Hello, GUEST,ripov. Your point about hornpipes isn't really (I don't think) connected with the problems of reading non-mensural notation. At some point it became the convention to write hornpipes in the wrong time signature, since they're written in 4/4 but played in 6/8. All this pseudo-mysteriousness we often hear people talk about hornpipe rhythm goes away if we just write them as we play them - in 6/8. That makes the rhythmic proportion right and takes away the need for those triplets. Blues and jazz are different matters, I think, as writing down something that is rhythmically quite free in a form that dictates where the beat lies is always going to be a clash of two media.

Mr. Red, you clearly haven't read the replies above. Since Shakespeare wasn't alive in the middle ages then dance from his period cannot be medieval. I think this is probably obvious.