Mr Beveridge’s Maggot, what’s that?

Many 18th century dances are known as ‘maggots’: Dick’s Maggot, Jack’s Maggot, My Lord Byron’s Maggot and the famous Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot, aka THE dance from the 1995 series Pride and Prejudice.

The latter is probably the best-known Maggot among dancers and Jane Austen fans.

But have you ever wondered where the title comes from?

What does it mean?

What exactly is a ‘maggot’?

All the answers in this article!

Please notice that this article is a translation of an article originally written in French. That’s why I needed to explain what is a maggot (larva) and a earworm. Being a French native speaker, I write in English as good as I can. Please let me know if you sot any error. thank you!

Mr Beveridge’s Maggot, the dance

The dance Mr Beveridge’s Maggot (which I will abbreviate to Mr B. for ease of reference) was published in John Playford’s collection The Dancing Master. This collection was edited and expanded several times between 1651 and 1728.

The dance in question appears in all editions between 1695 and 1728. The dance was not published thereafter, and is not mentioned elsewhere. Its ‘lifespan’, so to speak, was therefore relatively short.

Did Jane Austen dance it, or even know about it?

A few facts about Jane Austen:

• She was born in 1775 (47 years after the last publication of Mr B. );
• She started going to balls around 1790 (63 years after Mr B. was last published);
• She wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice’ around 1813 (85 years after Mr B.’s last publication).

As you can see, Mr Beveridge’s Maggot is not a dance that Jane Austen could have danced (or made her characters dance).

It would be as if the Lambeth Walk (in its original 1937 version) were a big hit in today’s nightclubs.

In reality, the majority of dances seen in film adaptations of Austenian novels are not dances from Jane Austen’s time (1775-1817). They are much older dances, from the seventeenth century.

I have the impression that in 1995, when the series Pride and Prejudice was being filmed, little was known about English Regency dances. Choreographer Jane Gibson was content to offer some beautiful old dances, such as Hole in the Wall (1695-1728), Upon a summer day (1651-1665) and Jacob Hall’s Jig (1695-1728).

Mr Beveridge’s Maggot is a longways duple minor set for many as will. I talk more about this type of dance and these barbaric expressions in this article.

The original meaning of the word ‘maggot’

As you will have gathered, Mr Beveridge’s Maggot is an anachronistic dance compared to Jane Austen. But that doesn’t stop us from trying to understand the reason for this strange title.

Derived from the Indo-European *math-, maggot in its original meaning means ‘worm, maggot, larva’.

Maggot? We know that the names of English dances are often original, like Old Noll’s Jig, or even downright strange, like Kill him with Kindness…

But still, the meaning of this word is unexpected, to say the least.

What’s more, in modern English, maggot also means a bum or a loser…

Could the sumptuous melody heard in the adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels really be called ‘Mr. Austen’s larva’? or “Mr Beveridge the loser”?

It’s immediately less romantic, you have to admit 🙂

An animal story

As you can imagine, the story doesn’t end there!

In England, there was a popular legend that explained why people are whimsical or grumpy. It was said to be due to a maggot that lived in their heads and nibbled away at their brains, causing mood swings and bizarre whims.

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) refers to this legend.

In the movie, a well-named ‘Maggot’ maggot literally lives inside Emily’s head, serving as the conscience of the wacky young girl’s corpse.

Emily’s character is both dead and whimsical: two good reasons to have a maggot in your head.

From this expression ‘to have a maggot in someone’s head’, the word began to designate a fantasy, a whim, an obsession, which ‘digs’ into its victim’s head like a maggot digs into the ground.

A catchy melody

The word maggot appears in score titles from the end of the seventeenth century and throughout the following century, most often associated with personal names: Draper’s Maggot (1706), My lord Byron’s Maggot (1701) and of course Mr. Beveridge Maggot (1695).

This word refers to the catchy, haunting character of the melody. In modern English, the tune that stays in your head all day is known as an earworm.

Maggot, in the title of a work, can also simply mean ‘in honour of’. The person named may be the creator of the dance, the composer of the melody, or a generous patron of the arts.

The title of this not-to-be-missed dance would therefore be ‘Mr Beveridge’s fantasy’. Or, in a more literary translation: ‘Fantasy for Mr Beveridge’.

Maggot, a style of dance and music?

Many dances and melodies were entitled ‘Maggot’ in the last quarter of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in England.

John Playford’s collection The Dancing Master, from which the dance ‘Mr Beveridge’s Maggot’ is taken, contains around forty maggots.

Most of the maggots are in 3/2, a very special rhythm also known as ‘triple time’. It’s a kind of three-beat hornpipe, typical of English baroque music. The same rhythm can be found in works by Purcell and Handel published at the same time. Or even in Hambleton Round O, my personal earworm.

The fashion for the ‘ternary’ hornpipe, as heady as it was, did not last long: it died out in the first third of the eighteenth century.

Who Mr Beveridge ?

Let’s turn now to the first part of the title, ‘Mr Beveridge’.

Beveridge was a dancing master at the court of Charles II in the 1680s. A certain Isaac held the same position: he gave his name to the dance ‘Mr Isaac’s Maggot’.

These two dancing masters
the success of the three-beat hornpipe.

Unfortunately, these two men left very few traces, and I can’t even give you their dates of birth or death…

Conclusions

Mr Beveridge’s Maggot is a beautiful dance, typical of the beginning of the 18th century. It name comes from a mysterious dance master. The word “maggot” indicates well how the lovely aria stays in your head long after you heard it.

The serie Pride and Prejudice of 1995 made it famous. Yet it is known for sure that Jane Austen (1775-1817) never danced this great dance that was published between 1695 and 1728.

What do you think?

Are you disappointed to know that Jane Austen never danced Mr Beveridge’s Maggot ? Have you already danced it? Would you like to try? Tell me more in the comments!

Sources

 Article « Maggot », Wiktionnaire, https://en.wiktionary.org (as of 2016, May 16th).

Article “Les Noces funèbres”, Wikipédia, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Noces_funèbres (as of 2019, december 14th).

Mark Liberman, « Musical maggots », http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu (online version of 2013, september 5th).

 Michael Quinion, « Maggot » , http://www.worldwidewords.org (online version of 2013, january 5th).

 Eddie, « Miller’s Maggot », http://slowplayers.org (online version of 2014, may 5th).

George S. Emmerson, “The Hornpipe”, in Folk Music Journal, vol. 2, n°1, 1970, pp. 12-34.