Roger de Coverley

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Roger de (or of) Coverley (also Sir Roger de Coverley and ... de Coverly) is an English Country Dance and a Scottish Country Dance (also known as The Haymakers) and its tune. An early version was published in The Dancing Master, 9th edition (1695)[1]. A much later variation on this tune was composed by Frank Bridge in 1922, entitled A Christmas Dance "Sir Roger de Coverly and is composed in a style heavily influenced by serialism. The dance is probably related to the Virginia Reel. The name refers to a fox. The dance features steps reminiscent of a hunted fox going in and out of cover. Use of the name Sir Roger to refer to a real fox which is being hunted appear in, among other places, the novel Love for Lydia by H.E. Bates.

It is mentioned in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) when the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a party from his apprenticeship with Mr. Fezziwig:

... the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler ... struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley." Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig.

Additionally, the dance plays a fairly important part in the Dorothy Sayers short story "The Queen's Square".

Sir Roger de Coverley was also a character in The Spectator (1711).

[edit] External links

• The annotated Sir Roger de Coverley
• The Complete System of Sir Roger De Coverley at the Library of Congress Dance Instruction Manual collection
• Joseph Addison and others. The De Coverley Papers from 'The Spectator', available at Project Gutenberg.