The Pace Egg and its Origin.Roch.Observer. 1909 [leisure trust, arts heritage, sports centres, fitness health, rochdale, link4life, entertainment, Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust, museum, middleton arena, gallery, touchstones, local studies, central, bowlee, springhill, marland, heywood, littleborough,]
Girl's Pace Egg Team, Rochdale (1909)
The Pace Egg and its Origin.
Rochdale Observer, Wednesday April 14th 1909
There are no signs of the decline of pace egging as a seasonal custom. On the contrary this Easter there have been more bands of actors than for years past. The play is rather a mystery to many people, who can hardly credit that in essentials it goes back to pagan times in England. This, however, is the modern claim for it. The picture we reproduce is rather an exceptional one, as girls do not usually take part in the game, only boys. It will, however, serve to show the popularity of the pastime.
How many of the actors or spectators recognize that in the combat between St George and Slasher, and the restoration to life by the doctor they are taking part in a mimic combat which formed part of the religious rituals of many nations centuries ago.
First the name “Pace Egg,” often incorrectly given as the “Peace Egg,” is a corruption of the paschal egg, the derivation being from the Hebrew word for Passover. The egg has from the earliest times been connected with the season as symbolizing the creation or re-creation of spring, and the play derives nothing but the name from the custom. The custom of collecting eggs at Easter exists quite apart from the play, and it is probable that the two have become associated through the play being performed at the same season.
The play as we have it today is a curious amalgam of several distinct customs of different ages. The words are probably about seventeenth century in date, though the actions of the characters are traditional. In early times men regarded the coming of spring with wonder and as they were unable to conceive of anything apart from personality they attributed to every natural force a personality. Thus the tree spirit or spirit of vegetation was supposed to manifest himself in spring. This idea was common to people all over the world and existed in many religions, both Oriental and European. Thus in the “Pace Egg,” the fight between St George and Slasher is the reproduction of the eternal contest between winter and spring which is to be found in present day folklore throughout the agricultural ceremonials of European peoples and in pst ages the religious rituals of the Germans, the Greeks and the Romans. St George is the spring combatant, Slasher the winter. The incident of resuscitation is the rising of winter to fight another day.
How is it that St George should be the champion of summer? What is the relationship between the play and the St George and the Dragon legend? The latter question has led some writers to suppose that the origins of the “Pace Egg” was in the miracle plays and pageants of “St George and the Dragon,” which were so popular in the Middle Ages. This is not, however, an altogether satisfactory explanation. It is indeed probable that the latter portion of the play in which St George fights with the Prince of Paradine and Hector is an addition of the time of the Crusades. Beelzebub and Devil Doubt are most likely representative of the devil or “Vice” of the miracle plays. Much might be written about the symbolism and history of St George and the Dragon, which, like the first part of the “Pace Egg,” represents the contest between light and darkness in Oriental religions. The Church adopted the legend because it represented something already in the mythology of the people. How the old spring fight and St George portion became amalgamated may have been something like this. The old tradition of a fight between winter and summer combatants was kept alive among the country folk. In their hands the summer champion became King George and the winter champion became the Russian King, the French Soldier and so on, as contemporary incident determined. Instead of the dragon, Mohammedan warriors came in to be vanquished by the Christian Knight. The appearance of the King of Egypt, the Prince of Paradine and Hector, owe their origins to the Saracen scare of the Middle Ages. The jesting, very much in pantomime style, between St George and the Fool, and the entry of Beelzebub and Devil Doubt is in all probability borrowed from the broad humour of the (medieval) miracle plays.
The history and development of the English folk drama, of which the “Pace Egg” is an important type, has yet to be written in detail. The explanations given here are but tentative.
To those who are not familiar with it we would recommend Trafford Clegg’s dialect sketch ( Lancashire dialect) entitled “Bowd Slasher.” One bit reads:
“And what grand characters they are: St George, crowin o’er everybody, oles winnin his battles, swaggerin o’er what he has done an’ what he’s beaun to do; th’ King of Egypt an’ his son with their oriental Smobridge manners; their champion, Hector, wi moore talk nor feight in him; th’ docthor, full o’ long words, lies and impidence; th’owd Foo and Beelzebub, a bigger foo again; an’ above all, Bowd Slasher.”
Slasher was “olez my favouryte” says Clegg and in the most amusing way he tells the story of acting the piece in Rochdale.
The next time the “Pace Eggers” come round and importune for eggs and coppers we hope the Rochdale home owners will not dismiss the play, as did a writer in 1826, as “a mass of indecent vulgarity.” That really was too bad!
The above article was printed in the Rochdale Observer in 1909.
Copies of John Trafford Clegg’s book, the Pace Egg Chap Book and other information, can be seen in Rochdale Local Studies Library.
