An Old Man, a Bed Full of Bones or The Old Man with a Bed Full of Bones is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2021. It is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 144 bars.
Playford says this is for "as many as will, but I think 3 couples probably best, it's very dull for the middle couples who just stand with the top and bottom couples show off.
Hmm. It might work even better with only 2 couples.
Lovelace writes:
Leade up once, & sett once, then that agayne, then the first man shall take his woeman by both hands and shall leade her down side long, allmost to ye bottome, very quickly, and then half way up agayne, and then leade her downe agayne; and turne her quite round, and leave her there, and then take up that woeman, in her steade, that was last before, after the same manner, that he carryed down the other; and then the last man shall bring up that woeman, and fetch downe his owne, just after the same manner, as it was done before, and doe you are all in your places;
Sides all 2, and sett twice, then the last man shall begin, and leade up his woeman to the top, and fetch downe the other as before was done, and then the first man shall carry her downe agayne, and fetch up his owne, all after the same manor just as it was done before;
Doe the first part over agayne, after halfe tune, just like as is described before, only at this, if you please, you may turne her arme over her head, and salute her, if you like your mate, when you turne her above, and below;
Playford writes:
Lead up all a D. forward and back , set and turn S. That again First man lead down his wo. between the rest a D. forward and back, then lead her to the lower end and turn her and leave her Bring up the last wo. in the same manner Then the last man do the like to fetch his own. Sides all, set and turn S. That again This as before, only crossing both hands in the middle Arms all, set and turn S. That again This as before, holding your wo. by one hand, and let her turn under your arm, and kiss her
There are a number of differences between Playford and Lovelace, and I'm going to pick an choose as suits my fancy.
In the introductory figures, Playford consistently says "set and turn single" while Lovelace says "set once" after "up a double" and "set twice" after "sides all". I'm not sure why "set once". It doesn't fit the timing. I prefer "set ans turn single" to "set twice" so I will follow Playford on that.
Lovelace says the third part should be the same as the first, but I presume he intends it to begin with arming rather than another round of "up a double". Anyway, I'm going to use arming for the third part.
Playford wants the 1s to lead down a double, come back, and lead to bottom. While Lovelace wants the 1s to lead to bottom, lead up and then back down. It's a small difference, but Lovelace is freer with the timing which I think works better.
Playford says the second figure is just like the first except the dancers cross both hands (promenade position?) in the middle. Lovelace, on the other hand, says the figure begins with the last man rather than the first (and doesn't mention crossed hands). I like having the last man start.
Both agree that the third figure is the same as the first except that instead of a two hand turn, the woman turns under the arm and then Playford says "kiss" and Lovelace "salute". (Sharp interprets both kiss and salute as "honour", but he was a bit of a prude).
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
I.A1 | 1-4 | Up a double and back |
II.A1 | 1-4 | Right shoulder siding |
III.A1 | 1-4 | Arm right |
5-8 | Set and turn single | |
I.A2 | 1-4 | Up a Double, back (again) |
II.A2 | 1-4 | Left shoulder siding |
III.A2 | 1-4 | Arm left |
5-8 | Set and turn single | |
I.A3 | 1-2 | 1s lead quickly to bottom |
3-3 | 1s fall back a bit | |
4-4 | 1s lead below bottom | |
5-8 | 1s two hand turn | |
I.A4 | 1-2 | M1 leads W3 to top (W1 moves into W3's place) |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead to top again | |
5-8 | They two hand turn | |
I.A5 | 1-2 | M3 leads W1 to top |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead above top | |
5-8 | They two hand turn | |
I.A6 | 1-2 | 3s lead quickly to bottom |
3-3 | 3s fall back a bit | |
4-4 | 3s lead to bottom again | |
5-8 | 3s two hand turn | |
II.A3 | 1-2 | 3s lead to top |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead above top | |
5-8 | They two hand turn | |
II.A4 | 1-2 | M3 lead W1 to bottom (W3 moves into W1's place) |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead to bottom again | |
5-8 | M3+W1 two hand turn | |
II.A5 | 1-2 | M1 lead W3 quickly to bottom |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead below bottom | |
5-8 | They two hand turn | |
II.A6 | 1-2 | 1s lead to top |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead to top again | |
5-8 | They two hand turn | |
III.A3 | 1-2 | 1s lead quickly to bottom |
3-3 | 1s fall back a bit | |
4-4 | 1s lead below bottom | |
5-8 | The man turns the woman under his arm and they kiss | |
III.A4 | 1-2 | M1 leads W3 to top (W1 moves into W3's place) |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead to top again | |
5-8 | The man turns the woman under his arm and they kiss | |
III.A5 | 1-2 | M3 leads W1 to top |
3-3 | They fall back a bit | |
4-4 | They lead above top | |
5-8 | The man turns the woman under his arm and they kiss | |
III.A6 | 1-2 | 3s lead quickly to bottom |
3-3 | 3s fall back a bit | |
4-4 | 3s lead to bottom again | |
5-8 | The man turns the woman under his arm and they kiss |
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=AnOldManIsABedFullOfBones
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2021 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 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
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.