Context:
| Location: |
Balmaghie, Kirkudbright, Scotland (NX7166) |
| Year: |
Reported 1897 |
| Time of Occurrence: |
Hallowe'en |
| Collective Name: |
[Not given] |
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Source:
Rev. Walter Gregor
Further Report on Folklore in Scotland
Report of the Sixty-Seventh Meeting of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, Toronto, August 1897, App.1,
London, Murray, 1898, pp.259-261
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Cast:
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Text:
BAULDIE
Here comes I, Bell Hector;
Bold Slasher is my name.
My sword is buckled by my side,
And I am sure to win this game.
GENERAL
This game, sir! This game, sir!
It's far beyout your power.
I'll cut you up in inches
In less than half a hour.
BAULDIE
You, sir!
GENERAL
I, sir!
BAULDIE
Take out your sword and try, sir!
{They fight and the General is killed.}
ALL
The Doctor.
{One runs and calls the doctor. He enters.}
DOCTOR
Here comes I, old Doctor Brown,
The best old doctor in town.
ALL
And what diseases can your cure?
DOCTOR
I can cure all diseases to be sure.
ALL
What are they?
DOCTOR
Hockey-pockey, jelly-oakey,
Down amongst the gravel.
{The Doctor gives the General a draught from his bottle, and
he starts to his feet.}
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Notes:
Gregor's Notes:
The performers were school-children, seven in number. Three of them, Bauldie, the Captain, and the General were dressed alike, in a 'fause face', (a mask) commonly black, a big coat, and an ordinary cap. Each of the three carried a stick as a sword. The Doctor also wore a mask (Black with red spots on his chin, cheeks and brow), a big 'tile' hat, and he carried a stick in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. For Peggy, the face was painted white, and she wore an old ankle-length dress and an old mutch, and she carried an old umbrella. The Policeman had a blackened face, a big brown paper-bag on his head, a stick in his hand, and wore a big black coat. Wean had a whitened face, and wore a small frock, and an ordinary hat with ribbons. The practice was for all except the Doctor to enter the kitchen. On being asked 'What do you want?', they would reply by singing 'Gentle Annie' or any other school song, before beginning the dialogue. The performance took place at Hallowe'en.
Peter Millington's Notes:
Scanned from the transcript in:
B.Hayward (1992) Galoshins : The Scottish Folk Play. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1992, ISBN 07486 0338 7, pp.110-112
Hayward gives the page in Gregor (1898) as p.259, whereas E.C.Cawte et al (1967) give the pages as pp.459-461
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File History:
2002-02-22 - Scanned and coded by Peter Millington
2021-01-15 - TEI-encoded by Peter Millington
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Extras:
Dramaturgical Chart
The chart reveals the dramaturgical structure of the play by showing which speeches in the script are spoken by which character. Vertical lines indicate stage directions.
TEI-encoded File
A TEI-encoded XML version of this text can be downloaded here.
Text Relatives Map
See how many of the lines in this text also appear in other plays:
- As a histogram sorted by the number of shared lines
- On a map with markers sized according to the number of shared lines
Other Information
There may be more about this text at:
https://folkplay.info/resources/texts-and-contexts/halloween-play-balmaghie-1897.
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