•■"%iif ,:• 
 
 
 Pi 
 
 m 
 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT -WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1 83 1 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 MUSIC LIBRARY 
 
Cornell university Library 
 
 GV 1601. V98 1898 
 
 Ahistorvo,danc!ngJS,t|;eeajUes.a 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924019236219 
 
A HISTORY OF 
 DANCING 
 
eoyuay. ,JM:i.rbce 
 
A HISTORY OF 
 
 DANCING 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST 
 AGES TO OUR OWN TIMES 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF 
 
 GASTON VUILLIER 
 
 WITH A SKETCH OF DANCING IN TWENTY FULL-PAGE PLATES 
 ENGLAND, BY JOSEPH GREGO AND 409 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 STATUE BY HAMO THORNYCROFT, R.A. 
 
 LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 
 
 Mocccixqviii 
 
 (.01. i^.i; [ ! 
 
A> \^3^^\ 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Sacred Dances — Cybele and Apollo — The Shield of Achilles — The Hyporchema — The 
 Gymnopaedia and the Endymatia — The Hormos and the Pyrrhic Dance — The Bac- 
 chanalia — The Salii — Roman Mimes under the Empire — The Gaditanian Dancers 
 
 I-4S 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Religious Dances — Strolling Ballets — Dances of Chivalry — The ^^ Ballet des Ar- 
 dents " — Bergonzio di Botta's Ballet ......... 
 
 46-69 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Grand Ballet — French Dances of the Close of the Middle Ages., and of the 
 Renaissance — Basse Dances — The Volte — The Gaillarde — The Tordion — Branles — 
 The Pavane ............. 70-107 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Dancing in the '■'■Great Century " — Grand Ballets under Louis XI V. — Masked Balls 
 — The Pavane — The Courante — The Gavotte — The-'Chacone — The Saraband — The 
 Allemande — The Passepied — The Passacaille . . . . . . .108-137 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Dancing under Louis XV. — Painters of Fetes Galantes — Mademoiselle Salle^La 
 Camargo — The Minuet — The Passepied — Noverre and the Ballet — Ga'e'tan and 
 Auguste Vestris . . , 138-170 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Madeleine Guimard — Dancing under Louis XVI. — The Gavotte — The Ballet — Dances 
 and Fetes of the Revolution and the Republic — Balls and Ballets of the Directory, the 
 Empire, and the Restoration — Marie Taglioni ....... 171-206 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Rustic and Pastoral Dances — Rounds — Bourrees — Bretonne Dances — Catalan Bails 
 
 ■ — The Farandole — Open-air Dances'in Foreign Countries ..... 207-236 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Spanish Dances — Danzas and Bayles — The Fandango — The Bolero — The Seguidillas 
 Manchegas — The Jot a Aragonesa — The Jaleo de Jerez — The Cachuca . . . 237-261 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Modern Greek Dances — The Italian Tarantella — Some European Dances — Bayaderes 
 
 and Alm'ees — Savage Dances ...... .... 262-288 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Contemporary Dances — The Waltz — The Galop — The Polka — Cellarius, Markowski, 
 
 and Labor de — The Jardin Mabille — Prit chard, Chicard, and Brididi — ^een Pomar'e 289-3 1 4 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Public Balls — Ranelagh — The Chaumiere — The Sceaux Ball — The Prado — The 
 Delta — The Chateau-Rouge — The lie d' Amour — L'Ortie and Les Acacias — The 
 Mars — The Victoire — The Bourdon — The Bal des Chiens — The Montesquieu — The 
 Valentino — The Jardin d'Hiver — The Lac Saint- Fargeau — The Grand Saint- 
 Martin and the Descente de la Courtille — The Closerie des Lilas — Bullier . . 315-338 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Modern Dancing — Frorn the Second Empire to the present Time^Society Balls — The 
 
 Revival of Old Dances in France and in Foreign Countries ..... 339—360 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A Brief Survey of the Ballets of this Century — Modern Theatrical Dancing — The 
 
 Operatic Corps de Ballet — The Serpentine Dance — The Public Balls of To-day . 361-380 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 17 7 TJ' ^ T\ PAGE 
 
 tarty History of Dancing in Great Britain — Anglo-Saxon Dancing — Norman Dances 
 — Middle Ages — Dances of Knights-Templars and Templars — Dancing under Tudor 
 Sovereigns — James I. and Court Masques — Charles I. and Court Masques — The 
 Commonwealth — Dancing under Charles Il.-^Old May-day Dances — Dancing in 
 the Days of Queen Anne — Bath — Beau Nash as Master of the Ceremonies — His 
 Successors — Masquerades at Madame Comely'' s, Carlisle House — The Pantheon — 
 Ranelagh and Vauxhall Gardens — Almack's Club and Subscription Balls — Famous 
 Dancing-masters and Coryphees of the Eighteenth Century — The Vestris Family — 
 Stage-dancing — Opera Dancers at the King's Theatre — Her Majesty's, from Vestris 
 le Grand to Kate Vaughan 381-415 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 The Jig — Irish Jigs — The Hornpipe — Dancing in Scotland — Under Mary, Queen of 
 Scots — The Reformation — Scotch Reels — Highland Flings — The Ghillie Galium — 
 The Strathspey — English Country Dances — The Cotillion of the Eighteenth Century^ 
 The Modern Cotillion — ^adrilles — The First Set, or Parisian ^adrille — The 
 Lancers — The Caledonians — The Polka — The Waltz— The Minuet — Court Balls — 
 State Balls ............. 416-440 
 
 Index .............. 441-446 
 
 NoTE.^T'A^ Publishers are much indebted to the 'Artists and 
 Owners of Copyright works, who have kindly allowed their reproduction 
 in this volume, especially to Mr. J. McNeil Whistler, Mr. Hamo 
 T'hornycroft, Messrs. Boussod Valadon & Co., Mr. John Murray, 
 and Messrs. Nimmo. Their thanks are also due to Messrs. Durand, 
 of "Paris, for leave to reprint the music of several old French Dances. 
 
CHILDREN DANCING A ROUND 
 
 After A. Bev^ria 
 
 LIST OF PLATES 
 
 Dance, after Carpeaux . ..... 
 
 Salome, after Gustave Moreau 
 
 The Due de Joyeuse's Ball, after Clouet 
 
 Dance throughout the Ages, after Aime Morot . 
 
