Sir Roger de Coverley ~ Platt
Sir Roger de Coverley ~ Platt is an English Country Dance. It was published by Thompson in about 1770 in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, Vol II, London. It was interpreted by Platt in about 1811 and published in 25th Number. It is a proper 5 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 23451. The minor set lasts 48 bars.
See the Regency Dance site's description of the evolution of this dance.
Platt writes:
The Top Lady & bottom Gent: meet in the middle; the top Gent: and bottom Lady do the same the top Lady and bottom Gent: meet in the middle and turn with both hands; the top Gent: and bottom Lady do the same: The top Lady and bottom Gent: meet in the middle and Pousette round each other; the top Gent: and bottom Lady repeat the same figure The top Gent: turn his parnter half round with the right hand & cast off 1 Cu: turn again with the left and cast off another Cu: and so continue to the bottom of the sett: The 1st. Cu: having arrived at the bottom, lead up the middle the other Couples following in rotating; being at the top the Ladies cast off on their own siecs and the Gentlemen on theirs.
NB. The 1st. part of the tune must be repeated 'till the 1st. Cu: are ready to cross over and the 2d. part till they are arrived at the bottom; the last part to the remainder of the Figure.
The regency dance site points out that Platt uses the term "pousette", which doesn't make sense for two people in the middle. I'm going to turn it into a back to back since that is found in the version I grew up with, and a poussette could be viewed as a couple back to back.
Playford describes a dance with almost this name and two strains of the tune, but a different figure. Thompson in ~1770 describes a figure similar to this one, with Playford's tune. Sometime around 1800 Roger was knighted and frenchified his name. Wilson, in 1808, describes the figure which caught on.
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.
| A1 | 1-4 | Top woman, bottom man meet and honour |
| A2 | 1-4 | Top man, bottom woman meet and honour |
| A3 | 1-4 | Top woman, bottom man two hand turn |
| A4 | 1-4 | Top man, bottom woman two hand turn |
| A5 | 1-4 | Top woman, bottom man back to back |
| A6 | 1-4 | Top man, bottom woman back to back |
| B1 | 1-4 | 1s cross by the right hand and cast down as 2s lead up |
| B2 | 1-4 | 1s cross by the left hand and cast down as 3s lead up |
| B3 | 1-4 | 1s cross by the right hand and cast down as 4s lead up |
| B4 | 1-4 | 1s cross by the left hand and cast down as 5s lead up |
| C1+2 | 1-8 | 1s, followed by others, lead up to the top and cast down |
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=SirRogerDeCoverley-Platt
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 © 2024 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.