THIS week Dorset author Peter Cooper, who wrote the play She Opened The Door, about the women in the life of Thomas Hardy, looks at the festive tradition of Mumming plays.

MUMMING is a curious custom in which heavily disguised folk, traditionally men, travel from big house to pub to earn a little extra Christmas money.

“The mummers did come at Christmas but Mr Hardy was at work in his study. I gave them a shilling and told them to be off. I could hear them laughing at the door. And later Mr Hardy said he was sorry he missed them. He had not heard them since he was a child. Such foolishness,” declares Thomas Hardy’s first wife Emma in the play She Opened The Door.

Peter said: “I made Emma, Florence Henniker and Hardy’s mother Jemima act out a scene from The Return of the Native involving the mummers’ play.

“For Emma this is a piece of nonsense far beneath her dignity, for the aristocratic and intellectual Mrs Henniker it is a piece of social history, and for the mother it is tantamount to heresy.”

The characters usually include King George or Saint George, a Turkish knight called the Turkey Snipe or Bold Slasher, a Doctor with miraculous powers, and other odd characters such as Johnny Jack with all his family on his back, the whole thing introduced by Father Christmas.

Although the tradition probably has roots in medieval times, it became widely known in Shakespeare’s time when it was probably a version of the Jig, a bawdy play which provided light relief after the main performance at theatres.

Peter added: “Written versions in the 18th century took inspiration from popular plays of the time. I like to think of it as a sort of Mickey-take in the way of a panto today.

“During the agricultural depression of the 19th century they were widely revived as a way for starving agricultural workers to earn a few extra coppers.

“In She Opened The Door I used scraps my father had recited to me and which themselves came from earlier tellings.

The mumming play, like all the best traditions, is one that is handed down, changed, adapted, made topical, half-forgotten again and remade every year.”

Mumming has been transplanted around the world and you are just as likely to see a version in the Caribbean or Kentucky as rural Dorset.

If you get a chance to experience one of these extraordinary performances this Christmas, remember that you are witnessing a tradition that carries a potted history of English-speaking culture.’ Peter’s book She Opened the Door: The Wife and Women who Haunted Thomas Hardy combines the complete script of Peter’s play together with his research, thoughts and inspiration showing something of how a playwright’s mind works.

Published by Roving Press, the book is available locally.

n BABYLON Mummers are back this New Year with their annual performances in West Dorset on January 1.

The traditional team and friends will perform their plays about the valour of St George in Beaminster, where they will tour the town from 11am, Broadwindsor at noon and Waytown at 1pm.

This is a traditional play featuring a combat between King George and a series of opponents, all of whom are killed.

A quack doctor is then summoned who revives the slain. One or more totally unrelated characters then appear and beg for money and Santa gets involved by apparently being the father of all of King George’s victims.

The play is a wonderful and traditional way of celebrating the New Year for people of all ages.