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 (Act V, scene 4), Richard II (Act III, scene 4), Richard III (Act I, scene 1).

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.

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 (alman, almaine, alleymayne, etc. refer to the same dance type):

Research on the measures has advanced significantly in the last two decades, and readers are advised to consult the most recent works.

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