 The Saraband, after Roybet . ... 
 
 The Pleasures of the Ball, after Watteau . 
 
 Mademoiselle Camargo, after Lancret ... . . 
 
 The Ball, after Augustin de Saint-Aubin ... 
 
 The Arch-Duchess Marie Antoinette in a Ballet danced at Vienn. 
 
 IN 1765 . . . ... 
 
 A Village Wedding, after Teniers .... 
 
 A Village Dance in Brittany, after A. Leleux . 
 
 A Village Wedding, after Taunay 
 
 Before the Bull Fight, after A. Zo . 
 
 La Carmencita, after John Sargent, R.A. 
 
 Neapolitan Peasants returning from a Pilgrimage, after Leopold Robert 
 
 The Bride's Minuet, after Debucourt ..... 
 
 The Cotillion, after Stewart ....... 
 
 RosiTA Mauri in "La Korrigane " . ... 
 
 Miss Connie Gilchrist, after J. McNeil Whistler 
 
 The Cyprians' Ball at the Argyle Rooms, after an Engraving 
 
 Robert Cruikshank ........ 
 
 Front 
 
 isfiece 
 
 To face page ^O 
 
 
 74 
 
 
 100 
 
 
 128 
 
 
 140 
 
 
 152 
 
 
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 )i 
 
 182 
 
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 tf 
 
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 n 
 
 232 
 
 )) 
 
 238 
 
 J. 
 
 256 
 
 rt 
 
 266 
 
 )) 
 
 290 
 
 jj 
 
 35+ 
 
 J5 
 
 364 
 
 )? 
 
 412 
 
 430 
 
THE MINUET 
 
 After L. Schmutzler 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Origin of Dancing — Dancing throughout the Ages— General Survey 
 
 ROM the first formation of societies," says Jean Jacques 
 Rousseau, " Song and Dance, true children of Love and 
 Leisure, became the amusement, or rather the occupation, 
 of idle assemblies of men and women." 
 Like Poetry and Music, to which it is closely allied, Dancing, 
 properly so-called — the choregraphic art, that is to say — was probably 
 unknown to the earliest ages of humanity. Savage man, wandering 
 in forests, devouring the quivering flesh of his spoils, can have known 
 nothing of those rhythmic postures which reflect sweet and caressing 
 sensations entirely alien to his moods. The nearest approach to such 
 must have been the leaps and bounds, the incoherent gestures, by which 
 he expressed the joys and furies of his brutal life. 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 But when men began to form themselves into groups, this artless impulse 
 became more flexible ; it accepted rules and submitted to laws. 
 
 Dancing, a flower of night, is said to have germinated under the skies 
 of the Pharaohs ; tradition speaks of rounds, symbolic of sidereal motion, 
 circling beneath the stars on the august soil of Egypt, mighty mother of the 
 world. It manifested itself at first in sacred sciences, severe and hieratic ; 
 yet even then it babbled brokenly of joy and grief in the processions of 
 Apis. 
 
 Later on, in the course of ages, it became interwoven with all the 
 manifestations of popular life, reflecting the passions of man, and translating 
 the most secret movements of the soul into physical action. From the 
 solemnity of religious rites, from the fury of warfare, it passed to the 
 gaiety of pastoral sports, the dignity and grace of polished society. It took 
 on the splendour of social festivities, the caressing and voluptuous languors 
 of love, and even dolefully followed the funeral train. 
 
 As early as the year 2545 b.c. we find traces of the choregraphic art. 
 Hieratic dances, bequeathed by the priests of ancient Egypt, were held in 
 high honour among the Hebrews. 
 
 But no antique race gave themselves up so eagerly to the art as the 
 Greeks. The word " dancing " gives us but a feeble idea of their conception 
 of the art. With them it was Nomas or Orchesis, the art of expressive 
 gesture, governing not only the movement of the feet, but the discipline of 
 the body generally, and its various attitudes. Gait, movement, even 
 immobility, were alike subject to its laws. To them it was, In fact, a 
 language, governing all movements, and regulating them by rhythm. 
 
 In Greece, cradle of the arts and of legend, the Muses manifested 
 themselves to man as a radiant choir, led by Terpsichore. 
 
 On the slopes of Olympus and Pelion, the chaste Graces mingled 
 with forest Nymphs In Rounds danced under the silvery light of the moon. 
 Hesiod saw the Muses treading the violets of Hippocrene under their 
 alabaster feet at dawn In rhythmic measure. Fiction Interlinked Itself 
 with reality : mad with joy, Bacchantes whirled about the staggering 
 Sllenus, and the daughters of Sparta eagerly imitated the martial exercises 
 of their warriors. 
 
 A whole world of dreams peopled the poetic Greece of long ago. In the 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 hush of forests, before sacred altars, in sunshine, under star-light, bands 
 of maidens crowned with oak-leaves, garlanded with flowers, passed 
 dancing in honour of Pan, of Apollo, of Diana, of the Age of Innocence, 
 and of chaste wedlock. 
 
 The Romans imitated the Greeks in all the arts, borrowing their dances 
 just as _ they adored their gods. But primitive Rome was still barbaric 
 when the arts were, shining in incomparable splendour ir^ Greece. 
 
 Romulus had given a sort of savage choregraphy to Rome. Nuhia 
 instituted a solemn religious dance, practised only by the Salian priests. 
 
 The arts of Greece soon degenerated after their migration to Rome. 
 The virginal dances of early Greece, the feasts of sacred mysteries, the 
 Feast of Flora, so lovely in its first simplicity of joy in the opening 
 flowers and caressing sunshine of returning spring, became unrecognisable, 
 serving as pretexts for every kind of licence. 
 
 ~ Theatrical dancing, howeve^, attained ^ extraordinary perfection among 
 the Romans, and pantomime, an art unknown to the Greeks, had its 
 birth among their rivals. 
 
 After centuries of folly, which brought about the downfall of the 
 great race, the art of dancing disappeared. 
 
 It is to be trace.d again during the persecutions of the early Church, 
 moving among the solitary retreats of the first Christians, who, no 
 doubt, bore in mind the sacred dances of the Hebrews. In the Church 
 of St., Pancras at Rome there still exists a sort of stage, separated 
 from the altar, on which, we are told, priests and- worshippers joined in 
 measures led by their Bishop. These traditional rites, derived from the 
 Scriptures, and perpetuated by an artless faith, degenerated in their turn, 
 and served at last as pretexts for impure spectacles. 
 
