songs … called Justinianas … all written in the Bergamasca language.' See Mids. Nt. Dream 52, 30, where Bottom is not so very inaccurate after all in asking Duke Theseus to 'hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company.' The same author also gives 'Passamesos with a dittie [i.e., sung],' and distinguishes between these aforesaid and 'those kinds which they make without ditties.' [Passamesos are Passing-measures—or Passémezzo—Pavans, see Twelfth Nt. 51, 200.]
Hence it appears that in Elizabeth's reign some dances were sung, and others were simply played.
Morley goes on to instance two particular dances which were commonly associated together—viz., Pavans and Galliards [Tw. 51, 200, 13, 127, H. 5. 12, 252], the first of which he says is for 'grave' dancing, having three 'strains,' each containing 8, 12, or 16 semibreves (two beats in a bar), which are each repeated; and that this Pavan is usually followed by a Galliard, 'a kind of music made out of the other' [see Bull's Pavan and Galliard, 'St Thomas Wake,' in Parthenia], in triple time, 'a lighter and more stirring dance than the Pavan, and consisting of the same number of straines.'
