The Companions of St. Cecilia Notes

This is a collection of notes from the two dance books that accompanied The Companions of St. Cecilia Tapes.
The books were called: Fideleco's Dance Notes Volume One July 1990
and Fideleco's Dance Notes Volume Two August 1991, 2nd edition - July 1994

Fideleco's Dance Notes - Volume One

July 1990

Chestnut

Also known as Dove's Figary

Source: Playford, The English Dancing Master

Confesse His Tune

Also called The Court Lady.

The first stanza of a ballad called Rosamond to the tune of Confess:
Sweet youthfull, charming ladies fair,
Fram'd of the purest mould,
With rosy cheeks and silken hair,
Which shine like threads of gold;

Soft tears of pity here bestow,
On the unhappy fate
Of Rosamond, who long ago,
Proved most unfortunate.

Sources: Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Fain I Would

Also called the Lusty Gallant.

One set of ballads amoung the King's Pamphlets (1649) are directed to be sung to this tune:

Cromwell on the Throne
So, so, the deed is done,
The Royal head is severed;
As I meant when I first begun,
And strongly have endeavoured.
Now charles the First is tumbled down,
The Second I don't fear;
I grasp the sceptre, wear the crown,
Nor for Jehovah care.

King Charles in His Coffin
Think'st thou, base slave, though in my grave,
Like other men I lie?
My sparkling fame and royal name
Can, as thou wishest, die?
Know, caitiff, in my sone I live
(The Black Prince call'd by some),
And he shall ample vengeance give
On those that did me doom.

The People in the Pit
Supress'd, supres'd, involv'd in woes,
Great Charles, thy people be,
Basely deceiv'd with specious shows
By those that murther'd thee.
We are enslaved to tyrants' heasts,
Who have our freedom won:
Our fainting hope now only rests
On thy succeding son.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Fickle Ladies

Tune: Bransle de Champagne X
Invented in the Barony of the Bridge by Rosalys Ashmund.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.

The Fryar and the Nun

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.

Grimstock

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.

The Health

In the poems of Patrick Cary, Lord Falkland's younger brother (ca. 16561), one verse of a song to this tune:
Come faith, since I'm parting, and that God knows when
The walls of sweet Wickham I shall see again,
Let's e'en have a frolic and drink like tall men,
Till heads with healths go round.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Heart's Ease

A song in the unpublished interlude of Misogonus (about 1560):
Sing care away, with sport and play,
Pastime is all our pleaseure;
Yf well we fare, for nought we care,
In mearth consists our treasure.
Let lungis (lankies) lurke, and druges work,
We doe defie their slaverye;
He is but a foole, that goes to schole,
All we delight in braverye.

What doth't availe farr hence to saile,
And lead our life in toylinge;
Or to what end shoulde we here spende
Our dayes in urksome moylinge.
It is the best to live at rest
And tak't as god doth send it;
To haunt ech wake and mirth to make,
And with good fellowes spend it.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Hyde Parke

In the Roxburghe Collection, a ballad to the tune of Hyde Park:
Alas, I am in love,
and cannot speake it;
My mind I dare not move
nor nere can break it.
She doth so farre excel
all and each other
My mind I cannot tell,
when we are together.

but He take heart to me,
I will reveale it;
He try her constancy,
He not conceal it.
But alas, but alas,
I doe consider,
I cannot breake my mind,
when we are together.

The more I strive to hide,
the more it flameth;
These pains I can not bide,
my wits it lameth.
And if it hidden be,
will burn for ever,
Unless I speake my mind
when we are together.

I think 'twere good I tride
and went to prove her;
And lay all feare aside,
stoutly to move her.
but when I am going to speake,
my tongue doth quiver,
And will not breake my mind,
when we are together.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Love and a Bottle

Source: Notes (from a collection published Brae in the early 1700's).

Stingo

Also called the Oyle of Barley, or Juice of Barley. Later called Cold and Raw.

The song "A Cup of Old Stingo" from the Merry Drollery Complete (1661):
There's a lusty liquor which
good fellows used to take-a;
It is distilled with Nard most rich
And water of the lake-a.

Of hop a little quantity,
And Barm to it they bring too;
Being barrelled up, they call't a cup
of dainty good old stingo.

From the Roxburghe Collection, a black-lettered ballad from the reign of Charles 1, "The Little Barley-corn":
Come and do not musing stand,
if thou the truth discerne:
but take a full cup in thy hand,
and thus begin to learne.
Not of the earth, nor of the ayre,
at evening or at morne;
but joviall boyes, your Christmas keep
with the littl eBarley-Corne.

It is the cunningst Alchimist,
that ere was in the land:
Twil change your mettle when it list,
in turning of a hand.
Your blushing gold to silver wan,
Your silver into brasse:
Twill turne a Taylor to a man,
and a man into an asse.

From notes.

