Annual revels in the form of community plays, sometimes called Mummers' Plays, were once common in the British Isles. In Scotland, however, they were very localised, with communities in the Borders and the west of Scotland being most conspicuous in having these annual ritual events. Lothian and Fife had them too, in lesser numbers. Angus had hardly any at all, except for Arbroath, which makes the record of James McBain in Arbroath Past and Present especially valuable.
Hogmanay revels of course continued into modern times (and other Angus Hogmanay rhymes will be considered in a separate article), but these plays were something exceptional and in most cases continued for many generations. The play featuring Galoshan, Gallushun or Galoshin (there are many variants) and a host of stock characters acted out mock battles, death and resurrection, motifs which could be fairly ancient. In some communities, interestingly, the plays were performed at Halloween instead of New Year.
The only Galoshans event which continued without break (barring World War Two) into the present was at Biggar, though there have been recent revivals in various forms, with festivals throughout Scotland taking on the Galoshans name. Is there any 'deep' ritual meaning in the play? That contention is highly debatable. Apart from the fragmentary text contained in McBain's book there was a complete play version sent to The Scotsman in the following year by a man who stated it was given to him by an elderly relative who remembered it 'from Forfarshire' and the east of Scotland. The relevant texts do not match, but perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as there was much fluidity in different versions.
The Arbroath Play
Here is McBain's introduction about the event from Arbroath Past and Present (pp. 341-2):
The old Scotch method of celebrating Hallowe'en has been so graphically depicted by our national poet that no other hand need attempt to picture it, but the word recalls to our recollection the annual reproduction by our Arbroath youth of the old Scotch drama... [called] 'Gallshuns'. The 'get- up' was simple enough. All that was required of the actors was to blacken their faces and furnish themselves with wooden swords, and they were ready to go to their audience, for the audience did not come to them. The play began by the hero Gallashuns fiercely and boastingly announcing his determination to withstand 'all comers'.
The opening words of the play text are given, but unfortunately not a lot else as the author concentrates on a partial summary of the plot:
Gallashuns! Gallashuns! Gallashuns is my name!
With a sword and pistol by my side
I hope to win the game!
But the others soon find a champion, who as fiercely confronts the braggard, exclaiming:
The game, sir! the game, sir! is not into your power!
I'll slash you and slay you in less than half an hour!
They fight desperately, till, amid derisive laughter, Gallshuns falls, sorely wounded. Then enters the doctor:
Here come I, Doctor Brown,
The very best doctor in all the town,
who very soon cures the wounded warrior.
We are unlikely to know when Arbroath's play was first performed or, indeed, when it ended and the exact text is also lost to us, barring the miraculous finding of a lost manuscript. But the bits we have are certainly intriguing, coupled with other evidence gathered below. Was the 'Angus' text performed somewhere else in the county? We'll probably never know.
The Play in the Carse of Gowrie
Did it originate in Angus though? Brian Hayward thought it reminiscent of the versions he had seen which came from the Stirling area. It certainly differs somewhat from the fragmentary Arbroath version above, except for the 'Doctor Brown' lines. However, it is worth looking a little further afield. Hayward does not seem to have been aware that there was a record of the play being performed in the Carse of Gowrie, just west of the county of Angus. (The only localised version he identified is one from Crieff, much further west.) The Rev,. Philip (Songs and Sayings of Gowrie, pp. 48-49) acknowledges that the play is widespread and that there are different versions. He speculates the central character - Galatian - is the legendary Calgacus who fought against the Roman Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in the first century.
Interesting too, that this version has as a character Judas, who spouts some pertinent place specific lines, which again do not tie in with the Arbroath or 'Angus' texts:
Here comes in Judas;
Judas is my name;
If ye put not siller in my bag,
for guidsake mind our wame !
When I gaed to the castle yett,
and tirled at the pin,
They keepit the keys o' the castle,
and wadna let me in.
I've been i' the east carse,
I've been i' the west carse,
I've been i' the Carse o' Gowrie,
Where the cluds rain a' day pease and beans,
And the farmers theek houses wi' needles and prins. Etc.
The Angus Text
Hogmanay revels of course continued into modern times (and other Angus Hogmanay rhymes will be considered in a separate article), but these plays were something exceptional and in most cases continued for many generations. The play featuring Galoshan, Gallushun or Galoshin (there are many variants) and a host of stock characters acted out mock battles, death and resurrection, motifs which could be fairly ancient. In some communities, interestingly, the plays were performed at Halloween instead of New Year.
The only Galoshans event which continued without break (barring World War Two) into the present was at Biggar, though there have been recent revivals in various forms, with festivals throughout Scotland taking on the Galoshans name. Is there any 'deep' ritual meaning in the play? That contention is highly debatable. Apart from the fragmentary text contained in McBain's book there was a complete play version sent to The Scotsman in the following year by a man who stated it was given to him by an elderly relative who remembered it 'from Forfarshire' and the east of Scotland. The relevant texts do not match, but perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as there was much fluidity in different versions.
