Old measures


Old measures, or simply measures, were a group of dances performed at ceremonial and festive occasions in Early Modern Britain. Some of the dances included in the measures were the pavane and the almain, and dances such as the galliard and the courante are also mentioned as accompanying or following the traditional measures.
The measures are associated with the Inns of Court, the English law schools, as most of the extant sources have been found among the papers of lawyers and law students at the Inns. They are also mentioned in Shakespeare plays such as As You Like It, Richard II, Richard III and Much Ado About Nothing.
One must be wary when one encounters 16th- and 17th-century references to measure or measures, as a measure could refer to a bar, or generically to dancing, as well as to this specific group of dances.

Dances

While sources differ in some of the details, and not all contain all the dances, the vast majority describe the following dances in the following order :
  • Quadran Pavan
  • Turkeylone
  • Earl of Essex
  • Tinternell
  • Old Alman
  • Queen's Almaine
  • Madam Sosilia Alman
  • Black Almaine

Manuscript sources