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The fool's dance, or a dance performed by persons equipped in the dresses appropriated to the fools, is very ancient, and originally, I apprehend, formed a part of the pageant belonging to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery, usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various ceremonials and mockeries, not only exceedingly ridiculous, but shameful and impious. A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved in a MS. in the Bodleian Library, written and illuminated in the reign of king Edward III. and completed in 1344, is copied below.
- Author
- The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England from the Earliest Period to the Present Time
By Joseph Strutt
Published 1845
Available from gutenberg.org - Posted on
- Sunday 30 August 2020
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- 900*743
- Tags
- Century:14th, Dance, Entertainment
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