The Arbroath Play
Here is McBain's introduction about the event from Arbroath Past and Present (pp. 341-2):
The old Scotch method of celebrating Hallowe'en has been so graphically depicted by our national poet that no other hand need attempt to picture it, but the word recalls to our recollection the annual reproduction by our Arbroath youth of the old Scotch drama... [called] 'Gallshuns'. The 'get- up' was simple enough. All that was required of the actors was to blacken their faces and furnish themselves with wooden swords, and they were ready to go to their audience, for the audience did not come to them. The play began by the hero Gallashuns fiercely and boastingly announcing his determination to withstand 'all comers'.
The opening words of the play text are given, but unfortunately not a lot else as the author concentrates on a partial summary of the plot:
Gallashuns! Gallashuns! Gallashuns is my name!
With a sword and pistol by my side
I hope to win the game!
But the others soon find a champion, who as fiercely confronts the braggard, exclaiming:
The game, sir! the game, sir! is not into your power!
I'll slash you and slay you in less than half an hour!
They fight desperately, till, amid derisive laughter, Gallshuns falls, sorely wounded. Then enters the doctor:
Here come I, Doctor Brown,
The very best doctor in all the town,
who very soon cures the wounded warrior.
We are unlikely to know when Arbroath's play was first performed or, indeed, when it ended and the exact text is also lost to us, barring the miraculous finding of a lost manuscript. But the bits we have are certainly intriguing, coupled with other evidence gathered below. Was the 'Angus' text performed somewhere else in the county? We'll probably never know.
The Play in the Carse of Gowrie
Did it originate in Angus though? Brian Hayward thought it reminiscent of the versions he had seen which came from the Stirling area. It certainly differs somewhat from the fragmentary Arbroath version above, except for the 'Doctor Brown' lines. However, it is worth looking a little further afield. Hayward does not seem to have been aware that there was a record of the play being performed in the Carse of Gowrie, just west of the county of Angus. (The only localised version he identified is one from Crieff, much further west.) The Rev,. Philip (Songs and Sayings of Gowrie, pp. 48-49) acknowledges that the play is widespread and that there are different versions. He speculates the central character - Galatian - is the legendary Calgacus who fought against the Roman Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in the first century.
Interesting too, that this version has as a character Judas, who spouts some pertinent place specific lines, which again do not tie in with the Arbroath or 'Angus' texts:
Interesting too, that this version has as a character Judas, who spouts some pertinent place specific lines, which again do not tie in with the Arbroath or 'Angus' texts:
Here comes in Judas;
Judas is my name;
If ye put not siller in my bag,
When I gaed to the castle yett,
I've been i' the east carse,
The Angus Text
'The New Year Mummers' Tale of Golaschin'The Scotsman, 31 December 1888 (p. 5)
The correspondent who sent in the following Angus version of the New Year play wrote from Hamilton on 27 December 1888 and signed himself only as W.G.D. Frustratingly, he does not localise the version anywhere particular in the county. His letter begins with this information:
Sir, The following version of this ancient and curious play (of which, I believe, traces are found in most countries in Europe) I have taken down from the lips of an old lady relative, according as she remembers it to have been said, sung and acted in her younger days in Forfarshire and the eastern counties of Scotland. I do not know whether it has ever been printed in its present form, but it is worth preserving. though the rhyme is somewhat halting, I give it in its original doggerel for as recited to me.
It is worth noting that the 19th century folklorist Dr R C Maclagan apparently had access to another version of the play set in Angus, for he cites a character in his text named Bol Bendo (see The Silver Bough,3, 155.)
Sources Consulted
The correspondent who sent in the following Angus version of the New Year play wrote from Hamilton on 27 December 1888 and signed himself only as W.G.D. Frustratingly, he does not localise the version anywhere particular in the county. His letter begins with this information:
Sir, The following version of this ancient and curious play (of which, I believe, traces are found in most countries in Europe) I have taken down from the lips of an old lady relative, according as she remembers it to have been said, sung and acted in her younger days in Forfarshire and the eastern counties of Scotland. I do not know whether it has ever been printed in its present form, but it is worth preserving. though the rhyme is somewhat halting, I give it in its original doggerel for as recited to me.
It is worth noting that the 19th century folklorist Dr R C Maclagan apparently had access to another version of the play set in Angus, for he cites a character in his text named Bol Bendo (see The Silver Bough,3, 155.)
Sir William Duguid Geddes, 'The Burlesque of "Galatian." The Guisards of Scotland,' Scottish Notes and Queries, 2 (1889), pp. 145-7.
F. Marion Macneill, The Silver Bough, volume 3, A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals, Hallowe'en to Yule (Glasgow, 1961).
James M. McBain, Arbroath Past and Present (Arbroath, 1887).
Rev. Adam Philip, Songs and Sayings of Gowrie (London and Edinburgh, 1901).
James M. McBain, Arbroath Past and Present (Arbroath, 1887).
Rev. Adam Philip, Songs and Sayings of Gowrie (London and Edinburgh, 1901).
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