Twill make a man indentures make,
Twill make a fool seem wise,
Twill make a Puritan sociate,
And leave to be precise:
Twill make him dance about a cross,
And eke to run the ring too,
Or anything he once thought gross,
Such virtue hath Old Stingo.

Twil make a constable oversee
Sometimes to serve a warrant,
Twill make a baliff lose his fee,
Thought he be a knave-arrant;
Twill make a lawyer, though that he
To ruin oft men brings, too,
Sometimes forget to take his fee,
If his head be lin'd with Stingo.

Twill make a parson not to flinch,
Though he seem wondrous holy,
And for to kiss a pretty wench,
And think it is no folly;
Twill make him learn for to decline
The very that's called Mingo,
Twill make his nose like copper shine,
If his head be lin'd with Stingo.

Twill make a weaver break his yarn,
That works with right and left foot,
But he hath a trick to save himself,
He'll say there wanteth woof to't;
Twill make a tailor break his thread,
And eke his thimble ring too,
Twill make him not to care for bread,
If his head be lin'd with Stingo.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Upon a Summer's Day

Later called The Garland.

A set of words published in 1707 to the tune of Upon a Summer's Day:
Upon a time I chance to walk along a green
Where pretty lasses danced in strife to choose a queen.
Some homely-dressed, some handsome, some pretty and some gay,
but who excelled in dancing must be the queen of May.
Good fellows, great and small, pray let me you advise
To have a care withall; 'tis good to be merry and wise.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Argeers

Also called the Wedding Night.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Beggar Boy

Also called Lucina.

>From the Roxburghe Colection. a ballad called "Begger-Boy of the North." which begins:
>From ancient pedigree by due descent I well can drive my generation: Throughout all Christendome. and also Kent. my calling is knowne both in Terme and Vacation. My parents old taught me to be bold. Ile never be daunted whatever spoken. when I come my custome I hold. and cry. Good your worship, bestow one token.

My Father, my Mother, my Gransire and Grannum. my Uncles, my Aunts, and all my kindred. did maund for Loure, casum and pannum: then wherefore should I from the Trade be hindred. Cat will to kind. the Proverbe doth say. 'tis pity old customes should be broken: Still as I wander along on the way. Ile cry. Good your worship, bestow one token.

Sources:
Playford, The English Dancing Master.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.

Epping Forest

Epping forest was named for an ancient forest on the northern boundaries of London, a frequent resort of the citizens of the city for the pleasures of hunting.

Sources:
Chappell, Old English Popular Music.
Keller. et al. The Playford Ball.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Playford, The English Dancing Master.

Gathering Peascods

Contrary to popular rumor, peascods means peapods not codpieces. John Brand in his 1849 Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. discusses "peascod wooing" and an old tradition of divining love affairs from pea pods.

Sources:
Keller. et al. The Playford Ball.
Millar, Elizabethan Country Dances.
Playford, The English Dancing Master.

Vicar's Alman

Invented in the Barony of the Bridge by Thelin, Lucasta, Sarant, Alatiel and Asenath. Original music copmosed by Lucasta della Canzona Transalpina for Feirfiz Ashmund. Sometimes called the Vicar Kicker.

Sources:
Notes.


References

Standard Publications
Arbeau, Thoinot. 1967. Orchesography. Dover Publications, Inc., New York.
Barron, Marshall. 1986. Early Playford for Early Instruemts. Playford Consort Publications. New Haven. Connecticut.
Barron, Marshall. 1987. Early Playford for Early Instruments. Book 2. Playford Consort Publications. New Haven. Connecticut.
Brainard, Ingrid. 1981. The Art of Courtly Dancing in the Early Renaissance. West Newton. Massachusetts.
Chappell, William. 1961. Old English Popular Music. Jack Brussel, New York.
Dolmetsch, Mabel. 1954. Dances of Spain and Italy from 1400 to 1600. Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd. London.
Duggan, Anne, & Schlottmann, Jeanette, & Rutledge, Abbie. 1948. Folk Dances of the British Isles. A.S. Barnes and Company. New York.
Keller, Kate van Winkle. & Shimer, Genevieve. 1990. The Playford Ball. 103 Early English Country Dances. A Capella Books & the Country Dance and Song Society. Northampton. Massachusetts.
Millar, John Fitzhugh. 1985. Elizabethan Country Dances. Thirteen Colonies Press. Williamsburg, Virginia.
Playford, John. 1984. The English Dancing Master. Dance Books, Ltd. Great Britain.
Thomas, Bernard, & Gingell, Jane. 1987. The Renaissance Dance Book. London Pro Musica. London.
Wood, Melusine. 1982. Historical Dances, 12th to 19th Century. Dance Books, Ltd. London.

SCA Publications
Ferris, Elaine. 1980. Dance!.
Pugliese, Patri, & Casazza, Joseph. 1980 Practise for Dancinge. Cambridge, Mass.
Symborski, Lynn. 1979. The Eastern Kingdom Dancebook.

Notes
Sources of undetermined or unknown origin.