A-Mumming We Will Go

DESCRIPTION: "A-mumming we will go, will go, O a-mumming... With bright cockades all in our hats, We'll make a gallant show." "Come all ye jolly mummers... Come join with us in chorus." "It's of St. George's valor, So let us loudly sing." Other tales of battle follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Aunt Judy's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: ritual music battle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Mrs. Alfred Gatty, editor, _Aunt Judy's Magazine: “Aunt Judy’s Christmas Volume for 1872” (Volume 10)_, Bell and Daldy, 1872, p. 115, “A mumming we will go, &c.” (one line only) (available on Google Books)
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 68, "(A-mumming we will go)" (1 short text)
Sidney Oldall Addy, _A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield_, English Dialect Society, 1888, p. 153, "(A-mumming we will go)" (1 text)
Roud #22576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Hunting We WIll Go" (format)
NOTES [199 words]: [Volume 10 of Aunt Judy's Magazine] contains "The Peace Egg: A Christmas Tale" by J. H. Ewing, starting on page 98. The story contains the one line "A mumming we will go" quoted from the song, on page 115. This is apparently the first printing of that story, but it was reprinted in several books, one of which is:
Juliana Horatia Ewing, The Peace Egg, and a Christmas Mumming Play, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, [1887], p. 58, "(no title)" (text and tune for chorus only) (available on Google Books)
This book contains a more thorough commentary. Ewing says, on page 40:
"The following Christmas Mumming Play is compiled from five versions: The 'Peace Egg,' the 'Wassail Cup,' 'Alexander the Great,' 'A Mock Play,' and the 'Silverton Mummer's Play' (Devon), which has been lent to me in manuscript.
"The Mumming Chorus, 'And a mumming we will go,' etc., is not in any one of these versions, but I never saw mumming without it."
At the end of the play (on page 58), the following chorus is given, along with a notated tune (but no verses):
"And a mumming we will go, will go,
And a mumming we will go,
With a bright cockade in all our hats,
We'll go with a gallant show." - JD
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DeSh068

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