ABSTRACT
It’s 11am on Boxing Day in the village of Marshfield in Gloucestershire, England. In the Market Place, the carol singing has just ended and the silver band has put away its instruments. Amongst villagers and visitors alike, there is growing expectancy. Faintly, in the distance, a hand bell rings, begins its approach. To one side of the square the crowd parts and the Town Crier appears, wearing black coat and top hat trimmed with a yellow band. Behind him, in single file, there emerges a file of extraordinary figures, fantastically dressed, covered from crown to knee in strips of paper, with faces hidden, shimmering as they move. First comes Father Christmas in red and white streamers; next the braggart Little Man John (‘If anyone defy me, let them come on’ ) in tea-stained, brown paper and carrying his wooden sword; then heroic, multicoloured King William (‘A man of courage and bold, With my sword and spear all in my hand, I gained three crowns of gold’ ). Doctor Phoenix (‘I’m a noble doctor, I can do more than any man can. I can cure the itch, the stitch, the palsy and the gout, All pains within and none without’ ) wears a costume covered in yellowing newsprint. Saucy Jack, Tenpenny Nit and Old Father Beelzebub all follow, accompanied by several money collectors in similar attire, and the Sheetman, who – at the centre of the space that the performers have begun to clear – lays a square of canvas bearing the words ‘Marshfield Mummers’.1 The main figures halt and stand equally spaced around the circle that their entry has described.
