The English Dancing Master

NB: Though Playford’s name is correctly attached to the book The English Dancing Master as author, Playford was not the composer of the music contained in the book. The tunes used in the book are popular tunes that were collected and printed in the publication. It would be appropriate to refer to Playford as the book’s publisher or editor. 

• The English Dancing Master: or, Plaine and Easie Rules for the Dancing of Country Dances, with the Tune to Each Dance is an instructional manual on dancing and an anthology of English dances and ballads which John Playford compiled and published in London in 1651.
  • You can look at the entire first edition online. 
• Playford registered the book on November 7, 1650 with the Stationers’ Company (an English publishing guild that still exists today). That makes The English Dancing Master the first book Playford officially registered, which might mean it’s the first book he published; scholars are unsure because Playford often failed to register his publications at all.
• The English Dancing Master was an extremely popular work, reprinted many times during and after Playford’s lifetime.¹

1. Margaret Dean-Smith and Nicholas Temperley, “Playford family,” Grove Music Online (2013), accessed October 20, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000043168.