Christmas Play from Llanmadoc and Cheriton - 1879 J.D.Davies (1879) 87ss49dj.xml mastermummers.org J.D.Davies Historical Notices of the Parishes of Llanmadoc and Cheriton, in the Rural Deanery of West Gower, Glamorganshire. Pt.II Swansea, H.W.Williams, 1879, pp.85-86

Originally prepared for textual analysis during his PhD research on the 'Origins and Development of English Folk Plays' by Peter Millington (2002).

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Original spelling and typography is retained, except that superscripts, long s and ligatured forms are not encoded.

Line identifiers are those used for line types in the Folk Play Scripts Explorer.

 Llanmadoc and Cheriton Glamorganshire Wales SS4-9- Publ. 1879 Christmas [Not given] Quack Doctor: Hero/Combat: Southern English Father Christmas Turkish knight St George Doctor Peter Millington's Notes:

The initial electronic version of this text was extracted from web page http://www.folkwales.org.uk/arctd6.html, put up by Celfyddydau Mari Arts. Their introduction (which follows) is not clear which one of two source their text was obtained from:

"REV J D DAVIES' TEXT

This text appears in A History Of West Gower, written by the Rev J D Davies in 1887. Edward Laws appears to have lifted it wholesale for his 1888 book Little England Beyond Wales, which is where Sydney Rider found it some 30 years later."

The bibliographic reference cited here was taken from E.C.Cawte et al (1967), on the assumption that it is the same text. It has not yet been proof-read against the original book.

Except for some omitted lines, this text is essentially identical to the Cornish text published by William Sandys in Hone's Everyday Book (1823).

 15-Jan-1999 Celfyddydau Mari Arts. Digitised 05-Dec-2000 Peter Millington Encoded 15-Jan-2021 Peter Millington TEI-encoded CHRISTMAS PLAY OF ST GEORGE "The performers ­ some with ribbons in their caps and wearing white trousers ­ carry wooden swords in their hands. One of the party represents Father Christmas, and is habited like a very old man, with a long white beard and leaning on a staff. A doctor also forms one of the number and is dressed in some fantastic way. Two others represent St George and a Turkish knight." One of the party steps in and walks round the room, saying: Father Christmas Room, room, brave boys, a room. Within this court I do resort To show some sport. Having delivered this prologue, Father Christmas hobbles in, saying; FATHER CHRISTMAS Here comes I, old Father Christmas, Welcome or welcome not; I hope old Father Christmas Will never be forgot. He then goes out and the Turkish Knight enters, saying: TURKISH KNIGHT Here comes I, a Turkish knight, Come from the Turkish land to fight; And if St George will meet me here I'll try his courage without fear. Enter St George: ST GEORGE Here comes I, St George, That worthy champion bold; And with my sword and spear I won three crowns of gold. I fought the dragon bold, And brought him to the slaughter; By that I gained fair Sabra, The King of Egypt's daughter. TURKISH KNIGHT St George, I pray thee, be not so bold, If thy blood be hot, I'll soon make it cold. ST GEORGE Thou Turkish knight, I pray forebear, I'll make thee dread my sword and spear. They fight desperately, and the Turkish knight falls. ST GEORGE I have a little bottle, they call it elecampagne, If the man's alive, let him fight again. The knight rises on one knee and fights feebly, but is again struck down. The Turkish knight speaks: TURKISH KNIGHT Oh! pardon me, St George; oh! pardon me, I crave; Oh! pardon me this once, and I will be thy slave. ST GEORGE I'll never pardon a Turkish knight, Therefore arise and try thy might. The Turkish knight renews the combat, but falls again grievously hurt. St George speaks: ST GEORGE Is there a doctor to be found To cure this man of his deadly wound? DOCTOR enters Oh! yes, there's a doctor to be found To cure a deep and deadly wound. St GEORGE What can you cure? DOCTOR I can cure the itch, the palsy and the gout, If the devil's in, I'll pull him out. The doctor then applies a magic vial to the Turkish knight's nose. He immediately gets up and goes out. One of the party goes round with a hat, and all retire.