Mr. Beveridge's Maggot ~ Sharp

Mr. Beveridge's Maggot ~ Gibson Mr. Beveridge's Maggot ~ Hume Mr. Beveridge's Maggot ~ Sharp Mr. Beveridge's Maggot ~ Shaw

Mr. Beveridge's Maggot ~ Sharp is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1695 in The Dancing Master, 9th ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). Found in The Playford Ball. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: G minor.

This dance may have been devised by Mr. Beveridge, a London dancing master. Playford mentions in a note to the 1695 edition that Mr. Beveridge made some of the dances in that work.

Playford writes:

The 1. man cross over and go back to back with the 2. wo. then the 1. wo. cross over and go back to back with the 2. man at the same time: Then meet and turn S. then 1. man turn the 2. wo. with his right hand, and 1. wo. turn the 2. man with her right hand at the same time, then 1. cu. take left hands and turn into their own places: The 1. cu. cross over into the 2. cu. place, and go back to back with their Partner, then all four lead up hands abrest, then go the Figure through, and cast off into the 2. cu. place.


Note: The first Strain is to be played twice, and the second but once.

The Playford text is, as is so often the case, imprecise, and there are many variants of this dance.

It is hard to see how to fit all the figures in the time given. Sharp has added a second playing of the B strain to make that section fit the music.

The tune, also called Mr. Beveridge's Maggot, was published by Playford with the dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album A Playford Ball. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

The animation plays at 100 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.

A11-21s cross (and fall back)
3-4Neighbor back to back
A21-11s turn single right
2-2Neighbor right turn
3-41s left turn half
B11-21s cross (left shoulder) and cast as 2s lead up
3-4Partner back to back, 1s stay in center as 2s move up into a line of 4 (2M,1W,1M,2W)
5-8Line of four forward and back at end 2s hand 1s up to 1st place
B21-61s full figure 8 down
7-81s cross and cast as 2s lead up

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=MrBeveridgesMaggot-Sharp

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. 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.