HOCKTIDE PLAY

a folk play formerly given at Coventry, Eng., on Hock Tuesday (the second Tuesday after Easter). The play was suppressed at the Protestant Reformation because of disorders attendant on it but was revived for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth I at the Kenilworth Revels in 1575. As described by one of her courtiers, the action of the play consisted mainly of a mock battle between parties of men representing English and Danish knights, in which the Danes were defeated and led away as captives by English women. This was meant to represent the massacre of the Danes by King Ethelred in 1002, although some scholars believe that the play had its beginnings in hocking, a still older custom of the folk festivals. On Hock Monday women went out with ropes, hocking, or capturing, any man they met and exacting a forfeit. Men were allowed to retaliate in kind on Hock Tuesday. The forfeit money seems to have been used to defray parish expenses. The bishop of Worcester forbade this practice in 1450, but traces of it are found in records well into the 17th century.