Roger de Coverley (also Sir Roger de Coverley or ...Coverly) is the name of an English country dance

English Country Dance

English Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of...

 and a Scottish country dance

Scottish country dance

A Scottish country dance is a form of social dance involving groups of mixed couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns according to a predetermined choreography...

 (also known as The Haymakers). An early version was published in The Dancing Master

The Dancing Master

The Dancing Master is a dancing manual containing the music and instructions for English Country Dances. It was published in several editions by John Playford and his successors from 1651 until c1728...

, 9th edition (1695)http://www.izaak.unh.edu/nhltmd/indexes/dancingmaster/Dance/Play4186.htm. The Virginia Reel

Virginia Reel (dance)

The Virginia reel is a folk dance that dates from the 17th century. Though the reel may have its origins in Scottish country dance and the Highland reel, and perhaps have an even earlier influence from an Irish dance called the Rinnce Fada, it is generally considered to be an English country dance...

 is probably related to it. The name refers to a fox, and the dance's steps are reminiscent of a hunted fox going in and out of cover.

It is mentioned in Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

' A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...

 (1843) when the Ghost of Christmas Past

Ghost of Christmas Past

The Ghost of Christmas Past is a character in the well-known work of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.The Ghost of Christmas Past was the first of the three spirits that haunted the miser. Ebenezer Scrooge in order to prompt him to repent...

 shows Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...

 a party from his apprenticeship with Mr. Fezziwig

Fezziwig

Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig are characters featured in the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. Mr. Fezziwig is the owner of a warehouse business; Ebenezer Scrooge and Dick Wilkins worked as apprentices for him. Mr. Fezziwig is a happy, foppish man with a large Welsh wig. In Stave 2 of A...

. "...the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler ... struck up 'Sir Roger de Coverley'. Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig." In the 1951 film Scrooge, based on Dickens's story and starring Alistair Sim in the title role, the fiddler is shown playing the tune at an energetic tempo during the party scene.

It is mentioned also in the book Silas Marner

Silas Marner

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is a dramatic novel by George Eliot. Her third novel, it was first published in 1861. An outwardly simple tale of a reclusive weaver, in its strong realism it represents one of Eliot's most sophisticated treatments of her attitude to religion.-Plot summary:The...

 by George Eliot

George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...

, when the fiddler at the Cass New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

 party plays it to signal the beginning of the evening dancing; it is furthermore mentioned in the children's book The Rescuers

The Rescuers

The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...

 by Margery Sharp

Margery Sharp

Margery Sharp , was an English author. She was a prolific writer in her long career, writing 26 novels for adults, 14 stories for children, 4 plays, 2 mysteries, as well as numerous short stories...

.

The dance plays a part in the Dorothy Sayers short story "The Queen's Square", and is mentioned in Washington Irving

Washington Irving

Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...

's The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., commonly referred to as The Sketch Book, is a collection of 34 essays and short stories written by American author Washington Irving. It was published serially throughout 1819 and 1820...

.

Sir Roger de Coverly also gets a mention in "Stig of the Dump" by Clive King when Barney and his sister attend a fancy dress party.

It is also mentioned in D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...

's Sons and Lovers

Sons and Lovers

Sons and Lovers is a 1913 novel by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. The Modern Library placed it ninth on their list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.-Plot introduction and history:...

 (1913), where Gertrude Morel is reported never to have learned the dance.

The tune was used by Frank Bridge

Frank Bridge

Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...

 in 1922 as the basis of a work for strings titled Sir Roger de Coverly (A Christmas Dance). H. E. Bates

H. E. Bates

Herbert Ernest Bates, CBE , better known as H. E. Bates, was an English writer and author. His best-known works include Love for Lydia, The Darling Buds of May, and My Uncle Silas.-Early life:...

 used the name Sir Roger to refer to a real hunted fox in the novel Love for Lydia

Love for Lydia

Love for Lydia is a semi-autobiographical novel written by British author H. E. Bates, first published in 1952.-Plot:Lydia Aspen, a seemingly shy girl from a wealthy but isolated background, is encouraged by her aunts, her new carers, to discover the delights of growing up...

.

Sir Roger de Coverley was also the name of a character in The Spectator (1711)

The Spectator (1711)

The Spectator was a daily publication of 1711–12, founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England after they met at Charterhouse School. Eustace Budgell, a cousin of Addison's, also contributed to the publication. Each 'paper', or 'number', was approximately 2,500 words long, and the...

. An English squire of Queen Anne

Anne of Great Britain

Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...

's reign, Sir Roger exemplified the values of an old country gentleman, and was portrayed as lovable but somewhat ridiculous ('rather beloved than esteemed' (Spectator no. 2), making his Tory politics seem harmless but silly. He was said to be the grandson of the man who invented the dance.

External links

• The annotated Sir Roger de Coverley
• The Complete System of Sir Roger De Coverley at the Library of Congress Dance Instruction Manual collection