Green Sleeves and Yellow Lace is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1721 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the first, 17th ed.. It was interpreted by Douglas & Helen Kennedy in 1929 and published in Country Dance Book, New Series. Found in The Playford Ball. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 64 bars.
Playford writes:
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice, and the Tune twice through.
The 1. cu. sett and cast off, then sett and cast off 2. cu Then the same to their Places again The 1. Man whole Figure with the 3. cu. and the Wo. with the 2. cu Then the 1. Man whole Figure with the 2. cu. and the Wo. with the 3. cu.
Then the 1. Man Hands round with the 3. cu. and the 1. Wo. Hands half round with the 2. cu Then the 1 Wo. Hands round with the 2. cu. and the Man hands round with the 2. cu The first Man Hey with the 3. cu. and the 1. Wo. Heys with the 2. cu Then the 1. Wo. Heys with the 3. cu. and the Man Heys with the 2. cu.
Originally a triple minor.
The instructions given in The Playford Ball (and those in the original Playford text) omit mentioning when the 1s progress into second position. Playford says that the 1s and 2s should end I.A2 where they began, perhaps the 2s move up as W1 figure-eights around them? (this is not specified). I think it is simpler to turn the final "set and cast" into a "set and turn single".
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, circle, cast, lead, figure eight, hey, hey for three (and probably others).
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=GreenSleevesAndYellowLace
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1929 by Douglas & Helen Kennedy. 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
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.