 A papal decree of 744 abolished dancing round churches"" and in 
 cemeteries. 
 
 A reflection from these sacerdotal dances gleams out again long afterwards 
 in the Castle of St. Angelo itself, where a nephew of Sixtus IV. composed 
 ballets, and at the Council of Trent, which concluded with a ball of 
 Cardinals and Bishops. 
 
 Meanwhile the darkness of night had fallen on the history of secular\ 
 dancing, a darkness that endured for centuries. We know that Childe- 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 bert proscribed it in his dominions. We know, too, that the Gauls and 
 the Franks, more especially the former, were much addicted to courtly and 
 pastoral dancing. 
 
 At the Court of France, the origin of dancing is dimly associated 
 with the rise of chivalry. The documents referring to it are rare and 
 dubious. Still, we divine that the Middle Ages formed one of the most 
 curious epochs in French dancing. Tales of chivalry speak constantly pf 
 warriors who, without laying aside their harness, danced to measures 
 chanted by ladies and maidens. 
 
 Apres la panse vient la danse (after good cheer comes dancing), says 
 an old Gallic proverb, which seems to show that it was customary to dance 
 after a feast. We know that each province had its characteristic dances, 
 which the lower orders practised with great vigour. Among these were 
 Rounds and Branles, the Bourrees of the peasants of Auvergne, Minuets, 
 the Farandoles of Languedoc, the Catalan Bails, &c. Two of these early 
 dances have survived to our own times under the names of the Carillon de 
 Dunkerque and the Boulangere. 
 
 During the interval when dancing found a refuge in the rural districts 
 of France, enlivening popular festivals and delighting domestic gatherings, 
 masquerades were the favourite amusement of the Court. They denatur- 
 alised the original dances of chivalry, but, on the other hand, they constituted 
 the first expression of the ballet. 
 
 In spite of the sinister catastrophe known as the "Ballet des Ardents, 
 masquerades remained in favour for two centuries, and the character of 
 dancing was but very gradually modified. 
 
 Meanwhile Italy, under the impulse given by the Medici, awoke to a 
 knowledge of the literature and arts of ancient Greece and Rome. Thanks 
 to these, choregraphy revived once more, after a slumber of several 
 centuries. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw it flourishing at 
 every Court. Under the patronage of Louis XIIL, of Richelieu, and of 
 Henry IV., it took on a peculiarly French character. 
 
 The dances in vogue at the French Court were the Pavane, a grave, 
 solemn, almost haughty measure, and the Courante. 
 
 Dancing had followed Catherine de' Medici to France, and formed a 
 feature of all the festivities she organised with so much splendour. But 
 
INTRODUCTION xlii 
 
 the stateliness that had marked it among the cloaks and heavy swords of 
 knights, and the long gem-laden robes of ladies, gave way to a liveliness, an 
 animation, a certain voluptuous character under Italian influences. This 
 influence of Catherine's not only added splendour to Court functions, but 
 spread a taste for dancing throughout France. The Queen, moreover, 
 organised allegorical ballets, thus laying the foundations of opera, which 
 the Romans in some sort foreshadowed in their declamation of poems to 
 the rhythmic sound of instruments. 
 
 Raising the character of masquerades by associating them more closely 
 with the arts of music and dancing, Catherine de' Medici further brought 
 about the evolution of the masked ball. 
 
 This same period, too, gave birth to those Dances of Death imagined 
 by .Albert Diirer, Orcagna, and Holbein, sinister allegories masking the 
 bitterest satires, terrible utterances of the oppressed, claiming equality at 
 least in death. 
 
 We come now to that great century when all the arts burst forth into 
 dazzling blossom, when everything seemed to flash and quiver under a 
 novel impulse. Hitherto, the theatre had ministered only to the amusement 
 of the Court; it now opened its doors to the populace, and the populace 
 entered with delight. Women made their first appearance on the stage. 
 Louis XIV. founded the Academy of Dancing, and, anxious to give a new 
 prestige to the art, he himself took part in the Court ballets. But the fairy 
 pageants of his youthful reign disappeared during his dreary and devout 
 old age. 
 
 Spectacles and dances, less solemn in character, but infinitely more 
 refined and exquisite, came into vogue again under the Regency, and 
 during the reigns of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. This was the epoch 
 of the coquettish Gavotte and the graceful Minuet, the apogee of 
 elegance. 
 
 The dances of the eighteenth century had a charm all their own ; with 
 their supple and rhythmic grace they combined a dignity which surrounded 
 man, and, in a still greater degree, woman, >with an atmosphere of beauty. 
 A constellation of dancers, male and female, gave a dainty grace hitherto 
 unknown to the dances of the eighteenth century. 
 
 But there was a fearful morrow to those days of supreme elegance and 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 careless gaiety which, as we look back upon them now through the trans- 
 parent gauze of a century, seem to shimmer with a thousand tantalising and 
 delicate tints — days like some sweet vision, in which coquettish marquises, 
 powdered and jasmine-scented, smiled unceasingly as in the rosy pastels 
 bequeathed to us by the masters of their times. The roar of Revolution 
 broke in upon the dream ; kings, women, and poets were dragged on 
 tumbrils to the scaffold, while cannon thundered along the frontiers. 
 
 And yet dancing went on, but now it was the sinister dancing of the 
 red-capped Carmagnole to the refrain of Ca ira. Men and women danced 
 round the scaffold, their feet stained with blood. A strange frenzy seemed 
 to have taken possession of the nation. Did they seek oblivion in move- 
 ment, a diversion from misery, horror, and alarms \ Twenty-three theatres 
 and eighteen hundred public balls were open every evening immediately 
 after the Terror. Women attended them clad in the garments of ancient 
 Greece, with sandalled feet and bare breasts and arms. 
 
 The Empire was hardly favourable to the development of dancing. 
 But soldiers danced on the eve of battle, eager to forget the dangers of 
 the morrow, and a certain number of official balls took place during the 
 Consulate of Bonaparte and the reign of Napoleon. 
 
