The Canary (or Canaries) was in 6/8 time, and was a lively dance. [Stainer and Barrett's Dict. gives one by Delaborde in 4/4 time.] There are many examples by Lully and other Frenchmen of the 17th century. One of Lully's, in Lajarte's 'Airs à Danser,' dates 1666. There is no history of the name. Skeat says it is so called from the Canary Islands. Hawkins does not attempt to account for the title, but cunningly infers that it is of English origin because it has not got a foreign name. Also he mentions that Purcell wrote a Canaries for his Opera of Dioclesian, 1690. [See [Note on 'Orchésographie.']]
The Canary is also alluded to in two other places, where the lively character of the dance is clear. Mr Ford puns on 'wine,' 'pipe,' and 'canary.' Of course he means whine, pipe (for dancing to), and the Canary that he meant Falstaff to dance.
Wiv. III, ii, 83.
Host. Farewell, my hearts. I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him.
Ford. [aside] I think, I shall drink in pipe-wine first with him; I'll make him dance.
And next, Lafeu connects the canary with 'spritely fire and motion.'
All's Well II, i, 74.
Lafeu. ... I have seen a medicine
That's able to breathe life into a stone,
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
With spritely fire and motion.
There are two specially important passages which mention several dances at one time, so as to give some prominence to their special characteristics—viz., Much Ado II, i, 68, and Twelfth Nt. I, iii, 118.
The budget of dances here named includes—