Daily Life in Elizabethan England (43 page)

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Daily Life in Elizabethan England

The reverence.

[Arbeau]

Double (Country Dance)

1

Step onto the left foot

2

Step onto the right foot

3

Step onto the left foot

and
Rise on the toes of the left foot

4

Close the right foot to the left foot as you lower your heels.

The next double starts on the right foot. A double can be done in any direction.

Double (Measure or Almain)

1

Step onto the left foot

2

Step onto the right foot

3

Step onto the left foot

4

Kick the right foot forward, either with or without a hop.

The next double starts on the right foot. Doubles may be done in any direction.

Entertainments 217

Single/Set (Country Dance)

1

Step onto the left foot

and
Rise on the toes of the left foot

2

Close the right foot to the left foot as you lower your heels.

The next single starts on the right foot. A single can be done in any direction: in country dances, a single to the side is called a
set.

Single (Measure or Almain)

1

Step onto the left foot

2

Kick the right foot forward, either with or without a hop.

The next single starts on the right foot. Singles may be done in any direction.

Slip Step (“French slide”)

1

Step left foot to the left

and
Move the right foot next to the left as you hop onto it.

The next slip steps will be onto the left foot again—they do not alternate.

“French” Dances

Earl of Essex Measure

[Cunningham 26; Pugliese & Cassaza 17]

[A] Double forward, single back. Repeat a total of four times.

[B] Slow set left and right, double forward, single back.

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Black Almain

[Cunningham 27, 33; Pugliese & Casazza 31]

[A] All dance four doubles forward.

[B1] Turn to face partner and drop hands: double back, then double forward.

[B2] All make a quarter-turn left: double forward. All make a half-turn right: double forward.

[C] All turn to face partner. Men do two singles and a double, turning in place. Women do likewise on the repeat.

[D] All take both hands: double clockwise to partner’s place. All do four slip-steps up the hall. All double clockwise back to own place, and do four slip-steps down the hall. All drop hands: double backward, then double to meet again.

The second time through the dance, the women set first, then the men.

Country Dances

Steps and Terms

Unless indicated otherwise, steps are a lively walking step. According to one late-17th-century Continental observer, English country dances were noteworthy for the dancers’ freedom in choosing such types of steps as pleased them.

Entertainments 219

Set:
A single step to the side.

Turn single:
The dancer turns alone in place with a double step. The feet trace out a small circle on the floor, and the dancer ends up where he started.

Turn each other:
Partners take one or both hands and turn around each other, giving weight (i.e., leaning or pulling back slightly) as they go around.

Lead a double and back:
Partners take near hands and do a double step forward in the specified direction and a double backward.

Partners, Corners, Opposites:
Partners stand with the man on the left, the woman on the right. The
corner
is the dancer of the opposite sex on the other side of you from your partner. The
opposite
is the person of the opposite sex across from you in the set.

Numbering of Couples:
The
1s
are the couple closest to the top of the hall, the
2s
the couple next to them, and so on.

Circle:
All join hands in a circle and slip-step around for a certain number of steps (clockwise first).

Cast:
The dancer turns away from the set and goes around the outside.

Arming:
The two dancers link arms, left arms for
arm left
and right arms for
arm right,
and walk around once in a circle, ending back in their original places.

Siding:
The two dancers move toward each other with a small double step, to meet left shoulder to left shoulder (for
side left
), or right shoulder to right shoulder (for
side right
).

Trenchmore (The Hunting of the Fox)

[Playford (1653) 103; Millar 85]

This dance is mentioned as early as 1551 and seems to have been

extremely popular for a very long period. Any number may dance: partners stand in a longways set, men on the left side, women on the right.

The melody is that of “Tomorrow the Fox Will Come to Town” (p. 212).

Top of Hall

M

W

M

W

M

W

etc.

1st Verse

Partners lead up a double and back twice [Playford: three times]. 1s, followed by the rest, cast off, going separately down the outside, then meet at the bottom to lead back up to their original place [Playford: three times].

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2nd Verse

Arched hey: All take hands; 2s make an arch, which 1s pass under; 1s make an arch, which 3s pass under; 1s pass under 4s while 2s pass under 3s, etc., until all are back in their original places [Playford: “Do this forward and back twice or thrice”].

3rd Verse

1s cross to set to the 2s (the first man setting to the second woman, and the first woman to the second man), then to each other, then to the 3s, then to each other, and so on down the line. Once all the way through the set, they turn back and arm the last couple by the right (the man arming the last woman, the woman the last man), then each other by the left, and so on back up the set to place.

4th Verse

1s turn each other by the right hand, then the 2s by the left, the 3s by the right, and so on to the bottom of the set. The dance begins again with a new couple at the top.

The version here is somewhat shortened from Playford’s. The dance has also been adjusted to make the 3rd and 4th verses work; from the way Playford describes it, it is obviously not too rigidly structured anyway.

Millar offers a slightly shorter version in which the 3rd verse consists of arming to the bottom, and the 4th verse is omitted.

Sellenger’s Round (The Beginning of the World)

[Playford (1675) 1; Keller & Shimer 96; Millar 8]

This dance is first mentioned in 1593 but was probably popular for some time before that; the melody is recorded in 16th-century collections. Any number of couples stand in a circle facing inward, with each man on his partner’s left.

1st Verse

[A] All circle eight steps clockwise and eight steps back.

Chorus

[B] All do two single steps advancing toward the middle of the circle, then fall back a double to places, face partners, then set and turn single. Repeat.

Entertainments 221

2nd Verse

[A] Partners lead in a double and back. Repeat.

[B] Chorus.

3rd Verse

[A] Partners side right and left.

[B] Chorus.

4th Verse

[A] Partners arm right and left.

[B] Chorus.

Playford’s version of the first chorus omits the double in and back, but the music seems to demand it.

Heartsease

[Playford (1651); Keller & Shimer 45; Millar 20]

This dance is attested as early as 1560. Two couples stand facing each other in a square, each man with his partner on his right, and his corner in front of him.

1st Verse

[A] Partners lead forward a double and back. Repeat.