Mall Peatly ~ Williams or Moll Peatly is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The Dancing Master, 4th ed.. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2021. It is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 2341. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 74 bars.
Lead up all a D. forward and back That again First man set to the first wo. then to the second, and Hey with the two last we. and stay in the last place, the last man at the same time setting to the two last we. Hey with the two first, and stay in first place This back to your places Sides all That again This as before, the first and last we. doing it as the men did before Arms all That again The first man and wo. do this as before, and stay in the last place Or do this back again, cast off and meet below
Lovelace writes:
You must first lead up twice, and then the first man, and last man set to theire owne woemen, and then to theire next; (as with the first man to the 2 woemen; and the last man to the 3rd woeman,) and then the first man dances the Heyes with the 2 lowest woemen, and the lowest man with the 2 uppermost woemen; and then the first man shall be last, and the last first, and then (by?) setting againe, and dancing the Hay, theye shall come both backe againe in their owne places:
And then all sides twice; and then the first, and last woeman doing as the men did aforesayd, that after having set to 1 and 3 at both ends, then dance that hay above, and below, at both ends as afforesayd, and then back again, like as the men have d(xxx) before, them, (like as the last men have before xxx), did dance the hey with the 2 up xxx irst woemmen, set the last woemen or foremost man xx (shall?) xxxxxxxxxxxxx the latter:
All doe arme, or halfe turne, and then the man doe like as he did att first, and soe on as you please:
The first two parts are the same as Sharp's interpretation. In the third part I try to follow Playford more closely, making that part progressive. Note that Lovelace's third part is not progressive, it is simply a copy of the first.
This dance is unusual for Playford, he actually gives options. I'm following the first one.
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 interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
I.A | 1-4 | Up a double, and back |
5-8 | Up a double, and back (again) | |
I.B1 | 1-2 | M1+M4 set to partner |
3-4 | M1+W2, M4+W3 set | |
5-10 | M1 with last two women, M4 with first two, five changes, actives falling into the vacant spot on their own side | |
I.B2 | 1-2 | M1+W4, M4+W1 set |
3-4 | M1+W3, M4+W2 set | |
5-10 | M1 hey with first two women, M4 with last two | |
II.A | 1-4 | Side right |
5-8 | Side left | |
II.B1 | 1-2 | W1+M4 set to partner |
3-4 | W1+M2, W4+M3 set | |
5-10 | W1 with last two men, W4 with first two, five changes, actives falling into the vacant spot on their own side | |
II.B2 | 1-2 | W1+M4, W4+M1 set |
3-4 | W1+M3, W4+M2 set | |
5-10 | W1 hey with first two men, W4 with last two | |
III.A | 1-4 | Arm right |
5-8 | Arm left | |
III.B | 1-2 | 1s set |
3-4 | 1s set to corners | |
5-10 | 2s move up, 1s cross-over mirror hey with the last two couples sort of hey until they get have moved up one place |
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=MallPeatly-Williams
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 © 2021,2022,2023,2024 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.