The Working Masons in Merlin

The Working Masons in Merlin is an English Country Dance. It was published by John & William Neal in 1726 in A Choice Collection of Country Dances. It was interpreted by Rich Jackson & George Fogg in 1990. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.

The Neals write:

1st & 2d men lead thrô & goe round their partner's to their own places:
1st & 2d wo: ye same:
All 4 fall in abreast (2d cu: in ye middle each turn single to ye right: The two men take single hands & ye 2d man leads ye 1st man: sideways to ye wo: side behind ye women & ye 2d wo: ye same with ye1st wo: before ye men, round one another (still facing the company) in ye nature of back to back, till in a line as began, then 1st cu: cast off into 2d cu: place:

There were several operas or plays titled Merlin in the 18th century, but they seem to be after 1726. Dryden's King Arthur (1691) with music by Purcell is the only possibility I've found that would be timely.

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 dance contains the following figures: turn single, cast, lead, back to back (and probably others).

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=TheWorkingMasonsInMerlin

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1990 by Rich Jackson & George Fogg. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.