Bergamask
![Bergamesca ('The Buffens'), Straloch MS., c. 1600[1] Play .](/uploads/202412/24/Bergamesca2820.png)
![Bergamesca variant, MS. Lute Book, c. 1600[1] Play .](/uploads/202412/24/Bergamesca_a2820.png)
Bergamask, bergomask, bergamesca, or bergamasca (from the town of Bergamo in Northern Italy), is a dance and associated melody and chord progression. It was considered a clumsy rustic dance (cf. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 360) copied from the natives of Bergamo, reputed (according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition) to be very awkward in their manners.