The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0781  Tuesday, 30 March 2004

From:           Stanley Wells <
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Date:           Monday, 29 Mar 2004 16:19:38 +0100
Subject: 15.0774 Dancing in Shakespeare a good idea
Comment:        RE: SHK 15.0774 Dancing in Shakespeare a good idea

I'm sorry to run the risk of seeming garrulous by sending two messages
in one day, but it should be remembered that, judging by the few
surviving examples, a jig was not simply a dance but a danced, generally
satirical, playlet. The best simple discussion of the form is the entry
in the Campbell/Quinn encyclopaedia by C. J. Sisson, who has a chapter
on it, with an example that he discovered, in his valuable and neglected
book 'Lost Plays of Shakespeare's Age' (Cambridge, 1936). The dances
performed with such verve and disarming enjoyment by the actors of the
Globe completely misrepresent the form.

Stanley Wells

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