Blew Cap for Me

Blew Cap for Me or Blue Cap for Me is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2021. It is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 72 bars. It is in the key: F Major.

The name is spelled variously: "Blew Cap", "Blew Cap for me", "Blew Clap for me" and "Blue-Cap for me".

Playford writes:

Lead up all a D. forwards and back That again First man set to his own, the last man to his own, the 2. man salute his own, and turn her That again, the last man beginning

Sides all That again First man set to his wo. the 2. man as much, 3. man salute his own, and turn her That again, the last man beginning

Arms all That again First man and last wo. change places, first wo. and last man change places, middle man salute, and turn his own All this again, to your places

Sharp usually turns a "salute" into an "honour", but the Lovelace Manuscript uses salute where Playford says "kiss", which, I suppose is a form of saluting.

In this dance the women do nothing. I have changed it so that when a men sets to a woman, she sets back.

In parts 1&2, B2 Playford says "That again, the last man beginning". Now this could mean start with man 3, or it could mean start with the last man who did something and produce a mirror image of the dance.

I have choosen the latter approach because it is has a more consistent effect in both parts.

I have also reversed B2 of part 3 even though Playford does not say so, again to be consistent.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
An online description of the dance may be found here.

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=BlueCapForMe

I.A1	1-4	Up a double and back
I.A2	1-4	Up a double, back (again)
II.A1	1-4	Right shoulder siding
II.A2	1-4	Left shoulder siding
III.A1	1-4	Arm right
III.A2	1-4	Arm left
I.B1	1-2	1s set
	3-4	3s set
	5-8	2s salute and two hand turn
I.B2	1-4	2s salute and two hand turn
	5-6	3s set
	7-8	1s set
II.B1	1-2	1s set
	3-4	2s set
	5-8	3s salute and two hand turn
II.B2	1-4	3s salute and two hand turn
	5-6	2s set
	7-8	1s set
III.B1	1-2	M1+W3 change
	3-4	W1+M3 change
	5-8	2s salute and two hand turn
	9-12	2s salute and two hand turn
	13-14	W1+M3 change
III.B1	1-2	M1+W3 change

Lead up all a D. forwards and back That again	First man set to his own, the last man to his own, the 2. man salute his own, and turn her That again, the last man beginning

Sides all That again	First man set to his wo. the 2. man as much, 3. man salute his own, and turn her That again, the last man beginning

Arms all That again	First man and last wo. change places, first wo. and last man change places, middle man salute, and turn his own All this again, to your places