Row Well, Ye Mariners ~ Bolton
Row Well, Ye Mariners ~ Bolton is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 1992 and published in Retreads Vol.6. Found in The Playford Assembly. Originally proper this version is a Circle as many as will dance. There is no progression in this dance. Originally this was a single progression dance. It is a mixer. The dance lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: G major.
Lead up a D. forwards and back That again First man two slips cross the Room one way, the woman the other Back again to your places Fall back both Meet again Clap both your own hands, then clap each other's right-hands against one another's; clap both your own hands again, then clap left-hands, then clap both hands again, then clap your breasts, then meet both your hands against one-another The same again, only clap left-hands first
First man sides with the next wo. and his wo. with the next man, doing the like till you come to your own places, the rest following and doing the same.
From the Sloane manuscript (where it is called simply "The Marriners"):
They first Lead up: they slide alonge one before the other to one side and then turne Backes, then faces againe. and then clap hands. first their owne together, then right hands: then their owne againe then left hands. then their owne againe; then their Thighs: and with both hands the both hands of the other:
The man pass'es to the next Woman, et e Con verso; and after Sides to one another slide as before. &C
(This suggests to me that the dance should be interpreted as an "Up a double/Siding/Arming" style dance).
Colin Hume has found yet another source for the dance, from a French publisher Dezais, who used Feuillet diagrams to describe dances. This dance has mutated even further from Playford's original. This dance has mutated even further from Playford's original, it however shows a conventional duple minor pass through with neighbors to progress.
The tune was published with the dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album Strong Roots. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
The dances of Charles Bolton (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license by the CDSS Online Library.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
| A1 | 1-4 | Right shoulder siding |
| A2 | 1-4 | Left shoulder siding |
| B1,B2 | 1-4 | In long lines slip left, then right |
| C1,C2 | 1-4 | Partner back to back |
| D1 | 1-4 | Clap: own hands, partner's right, own, left, cross on own shoulders, both partner's hands |
| D2 | 1-2 | Set |
| 3-4 | Move one position right until across from next person of opposite sex (skip one person, go to the next) |
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=RowWellYeMariners
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1992 by Charles Bolton. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
This website is copyright © 2021-2025 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.