St. George and the Dragon: A Study in Folk Art
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: St. George and the Dragon: A Study in Folk Art
Classmark: LAVC/SRP/1/078
Creator(s): Green, R J
Site Location(s): Subject - Goathland, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom( 54.4, -0.71954 )
Date(s): 1964
Size and medium: 156 unbound typed leaves; 2 b/w photographs.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/409974
Collection group(s): Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Description
M.A. study [submitted as part of an English Literature degree] comprising ten chapters and five appendices. These discuss definitions of the folk play (with reference made to related calendar customs), examine the relationship between the Combat and Wooing plays and folk dance (sword, morris, horn), suggest (fertility ritual) origins and how England's pre-Christian ritual developed into a dramatic ceremony, consider Guilds and their influence on the play, provide a detailed assessment of the St. George play itself, consider the style and presentation of the play and the relationship between play and players, players and audience. The study also examines the parallels between the secular stage and the folk play, analysing differences between the two forms, and highlights the parallels which exist between folk drama and other folk activities, such as the ballad and folktale. In a concluding chapter reasons for the decline of the folk play are given, including the strength of industrialisation
and its effects on rural society.
The appendices offer a short history of criticism, a synopsis of Richard Johnson's 'The Seven Champions of Christendom' (1608), descriptions of the costumes worn in the folk plays that have been discussed, descriptions of other forms of folk drama (the Pace Egg Play, Robin Hood plays, Plough Monday plays) and three variants of the Combat play drawn from the South Western England, Scotland and Ireland. A bibliography of Irish plays is provided, with also a distribution list of plays by locality and a list of plays referred to in the text.
The two photographs submitted with the study relate to the Goathland Plough Stots, and show a banner, plough and sword lock. The front and back pages of two chapbooks ( 'The Pace Egg' and 'The Peace Egg'), printed in Otley, are pasted on card at the end of the study.
Access and usage
Reproduction
Access
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