 After a feverish interval, while Napoleon's star faded on the horizon of 
 the world, two planets rose in the firmament of Opera — Taglioni and Fanny 
 Elssler. Other stars succeeded them, but never eclipsed their radiance. 
 
 The Tuileries were far from gay under Louis XVIII. and Charles X. ; 
 but after some preliminary dancing on M. de Salvandy's famous volcano, 
 choregraphy made its appearance again in the King's household in 1830, 
 
 And while the Valse a deux temps and the Galop (introduced from 
 Hungary) whirled and eddied in Parisian ball-rooms, the elite of society 
 often assembled at the magnificent balls given at the Tuileries and the 
 English and Austrian Embassies. 
 
 A veritable revolution took place in dancing at this period. The 
 middle classes developed a passion for balls, which had hitherto been 
 confined almost exclusively to the aristocracy, save for the rustic festivals 
 of country districts. Unable, however, to enjoy the amusement in their 
 own small rooms, dancers soon flocked to public saloons, and waltzed at 
 Ranelagh, at Beaujon, at Sceaux and at Tivoli. 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 These balls, which became famous for their splendour, and the distinc- 
 tion of the society frequenting them, were imitated on a humbler scale by 
 the students and grisettes who danced the Cancan and the Chahut at the 
 Chaumiere, the Prado, Mabille, and the Closerie des Lilas. 
 
 Waltzing and Galoping were practised with furious energy. Pritchard, 
 tall, lean, dark and taciturn ; Chicard of the ruddy countenance ; Brididi 
 the graceful ; Mogador, Clara Fontaine, Rigolboche, and above all, Pomare, 
 became the kings and queens of Paris. 
 
 Another overwhelming revolution took place in 1844 with the intro- 
 duction of the Polka, which invaded saloons, drawing-rooms, shops, and 
 even the streets. The Waltz and the Galop were forsaken, and Polka- 
 mania set in. Cellarius and Laborde fostered the public enthusiasm. And 
 all Paris laughed gleefully when Levassor and Grassot danced the Polka at 
 the Palais-Royal, 
 
 Presently Markowski arrived on the scene, glorified by a halo of 
 traditions. He brought the Mazurka. He created the Schottische, the 
 Sicilienne, the Quadrille of the Hundred Guards, in which Mogador 
 excelled, and the Folly of Dance shook her bells unceasingly from dark to 
 dawn. 
 
 Opera-balls took on a new splendour under the sway of Musard. 
 People braved suffocation in the crowded auditorium to see the King of 
 the Quadrille, as he was called, conducting a huge orchestra, among the 
 effects of which the noise of breaking chairs, and the detonation of fire- 
 arms, were introduced at regular intervals ! Musard is said to have 
 produced extraordinarily sonorous sounds by these means. 
 
 Dancing still flourished under the Second Empire. The Court balls 
 were magnificent functions, but the public balls were deserted one by one, 
 and gradually disappeared. The old Closerie des Lilas is transformed 
 into BuUier, Mabille no longer exists. We have the Moulin Rouge still, 
 but it has little of the frank gaiety of the original public ba,ll. 
 
 The Waltz and the Cotillion still reign in our ball-rooms, but modern 
 Greece, more faithful than ourselves to its choregraphic traditions, retains 
 the Candiota graven on the shield of Achilles, and traces of those Pyrrhic 
 dances which led the Spartans to victory. 
 
 In this brief summary of the History of 'Dancing, we have concerned 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 ourselves primarily with classic and with French dancing. In the course 
 of the work we propose to deal more fully with the dances of the East, 
 of Spain, of Italy, and of the various other European countries in which 
 we have been able to trace the records of the art. We shall also have 
 something to say about savage dances. 
 
 We shall pass in review dances impregnated with the voluptuous 
 traditions of the Moors, such as the Fandango and the Bolero, the lively 
 and impassioned Tarantella, the frenzied measures of the Bayaderes, the 
 amorous languors of the Almees, and the curious rites of various tribes. 
 
 In the brief sketch we have now made, the reader will have observed 
 that Dancing, born with the earliest human societies, identified with every 
 form of worship, has followed in the wake of progress, and developed 
 with it. More enduring than the stone of monuments, in spite of its 
 airy and diaphanous nature. Dancing has left its traces among all peoples, 
 all customs, all religions, and still survives among us to some extent. 
 
 Dancing, like all human institutions, has obeyed the law of eternal 
 reaction. It disappeared, and burst forth into life again. It seems now 
 to have entered on another phase of decline. 
 
 But the sun will shine out once more, and Dancing will revive. 
 
r • T 
 "^'"^ .iff,,, r^l^'t^ 
 
 < I'v', aL^^at. / 
 
 FRAGMENT OF AN EGYPTIAN FRESCO 
 
 In the British Museum 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DANCING AMONG THE EGYPTIANS, THE HEBREWS, 
 AND THE GREEKS 
 
 Sacred Dances — Cybele and Apollo — The Shield of Achilles — The Hyporchema — 
 
 The Gymnopaedia and the Endymatia — The Hormos and the Pyrrhic 
 
 Dance — The Bacchanalia — The Salii — Roman Mimes under 
 
 the Empire — The Gaditanian Dancers 
 
 S we have already pointed out in our introduction, the art of \ 
 dancing had its dawn under an Egyptian sky. 
 
 In sacred pageants dating back to the very beginnings 
 of history, dancing makes a vague appearance as an expression 
 of the immutable order and harmony of the stars. Its earliest movements, 
 as in the cadenced swingings of the censer, rocked the shrines of the gods. 
 Its first steps were guided by priests before the great granite sphinxes, the 
 colossal hypogea, the monstrous columns, and high pediments of their 
 temples.* 
 
 The mysterious grandeur of these sacred dances, symbolising the 
 
 * In assigning the origin of dancing to Egypt, I speak only of such dances as have left 
 any trace behind. But it is certain that dancing was born with man, and that from the 
 beginning it has been allied to gesture. Lucian wrote long ago : " "We are not to believe 
 that saltation is of modern invention, born recently, or even that our ancestors saw its 
 beginning. Those who have spoken with truth of the origin of this art aiBrm that it takes 
 its birth from the time of the creation of all things, and that it is as old as Love, the most 
 ancient of the gods." A modern writer, Bernardin de St. Pierre, says : " Pantomime is 
 
 A 
 
2 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 harmony of the stars, charmed the spirit of Plato. Castil-Blaze, our 
 contemporary, tells us that when one of these astronomical dances took 
 place, the altar in the centre of the Egyptian temple stood for the orb 
 of day, while dancers representing the signs of the zodiac, the seven 
 
 EGYPTIAN FIGURE DANCES 
 
 planets, the constellations, performed the revolution of the celestial bodies 
 around the sun. 
 
