Meg Merrilees ~ Smyth
Meg Merrilees ~ Smyth is an old Scottish Country Dance. It was published by J. P. Boulogne in 1827 in The Ball-Room, or the Juvenile Pupil's Assistant; Containing the Most Fashionable Quadrilles, with Les Lanciers of Sixteen, As Danced in the Public & Private Assemblies in Paris, Glasgow. It was interpreted by W. Smyth in 1830 and published in A Pocket Companion for Young Ladies and Gentlemen Containing Directions for the Performance of Quadrilles, Scotch, English, Irish, French, and Spanish Country Dances, Reels, &c.. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Clementi published a dance of this name in London, but with a different figure.
In 1830 Smyth writes:
The two first couple figure partners first by the right and then by the left, all four down the middle arm in arm and up again, pousette and right and left.
The Lowes write:
First Lady swings the second Gentleman, first by the right hand, then by the left; at the same time the first Gentleman does the same with the second Lady; all four down the middle arm in arm, and up again, pousette, and right and left.
The Lowes' instructions don't make much sense to me: it's hard to see how the 1st corners and 2nd corners can be turning at the same time. A peculiar way of saying right hands across? Are the 1s to be improper?
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
| A1 | 1-4 | All partner right hand turn... |
| 5-8 | ...and back by the left | |
| A2 | 1-4 | Line of four lead down the hall, turn alone |
| 5-8 | Line of four lead up the hall, bend the line | |
| B1 | 1-8 | Full poussette, 1st corners (M2+W1) push |
| B2 | 1-8 | Face partner, four changes of rights and lefts |
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=MegMerrilees-Smyth
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.