Mummers

An actor who performs a show with no words. A mime.

"The villager of the fifteenth-century had also his pleasures and his days of sober content. The feasting and festivities at Christmas and other festivals were red-letter days. Work was suspended: often he ate hugely up at the hall at the lord's expense, and contentedly watched the antics of the mummers, or gambolled around in the carols--part song, part dance--or bemusedly beat the table with his horn or pewter mug as he sang:

Back and side, go bare, go bare,
Both hand and foot go cold,
But belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Whether it be new or old!"

Six Medieval Men & Women, "Richard Bradwater," H. S. Bennett (1955).