 Apis, the black bull, strange and divine, with the snow-white forehead, 
 and the scarabseus on his tongue, fed by naked priestesses from vessels of 
 ivory, was honoured by special dances. Even the grief caused by his 
 death was expressed in funeral ballets. 
 
 Ritual dances, a legacy of the priests of ancient Egypt, were highly 
 esteemed by the Hebrews. Moses caused a solemn ballet to be danced after 
 the passage of the Red Sea. David danced before the ark of the covenant : 
 
 the first language of man ; it is known to all nations ; it is so natural and so expressive 
 that the children of white parents learn it rapidly when they see it used by negroes." 
 
HEBREW DANCES 3 
 
 " Praise the Lord with the sound of the trumpet," says the Scripture ; 
 " praise Him with the psaltery and harp ; praise Him with the timbrel and 
 the dance." 
 
 The choir of the temple at Jerusalem, like those of all other Hebrew 
 temples, was reserved for dancing. It formed a sort of stage, where the 
 
 
 
 
 
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 PROCESSION OF APIS 
 
 After a Picture by Bridgman 
 
 Levites, a sacred tribe, sang as they danced to the sound of stringed and 
 wind instruments. 
 
 The Hebrews were also familiar with less serious dances, performed at 
 public ceremonies by the virgins of Israel. We learn in the Book of 
 Judges that the daughter of Jephthah met her father with players of 
 timbrels and with dancers. The Book of Kings tells how women came 
 out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to the sound of cytheras, 
 flutes and tabrets, when David had slain Goliath the Phihstine. The 
 daughters of Shila were engaged in a joyous dance when the young men 
 of Benjamin carried them off. The Maccabees instituted dances in honour 
 of the restoration of the Temple, and Judith, bringing back the head of 
 Holofernes, was welcomed by dancers. 
 
 Most of the psalms show traces of the religious dances of the Hebrews, 
 
A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 
 I ^l'' 
 
 l*^ 'k '«,/ y i 
 
 They performed these dances at three great festivals : the Feast of May, ] 
 
 the Feast of Harvest, and 
 the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 Of these, the last was the 
 most imposing. They also 
 danced around the golden 
 calf. 
 
 We have already re- 
 marked that no people of 
 antiquity were more addicted 
 to dancing than the Greeks. 
 " So much," said Galen, " do 
 
 they give themselves up to 
 this pleasure, with such ac- 
 tivity do they pursue it, that 
 the necessary arts are neg- 
 lected." 
 
 DAVID DANCING BEFORE THE ARK 
 
 After Domeoichino 
 
 We have also stated that 
 in Greece dancing was an actual language, interpreting all sentiments 
 and all passions. Aris- 
 totle speaks of saltators 
 whose dances mirrored 
 the manners, the pas- 
 sions, and the actions 
 of men. So that in his 
 time — that is to say, 
 about three hundred 
 years before the Augus- 
 tan era — there were mi- 
 metic dances among the 
 Greeks. Here, too, as 
 in Egypt and in Pales- 
 tine, dancing always held 
 a prominent place in 
 religious ceremonial. It J"T^"lTn ■ 
 
 C ^ After Hans Schaufelem 
 
ATHENIAN DANCES 
 
 s 
 
 CLASSIC DANCE 
 
 was even included among gymnastics, and was accounted a military 
 exercise.* 
 
 In the time of Aristophanes it was prescribed by physicians. It gave 
 charm to banquets and animation to every festivity. The Athenian festivals, 
 in which dancing 
 was a feature, 
 were innumer- 
 able. In addition 
 to the Pythian 
 games, we hear of 
 the Nemasan, and 
 the Isthmian ; 
 the Agraulia, held 
 in honour of the 
 daughter of Ce- 
 crops, the feasts 
 of Adonis and of 
 
 Ajax, the Aloa, rustic rejoicings in honour of Ceres, the Amarynthia, in 
 honour of Diana. We note further the Anakeia of Castor and Pollux, 
 the Androgeonia, or funeral feasts, the festivals of Bacchus or Anthesteria, \ 
 the Apaturia of Jupiter and Minerva, and others sacred to Pallas, ^sculapius, 
 Diana and Apollo, the Boreasmi, the object of which was to appease Boreas, 
 the Feast of Oxen, the Feast of the Earth, the Feast of Strange Gods, the 
 
 * " The Greeks applied the term ' dancing ' to all measured movements, even to military- 
 marching." — (Butteux.)~ 
 
 The wonderful legislator, Lycurgus, attached the highest importance to dancing. He 
 established many exercises for the physical training of warlike youth, and among these 
 dancing had a foremost place. 
 
 The education of the Spartans in particular consisted of an incessant bodily training ; 
 and " they danced " in advancing upon the enemy. 
 
 " Noverre correctly says that what we call dancing, our French dancing, was wholly 
 unknown to the ancients, except in so far as their buffoons and rope-dancers made use of 
 our entrechats, pirouettes, and jetes forwards and backwards. I think with him, that when 
 the word ' dancing ' occurs in an old author it should nearly always be translated by 
 'gesticulation,' 'declamation,' or 'pantomime'; just as the word 'music' should be in 
 most cases rendered by ' philosophy,' ' theology,' ' poetry.' When we read that an actress 
 'danced' her part well in the tragedy of Medea, that a carver cut up food 'dancing,' that 
 Heliogabalus and Caligula 'danced ' a discourse or an audience of state, we are to under- 
 stand that they — actress, carver, emperor — declaimed, gesticulated, made themselves 
 understood in a language without words." — (A. Baron : Lettres sur la Danse.) 
 
A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Feast of Citizens killed in Battle, the Feast of the Muses, the Celebration of 
 the victory at Marathon, the Feast of Naxos, the Triumph of Pallas over 
 
 Neptune, the Feast of 
 Craftsmen, the Feast of 
 the Morn. 
 
