“Three hundred years ago there was no country whose people were more addicted
to dancing than the English.
They danced at every church or village festival, at Christmas,Shrovetide, Easter and Whitsuntide, at the village
fair, the Church ale, the wakes, and the harvest-homes, at the New Year, on Plough Monday, and on the first
of May. They danced round the May-pole, and they danced round the bonfire. In the city
of London the
'prentices and the girls danced in the streets, after the shops were closed,
to the music of the pipe and tabor.
.At the Guilds feasts they went to church in the morning, and after church they feasted, and after the feast they danced.”
People's Palace Journal of January 11, 1888 |
1520 "..King Francis and Queen Katharine having finished their repast above, came into
the hall, and dancing
commenced to the sound of the tabour, and pipe, and viol; the first dance
being performed by the Lady Mary
with a French nobleman..."
"All the other lords, barons, and courtiers ate in this place in like manner apart at their respective tables,
and during
the repast all the musicians here, namely, trumpeters, and players on the cornet, sourdine,
trombone, fife, tabor,
viol, and “tuifolo” each in their turn; "
An Account of the Conferences held by King Henry VIII. with the Emperor Charles V. and King Francis I.
'Venice: May 1520, 21-25', in ' Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 3, 1520-1526'
|
On several occasions at King Henry VIII's court taberets and rebecs appear together in the accounts
of revels -
a suitable combination of instruments for indoor dancing.
‘Musical Instruments at the Court of Henry VIII’ by Frances Palmer |
1527 Enmore Green Ceremonies, Dorset:
MEMORANDUM OF 1527 and an Agreement of 1662 describes in detail the ceremonies connected
to the wells and springs:
“Sonnday next after Holy Roode day.... every parish shall come down into Enmore Green...to walk
or daunce hand in hand round the same Green in a long daunce there being
a Musition or Tabor and pipe
and also a Staff or Besome adorned with Feathers pieces
of Gold Rings and other Jewells... and agreeing
that the inhabitants may continue to draw water and dig wells as previously, and that they will perform
said ceremony yearly.” |
“July 9, 1539, a performance of Antonio Landi's comedy, Il Commodo, was given. At the conclusion
of the play
was an aria accompanied by four sackbuts. This was followed by
a dance, with bacchantes
and satyrs, a four-part
instrumental work performed by two cornetts, two crumhorns, a coiled trumpet
(tromba torta), pipe and tabor
rebec and harp.”
the renaissance wind band and wind ensemble, 1983 |
1552 outdoor entertainment in London:   ‘The diary of Henry Machyn, citizen and merchant-taylor of London, from A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1563’ pub 1848 |
1560 Aston Tirrold, Berkshire
“...Also the parson presenteth that ther is used in the same churchyard piping & dansing”
Archdeaconry of Berkshire Act Book |
1570
Letter from Robert [Horne], Bishop of Winchester, Winchester, to William More, Loseley.
He asks that
John Slyfield of Byfleet, licensed to keep an alehouse, should be punished: he was detected
at Horne's visitation
as allowing dancing on the Sabbath,
at which Richard Snosemere was the minstrel.
The National Archives 6729/6/17 |
1577 criticism of dancing:
“…It is for their recreation, forsooth, (say they) and then it is a worlde to see, nay, a hell
to see, howe they will
swing, leape, and turne when the pypers and crowders begin to play, as if they had neyther
wisedome, grauitie,
chastitie, sobrietie, honestie, or discretion : in such sort doe they use themselves in these wanton
and unchaste dauncings,..”
