We claim for this sketch no completeness: we are chiefly concerned with
the Morris as a lapsed yet living art, calling, as we hold, for revival;
we look to the Morris-men, not primarily as subject-matter for the
industrious archæologist, but as heralds to the sweetening of the town
life of England and the re-peopling of her forsaken countryside. We have
nevertheless taken some trouble in our search for all that is interesting
and genuine as concerns the Morris, in the literature of our own country,
and others. For the benefit of those inclined to follow the subject
farther in its historical aspect than it is herein treated, we have
appended a list of books in which we have found items of interest.

So far as we can discover, there is no single work devoted to the topic:
all that is to be gleaned of it from books consists only in scraps of
information, most of them very brief, some contradictory; as a rule
almost casually introduced in works upon dancing, ancient games and
customs, and such like.

Even the origin of the name Morris and the true source of the dance are
not to be traced with absolute certainty. Most authorities accept, or
assert, that the dance is Moorish in origin: some again bring evidence to
show that the English Morris (or Morrice) owed nothing whatever to the
Moors. Still, the weight of testimony must be held to show Morocco as the
fount and origin, no matter if the genius of our own folk--so very far
removed from anything native to Africa--has, in the process of the
centuries, altered it until it bears, in spirit, little resemblance to
the parent stock.

If the spirit has been Anglicised, the steps remain. Tabourot, for
instance, a very quaint and interesting writer on dancing, tells us that
when he was a youth--that would be early in the 16th century--it was the