The Young Widow - Saltator

John Griffiths published A Collection of the newest and most fashionable Country Dances and Cotillions in Providence, RI in 1788. It is the first known such work published in the United States.

The Playford Assembly (Graham Christian) calls this an English Country Dance, but Cracking Chestnuts (David Smukler) calls it an early Contra Dance; showing how uncertain the boundary between the two styles is. I call it an American Country Dance, as something between the two (but it really could pass as an English dance)

Cross Hands --- back again -- lead down the Middle, then turn your Partner up again, and cast off -- the Gent. casts off one Co. to the Ladies side and the Lady to the Gent. Side -- ballance all six -- set and go all round -- second and third Co. balance in the Middle, opposite to each other -- then Half right and left in the Middle.

Asa Wilcox has a slightly different version in her Asa Willcox's Book of Figures:

First & second Gent^m. set together passing first & second Ladies set back again lead Down one Couple back again cross over one Couple six hand half round. top Couple & third Couple set half right & left.

Saltator, A Treatise on Dancing, Boston, 1802:

First couple down the out side, back, down the middle, promenade round, the gentlemen fall in between the second couple and the lady between the third, balance six side-ways, first couple promenade round, fall below the second couple, right and left.

Yet another version appeared in London, in Fentum's A Favorite Collection of Country Dances for the Year 1803.

Left and Hands 3 on the Ladys side, the same on the Gents, down the middle up again, right hand and left.

And in an anonymous publication from Boston in 1807 titled Cotillions & Country Dances.

The 1^st & 2 Couples 4 hands round and back 1^st Couple down the middle [illegible, might be cross] cast off, hands round, 1^st couple stand Still while 2^d & 3^d balance to each other & right & left.

Going back to Saltator... this does not seem to be a variant of Griffiths' dance but rather an new choreography.

First what does he mean by down the middle promenade round? Saltator defines promenade:

PROMENADE, is to lead with one hand, or both hands, a lady from one place to another, or round any number of the choir.

The CHOIR, is the whole number of couples which belong to the Dance.

So promenade round is just leading. Does round imply going in inside the set or outside? I doubt that the 1st couple is meant to go outside, especially as they've already been outside. Saltator says there should be about an ell's distance between the two lines. Now Wikipedia tells us that an ell is anything from 17in to 48 inches, but that in the 19th century it usually meant 45in in England. Basically it's enough room for two dancers to be side by side, but not really enough to make a circle.

I shall assume that he means, "the 1s lead down, turn around, lead back and partly turn around.

For the final figure Saltator just says right and left. Normally that means the 1s+2s face partner and right and left, but that's not what it means in the other versions of The Young Widow, and I shall present here the interpretation that is more similar to the other dances of this name.