 All the Feasts of Bac- 
 chus began with dances 
 and rhythmic leaping. 
 According to Strabo, no 
 sacrifice was offered in 
 Delos without dancing 
 and music. The very 
 poets danced as they sang 
 or recited their verses : 
 whence they came to be 
 called "dancers." Lucian 
 consecrated a dialogue to 
 the art. Pindar gives 
 Apollo the title of the 
 Dancer. Simonides said, 
 "Dancing is silent poetry." 
 Homer thought so 
 highly of the art that in 
 the Iliad he gives it the 
 epithet " irreproachable." 
 It played an important part in the Pythian games, representations which 
 may be looked upon as the first utterances of the dramatic Muse, for they 
 were divided into five acts, and were composed of poetic narrative, of 
 imitative music performed by choruses, and finally, of dances. Such, at 
 least, is Scaliger's opinion. Lucian assures us that if dancing formed no 
 part of the programme in the Olympian games, it was because the Greeks 
 thought no prizes could be worthy of the art. At a later period, however, 
 the Colchians admitted it into their public games, and this custom was 
 generally adopted by the Greeks, the Romans, and nearly all other 
 nations. 
 
 A DANCE OF NYMPHS 
 
 From an Engraving by Massard after Ch, Eisen 
 
GREEK LOVE OF DANCING 
 
 In his odes Anacreon reiterates that he is always ready to dance. Plato 
 smiled to see Socrates stand up with Aspasia. 
 Aristides danced at a banquet given by Dio- 
 nysius of Syracuse. 
 
 Homer says that Vulcan, to please the 
 gods, who loved dancing, forged some golden 
 figures that danced of themselves. 
 
 In his picture of an ideal Republic, Plato 
 insists on the importance of music, for the 
 regulation of the voice, and of the importance 
 of dancing, for the acquisition of noble, har- 
 monious and graceful attitudes. 
 
 The Greeks danced everywhere and on 
 any pretext. They danced in the temples, 
 the woods, the fields. Every event of interest 
 to the family, every birth, every marriage, 
 every death, was the occasion of a dance. 
 The returning seasons were welcomed with dancing, and harvest, and the 
 vintage. Was it not while dancing at a festival of Diana that the .beautiful 
 Helen was carried off by Theseus and Pirithoiis ? Dancers, treading an 
 intricate measure, imitated the endless windings of that devious labyrinth 
 whose liberating clue Ariadne gave to Theseus.* 
 
 Cybele, the mother of the Immortals, taught dancing to the Corybantes 
 in Greece upon Mount Ida, and to the Curetes in the island of Crete.f 
 And it was in Greece that Apollo, by the mouth of his priestesses, dictated 
 choregra'phic laws, even as he revealed those of music and of poetry. 
 
 " Vulcan, the lame god," says Homer in the Iliad, " engraved on the 
 shield of Achilles such a dance as Dasdalus had composed for Ariadne 
 
 THE RING DANCE 
 
 After Gdr6me 
 
 * Homer describes a dance like that which Dsedalus invented for Ariadne. Meursius, 
 who calls it yepavos, attributes its invention to Theseus, about 1 300 years before the 
 Augustan era. In the midst of the dancers (says Homer) were two saltators who sang the 
 adventures of Dsedalus, supplementing their singing by gestures, and explaining in paijto- 
 mime the subject of the whole performance ; for which reason, doubtless, the saltators were 
 set in the centre of the dancers. — (De Laulnaye : De la Saltation fh'eatrale.) 
 
 t Certain authors give the name of ^evimkms, or " armed," to the dance of the Curetes. 
 This dance was instituted by Rhea to prevent Saturn from hearing the cries of Jupiter in 
 his cradle. The priests of Cybele were called Ballatores. 
 
8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 of the abundant tresses, and had revealed at Cnossus. Here were to be 
 seen young men and maidens holding each other's hands as they danced 
 with cunning and rhythmic steps. The girls wore nothing but a drapery 
 
 of the lightest tex- 
 ture ; the young 
 men, all ashine with 
 the oil rubbed in at 
 the gymnasium, had 
 tunics of a stouter 
 material. From 
 their silver baldricks 
 hung swords enrich- 
 ed with gold ; and 
 their companions had 
 wreathed their brows 
 with garlands of 
 flowers". First they 
 danced in a ring, 
 imitating the circular 
 motion of the pot- 
 ter's wheel, when, 
 seated on his stool, 
 he tries it, before making it turn rapidly. Then, breaking up the circle, 
 they formed various figures. Round them was a great concourse of people, 
 and in their midst were two saltators who, with skilful gestures, executed 
 a special dance, interspersed with songs." 
 
 Priapus, one of the Titans, educated the god of war ; before instructing 
 him in swordsmanship, he taught him how to dance. 
 The Heroes followed the example of the gods. 
 
 Theseus celebrated his victory over the Minotaur with dances. 
 Castor and Pollux created the Caryatis, a nude dance performed by 
 Spartan maids on the banks of the Eurotas. The Thessalians gave 
 their magistrates the title of " Proorchesteres " ; that is to say, "dance 
 leaders." 
 
 The nation raised a statue to Elation for having danced the war-dance 
 
 DANCING NYMPHS, ON A VASE IN THE LOUVRE 
 
DANCERS HIGHLY HONOURED IN GREECE 9 
 
 well. Sophocles danced round the trophies taken at the battle of Salamis, 
 accompanying himself on the lyre. 
 
 Dancing lent its charm to the banquets of ancient Greece, as is shown 
 by Homer in the eighth book of the Odyssey and by corroborative authors. 
 Socrates and Plato eulogised the art. Athenaeus tells us that Antiochus and 
 Ptolemasus practised it with ardour, and sometimes publicly, ^schylus and 
 
 TERrSICHORE 
 
 From a Picture by Schiitzenberger in the Musee du Luxembourg 
 
 Aristophanes danced in public in their own plays. According to Cornelius 
 Nepos, Epaminondas was a proficient dancer. Philip of Macedon married 
 a dancer, by whom he had a son who succeeded Alexander. Nicomedes, 
 King of Bithynia, was the son of a dancing-girl. Aristodemus, a celebrated 
 dancer, was sent as an ambassador to Philip of Macedon. 
 
