UK terminology

'taber' and 'tabor' meaning a pipe and tabor player

researched by frances

Regency poem ' Fragment':

"A day of jubilee, and oft they bear,
Commix'd along the unfrequented shore,
The sound of village dance and tabor loud,
Startling the musing ear of Solitude.
Such is the jocund wake of Whitsuntide"

'The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White' 1785-1806
(born in Nottingham, died from brain fever whilst studying at Cambridge)

1807 Ode:

"Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young Lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound!
We in thought will join your throng,
Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day
Feel the gladness of the May!"

'Intimations of Immortality' from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) (Wordsworth is describing how how his own view of nature has changed. The poem focuses on man's interaction and change through nature)

1813 in a poem on London:

" In Fleet strete then I heard a shoote :
I putt off my hatt, and I made no stave,
And when I came unto the rowte,
Good Lord ! I heard a taber playe,
For so, God save mee ! a Morrys-daunce :
Oh ! ther was sport alone for mee,
To see the Hobby-horse how he did praunce
Among the gingling company. "

MS. Hart. 3910 From: John Brand's Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Chiefly Illustrating The Origin of Our Vulgar and Provincial Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions, [Arranged, revised and greatly enlarged by Sir Henry Ellis], George Bell and Sons, London: 1908, vol. 1, pp. 212-270, originally published 1813

In his notes made in the early 20th century Cecil Sharp mentioned:

"Michael Johnson (68) now living at Ilmington is one of the three surviving dancers of the old Morris ...... Tom Arthur the old and original tabor player told him .. "
Folk Dance Notes made in the early 20th century after speaking to country people who passed on information from the19th century

November 2009

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