"As such it is certainly the best history of the early morris ever produced, and as it sets the dance within a series of social contexts it is also a major contribution to knowledge of early modern history in general." Ronald Hutton in Rural History by Cambridge University Press, Volume 11, Issue 2, 252-253pp, October, 2000. "Upon finishing this thorough and valuable history, readers will be amply persuaded of Forrest's conclusions (). Its careful, complex, detailed analysis is not for the impatient reader, but its rewards for the student of Renaissance spectacle are many." Ronda Arab, Augusta State University, in Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 55, No. 4 (Winter, 2002), 1444-1446pp. "This is Forrest's story of early morris. It will certainly give rise to other histories of morris, which will be dependent on his even when questioning or contradicting his, and this will be a measure of his success.

" Mary Dove in Dance Research Journal by Edinburgh University Press, Volume 20, Issue 2, October, 2002, 137-138pp. "John Forrest has written a pioneer study finely documented with good notes, apprendices, bibliography and index. So replete this stands as no mean publishing achievement and one altogether worthy of commendation." John Kent in The Expository Times, Volume 11, Issue 7, April, 2000. "This work is an undoubted landmark in morris scholarship and is of relevance to cultural historians of these centuries, particularly those of dance, music, public ritual and entertainment." Theresa J. Buckland in Folk Music Journal, Volume 8, No. 1, 103-105pp, 2001.

"This is an enormously innovative and exciting approach, which has the potential to be very fruitful in inspiring future work - a function which is perhaps not well understood by the general public, but which scholars understand to be one of the most important, yet most rarely achieved, functions of any piece of scholarship." Stephen D. Corrsin in Folklore, Volume 113, No.1, 105-106pp., April, 2002. "'Following the many threads [of each dance their contexts reveals a rich tapestry woven into England's history,' Forrest writes in the introduction (xviii), and this impressive book examines ris and its settings in luxuriant and compelling detail." Skiles Howard in Medieval Renaissance Drama in England, Volume 15, 276-281, 2003. "Forrest's contribution to the study of early modern dance remains both valuable and impressive.

Daunting labor has gone into the acquisition and mastery of the material on which his analysis is grounded, and he has formulated a trenchant challenge to the traditional lines of interpretation of the morris dance." Marianne Robins in The Sixteenth Century Journal, Volume 32, No. 3, 911-912pp, Autumn, 2001.