Dafydd's Collection of

The Lovelace/Church MMS of pre-Playford English Country Dances

Here is a series of web pages displaying a transcription of the original mms: Lovelace MMS




The 3rd draft of my paper on the manuscript: (coming soon)

Here is a spreadsheet with some specific pieces of information about each dance, enabling a quick overview and statistic comparison of the data contained herein.




A few brief facts about the manuscript (more to come as I learn more):

The manuscript exists in the Houghton Library of Harvard with the identifying number of MS Eng. 1356. It has various names, mainly Pattricke, after a signature on the cover in a different hand than the dances, and Lovelace, after the name attached to one of the published poems that shows up well after the dances in the manuscript (the poem was published in 1649, and most of the scholarly citations of this manuscript use this designation). However, it makes more sense to me to cite Thomas Church as the author, due to the fact that the section of poems that the Lovelace poem appears in has each page headed with the word "songs" (and the first of those pages indicates "paid"), and Thomas Church is the person who set that Lovelace poem to music. As yet, however, I have not found a citation for any of the other poems in either section being set to music by Mr Church.

There are elements within the manuscript that can be dated variously between 1649 (a few of the poems) and 1815. See the above link to my transcription of the manuscript for links to images of the actual manuscript.

To see the work done by Carol G Marsh in analyzing the manuscript, check here.



General Overview, with assumptions and broad conclusions about the manuscript and the body of dances therein.


Switch to alpha order
1: Moll Peatlye
2: Noah's Flood
3: Tenn Pounde
4: The Milking Payle
5: The Highway to Westminster
6: Ladyes Piller
7: The Cherping of the Nightingall
8: The Wind Mille
9: The Gipsys
10: The Goddisses
11: Lightly Love
12: Trenchmore
13: The Old Man with a Bed full of Bones
14: A Mayden Fayre
15: Cuckles All a Row
16: Grayes Inn Maske/Tom a Bedlam
17: St Johns
18: The Boone Companion
19: Step Stately
20: The Picking of Stickes
21: Jack Pudding
22: Roses White, and Roses Red
23: Harts Ease
24: T/F/B/x/umbling Jone
25: Greenwood
26: Natly
27: A Helth to Betty
28: Bobbin Jone
29: Murry
30: Jogg On
31: Good Your Worship
32: The Fryer and the Nunne



Dance Page

Dafydd Cyhoeddwr, V3.0, Monday, March 10, 2014