Blew Cap for Me

Blue Cap for Me

Blew Cap

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.

I.A11-4Up a double and back
I.A21-4Up a double, back (again)
II.A11-4Right shoulder siding
II.A21-4Left shoulder siding
III.A11-4Arm right
III.A21-4Arm left
I.B11-21s set
3-43s set
5-82s salute and two hand turn
I.B21-42s salute and two hand turn
5-63s set
7-81s set
II.B11-21s set
3-42s set
5-83s salute and two hand turn
II.B21-43s salute and two hand turn
5-62s set
7-81s set
III.B11-2M1+W3 change
3-4W1+M3 change
5-82s salute and two hand turn
9-122s salute and two hand turn
13-14W1+M3 change
III.B11-2M1+W3 change

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

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2021 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.