John Balshaw’s Jigge – Dr Jenni Hyde

Members of the society and several guests were treated to a wonderful talk, or rather a performance, on the subject of John Balshaw’s Jigge on 16^th May.  Dr Jenni Hyde, who is an associate lecturer in the Department of History at Lancaster University, came across this little-known manuscript in the British Library and was fascinated to find that it was written in Brindle at the time of the Restoration.  It is a late example of a jigge, a form of entertainment combining song and dance which was popular in the late Elizabethan period.

The jigge itself, would probably have lasted an hour to 90 minutes when performed and features six characters in a ‘thwarted lovers’ plot, although in this case, the lovers are parliamentarians and royalists.  Despite its importance in shedding light onto theatrical pursuits in that period, Jenni discovered that the jigge had somehow escaped any scholarly attention and a transcript had never been published, despite it providing a valuable insight into the experience of the Civil War, the interregnum and the restoration of the monarchy in rural Lancashire.  

Jenni provided an overview of the characters and the plot, and explained that the jigge would have been sung throughout, a bit like an opera.  To give us a flavour of the language and the type of music used, Jenni sang elements of it, to the delight of the audience, using the original ballad tunes where these could be identified.  She had also spent many hours examining the rhythmic structure of the verses along with any refrains used in order to see if any popular ballads at that time could be made to fit.

We were told that the jigge was important for three reasons.  It is:

• the latest example of a full script
• the only example known to originate from the Northwest of England and
• the only example with a clearly topical and overtly political agenda.

The whole talk was fascinating and shone light onto the conflicting allegiances of the people of Brindle in that period.  It is not clear whether the jigge was ever performed here, but Jenni left us with the intriguing possibility that she might be able to persuade the Lancaster University Theatre Group to set themselves a challenge of performing it here, where it was written, in Brindle!