Note 1435 — Chapter XVII · MASKS AND MISRULE

The Promptorium Parvulorum (†1440 C. S.), ii. 348, translates ‘Mummynge’ by ‘mussacio vel mussatus’ (‘murmuring’ or ‘keeping silence,’ conn. mutus), and gives a cognate word ‘Mummȳn, as they that noȝt speke Mutio.’ This is of course the ordinary sense of mum. But Skeat (Etym. Dict. s.v.) derives ‘mummer’ from the Dutch through Old French, and explains it by the Low German Mumme, a ‘mask.’ He adds ‘The word is imitative, from the sound mum or mom, used by nurses to frighten or amuse children, at the same time pretending to cover their faces.’ Whether the fourteenth-century mumming was silent or not, there is no reason to suppose that the primitive folk-procession out of which it arose was unaccompanied by dance and song; and silence is rarely, if ever (cf. p. 211) de rigueur in modern ‘guisings.’