 This art was so esteemed in Greece that chorus-masters or leaders were 
 recruited among the first citizens of the commonwealth ; they always pre- 
 sided over the festivals in which gods and heroes were honoured.* 
 
 * Homer describes a warrior taunted as follows : " Meriones, good dancer as you are, 
 this spear would have slain you if. . . ." — {Iliad, xvi. 603.) 
 
 "Choruses of dancers were very common in Athens. They engaged in frequent com- 
 petitions, at the close of which the victors were crowned with all imaginable pomp. The 
 
 B 
 
 V 
 
lO 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The Greeks called skilful dancers the sages of the foot and of the hand, 
 because their gestures expressed the mysteries of Nature. 
 
 Athenaeus declared that the Arcadians were always a wise people, because 
 they practised the art of dancing up to the age of thirty. The best Greek 
 
 dancers were, 
 indeed, recruited 
 among the Arca- 
 dians. 
 
 Among the 
 Greeks, the limbs 
 and the body 
 spoke. 
 
 "Strategy 
 sprang from the 
 Pyrrhic and other 
 warlike dances," 
 says Elie Reclus. 
 
 Paintings upon 
 vases, bas-reliefs 
 
 ^' 
 
 } 
 
 STATUETTE FOUND AT MYRINA 
 
 In the Louvre 
 
 of marble, of 
 stone, of brass. 
 
 STATUETTE FOUND AT MYRINA 
 
 In the Louvre 
 
 the Tanagra statuettes, in their grace and purity of form, have transmitted 
 to us (as have also ancient poets and authors) the different formulas of 
 the Greek dances. These, very numerous indeed, were all derived from 
 three fundamental types : the sacred, the military, and the profane. 
 
 The sacred . dances must have been inspired by Orpheus on his return- 
 from Egypt; their grave and mysterious style long preserved the impress 
 of their origin. According to Professor Desrat, they had much in common . 
 with the Branles and Rondes of the Middle Ages. Their nomenclature is 
 
 chorus-master or leader, called 'choregus,' was a personage of the highest importance." — 
 (De Laulnaye : De la Saltation theatrale.') 
 
 The art was even a safeguard for the honour of husbands. Agamemnon, departing for 
 Troy, established a dancer with Clytemnestra to amuse her. Now ^gisthus fell madly in 
 love with the queen. But the dancer watched over her, turning the lover into ridicule, 
 caricaturing his attitudes. Before succeeding in his courtship, ^gisthus had to 'kill the 
 dancer. 
 
GREEK SACRED DANCES 
 
 1 1 
 
 extensive. We shall mention only the most important, those around which 
 the secondary dances grouped themselves. They are : 
 
 The Emmeleia. 
 
 The Hyporchema (or Hyporcheme). 
 
 The Gymnopaedia. 
 
 The Endymatia. 
 
 RUSTIC DANCE 
 
 After A. Hirsch 
 
 The Emmeleia was the class-name of a group of dances essentially 
 sacred.* 
 
 According to Plato, this group had that character of gentleness, 
 gravity, and nobility suitable to the expression of the sentiments with 
 which a mortal should be penetrated when he invoked the gods. But 
 
 * These dances were of the highest antiquity. Common opinion attributed their origin 
 to the Satyrs, ministers of Bacchus. Some writers hold the Cordax (o Kopta^) to have been 
 
12 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 this dance, which was marked by extraordinary mobility, had also a heroic 
 and tragic cast. It set forth grace, majesty, and strength. It produced a 
 deep effect upon spectators, 
 
 Orpheus, from his recollections of the priestly ceremonies of Sa'is and 
 of Colchis, transmitted the laws of choregraphy to Greece. But the strains 
 
 A PASTORAL 
 
 After Bouguereau 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod, Valadon and Co. 
 
 of his enchanted lyre must have modified the primitive cadences, creating 
 new rhythms, and movements more in accord with the genius of the race 
 to whom he revealed them. Nor were the Greeks slow to surpass their 
 masters. The Emmeleia embraced (according to Butteux, Desrat, and others) 
 several dances of a tragic cast, and was danced without the support of a 
 chorus or of the voice. 
 
 derived from the Hyporchema. It seems certain that it was .iEschylus who first introduced 
 saltation into the tragic chorus: This saltation was called o-)(j;/iaXi(r/ioj, from (rx^t'-a, 
 the countenance, because it depicted the attitudes, characters, and affections of the persons 
 of the chorus. Sleep, fatigue, repose, thought, admiration, fear, also all "pauses or suspen- 
 sions," came within its province. .^Eschylus lived five hundred years before the Christian 
 era. — (De Laulnaye : De la Saltation theatrale.) 
 
THE GYMNOPAEDIA j^ 
 
 The Hyporchema, on the contrary, while retaining, as did all the 
 Egyptian and Grecian dances, an eminently religious character, was accom- 
 panied by the chorus.* 
 
 The Gymnopaedia were dances specially favoured by the Lacedemonians 
 in their festivals of Apollo. 
 The performers were naked 
 youths, singing, dancing, and 
 wearing chaplets of palm. 
 Their performance often 
 served as a preliminary to 
 the Pyrrhic dance. 
 
 According to Athenasus, 
 the Gymnopaedia had 
 features in common with a 
 dance called the Anapale, 
 wherein the dancers simulated 
 (as in the Pyrrhic) the move- 
 ments of attack and defence. 
 
 In the Endymatia the 
 actors wore their most bril- 
 liant tunics. Performed at 
 public and private entertain- 
 ments, these dances some- 
 times lost their sacred cha- 
 racter. 
 
 All other dances were 
 derived from the funda- 
 mental types already mentioned, and were more or less connected with 
 sacred rites. They were sometimes peculiar to one province or city. 
 
