Countdown to corpus release: The Stavanger #MiddleEnglish corpora are temporarily down as new versions are underway. While we wait, a series of festive snippets from the #MELD and #MEGC corpora: 1) a will from Landbeach, 1516, Cambridge Archives.

‘The Mayor and aldermen charge... that no one of any degree shall be so impudent, during this holy time of Christmas, as to walk by night in any kind of mummings, plays or other disguisings, with any false beards, painted masks or... coloured faces' (London 1419, MELD D4195#8)

The City of London guidelines for Christmas 1419 are in fact strangely relevant this year: 'except that it will be permitted to each person to be merry in an honest way, dwelling in his own house'