Some information about the Playford collection:

For those of you not familiar with Playford, it was the
first collection of popular dance tunes published in the British
Isles.  It was published in London and sold to the English
country dancing market.  Some of the tunes are of Scottish
and Irish origin, however (e.g., "Broom of the Cowdenknowes").

It was a big hit, and it remained in print through various editions
until 1728.

It's not exactly traditional music. It was popular music intended
for an urban audience.  The various editions were updated with the
hits of the day--songs from popular plays and special music used by
professional dancers.  However, quite a lot of the material can be
found in traditional circulation.  Whether this was true before the
publication would be a matter for scholars to debate.

English country dancing is first mentioned in the Elizabethan period.
Some of the tunes were probably at least 100 years old when they
were published.  [Many of the older tunes existed as songs rather than
strictly dance tunes.]

You can find background information and instructions on doing the
dances in "The Playford Ball" by Kate Van Winkle Keller and
Genevieve Shimer (A Cappella Books, 1990).

John Playford (1623-1686) was a successful London music publisher.
A royalist, he kept a low profile during the Commonwealth and came
into political favour with the return of Charles II.  He catered to
the taste of the emerging bourgeois class which preferred country
dancing to the more formal galliards and other formal dances popular 
with the nobility before the Civil War.  His business was carried on
by his son Henry.

The actual title of the work was:

        The English Dancing Master, or, 
        Plaine and easie Rules for the Dancing of Country Dances,
        with the Tune to each Dance

The book also contained instructions for all the dances.  However, the
instructions assume familiarity with the style.  Since there
is not an unbroken tradition of country dancing, modern English
country dancing is an educated reconstruction of the old dances.

The first edition of "The English Dancing Master" contained many modal
tunes, including one in the Phrygian mode.  In later editions, the old
modal tunes were dropped or revised to fit into "modern" major/minor
tonality.

The abc file is from the first edition (1651).

A printed edition is now available from

Dance Horizons, 1801 East 26th St., Brooklyn, New York 11229.
Dance Books Ltd,9 Cecil Court, London WC2N  4EZ, England


The original dance instructions can be found at:

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/org/sca/src/contributed/pc2d@andrew.cmu.edu/dance/playford.html