Country Dances, Two by Two

In the comments to a previous post of mine on the realities of Austen-era country dancing, alison[sic] asked about a scene in Pride and Prejudice:

...when describing the ball to Mr Bennet, Mrs Bennet refers to the dances by what I assumed were the time signatures: "Then the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and the two fifths with Jane again, and the two sixth with Lizzy, and the Boulanger---"  Or does this indicate some sort of dance configuration?

The short answer is that this is the way dances were organized at that time: with each partner, you would perform two dances in series before taking a rest and changing partners.  Thomas Wilson, a noted dancing master (and prolific author) in London during the first quarter of the 19th century, wrote that:

"When the Ball commences, the company should not leave their places, or rest, till after the second Dance.  Should the sets be short, they may Dance three Dances before they rest." 
-- A Companion to the Ball Room, 1816

Rival dancing master G.M.S. Chivers, who disagreed with Wilson whenever he could find an excuse to do so, agreed about this:

"A change of partners should take place (if agreeable) after every two Dances" 
-- The Modern Dancing Master, 1822

and further noted that:

"Any Lady refusing to dance with a Gentleman, if disengaged, will be under the penalty of not joining the two next dances." 
-- A Pocket Companion to the French and English Country Dancing, n.d. (c.1820)

In one of Jane Austen's letters, she wrote of exactly this experience and her (somewhat nervy) choice to sit out:

"One of my gayest actions was sitting down two dances in preference to having Lord Bolton's eldest son for my partner, who danced too ill to be endured."
-- letter to Cassandra, January 8, 1799

Austen was well aware of the consequences of such a refusal, and evidently thought it was worth it to avoid an unpleasant partner.  Elizabeth Bennet is not so lucky (or so willing to defy convention) in Pride and Prejudice when asked by Mr. Collins:

" I take this opportunity of soliciting yours, Miss Elizabeth, for the two first dances especially, "

with predictable results, which Jane Austen probably wrote about from personal experience with men like young Bolton:

"The first two dances, however, brought a return of distress; they were dances of mortification. Mr. Collins, awkward and solemn, apologising instead of attending, and often moving wrong without being aware of it, gave her all the shame and misery which a disagreeable partner for a couple of dances can give."

Dancing a pair of dances with Mr. Darcy resulted in a different kind of awkwardness, though at least he was an accomplished dancer:

"...and she began to imagine that their silence was to last through the two dances..."

Careful reading of other Austen novels reveals characters making similar plans and enjoying their dances in pairs:

"To engage her early for the two first dances was all the command of individual happiness which he felt in his power, and the only preparation for the ball which he could enter into..."
-- Edmund, regarding Miss Crawford, Mansfield Park

“You must dance with me, Fanny; you must keep two dances for me; any two that you like, except the first.”
-- Edmund to Fanny, Mansfield Park

"Her own musings were brought to an end on perceiving Mr. Crawford before her, and her thoughts were put into another channel by his engaging her almost instantly for the first two dances."
-- Fanny at the ball, Mansfield Park

"...and they went down their two dances together with such sober tranquillity as might satisfy any looker"
-- Edmund and Fanny at the ball, Mansfield Park

"May I hope for the honour of your hand for the two first dances of this little projected ball..."
-- Frank Churchill to Emma, Emma

"The two last dances before supper were begun, and Harriet had no partner"
-- also from Emma

Since each dance in a pair could represent a significant amount of time (anywhere from ten or fifteen minutes up to an hour - see some discussion of the length of dances in a previous post and its comments), agreeing to dance with someone represented a significant commitment of time at a ball.  Agreeing to dance twice (two pairs of dances) when there were plenty of other partners available, as Jane and Mr. Bingley did, was very remarkable and significant - that might have meant spending a couple of hours in each other's company, a large part of the entire ball.  Mrs. Bennet was not the only one to notice this and realize what it meant about their feelings for each other!

Comments

[Allison]

This two-dance rule was one that came into favor in Austen's lifetime; in her mother's generation, the convention was to dance the entire evening with one partner.

[Katherine]

Could the two dances be different types of dances? For instance, could the first dance be a country dance and the second be a waltz, or were both of them country dances?

[Susan de Guardiola]

Katherine:
No, we're talking country dances here. They wouldn't even break the set, just send the lead couple to the bottom and have the next couple start the next dance. Remember that in this period waltzing was only just coming into fashion and was still not considered proper in many places. Balls were pretty much an endless string of country dances, perhaps with a minuet at the beginning and a Scotch reel or cotillion interspersed here and there. This pattern didn't really change until the late 1810s, right at the end of Jane Austen's lifetime, when quadrilles and waltzing started turning things topsy-turvy.

[Katherine]

Dancing pairs of country dances seems a bit unequal to the couples who danced a reel. Did gentlemen know before they asked a lady what the dance would be? I imagine if they did and they liked the lady, they would choose a country dance so that they could spend more with her.

[Susan de Guardiola]

I think the dancers would have been requested to form sets for a country dance and would expect that to mean two dances in a row. So they would know what they were getting into by not joining in. Anyone who rudely chose to dance a reel anyway (blatantly disrespectful to the lady calling the dance) would just have to sit out the second one or compound the rudeness by dancing another reel.

Read Pride and Prejudice for the significance of a gentleman asking a lady to dance more than one set of country dances; it was certainly noted as a sign that there was an attraction.