Have at thy Coat, Old Woman is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2021. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a USA dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: G Major.
Lead up forward and back, set and turn S That again First cu. lead a D. forward and back to the 2. cross, and turn each the 2. then turn your own in the 2. place ·: Do this Change to the last, the rest following and doing the like.
Sides all, set and turn S. That again First cu. cross over, and go each behind the 2. and peep three times, then then turn your own in the 2. place ·: Do this Change to the last, the rest following and doing the like.
Arms all, set and turn S. That again First cu. cross over and go between the 2. then cross over again like the Figure of 8, falling into the 2. place ·: Do this to the last, the rest following and doing the like.
I am confused by Playford's music here. He says it is in 6/4 time, but everyone else says cut time. Each strain is 4 bars, and Playford gives 8 bars to do "arm right, set and turn single, arm left, set and turn single". I just don't believe it. I think it is more likely the standard sequence takes 16 bars as it always does, and Playford simply didn't notice that the A strain was only 4 bars.
I have organized this dance differently than Playford did. The dance consists of the standard three introductions (up a double, siding, and arming) each followed by set and turn single, and then a progressive sequence. In Playford's day the introduction would be done and then the progressive sequence would run until everyone was back where s/he started, then the next introduction and the next sequence. I treat the introduction and subsequent progressive figure as a unit, and I cycle through the three parts instead of letting each part run to completion.
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 dances of George Williams (including 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.A1 | 1-4 | Up a Double, back |
I.A2 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
I.A3 | 1-4 | Up a Double, back (repeat) |
I.A4 | 1-4 | Set and turn single |
II.A1 | 1-4 | Side right |
II.A2 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
II.A3 | 1-4 | Side left |
II.A4 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
III.A1 | 1-4 | Right Arming |
III.A2 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
III.A3 | 1-4 | Left Arming |
III.A4 | 1-4 | Partners set and turn single |
I.B1 | 1-4 | 1s lead up a double, turn, come back and cross |
I.B2 | 1-2 | Neighbor two hand turn half |
3-4 | 1s two hand turn half | |
II.B1 | 1-4 | 1s cross, end standing behind the 2s |
II.B2 | 1-2 | 1s peep at each other three times as 2s move up |
3-4 | 1s two hand turn half | |
III.B1 | 1-4 | 1s cross, go below, as 2s lead up |
III.B2 | 1-4 | 1s half figure eight up between the 2s |
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.
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 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.