This, as the name denotes, is the tune to which the dancers step as they
leave the scene--be it stage, or high road, or village green--of their
performance. Its execution is very simple, and there is no limit to the
number of times the eight-bar measure may be played--or rather, the limit
is set according to the fancy of the leader, for he may, if he pleases,
and if the audience manifests no impatience, lead his side back and forth
in a serpentine track, round and round for ever so long, till finally
they wind from the scene.
The step is the 4/3 step throughout, but with a difference. It is more of
a plod, with less of stamping and much less lifting of the feet. Morris
Off, danced in the traditional manner, gives one the impression of a
company agreeably tired, but pleased and comfortable, having rollicked to
their hearts' content, and to the contentment of the lookers-on; and
being now upon the way to supper, and to bed. Of course, if they be still
exuberant, they may show it, and stamp their lustiest; still a demurer
step will usually suggest itself as the more appropriate. This quieter
manner is best described as almost a slow, very gentle trot, the steps
little longer than the foot--left, right, left; and then, on the fourth
beat, not a hop, but a tap with the heel.
As for the movements. After "Once to yourself," the side marks time for 6
bars, and makes a complete right turn, slowly, in bars 7 and 8; then the
leader, with Nos. 3 and 5 behind him, starts forward as described, Nos.
2, 4 and 6 meanwhile marking time. As No. 5 draws level with No. 2, he
falls in behind, and Nos. 4 and 6 in order after him.
The side is now going slowly forward, in the manner of "Follow my
leader." In every repetition of bars 7 and 8, all make a complete right
turn, as already described, so that at the repeat of the first bar all
are again facing in the course the leader shall have set.
The course will be set according to circumstances, and the position of
exit, if in a room; or, if in the open, the leader will wind--or in the
old manner of saying, he will "hey"--to some chosen point for quitting
the scene.
To hey was to wind in and out and round about--though the term has many
meanings. That is the leader's business: to lead the side across and back
again, all turning together in the last two bars, and back and across
again, or round about occasionally, as long as he may please.
Suppose more than one side has been dancing; then the leading side will
start as already described, the other, or others, falling in as may have
been previously arranged.
Morris Off, smoothly and quietly danced, with its strange monotony, has a
fascination all its own. It is farewell, with no sorrow in it; good-bye,
but with no dread of loneliness to-morrow; somehow, one cannot tell how,
all the wholesomeness of the Morris, and of the folk that sent it down to
us, and are with us yet, is in this dance. When the dance is over, and
the bells quiet, there is neither surfeit nor exhaustion. Morris Off is
like to make one think of sound sleep and clear awakenings.