Manning's Mummer's Plays

The antiquarian Percy Manning (1870-1917) was a collector of anything to do with Oxfordshire - archaeology, material vernacular culture, brass rubbings, folklore, morris dancing, etc. This chapter concerns his collection of mumming plays, which while modest in size, makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. Apart from the texts that Manning collected, it also includes texts, photographs and correspondence from the folk play scholars E.H.Binney and T.F.Ordish, some of which are not available in other archives or publications. This chapter chronicles Manning's activities regarding mummers' plays and his interactions with Binney and Ordish. It examines certain highlights from the collection in more detail. Appendices provide an inventory of the mumming material in the Manning manuscripts, and a concordance of his and Binney's material in this and other archives, most notably the Ordish Papers.