and cards, which, beyond all doubt, were invented in India or China, and spread, by means of the Arabians, progressively throughout Spain, Italy, France, England, and the North of Eu rope. But the above writer has cited a passage from the play of Variety, 1649, in which ther Spanish Morisco is mentioned ; and this not only? shows the legitimacy of the term morris, but that the real and uncorrupted Moorish dance was tol be found in Spain, where it still continues to de light both natives and strangers under the name of the fandango. It may be likewise remarked, that the exquisitely pretty music to this lively dance is undoubtedly Moorish. The Spanish morris was also danced at puppet shows by d person habited like a Moor, with castagnets; and Junius [Du Jon] has informed us that the morris dancers usually blackened their faces with soot, that they might the better pass for Moors.

e Hist. of musick, vol. iv. 388, by Sir John Hawkins, who was clearly of opinion that the morris dance was de rived from the Moors.

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Etymologicum Anglicanum. In further corroboration of this deduction of the morris dance, the following words may be adduced; MORESQUE a kind of grotesque painting, sometimes called Arabesque, and used in embroidery and damasking. MoRISCLE, and MOURICLE, a gold coin used

Some have sought the origin of the morris in thes Pyrrhica saltatio of the ancients, a military dance which seems to have been invented by the Greeks, and was afterwards adopted by the Saliir or priests of Mars. This continued to be prac tised for many ages, till it became corrupted by figures and gesticulations foreign to its original purpose. Such a dance was that well known in France and Italy by the name of the dance of fools or Matachins, who were habited in short jackets with gilt-paper helmets, long streamers tied to their shoulders, and bells to their legs. They carried in their hands a sword and buckler, with which they made a clashing noise, and per formed various quick and sprightly evolutions.

in Spain by the Moors, and called in the barbarous Latin of the fourteenth century morikinus. See Carpentier, Suppl. ad glossar. Ducangian. v. Morikinus. MORRIS WAX, called likewise mores war, in the Garbelling of spices, 1594, 4to. To these the morris-pike may perhaps be added. It is probable that the English terms morris and morice have been corrupted from mores, the older and more genuine orthography.

Tabourot Orchesographie, 1589, 4to, p. 97, where the several postures of this dance are described and represented The Pyrrhic dance appears to have travelled from Greece into the North. See Olaus Magnus, De gentibus septentrionalibus, lib. xv. c. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.

A species of this sword dance by some means of other got introduced into England, where it has generally and unaccountably been exhibited by women, whose dexterous feats of tumbling and dancing with swords at fairs, and in the minor theatres, are still remembered by many persons. A very learned writer, speaking of the Pyrrhica saltatio, informs us, that "The common people in many parts of England still practise what they call a Morisco dance, in a wild manner, and as it were in armour, at proper intervals striking upon each others staves, &c.s" This might be found on enquiry to differ from the common morris, and to be a mixture of the old Pyrrhic and Moorish dances. Such a one may be alluded to in The second part of King Henry the Sixth, Act iii. Sc. 1,

Caper upright like a wild Morisco,

Shaking the bloody darts, as he his bells."

It is remarkable that the same practice should be found in the island of Ceylon. Knox tells us that "A woman takes two naked swords, under each arm one, and another. she holds in her mouth, then fetcheth a run and turns clean over, and never touches the ground till she lights on her feet again holding all her swords fast." Hist. of Ceylon, p. 99,

8 Wise's Enquiries concerning the first inhabitants, language, &c. of Europe, p. 31.

Before we proceed to an examination of the more immediate object of this essay, the English morris, it may be as well to lay before the reader a short description of the uncorrupted morris dance, as practised in France about the beginning of the sixteenth century. It has been preserved by Tabourot, the oldest and by far the most curious writer of any other on the art of dancingh. He relates, that in his youthful days it was the custom in good societies for a boy to come into the hall, when supper was finished, with his face blackened, his forehead bound with white or yellow taffeta, and bells tied to his legs. He then proceeded to dance the Morisco, the whole length of the hall, backwards and forwards, to the great amusement of the company'. He hints

h Jean Tabourot, canon and official of the cathedral of Lengres, published his Orchesographie et traicté en forme de dialogue par lequel toutes personnes peuvent facilement apprendre et practiquer l'honneste exercice des dances, 1589, 4to, under the anagrammatized name of Thoinot Arbeau. He died in 1595, at the age of 66. His work is equally curious and uncommon.

But the French morris can be traced to a much earlier period. Among other instances of the prodigality of Messire Gilles de Raiz, in 1440, morris dancers are specified. Lobineau, Hist. de Bretagne, ii. 1069. In the accounts of Olivier le Roux, treasurer to Arthur III. duke of Bretagne

ANCIENT ENGLISH www.yousb irrora gift b9zoqque nood I that the bells might have been borrowed from 9.1 10 9 9 bulged or the crotali of the ancients in the Pyrrhic dance, He then describes the more modern morris dance, which was performed by striking the ground with the forepart of the feet; but, as this was found to be too fatiguing, the motion was afterwards confined to the heel, the toes being kept firm, by which means the dancer contrived Viash to rattle his bells with more effect. He adds that this mode of dancing fell into disuse, as it was We are doum found to bring on on gouty complaints. This is the air to which the last-mentioned morris was performed.

to not bid adi

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in 1457, is this article: "à certains compaignons qui avoient fait plusieurs esbatemens de morisques et autres jeux devant le duc à Tours, vi. escus." Id. 1205. At a splendid feast given by Gaston de Foix at Vendôme in 1458, "foure yong laddes and a damosell attired like savages daunced (by good direction) an excellent Morisco, before

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