![]() ![]() ![]() The Illustrated London News (p 21) shows a Jack-in-the-Green group with some darkened faces. ![]() A quick scan of Victorian newspapers, and later editions carrying letters and articles describing events of the recent past, shows that the May Day celebrations with a performer clad in branches and leaves were widespread. ![]() But Shepard’s clear memory of late Victorian St John’s Wood, London with these apparently rustic ‘folk’ celebrants of spring both reminds us that black-face entertainers were not restricted to the theatre and that these four men were performing in the street in the hope of coins (the ‘woman’ had an umbrella to catch donations thrown from windows). Perhaps the black-face performer had copied theatrical minstrels? The Jack-in-the-Green fertility image seems to have been centuries old. They cried out to Shepard ‘what have you got for Jack-in-th’-Green, little gentleman?’ His sketch of the four shows these outlandish individuals. One was ‘completely covered with greenery … only his legs were showing’ another was dressed as a clown and ‘a third, in striped cloth coat and trousers, with a huge collar and a blackened face, was beating a tambourine’. On 1 st May ‘a motley group of men rigged up for “Jack-in-the-Green”’ appeared near his house. Probably best known for his Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations of the 1920s, Shepard’s small book tells of life in London in the late 1880s. His Drawn from Memory was later published by Penguin Books (1975). Perhaps there wasn’t one?Īn unexpected source is the 1957 memoir of Ernest Shepard, born in London in 1879. See Wikipedia notes the link between the revival of Morris dancing and black-face groups, but does not draw a conclusion between the expansion of colonialism in the late nineteenth century and the presentation of black-face groups. The Lancashire town of Bacup has their ‘Coco-nut Dancers’, dated to the mid-nineteenth century. Sweeps were welcome as guests at weddings in England and elsewhere in Europe, but why darken faces to present ‘Moors’? The modern witness may regard the matter as embarrassing. In these complexities there remains the matter of what black-faced dancers were suggesting. And to the chagrin of deeply Christian late Victorians, how could their modern society accept the fertility symbols, the pagan images, and the bacchanalian celebrations? Were such dancers enlisted from chimney sweeps with sooty faces? Were the dances and costumes due to northern African (Moorish) elements, an opinion encouraged by the name ‘Morris dancers’? Was there a desire to disguise the performers so that the powerful had problems in controlling the often-ribald and usually drunken activities? The revival of Morris dancing, with local traditions including costume, dance styles, and melodies added a romantic ‘historic England’ image to what is known to have been far from rare back in the seventeenth century. Explaining this phenomenon has led to various suggestions and beliefs. That is, white men blackened their faces. The magazine Folk-Lore founded in 1889 published (Volume 4, 1893) a photograph of May Day celebrations in Cheltenham – some of the participants appear to have blacked up. Folk songs were not noted in England until the late nineteenth century, and it was not until photography became widespread that costumed dancers were documented. If and when it ceased, it would be mourned by few who were literate. An activity which continued over decades if not centuries might be noted by visiting strangers. One aspect of the history of black people in Britain is the impact of an apparently-ancient custom of folk dancers blackening their faces, creating an image that many find uncomfortable, insulting and – as with nineteenth and twentieth century minstrels (see page 137 ‘Minstrel Shows in Britain’) – outmoded.Ĭustoms of the common people: that is, ‘folk’ or ‘vernacular’ activities, are famously difficult to document. ![]()
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