Mummers play

1737

Recurring seasonal folk drama performed by amateur troupes at Christmas, Easter and Plough Monday, in which two characters fight and the loser is revived by a doctor with a magic potion, the troupe then collecting money. The earliest attestation is a fragmentary St George speech from Exeter, possibly dating to 1737 though not published until 1770; the earliest complete text is an undated chapbook printed by John White of Newcastle between 1746 and 1769.