Cheerily and Merrily ~ Bolton or Mr. Webb's Fancy ~ Bolton is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 1991 and published in Retreads Vol.5. Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 288 bars. It is in the key: F Major.
Lead up all a D. forward and back That again Set and turn S That again The 2. man and 3. wo. change places, the 3. man and 2. wo. change the first four and last four hands and go round Then change as before, and hands round as before Sides all That again Set and turn S That again First and last cu. meet your own, with the other four go back, first and last cu. meet, while the 2. slip up, and the 3, down First and last cu. hands and go round, while the other turn their own Then do the same again Arms all That again Set and turn S That again Men hands and go round We as much Men the S. Hey, while the we do as much
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 Charles Bolton (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license by the CDSS Online Library.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
I.A1 | 1-4 | Up a Double, back |
I.A2 | 1-4 | Up a Double, back (again) |
I.B1 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
I.B2 | 1-4 | That again |
I.A3 | 1-4 | M2+W3 change, then W2+M3 change as W1 casts down to M4's place, M1 chase to W4's place and M4 cast up to W1's place as W4 chase to M1's |
I.A4 | 1-4 | Circle four halfway at ends, then cross with partner |
I.B3 | 1-4 | W1+M4 change, then M1+W4 change as M3 casts down to M4's place, W3 chase to W4's place and W2 cast up to W1's place as M2 chase to M1's |
I.B4 | 1-4 | Circle four halfway at ends, then cross with partner |
II.A1 | 1-4 | Right Siding |
II.A2 | 1-4 | Left Siding |
II.B1 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
II.B2 | 1-4 | That again |
II.A3 | 1-4 | Ends lead in to meet and set to opposite, while middles fall back and move diagonally to nearest end spot |
II.A4 | 1-4 | New middles circle four while new ends two hand turn |
II.B3 | 1-4 | Ends lead in to meet and set to opposite, while middles fall back and move diagonally to nearest end spot |
II.B4 | 1-4 | New middles circle four while new ends two hand turn |
III.A1 | 1-4 | Right Arming |
III.A2 | 1-4 | Left Arming |
III.B1 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
III.B2 | 1-4 | That again |
III.A3 | 1-2 | Taking hands on the sides, middles fall back as ends move in to make two circles, one of men, one of women |
3-4 | Men circle left, women right | |
III.A4 | 1-2 | Circles continue |
3-4 | Circles colapse into lines again | |
III.B34 | 1-8 | Mirror heys on the sides, 1s and 3s together at start |
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=CheerilyAndMerrily
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1991 by Charles Bolton. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
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.