The Origins and Development of English Folk Plays

Peter Thomas Millington
Ph.D. Thesis, University of Sheffield, May 2002

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New Classification of Quack Doctor Plays

In the main body of the thesis, the following classes are defined in terms on the basis of characteristic dialogue lines. However, as many of these lines belong to certain dramatis personae, these are given instead in this summary classification. The heirarchy of the classification is indicated using indentation.

          Class Defining Characters
Quack Doctor plays - Doctor
     Plough Plays - Dame Jane
          Multiple Wooing plays - Noble Anthony, Father's Eldest Son, Farming Man, Lawyer, Ancient Man
          Recruiting Sergeant plays - Bold Tom, Recruiting Sergeant, Ribboner, Lady Bright and Gay, Farmer's Man
     Hero-Combat plays
          North British plays
               Sword Dance plays - No individual combatants - Dancers include the Squire's Son
               Galoshins plays - Galation
          Irish plays - Saint Patrick, Oliver Cromwell
          Southern English plays - Father Christmas, Turkish Knight
          Cotswold plays - Jack Finney
               Robin Hood plays - Robin Hood, Arthur Abland
          Northern English plays - Slasher, [Bull Guy]
          Others
               West Indian Mummies - Saint George, Saint Andrew, Saint Patrick and Saint David
     Composed & compiled plays
Wexford Mummers - No Doctor - Father Murphy, Wolfe Tone, etc.

 

This new classification is compatible with the previous three-fold scheme established by E.C.Cawte, A.Helm & N.Peacock in their English Ritual Drama (1967), and recently proposed extensions. The principal differences are:

  • The new term "Quack Doctor Play" replaces the earlier unsatisfactory term "Mummers'" or "Mumming Play" - Not all Mummers performed plays, and not all players were called Mummers. Conversely, the character of the Doctor is found universally throughout this type of folk play. It therefore provides am objective terms that both defines the genre and distinguishes it from others.
  • The over-large Hero-Combat class - the most common type - has been broken down into several sub-classes
  • The Sword Dance plays are now merely another sub-type of the the Hero-Combat plays, and not in an equal class of their own as they were before. This revised status has been determined from a combination of textual analysis and a reassessment of Alex Helm's data on sword dances and sword dance plays.
© Copyright 2000-2008 by Peter Millington, (peter.millington1@virgin.net), Last updated on 06/05/2008