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ABSTRACT Mummers' Plays.—Mr. H. Coote Lake has published a study of English mummers' plays with reference to the _Sacer Ludus_, in _Folklore_, 42, No. 2. The mummers' plays

are performed by villagers and others over the whole of England, the south of Scotland, and the north of Ireland; but there is no standard version and all sorts of perversions have crept in.

A large number of versions—one collection contains thirty-three—have been printed, and probably many more have not been collected. Although they differ verbally and incidentally, the

essential structure is the same, conforming, it is suggested, to the formula of an old European ritual dance or _Sacer Ludus_, a primitive magic rite in which the death and resurrection of

summer was acted, in order that, as the actor who took the part of summer was slain and revived, so the summer, which had been slain by winter, might be revived. The comic doctor, who

revives the hero, is a characteristic feature of the English play, and also appears in a folk play of Thessaly. He is a survival of the primitive medicine man. The Turkish knight, who in the

English play fights with St. George, is represented in the Thessalian version by a character with a black face who molests the bride and slays the bridegroom. He is often thought to be

derived from a dark character representing winter. A Thracian play represents a blend of a mummers' play and the Plough Monday celebration. In a considerable proportion of the plays

there is a ‘recognition’ of the dead man, which dramatically is unnecessary. If, however, the mummers' play is to be identified with the mimetic rite, this recognition becomes the very

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