Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance

Your correspondent Mac asks for the "correct date" of the *Cushion Dance*. Searching out the history and origin of an old custom or ballad is like endeavouring to ascertain the source and flight of December's snow. I am afraid Mac will not obtain what he now wishes for. The *earliest* mention, that I have noticed, of this popular old dance occurs in Heywood's play, *A Woman kill'd with Kindness*, 1600. Nicholas, one of the characters, says: "I have, ere now, deserved a cushion: call for the *Cushion Dance*." The musical notes are preserved in *The English Dancing Master*, 1686; in *The Harmoni…