Jog On, My Honey

Jogg On

Jog On

Jog On, My Honey or Jogg On 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 Cecil Sharp (mod) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 64 bars.

Lovelace calls this dance Jogg On, and describes it as:

Leade up once, and backe againe, then sett and fall backe, and that over againe, then the first couple shall fall backe, and downe, behind the next couple, and thrust then against one another, and then take hands below, that couple, that was the second before, and turne quite round into the seconds place, where thy stood before, and then goe on after the same manner, until all come to their places;
Playford writes:
Lead up all a D. forward and back, set and turn S. That again
The first man with his back to the Presence take his wo. by both hands, pull her to him, then put her back between the 2. cu. the first man and second cu. hands go round, the first wo. to the left This forward, &c.
The first man take his wo. by both hands, put her back on the outside, the 2. wo. into 2. place and there turn her Then into the 3. place on the outside the 3. man, and so forward, &c
The first cu. cross over, go below the 2. cu. put them together that they may salute, then arm to the 2. place. This forwards to the rest.
The first cu. cast off and go on the outside, the 2. cu. walk forward and back (as in Lavena), arm in the 2. place This forward to the rest, they doing the like, &c.

Sharp has omitted the second to the last part; I have replaced it. I disagree with Sharp's interpretation of the last part, I don't think it reflects what Playford says and it looks awkward to dance, but I cannot figure Playford's words out either, so I have simply omitted it.

Sometimes "salute" meant "kiss".

Note: I am not sure it is possible to dance all the movements of the first A where M1 pushes W1 between the 2s into four bars of music. I can force any timing to work in this animation, but that is no guarantee that people can actually dance it. On the other hand, perhaps it is possible. This is made in the middle of the COVID crisis and I cannot test. I simply present what Sharp calls for.

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.

Up a double
 
Intr.A11-4Up a Double, and back
5-8Partner set and turn single
Intr.A21-8That again
Part 1
 
I.A1-4M1 with his back to the Presence, faces his partner, takes both hands, falls back 2 steps and pushes her between the 2s, himself ending to the right of M2
5-8M1+2s circle three around W1 then all fall back into progressed places
Part 2
 
II.A1-4M1, taking hands, pushes W1 behind W2 and then into M2's place (he ending in W2's, and the 2s lead up)
5-8Partner two hand turn to proper
Part 3
 
III.A1-41s cross go below as 2s lead up
5-81s arm right once and a half as 2s honour
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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=JogOnMyHoney

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. 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.