Annotation:Round the Maypole (1)
X:1 % T:Round the May-Pole [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 B:Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (London, 1773) Z:Transcribed and edited by Fynn Titford-Mock, 2007 Z:abc’s:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Bb B>cB d2f|B>cB d2f|bag fed|cdB AGF| G>cB d2f|B>cB d2b|agf cf=e|f3 F3:| |:f2f f2g|_agf edc|e2e e2f|gfe dcB| BFB dBd|fdf bfe|dcB F>BA|B3 B,3:||
The primitive instinct with dancers, where no figures are provided, is to dance round an object. The object might be a captive, and altar, or other sacred emblem. Perhaps this altar or emblem might be decorated with a trophy taken from the enemy, and we may thus look upon the Maypole with its garlands and streamers as an embodiment of this emblem, and the dance round it as a survival of the primitive usage. The same tradition is also found in children's ring games...