Mr. Johnson's Humour ~ Double

Jupiter and Juno

Mr. Johnson's Humour ~ Double Mr. Johnson's Humour

Mr. Johnson's Humour ~ Double or Jupiter and Juno is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Nathaniel Kynaston in 1717 and published in Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1717, London. It is a Quadruple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Andrew Shaw says in Mr. Kynaston's Famous Dance that this dance is one of three quadruple minors.

He also adds that it first appears in Kynaston, 1717. I don't have access to that work. It also appears in Playford's The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, 3rd ed. (1718) and that I have copied here.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

All the Company dance round and turn single Then back again and turn Change places with your Partners, all stamp twice and turn single The same back again Then 1st and 2d Cu. take Hands abreast, and meet the 3d and 4th Cu. wo does the like; Sett and change Places The same back again Right Hands and Left half round, with the 2d Cu. all dance and turn single Then half round forwards, and Sett dancing, the first Cu. cast off

The only difficulty I see here is what to make of "Then half round forwards" in D2. Comparing this to D1, I assume it means "Right Hands and Left half round", but Scott Pfitzinger thinks it means, turn in a circle halfway round.

Both return people to their original places, so either works.

(Scott also tries to force the movements into an integral number of measures, but the dance is in triple time, while many of the movements take 4 counts, so it works better if you think in terms of counts (steps) than measures).

Both sets of rights and lefts are on the quick side, so I suggest doing them without hands.

I don't see any reason why the 3s+4s shouldn't do rights and lefts in D as well. Up to this point the 4s+3s have done everything the 1s+2s have, so why should they stop. You don't want them to progress, but they can do the rest of it.

Actually, why shouldn't they progress? Then both the 1s+3s move down in tandem, as the 2s+4s move up. In a way, it is a double progression dance, and the behavior when three couples are out at bottom needs to be altered a bit.

Sadly, the proper behavior depends on the number of couples in the line. If the number of couples is even, then the bottom couple of the threesome should stand while the other two switch places. If it is odd then the top couple should move to the bottom and then other two move up one (that is what is shown here).

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.

A11-4Circle eight left, and turn single left
A21-4Circle eight right, and turn single right
B11-4Partner change, stamp twice (stamp, pause, stamp, pause), and turn single
B21-4Partner change, stamp twice, and turn single
C11-4End couples separate, move outside nearest middle couple, take hands in a line of four, set and change with opposite
C21-4Set, change with opposite, move back to original places
D11-41s+2s (3s+4s) face partner, two changes of rights and lefts (without hands), set and turn single
D21-4Same couples, two more changes, set and 1s+3s cast down as 2s+4s 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=MrJohnsonsHumour-Double

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2022 by . My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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.