Singing Simpkin and Other Bawdy Jigs: Musical Comedy on the Shakespearean Stage: Scripts, Music and Context (Exeter Performance Studies)

A popular crowd pleaser from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, the dramatic jig was a short, comic, bawdy musical-drama that included elements of dance, slapstick, and disguise. For the first time in four hundred years, the lyrics and music notation for nine jigs from this period are presented, as well as an appendix for dance instruction. With Singing Simpkin and Other Bawdy Jigs,the authors provide a comprehensive account of a genre that was highly popular in its day, and demonstrates the influence of jigs on other forms of theater in Shakespearean England.   

Roger Clegg is senior lecturer in drama studies at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.   

Lucie Skeaping presents The Early Music Show each week on BBC Radio 3. She is a writer, musician, performer, and broadcaster.