Dafydd's Collection of

The Lovelace MMS of pre-Playford English Country Dances

Here's a readable (more or less) of the manuscript, with links to the scanned images of the original: Lovelace MMS Workbook




The 3rd draft of my paper on the manuscript: (coming soon)

Here is a spreadsheet with some specific pieces of information about each dance, enabling a quick overview and statistic comparison of the data contained herein.




A few brief facts about the manuscript (more to come as I learn more):

The manuscript exists in the Houghton Library of Harvard with the identifying number of MS Eng. 1356. It has various names, mainly Pattricke, after a signature on the cover in a different hand than the dances, and Lovelace, after the name attached to one of the published poems that shows up well after the dances in the manuscript (the poem was published in 1649, and most of the scholarly citations of this manuscript use this designation). There are elements within the manuscript that can be dated variously between 1649 (the poem) and 1815. See the above link for the location of the scanned pages related (more or less) to the dances.

To see the work done by Carol G Marsh in analyzing the manuscript, check here.



General Overview, with assumptions and broad conclusions about the manuscript and the body of dances therein.


1: Moll Peatlye
2: Noah's Flood
3: Tenn Pounde
4: The Milking Payle
5: The Highway to Westminster
6: Ladyes Piller
7: The Cherping of the Nightingall
8: The Wind Mille
9: The Gipsys
10: The Goddisses
11: Lightly Love
12: Trenchmore
13: The Old Man with a Bed full of Bones
14: A Mayden Fayre
15: Cuckles All a Row
16: Grayes Inn Maske/Tom a Bedlam
17: St Johns
18: The Boone Companion
19: Step Stately
20: The Picking of Stickes
21: Jack Pudding
22: Roses White, and Roses Red
23: Harts Ease
24: T/F/B/x/umbling Jone
25: Greenwood
26: Natly
27: A Helth to Betty
28: Bobbin Jone
29: Murry
30: Jogg On
31: Good Your Worship
32: The Fryer and the Nunne



Dance Page

Dafydd Cyhoeddwr, V2.0, Monday, August 29, 2011