Blacked Up Faces And Browned Up Eggs

by Les May

I think that the linking of a ‘blacked up’ face character amongst the Britannia Coconut dancers with the local mining industry is a neat bit of ‘post facto rationalisation’.  A more likely explanation can be found in the fact that the dance is performed at Easter.   In parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire Pace Egg plays were performed in the streets at Easter and still are in some areas.   The term was also applied to eggs hard boiled along with onion skins which make the shells brown.  This tradition with eggs certainly goes back to the medieval period which is recapitulated in the plays themselves

These involve a set of characters which may include St George, Hector, Bold Slasher, The ‘Moorish’ Prince, The Doctor, The Fool, and Tosspot who collects the money thrown at the end.  The OTT action of the play consists of ritualised combat between the first four characters from which, naturally, St George emerges the victor.  Unlike in real life the Doctor miraculously brings the dead combatants back to life, sometimes with a bit of magic involving a few drops of alkali and a colourless solution of Phenolphthalein.

Blackening the face, which may be just that, daubs of black, crudely applied, are used to identify the character of the ‘Moorish’ Prince. In these more affluent times he may be seen dressed like a present day Arab or someone who looks like an escapee from the Arabian Nights.

On Easter morning do you think the White Leghorn hens ever complain that their eggs had been ‘browned up’ and made to look as if they came from Rhode Island Red hens?

https://folklore-society.com/book/the-lancashire-pace-egg-play/

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