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The "Hobby Horse"
The Morris Dance is said to have been brought to England
in the reign of Edward III, when John of Gaunt returned from Spain. In
the dance bells were jingled and staves or swords clashed. Originally it
was a dance of the Moors or Moriscos, in which five men and a boy engaged;
the boy wore a morione or head-piece and was called Mad Morion.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
Usually the dance is accompanied by a fool and a hobby-horse.
In the French form of the dance the horse is called un chevalet
and in the Spanish a tarasca. |
