Note 164 — DISSERTATION III.

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 in 1457, is this article: "à certains compaignons qui avoient fait plusieurs esbatemens de morisques et autres jeux devant le due 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 the assembly."—Favines Theater of honour, p. 345; and see Carpentier, Suppl. ad glossar. Ducangian. v. Morikinus. Coquillart, a French poet, who wrote about 1470, says that the Swiss danced the Morisco to the beat of the drum. Œuvres, p. 127.