Note 560 — Chapter XXIV · PLAYERS OF INTERLUDES

Jackson-Burne, 493, citing Sir Offley Wakeman in Shropshire Archaeological Transactions, vii. 383. Such plays were performed on wagons at Shropshire wakes within the last century. The ‘book’ seems to have been adapted from the literary drama, if one may judge by the subjects which included ‘St. George,’ ‘Prince Mucidorus,’ ‘Valentine and Orson,’ and ‘Dr. Forster’ or ‘Faustus.’ But a part was always found for a Fool in a hareskin cap, with balls at his knees. He is described as a sort of presenter or chorus, playing ‘all manner of megrims’ and ‘going on with his manœuvres all the time.’ I have not been able to see a paper on Shropshire Folk-plays by J. F. M. Dovaston. G. Borrow, Wild Wales, chh. lix, lx (ed. 1901, p. 393), describes similar Welsh interludes which lasted to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The titles named suggest moralities. He analyses the Riches and Poverty of Thomas Edwards. This, like the Shropshire interludes, has its ‘fool.’