Daniel de Lincoln (Tim McDaniel), tmcd@panix.com (22 February 2014, 10 March 2024)
NOTE: "Lord" and "lady", and their pronouns, are merely directional terms, for the person on the left and right respectively. No implications are intended about the gender or sex of any dancer. I use "up" or "top" to mean the head, the presence, the initial facing direction. "Down" or "bottom" means the opposite direction.
Music: The Merry, Merry Milkmaids works.
| Part | Original | Beats | Reconstruction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verse 1 | Lead up, and set, that againe | 32 | Couples lead up a double, fall back a double, set twice. Repeat. |
| Chorus, lords first | and then all the woemen standing still, the man sett each to his mayde | 8 | Lords set twice to their ladies. |
| and then having sett, the women dance the Hay till the end of the tune, and then the woemen being in their places | 24 | Ladies hay until home. | |
| shall sett to their men, they standing still [until] after they have sett | 8 | Ladies set twice to their lords. | |
| the men daunced the Hay as affore sayd | 24 | Lords hay until home. | |
| Verse 2 | Sides all, and sett, that againe | 32 | Side left to partner, set twice, side right to partner, set twice. |
| Chorus, ladies first (mirror of the first chorus) | and the(?) men standing still ?he woemen sett first, | 8 | Ladies set twice to their lords. |
| and then the men daunce the Hay first, like as the women did before, | 24 | Lords hay until home. | |
| and then the men sett as before sayd, | 8 | Lords set twice to their ladies. | |
| and then the woemen daunce the Hay | 24 | Ladies hay until home. | |
| Verse 3 | Halfe turne, and set; that agayne | 32 | Taking arms, half turn your partner left (by the right arms) to change places, pivot, and half turn home (by the left arms). Set twice. Do the reverse half turns. Set twice. |
| Chorus, lords first | and then like as before | 64 | Repeat the first chorus, with the lords leading with the setting. |
This dance is from MS Eng. 1356, the Lovelace manuscript. Dafydd Cyhoeddwr has transcribed and reconstructed this source. In particular, see his main page under https://dafyddsdances.info/ddance.html, his transcription of the original source under https://dafyddsdances.info/PLD/Lovelace_Mms_Main.htm , and his reconstruction of The Milking Payle at https://dafyddsdances.info/PLD/MilkingPayle.html. He links to a scan of the original source at http://www.wiglaf.org/~aaronm/scadance/MSEng1356/, and a paper by Carol G Marsh at http://fagisis.zeddele.de/morgenroete-pdfs/Marsh_.pdf.
I would like to point out The Milking Payle as a simple introduction dance, and to point out certain features of Lovelace.
A number of Lovelace dances appear in Playford with minor differences. Unfortunately, this is not one of those dances. Playford first edition has a dance called The Merry, Merry Milkmaids, but the dance steps are quite different. The only real similarity here is that The Milking Payle fits the music of The Merry, Merry Milkmaids better than The Merry, Merry Milkmaids does.
Playford first edition's stereotyped "USA" dance -- Up a double, Siding, Arming -- is here "USHt" -- Up a double, Siding, half-turn.
Ms. Marsh pointed out that "The omission of the turn single in the Lovelace manuscript is very surprising, particularly since the 'set and turn single' figure is the one that occurs most frequently in Playford. Its absence creates a problem fitting the dance to the music, ..." She considers three possibilities:
Dafydd reconstructs it as set and turn single. I tentatively and currently prefer doing setting twice. However, given the flexibility elsewhere, I feel much better about changing my mind and have no strong objection to Dafydd's reconstruction. In the instructions, I use "set" to mean the standard Playford "set": in 4 beats, step sideways and then step sideways home.
The URL of this page is https://www.panix.com/~tmcd/dance/the_milking_payle.html.