Jack Pudding ~ Playford

The Merry Andrew ~ Playford

Jack Pudding ~ Lovelace Jack Pudding ~ Playford

Jack Pudding ~ Playford or The Merry Andrew ~ Playford is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Colin Hume (website) in 1998 and published in Colin Hume's Website. Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. It is a USA dance. The minor set lasts 72 bars. Someone thought this dance was Intermediate / Hard.

Lovelace has a little diagram of how the couples should stand: (1s top left, 2s top right, 3s below and between) and describes the dance as:

In this posture here at the side you shall leade up, and falle backe twice, and the two lowest(?) shall leade the dance, then the lowermost couple shall quitt hands, and goe up a pace to the top the woemen towards the right hand, and the men towards the left and each on his side shall goe round him, that stands uppermost, and come in betweene them and soe both into their places, and there turne round, then the 2 couple at the top shall joyne hands, and goe round, then backe againe into their places;

In the same posture, every man shall side with his woeman, twice, then the woemen standing still, all the men shall fall backe, and come into the midle, and the 3 hold hands all on high, then the woemen shall goe under their armes every woeman about his ----man, and soe all fall backe into their places, then the woemen doe fall backe, and coming into the midle, and the men goe under them as before;

Armes all every one with his mate standing yett in this posture, like before, then the couple that leade shall goe up to the top apace, and the man shall leade his woeman towards his left hand, higher, then that couple that stands towards the left, and then leade her in betweene them both, and then all 4 joyne hands, and goe round once and that couple being left goe, they shall goe into the place, of the couple, that leade the dance, and then doe the like to the other couple; and put them in the place which is on the left hand, and your selfs on the right, and then the other couple doe the like for his part; doing the very same thing putting himself on the right hand, and the couple that leade the dance on the left, and the other couple at the bottome, and then that couple doe the like, soe that att last they shall come all in theire places in doing after this manner;

Playford has his normal diagram for a 3 couple longways set , but that is probably an error on Playford's part. He describes the dance:

First and 2. cu. lead up a D. and fall back, whilest the 3. cu lead up to the top between the other, first and 2. cu. lead up again and back whilst the 3. lead down. Third cu. lead up between the other, and casting off, go on the outside under their arms, cross over and under their arms, and fall to the bottom as at first, then the first four hands and round, and sit whilst the third do as much.

Sides all That again Men round and hold up their hands, we. under their arms and turn their own, we. go round, and each man turn his own.

Arms all That again The 3. cu. lead under the 1. cu. arms and come face to the we. hands you four and round, the 1. cu. fall into the 2. place, the 3. cu. lead under the 2. cu. arms, and hands round, the 3. cu. fall into the 2. and the 2. into the first place

The tune was published by Playford with the dance, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software.

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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: USA, hand turn (allemande), circle, cast, lead, siding, arming, cross go below (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=JackPudding

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1998 by Colin Hume. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 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.