To be hailed as the most "wonderful horse in the world" was fame enough, but to be mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare was immortality. Thus were the distinctions of Morocco, the juggling horse, mentioned in Loves Labour Lost by Moth, Page to Armado, who called up the memory of the "dancing horse" (Act 1, Scene 2) to explain the simplicity of an arithmetical problem.

 

Morocco was a horse belonging to the professional juggler William Banks, who had trained the animal to juggle, to dance, to play with dice and to tell fortunes by selecting possibilities. The famous horse was a popular performer in the forecourt of the Bell Savage Inn, Ludgate Hill, London, England. The fame of the juggling horse was such that in 1595 there circulated the pamphlet Moroccus Exstaticum: or Bankes Bay Horse in a Traunce; the inference being that Banks enabled his horse to do feats by hypnotism. The pamphlet itself does not say how such hypnotism was carried out, but it is clear that the juggler Banks just undertook repetition training of his horse.

In 16th century Britain a horse rearing up on its hind legs and "dancing" was an unusual sight amongst unsophisticated onlookers. As a few opening feats before the main juggling event, Morocco would enact this as described by Robert Chambers (1802-71) in his The Book of Days (1863): "A glove being thrown down, its master would command it to take it to some particular person; for example, to the gentleman in the large ruff, or the lady with the green mantle; and this order it would correctly execute. Some coins being put into the glove, it would tell how many there were by raps with its foot. It could, in like manner, tell the numbers on the upper face of a pair of dice. As an example of comic performances, it would be desired to single out the gentleman who was the greatest slave of the fair sex; and this it was sure to do satisfactorily enough."

 

Morocco's acts of juggling were performed using sticks and came as the climax of Banks's act. First Banks would himself juggle with the usual range of objects. Then he would lead Morocco into the centre of the arena and place before the beast a group of sticks so placed over stones as to flip into the air when the horse hit them with its hoof. Morocco would then catch the sticks in its mouth and toss them to Bates who would juggle them and replace them as a part of the juggling sequence for the horse to strike them again. Thus Morocco completed the juggling cycle for a few minutes.

 

So skilled was Morocco in his juggling performances that there were those in the assembled crowd who whispered that the animal could not perform in such a way without the assistance of witchcraft. So from time to time in superstitious England of the 16th century, Banks and his juggling horse had to beat a quick retreat!

 

SOURCES:

Blomefield, Francis. History of Norfolk, Vol. V, p. 155. Published W Whittingham 1739-75.

 

 Notes & Queries. Vol. V Published George Bell 1852.