| All
would partake in this event from the lord, groom, bride, guests,
duchesses, maid, waiters, butler, all were equal in this dance.
The Cushion dance was also known by the
name of "Joan Sanderson dance ," which
was a lively and mirth-provoking dance which made a nice mixer type
dance such as parties and weddings, although it has now since died
out. There is an excellent descriptionof it in the "Dancing
Master," an old dance treatise (manual) on dancing in
1698, which runs as follows below:
Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance. An old
Round Dance.
This dance is begun by a single person (either man or Woman),
who, taking a cushion in his hand, dances about the room, and at
the end of the tune, (kind of like musical chairs) he stops
and sings:
"This dance it will no farther go."
The musician answers: "I pray you, good sir, why say you so?"
Man: "Because Joan Sanderson will not come too."
musician: "She must come too, and she shall come too, and she
must come whether she will or no."
Then he lays down the cushion before a woman, on which
she kneels, and he kisses her, singing:
"Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome."
Then she rises, taking up the cushion, and both dance
singing:
"Prinkumprankum is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it once
again, and once again, and shall we go dance it once again"
Then making a stop, the Woman sings as before:
"The dance it will no farther go."
Musician.: "I pray you, madam, why say you so?"
Woman: "Because Joan Sanderson will not come too."
Musician: "He must come too, etc." (as before).
And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who,
kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing:
"Welcome, Joan Sanderson, etc."
Then he taking up the cushion, they all three take hands and dance
round singing as before, and thus they do till the whole group is
taken into the ring. |
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