 contempt. The mummers
themselves were not afflicted with any such feeling for their art, though at the
same time they were not enthusiastic. A traditional pastime is to be
distinguished from a mere revival in no more striking feature than in this, that
while in the revival all is excitement and fervour, the survival is carried on
with a stolidity and absence of stir which sets one wondering why a thing that
is done so perfunctorily should be kept up at all. Like Balaam and other
unwilling prophets, the agents seem moved by an inner compulsion to say and do
their allotted parts whether they will or no. This unweeting manner of
performance is the true ring by which, in this refurbishing age, a fossilized
survival may be known from a spurious reproduction.
    The piece was the well-known play of Saint George, and all who were behind
the scenes assisted in the preparations, including the women of each household.
Without the co-operation of sisters and sweethearts the dresses were likely to
be a failure; but on the other hand, this class of assistance was not without
its drawbacks. The girls could never be brought to respect tradition in
designing and decorating the armour; they insisted on attaching loops and bows
of silk and velvet in any situation pleasing to their taste. Gorget, gusset,
basinet, cuirass, gauntlet, sleeve, all alike in the view of these feminine eyes
were practicable spaces whereon to sew scraps of fluttering colour.
    It might be that Joe, who fought on the side of Christendom, had a
sweetheart, and that Jim, who fought on the side of the Moslem, had one
likewise. During the making of the costumes it would come to the knowledge of
Joe's sweetheart that Jim's was putting brilliant silk scallops at the bottom of
her lover's surcoat, in addition to the ribbons of the visor, the bars of which,
being invariably formed of coloured strips about half an inch wide hanging
before the face, were mostly of that material. Joe's sweetheart straightway
placed brilliant silk on the scallops of the hem in question, and, going a
little further, added ribbon tufts to the shoulder pieces. Jim's, not to be
outdone, would affix bows and rosettes everywhere.
    The result was that in the end the Valiant Soldier, of the Christian army,
was distinguished by no peculiarity of accoutrement from the Turkish Knight; and
what was worse, on a casual view Saint George himself might be mistaken for his
deadly enemy, the Saracen. The guisers themselves, though inwardly regretting
this confusion of persons, could not afford to offend those
