ABSTRACT
The fact that the dancers each carried a ‘warder’ might suggest that it was these batons which linked the dancers. An arrangement presents the possibility that the warders were used in a way similar to that of the sword dance ceremony. The position of the speech before the entrance of Will’s dancers is also out of keeping with the point at which Mind and Understanding change their names. For both characters, this happens after they have called on stage, by name and in pairs, their respective dancers. Perhaps the choice of women, rather than men, to perform the dance was influenced by a sense of moral propriety but whatever the motive, the identification in the stage direction of the dancers as women is explicit. Whatever the circumstances of subsequent performances, the original production seems to have required an impressive cast of actors, singers, dancers, musicians and small boys.
