Paston's Maggot ~ Williams
Paston's Maggot ~ Williams is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, London. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2022. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Playford writes:
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.
The first and 2d Cu. take Hands a-cross, and go half round, then the first Cu. Right and Left with the 3d Cu Then first Cu. cross up above the 3d Cu. they change Places at the same Time, then Right and Left with the 2d Cu The first and 2d Men clap Hands with their Partners; then clap Sides and turn Then the first Cu. Figure thro' the 2d Cu. and turn down the middle into the 2d Cu's Place
I think Bentley missed some of the dance's symmetry, and offer this as an alternative.
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.
The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
| A1 | 1-2 | 1s+2s right hands across half |
| 3-8 | 1s+3s face partners, three changes of rights and lefts | |
| A2 | 1-2 | 1s cross up as 3s cast down |
| 3-8 | 1s+2s face partners, three changes of rights and lefts | |
| B1 | 1-2 | 1s+2s partner clap (own, partner's right, own, partner's left) |
| 3-4 | 1s+2s neighbor clap (own, neighbor's right, own, neighbor's left) | |
| 5-8 | Neighbor two hand turn | |
| B2 | 1-4 | 1s half figure eight down through the 2s |
| 5-8 | 2s cross, go above as 1s two hand spiral down to 2nd place proper |
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=PastonsMaggot-Williams
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2022 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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.