A TREATISE AGAINST DICING, DANCING, PLAYS, AND INTERLUDES, WITH OTHER IDLE PASTIMES. BY JOHN NORTHBROOKE,
MINISTER. FROM THE EARLIEST EDITION, ABOUT A.D. 1577-
1843 reprint page 176 |
1579 Cambridgeshire, Diocese of Ely,
Bishop Richard Cox's Injunctions:
“ITem bicause the Saboth day is so fondly abused in going unto Fayers and visiting of frendes, and acquaintances,
and in feasting and making of good chere, in wanton dawnsing,
in lewd maygames sometyme continuing riotously
with Piping all whole nightes in barnes
and such odde places, both younge men and women out of their fathers
and masters howses, I charge all my parishes,
within my Dioces, and charge the Churchwardens, Sidemen,
and ministers to see that no such disorders be kept
upon the Sabaoth day, commonly called the sundayes,
as they will aunswere uppon their othe.” |
| 1581 Aldworth,
Berkshire
“…they denie that there was anie pyping or dansing in the churche yearde at anie tyme but sayethe upon
a tyme
when the parson was preaching there weare some strangers that had mistrelles there and made
mearye but left
playing when they weare commanded…”
Archdeaconry of Berkshire Act Book |
1581 Leverington, Cambridgeshire, Diocesan Court Proceedings:
“Willelmus Typpin (Alehousekeper) he suffred a piper to be at his house with uther cumpanye,
dawnseinge uppon Candlemas daye 1580 at the after none in service time.” |
1581 How Dauncing is a cursed mirth:
THe wicked runne after the Tabor and the Flute, &c. It is true that the Flute and the Tabor and such other like things
are not to be condemned, simplie of their owne nature: but onelie
in respect of mens abusing of them, for most commonlie
they perverte the good use of them: For certainlie, the Tabor doth not sooner sound to make men merrie, …. For behode
men are so caried awaie, as they cannot sport themselves with moderate mirth, but they fling themselves into the aire,
as
though they would leape out description of themselves…. Wherby we ought to take warning, to restrain ourselves
from
such loose & wanton pastimes …”
‘A booke of notes and common places, with their expositions, collected and gathered out of the workes of divers singular writers,
and brought
alphabetically into order. A worke both profitable and also necessarie, to those that desire the true understanding
& meaning of holy Scripture
by John Marbeck, pages 283, 284 |
1582 against lascivious dauncing:
“It appeareth that they can like of daūcing, els would they never graunt any licences to minstrels…. there will none of them
… hereafter graunt any licence (if they do graunt any)
but they will put in this proviso, that if the sayde minstrell to whom
this licence is graunted, shall pype or fidle upon the Sabboath day, or any other day, to the ende he may procure any
lascivious dauncing: or if he shall pipe at any unlawfull time of the night, to the ende he may keepe mens servants out
of their maisters houses: that then the licence, graunted shall bee altogether voyde and of none effect…”
“Where he telleth the godly where in they ought to reioyce, not in a bawdy pype or tabor, but in the Lorde. …”
‘A dialogue agaynst light, lewde, and lascivious dauncing wherin are refuted all those reasons, which the common people use to bring in defence
thereof. Compiled and made by Christopher Fetherston.' |
1586
“…neither is ther anie tune or stroke which may be sung or plaide on instruments, which hath not some poetical
ditties framed according to the numbers there of: some to Rogero ...
to Galliards, to Pavines, to Jygges, to Brawles,
to all manner of tunes wich every Fidler knows ...”
‘A discourse of English Poetrie’ 1586, by William Webbe page 59, reprint 1871 |
1586 Bleadon, Somerset, on July 8,
: “...in the tyme of the sermon, ther was pyping tabering & [day] dancing and wold not come to the sermon nether...”
Accusation in the 1593/4 Ex Officio Act Book of Butcombe against a fidler for tempting people away from church:
...
for withdrawing of the parishoners there from divine service being a fidler...” |
1588 Oldham
On the 14th, being Sunday, "there was, by certain of Oldham parishe, in tyme of divine service, gallowpinge
of horses in the streete of Burye, showtinge and pypinge, with other fowle disorders, in the forenone of the
same
daie, a lamentable spectacle in the place
of preachinge ministerye, of all good men to be pytted and reformed."
Hopes the offenders may be apprehended and punished.
The National Archives DDKE/acc. 7840 HMC/f.2 |
1590 Aldborough, Yorkshire North Riding,
” henrie Robinson & wilfrid Ingland for behaving them selfes disorderlie in church in service time,
in piping
dauncing & playing Mr hudesley the vicar being then preaching”
Detecta for the Visitation of Archbishop John Piers: |
As she grew older, Queen Elizabeth I became more and more interested in 'English' dances, as opposed
to those
of Continental origin, and on her journeys through the countryside it was customary to bring
the country people
to dance before her;
"
'Her Majestie is in very good health and comes much abroad these holidayes: for almost every night
she is in
the presence to see the ladies daunce the old and the new Country dances, with the tabor and pipe"
1591 Queen Elizabeth visited Cowdray, where she watched Lord and Lady Montagu dancing with
their tenants and "'in the evening the countrie people presented themselves to hir Majestie in a pleasaunt
daunce with tabor and pipe"
Nichols, J. 'Progresses of Qneen Elizabeth. Vol. II. The Qneene's Entertainment at Cowdrey' p. 6 in 'THE DANCE and SOCIETY
A Sociological Analysis of the Inter-relationship of the Social Dance and Society in England from the Age of Chaucer to the Present Day'
by FRANCES MARGARET RUST
“On Thursday the lords and ladies dined at a table forty-eight yards long, and there was a country dance
with pipe and tabor which drew from her Majesty gentle applause.”
