Goddesses #2

A figure for Goddesses first appeared in the Lovelace Manuscript from the 1640s or so. Then Playford published music in 1651 and essentially the same figure. John Young published a different figure (with the same music) in 1721.

John Young writes:

Lead all up double, forward and back That again Cast off, meet below Cast off below meet above

The first Man sides with his Partner of one side, then of the other, then turn twice round and lead your Partner on the Men's side, and you go to the Wo's and do the same to the bottom, leave off on your own sides, and the rest do the same, till the first cu. comes at top again.

Then the first cu. cross over below the 4. cu. and lead up to the top and cast off in the 2. cu. place, lead thro' the top cast off and turn, so on to the bottom, the rest doing the same.

The first cu. whole Figure with the 2. cu. and cast off, and the first and 2. cu. take hands and draw quite thro' one another, lead thro' at top and turn you Partner, the rest doing the same.

The music consists of two 4 bar strains, both repeated in 2/2 time.

The first part is a standard up a double introduction, with an unexpected figure rather than set and turn single.

The second part of the dance appears to be one of those odd duple minors where the top couple becomes improper on the first time through the dance and after that dances the same figure, only facing their neighbors.

The third part looks like a quadruple minor — unless cross over below the 4. cu. is a misprint.

The fourth part looks like a normal duple minor.

However an simple look at the fourth part says that the movement specified takes 26 bars, and we've only got 16: (whole figure eight: 8) (cast 2) (poussette 8) (lead up and cast down 4) (turn 4). Let's assume they were lying when they said a whole Figure, because that's a common mistake and "whole" often means "half" in modern parlance, and let's assume that the cast is a mistake and shouldn't be there at all, and that the poussette is only half a poussette. Then we have (half figure eight: 4) (half poussette: 4) (lead up and cast: 4) (turn to proper: 4). That uses the correct amount of music, and progresses properly.

I'm not happy about omitting the cast, but I don't see a better solution yet.

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I suspect this, especially the third part, will be dull to modern dancers. The 2s do very little in the third part, and the 3s and 4s nothing at all. I interpret it because quadruple minor are rare, and the partially improper duple minor format of part 2 is also rare.

In the 18th century each part would run until everyone was back where they started (and only the top couple would be active when the dance started). That would take too long, so I only show a few iterations of each dance.

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