Light o’ Love. This was an old dance tune, and was a proverbial expression for levity, especially in love matters.[832] In “Much Ado About Nothing” (iii. 4), Margaret says: “Clap’s into ‘Light o’ love;’ that goes without a burden; do you sing it, and I’ll dance it;” to which Beatrice answers: “Yea, light o’ love, with your heels.”
In “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 2), it is alluded to:
“Julia. Best sing it to the tune of ‘Light o’ love.’
Lucetta. It is too heavy for so light a tune.”
In the “Two Noble Kinsmen” (v. 2), we read:
“He’ll dance the morris twenty mile an hour.
And gallops to the tune of ‘Light o’ love.’”
And in Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Chances” (i. 3), Frederic says: “Sure he has encounter’d some light-o’-love or other.”
Pavan. This was a grave and majestic dance, in which the gentlemen wore their caps, swords, and mantles, and the ladies their long robes and trains. The dancers stepped round the room and then crossed in the middle, trailing their garments on the ground, “the motion whereof,” says Sir J. Hawkins, “resembled that of a peacock’s tail.” It is alluded to in “Twelfth Night” (v. 1) by Sir Toby: “A passy-measures pavin,” although the reading of this passage is uncertain, the editors of the “Globe” edition substituting panyn.
It has been conjectured that the “passy-measure galliard,” and the “passy-measure pavan” were only two different measures of the same dance, from the Italian passamezzo.[833]
Roundel. This was also called the “round,” a dance of a circular kind, and is probably referred to by Titania in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (ii. 2), where she says to her train:[834]