Highways and Byways in Sussex, by E V Lucas, 1904, p5 |
1591 Lancashire: Letter from EDMUND HOPWOOD to the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
The "enormoties" of the Sabboth, in Lancashire, which require suppression are these:-
"Fayres, marketts, wakes, ales, maye-games, pypinge and dauncing, bear-beates, bull-beates, resorting
to ale-howses in tyme of dyvyne service, huntinge, hawkinge, and all manner of unlawfull gaminge."
The National Archives DDKE/acc. 7840 HMC/f.112d |
1591-1593 Kent:
" Henry Bassett of Goudhurst cited for coming to Brenchley on Sundays and piping and dancing"
Ex officio act book DRb/Pa21, Kent History and Library Centre |
1597
" London is so full of unprofitable pipers and fiddlers, that
a man can no sooner enter
a tavern, than two or three cast
of
them hang at his heels, to give him a dance before he depart."
In the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth (1597), a law was
promulgated against these humble sons of the
Muses,
by which
all minstrels, "wandering abroad,"
were classed as "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy
beggars,"
were promised
severe punishment.
' Short Apologia of the Schoole of Abuse,' Gosson, page 277 |
1598 ' Love's Labour's Lost - Act 5' by William Shakespeare
“…Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play
On the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay….”
other Shakespeare quotes here |
1599
“In 1599 Elizabeth paid her last visit to Hampton Court, as determined as ever to be young and frivolous.
She was seen through a window dancing 'The Spanish Panic (? pavane) to a whistle and tabourem
(pipe and tabor), none being with her but my Lady Warwick.'”
From: an unpublished report of Lord Semple of Beltreis to the King of Scots,
in possession of Sir John Maxwell of Polloc; cit. Strickland, 'Lives of the Queens of Engl'. iv, 710. |
1600 Queen Elizabeth:  |
1602 On 19th September, the Earl of Worcester wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury, reporting on Queen Elizabeth's
'progress' saying:
‘
“Wee are frolyke heare in Cowrt; mutche dawncing in the privi chamber of Contrey dawnces before the Queene
maiestie,
who is exceedingly pleased therewith. “
quoted in ‘Framing a Ditty for Elizabeth: Thoughts on Music for the 1602 Summer Progress’ by Ross Duffin, 2020 |
1602 also the “letters between the Earls of Salisbury and Worcester, describe the dancing
of country dances with the pipe and tabor in the palace of Nonesuch at Cheam.”
'Playford's English Dancing Master 1651' by margaret dean-smith f.s.a. 1957 |
| |
folk customs |
1569 folk customs from Newport, Isle of Wight:
“And assone as ye said commen people ar spedde competentlie with greene bowes they retorne home
in marchinge
arraye the commoners before the keapers folowinge them: next ye minstrell vice & morisse
daunceres after
ye Sergeantes with their maces….”
There was a separate May Day procession for the ladies:
" ye bailives wifes with their sisters ye comburges wifes orderlie in their degree by cooples
to walke foorthe
to Bugge berie [Buckbury] for custome & pleasure onlye ye Lorde ye morisse daunceres
ye vice & mynstrell
plainge before them"
page 22
1585 “Bishop Cooper of Winchester had forbidden May-games
"and other vaine pastimes upon the Sabath Dayes"
diocesan letter of May 1585, page 26
1596 “an elaborate feast which took place in the forest in August, 1596…there weare ye Cheyfe youth
of ye yeomandrye that dawnced ye morreyce (then in request) all kind of musike, and Dawncinge”
a celebration in Newport recorded by Sir John Oglander, the deputy Captain of the Island in the
1620s and 1630s,
in his Commonplace Books. from 'Newport Ligger Book' quoted in ‘THE WOOD EAVES’ by Jane Cowling |
1592 High Commission Order for the Suppression of Entertainments:
“…beinge led awaye with vaine & phantasticall delightes (much more lyke Infydelles then christians) have
verye often & yat by great troupes mayde yer repaire eyther to Rushbearinges Burkes/ may powles/
may games/ morrisdances/ gilldalles/ Somergames/ with other pypinges & daunsinges bulbaytinge
bearebaytinges or to some
other unlawfull
or ungodlye pastimes frequentinge allso feastes/ drinkinges/
Stage plaies/ rydiculus shewes/ wakes/
flours of the well & other ethnicall & unchristian metinges
& conventicles wherebye the Sabaoth hath been
usuallie prophaned…”
|
1603
Ashurst, Sussex
The church occasionaally hired minstrels for their church ales. There is a record
of one who played fiddle,
pipe, and tabor.
REED, Sussex page Li |