The Mulberry Maid

The Mulberry Maid is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1670 in The Dancing Master, 4th ed.. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 2000 and published in Retreads Vol.8. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 96 bars.

Bolton has taken two Playford dances with a similar tune and merged them into one. The first is The Mulberry Garden (1670) and the second is The Maid in the Mill (1687).

Playford writes for The Mulberry Garden:
Lead up all, back, that again Fall all back, meet, fall back again, then every man turn his own wo.

Go back to back with your own wo. the 2. cu. doing the same, then the 2. men and 2. we. go back to back Then take all hands and go half round, then change with your own wo. the 2. cu. being in the first place, must foot it and cast off, the other leading up, then they foot it and cast off Do this to the last.
Playford writes for The Maid in the Mill:
The 1. cu. cast off below the 2. cu. lead up all four hands a Breast; then all four hands half round, then right and left with your Partners till the 1. cu. come into the 2. cu. place.

I have made a slight alteration to The Maid in the Mill figure, there is a circle half that takes 4 bars, I've made it take 2 bars and added a turn single.

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 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.

Introduction
 
Intro.A1-4Lead up a double and fall back
5-8That again, up and back
Intro.B1-4Face partner, fall back individually, come forward
5-8Two hand turn, opening to face neighbor
Mulberry Garden
 
MG.A1-4Neighbor back to back
5-8Partner back to back
MG.B1-4Right hands across half and change with partner
5-81s lead up and cast down as 2s cast down and lead up
Maid in the Mill
 
MM.A1-41s cast to between where the 2s were as 2s move up and cast back to ends of a line of four
5-8Line of four lead up a double, fall back bending the line
MM.B1-4Circle left half, and turn single left
5-8Face partner, two changes of rights and lefts
Mulberry Garden
Maid in the Mill
Finale
 
Final.A1-4Face partner, fall back, come forward
5-8Partner two hand turn, end facing up
Final.B1-4Lead up a double and fall back
5-8Lead up again, step right and honour the presence

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=TheMulberryMaid

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2000 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 © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 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.