and ed. Edinburgh 1835). James V.'s treasurer paid forty shillings to the 'Egyptian' dancers in 1530 at Holyrood.[1]
Their Dances in Mystery-Plays at Christmas: ? in lieu of Penance.
10. What did they dance? pastoral themes, as in the case of the Roslyn troupe, or sacred? Probably the latter: in Spain and Provence, miracle-plays were often diversified (or interrupted) by gipsy dancing. Lope de Vega's Birth of Christ ends with the entry of Three Kings, preceded by negro and gipsy dances, who bring homage and gifts to the new-born Saviour (Ticknor, Span. Liter. Lond. 1849). To-day Spanish children sing at Epiphany about 'gipsy women the joy of the town-gate, who see kings arrive and wish to give them a dance of welcome.' In a noël from Provence the kings themselves are understood to be gipsies and they foretell the Infant's future by palmistry; one Andalusian carol, however, represents them as robbing the Babe of His very swaddling-clothes, true to their popular renown as master-thieves: 'Rascally Gipsies, faces of olive, they have not left the Child one little rag.' In an Italian romance on the Descent of the Holy Family into Egypt, they are represented in a better light as offering a welcome to the fugitives: 'Here is a little stable, good for the she-ass, behold a shelter for you all … we gipsies can divine the future.' So in Alsace and Lithuania, the gipsies say that one of their kinswomen tried to steal the nails to prevent Christ's crucifixion, but could only secure one of the four.[2] Still, a persistent tradition
- ↑ Ten years later, 1540, he gave special privileges and exclusive jurisdiction to 'our loved John Faw,' who is called 'Lord Earl of Little Egypt': in the same year his son and successor was granted sole authority to hang and punish all Egyptians within the realm.
- ↑ An interesting point of time may be settled by this claim; medieval crucifixes change during cent. xii. and xiii. from four to three nails, and the
