How did Morris dancing get its name?
With thanks to “Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable”: “Morris dance. A dance, popular in England in the 15th century and later, in which the dancers often represented characters from the Robin Hood stories. Other stock characters were Bavian the fool, Malkin the clown, the hobby-horse, or a dragon, and foreigners, probably Moors or Moriscos. It was commonly part of the May-games and other pagents and festivals and the dancers were adorned with bells. It was brought from Spain in the reign of Edward III, and was originally a military dance of the Moors or Moriscos, hence its name.
