Different from this, and older perhaps in origin than any other celebration of the kind, is the “ guisedancing ” with which the youth of Methodist Cornwall heralds the cold beginnings of another year. From time immemorial the period devoted to this custom has been from Christmas to “Old Christmas Day,” or Twelfth Night, During this time the streets of St. Ives and the villages about Penzance are nightly invaded by bands of young people attired in grotesque costume. In almost every case the boys are dressed, as girls and the girls as boys, some of them cleverly representing historical or local characters others merely disguised with blackened faces and Nottingham lace veils, but all enjoying themselves as much as if they were frolicking beneath a midsummer sky. If the night is fine parties will often group themselves together at the street corners and an impromptu dance takes place, to the accompaniment of drums, mouth-organs, and concertinas. The police meanwhile look on benignly, for guise-dancing is recognised by law no less than custom, and little rowdyism ever mars tho proceedings during the fortnight in which it is now permitted by the direct order of the mayor. In 1831 a writer describing guise dancing at Penzance likened it to an Italian carnival and recalled the days when “the rich, and great” came masked or disguised into the streets, or entering the houses which were purposely left open for their reception carried on “ highly humorous and piquant conversations,” to the intense amusement of the inmates. During the last century the costume of tho guisedancers often consisted of tho cast-off finery of an earlier age. • Alale players might he seen in long-waister, gaycoloured coats, resplendent with brass or tin buttons as large as crown pieces, AVith their slashed breeches of blue or red, bright stockings, buckled highheeled shoes, and cocked hats decked with plumes or ribbons, they must have made an imposing spectacle. The girls were no less magnificently ..attired in steeple-crowned Mts, stiff-hqdiod 'gowns with bag-skirts or trains, ruffles hanging from their elbows, and effher antique finery such as would now raise envy in the heart of a collector.

“ ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.”

Down to a hundred years ago the guise-dancers were not content merely to dress up and parade the streets in disguise. In Cornwall, as in Scotland, it was their habit to visit the farms and houses of the gentry, where they would perform some Christmas play, generally ‘ St. George and the Dragon.’ Versions of this ancient mummers’ play are very numerous, but the main characters are common to all. Tho party was introduced by “ Old Father Christmas,” who. stepping out from the halfcircle of players assembled in the wide friendly kitchen, opened the proceedings with some such words as the following ; *

Here come I, old Father Christmas, welcome or welcome not; I do hope old Father Christmas will never (bo forgot. If you don’t' b’lieve what I do say, Coine in St. George and clear the way.

"St. George” then steps forward, closely followed by the “Turkish Knight.” After a good deal of banter a battle takes place between them, as the result of which the “ Turkey Snipe” is slain. He is resurrected, however, by tho comic “ Doctor ” and the fight is renewed. St. George again proves too strong for him, and the Turkish Knight and his companion tho “ Dragon ” are both put to the sword and their bodies are dragged off by “ Old Beelzebub.” As a somewhat unexpected reward for his valour, the hand of Princess Sabo, the King of Egypt’s daughter,‘ia then given to St. George in marriage. Though its treatment of the subject was crude enough, the old play was of great interest. By symbolising, as in its origin it is thought to have done, the defeat of winter and the promise of a new year’s spring, endowed guisedancing with a meaning which greatly added to its interest. It was doubtless for this reason that Sir AValter Scott, who was far ahead of his time in recognising tho historical importance of folk-customs, invariably encouraged the “ guizards ” to perform their play at his house. In Cornwall, unfortunately, the custom, during the last .century, lacked just that educated support which might have preserved it in its ancient and proper form. As a consequence tho performance slowly degenerated into a rude horse-play, which eventually caused it to be abandoned.

I3ut though the play itself no longer forms a part of the proceedings, the custom of “going out guise-dancing” still lingers in tho towns and villages of tho extreme west of the duchy. Nor can it ho said to-day to lack the support of the educated. During the last four years the St. Ives “ Old Cornwall Society ”'has organised a guise-dancers’ parade, at which small prizes are offered for the best costume, family heirloom dress, character sketch, Cornish dialogue, and the like. This has resulted in raising the whole standard of guise-dancing and inspired those who take part iu it with a just pride in their ancient ceremony.

It is hoped that in clue course the St. George play will also he revived by this means, so that the observance may once again bo endowed with the significance which attached to ‘it through tho countless centuries of the past.