Originally prepared for textual analysis during his PhD research on the 'Origins and Development of English Folk Plays' by Peter Millington (2002).
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.
"I also visited Staveley on Dec. 5th 1945, and saw Mr. Gascoyne, aged 77, a retired schoolmaster, and Dr. Court, aged 78, a local resident. Mr. Gascoyne sang me his version of the ' Old Tup,' the tune being the same as that which Mrs. Wragg had given me, but Mr. Gascoyne made a very marked pause at the begining of the third line of each verse. He had not taken part in any performance himself as a boy, but he gave me what he remembered having seen the boys of his school doing for very many years. He declared that there were no definite characters, and he classified the speakers as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd etc. He omitted the introductory verse in the written copy he offered me, but when asked about it he dictated:
Here comes me and my owd lass,
Short of .money, short of brass;
It's money I want, it's money I crave,
If you don't give me money I'll sweep you all to t' grave.
This he agreed involved two more characters, one dressed as a woman. The Tup was fitted with a real sheep's head, with the skin on it. It was fixed to a pole and the boy crouched down behind it with a rug draped over him. Mr. Gascoyne remembered vaguely that once on a time one set of actors had a fine pair of ram's horns The children of Staveley still go round on New Year's Day with a travesty of the ceremony, which has degenerated into nothing more than a mere cadging expedition. The words as Mr. Gascoyne wrote them out for me run:"
Peter Millington's Notes:See Mrs. Wragg's version of the Staveley 'Old Tup' for the tune used by Mr.Gascoyne.
This text is reproduced with the kind permission of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.