The Friar and the Nun

The Fryar and the Nun

The Friar and the Nun or The Fryar and the Nun is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1912 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 3). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 176 bars. It is in the key: G Major. Someone thought this dance was Easy / Intermediate.

Playford writes:

Lead up men a D. turn round, we. go up a D and turn S. we. go down a D. and turn S. men down and turn S ·:
The two uppermost men fall back, and turn S. we. as much, changing over with your own, men change, we. change at the same time, then each change places with his own Do thus to all the rest following
First and second man change places by both hands, we. as much, men and we. meet side-ways, turn all S. hands and go half-round, turn S. hands and go half round turn S.

In part 3 Sharp has neighbors two hand turning concurrently once and a half, while playford has the "men change places by both hands, women as much".

The tune, The Friar and the Nun was published by Playford for the dance of the same name. Synthesized music by Colin Hume

The animation plays at 113 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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

Up a double
 
1-4Men up a doubble, and turn single
5-8Women, the same
9-12Women fall back a double, and turn single
13-16Men, the same
Part 2 repeats 5 times
 
A1-4Men fall back a double, turn single
5-8Women the same
9-16Face partner, three changes of a circular hey
Part 3 repeats 5 times
 
A1-2Men two hand turn half, retain hold
3-4Women the same
5-6Slip in
7-8Turn single
9-10Circle left half
11-12Turn single left
13-14Right hands across half
15-16Turn single left

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=TheFriarAndTheNun

< Prev Top Next >

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 © 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
Creative Commons License 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.