Annotation:Buffoon (2) (The)
X:1 % T:The Buffoon, Ilmington M:4/4 L:1/8 A:Ilmington P:A(AB2)4 K:G P:A G2B2 B2AB|c2c2 c2B2|F2B2 c2AG|F2d2 d4| G2B2 B2AB|c2c2 c2B2|A2d2 dedc|B2G2 G4|| P:B d2g2 g3 f|e2c2 c4 |A2a2 a3 g|f2d2 d4| d2g2 g3 f|e2c2 c4 |A2d2 dedc|B2G2 G4||
BUFFOON [2], THE. English, Morris Dance Tune (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. A related tune to the Adderbury version, collected in the village of Ilmington, Warwickshire, England. In an article entitled "Dance Traces Surviving in The Ritual of Freemasonry" (published in Archaeology Ireland, Spring 2010) Alan Nowell mentions the curious comic aspects of the Buffoon morris dance, with its ritualized aggression, presented in comic fashion.
This repeated kicking chorus (found in a Wyresdale hopping dance, Northumberland) may have had a separate history. It occurs in the Ilmington Buffoon Cotswold Morris Dance and it seems to be related to Pimponpet which is listed as one of Gargantua’s Games by Rabelais (c.1494-1553). In Randle Cotgraves' English/French Dictionary published 1611 it is described as “A kind of game wherein three hit each other on the bumme with one of their feet”. In 1653, Thomas Urquhart, translator of Rabelais, seems to have been familiar with Pimponpet and translates it as Bumdockdousse