 * The dances classed under the term Hyporchema date from the remotest times, and 
 are looked upon as the first essays of Greek saltation. In them, as the name indicates, 
 song and dance were intermingled, or rather' the songs were explained by measured 
 gestures. It is to be observed here that the earliest use made of saltation was in con- 
 nection with poetry. These arts, developing by their union, aided each other mutually 
 Athenaeus says expressly that the early poets had recourse to the figures of saltation, only, 
 however, as symbols and representatives of the images and ideas depicted in their verse. 
 All dances of the Hyporchema class were dignified and elevated ; men and women alike 
 
 A CREEK WAR-DANCE 
 
 From an Engraving in the Biblioth^que Nationale 
 
14 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 They celebrated a god, a victory, some memorable deed. The Dionysia 
 were sacred to Bacchus. The Iambic Dance, according to Athenasus, 
 was dedicated to Mars by the Syracusans. The Caryatis was specially 
 appropriated to Diana. Lucian tells us that it was danced by Lacedaemonian 
 
 girls in a Laconian 
 wood consecrated to 
 that goddess. Taught 
 by Castor and Pollux, 
 it was used at mar- 
 riages, It came to be 
 in time the dance of 
 innocence ; the young 
 men and maidens of 
 Sparta danced it naked, 
 in circles or in graceful 
 lines, before the altar 
 of the goddess. 
 
 The Callinic, diver- 
 sified by hymns, cele- 
 brated one of Hercules' 
 victories. 
 The invention of the Cnossia, performed in honour of Theseus, was 
 ascribed to Daedalus. In this Dasdalian dance the girls wore chaplets and 
 the young men golden swords and shields. It had a warlike character. The 
 intention of the Ionic Dance is uncertain. We know that it was dedicated 
 to Diana. 
 
 The Charitesia, a dance in honour of the daughters of Jupiter, the 
 Graces or Charites, was a favourite with the Boeotians. It was a slow and 
 measured dance, performed at night by priestesses dedicated to the services 
 of the Graces. 
 
 The women who celebrated Diana in the Purple Dance wore tunics 
 of that colour. 
 
 performed in them. Some attribute their origin to the Delians, who sang them round the 
 altars of Apollo. Others ascribe their invention to the Cretans, taught by Thales. Pindar 
 
 describes those of the Lacedaemonians. He himself composed several Hyporchemates, 
 
 (De Laulnaye : De la Saltation theatrale.) 
 
 DANCE OF NVMPHS AND SATYRS 
 
 After an Engraving of the Eighteenth Century 
 
THE HORMOS 
 
 i^ 
 
 DANCE OF NYMPHS 
 
 From a Bas-relief in the British Museum found at Athens 
 
 In the Hormos, another dance in honour of Diana, all the youth of 
 Sparta met. Here, as in the Gymnopaedia, the two sexes danced unclothed, 
 but without offence to modesty, 
 their attitudes being chaste and 
 beautiful. This national dance 
 wound in a brisk and spirited 
 fashion through the public 
 streets, led by a young couple. 
 Gesture and voice animated 
 its movements. It had 
 points of resemblance to 
 our modern Branle. 
 Its rhythmic steps were 
 directed now in an 
 easterly, now in a 
 
 westerly, direction ; for which reason Butteux considers it to have been an 
 astronomical dance. 
 
 The astronomic dance of the Egyptians probably inspired the strophes 
 and antistrophes of the early Greek tragedies, in which the choruses executed 
 a circular measure to the sound of instruments from right to left, to express 
 the celestial motions from east to west, and then reversed the movement at 
 the antistrophe, to represent the motion of the planets. These rhythmic 
 advances and retrogressions were interrupted by .pauses, the Epodes, during 
 which the chorus sang. The Epodes symbolised the Immobility of the 
 Earth, the revolutions of which were unknown to the early astronomers. 
 
 For a long period the only form of worship among the Indians was 
 dancing, accompanied by singing. In this fashion they adored their gqds, 
 the sun and moon, at their rising and setting. These songs and dances took 
 the form of lamentations during eclipses. 
 
 The Hormos, with its seemingly Egyptian character, was instituted by 
 Lycurgus. Plutarch relates that the nudity of the women who took part 
 in it having been made a reproach to the legislator, he answered : " I wish 
 them to perform the same exercises as men, that they may equal men in 
 strength, health, virtue, and generosity of soul, and that they may learn to 
 despise the opinion of the vulgar." 
 
1 6 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The Orphic Dances celebrated the courage of Castor and Pollux, and 
 their distant expeditions. 
 
 With these sacred dances we may conveniently class others, infinitely 
 varied, which accompanied funerals and processions. In the former case, 
 
 the entire community, keeping step and sing- 
 ing hymns, escorted the funeral victims to the 
 altar. Before the cortege went the chief 
 priest, dancing. Sometimes the mourners 
 were clothed in white. At the head of the 
 party marched groups, who danced to the 
 sound of the instruments reserved for these 
 solemnities ; interrupting their dancing at 
 intervals, they sang hymns in honour of the 
 defunct. Then came the priests and the 
 keeners, old women dressed in mourning, and 
 hired to simulate grief and tears. 
 
 According to Plato, relatives and friends 
 of the deceased were allowed to take part in 
 funeral dances, although as a rule in religious 
 TANAGRA FIGURINE OF A DANCER ceremonics danclng was confined to profes- | 
 
 sionals. 
 Butteux relates that the young people of both sexes in a funeral 
 procession were crowned with cypress, and that at one time it was customary 
 for a person to precede the cortege, wearing the clothes of the defunct, 
 imitating him, and characterising him in terms sometimes eulogistic, some- 
 times satirical.* 
 
 Military dances, not so numerous as the sacred, but prescribed by law, 
 held a prominent place in the education of youth. 
 
 " To those aware of the importance attached by the Greeks to physical 
 education, their military dances need no explaining. To gain and to keep 1 
 as long as possible," says Professor Desrat, "agility, suppleness, strength, 
 
 * Funeral dances were especially brilliant when they celebrated a man famous by his 
 birth, his preferments, or his fortune. Then all who took part in the ceremony .were 
 clothed in white and crowned with cypress. Fifteen girls danced before the funeral car, 
 which was surrounded by a band of youths. Priests sang the accompaniment of the 
 dances. Women keeners, draped in long black cloaks^ closed the procession. 
 
GREEK WAR-DANCES 
 
 17 
 
 vigour — this, in a kw words, was what the Greeks aimed at in their bodily 
 exercises. 
 
 "It was by dancing in their fighting gear," he goes on to say, 
 " that the Greeks, a nation of heroes, trained themselves in the art of 
 hand-to-hand combat. Does not the dancing 
 step with which they advanced in war suggest 
 our ' balance ' step ? Is not the latter (with 
 its successive hopping first upon one foot and 
 then upon the other) itself a sort of dance ? 
 We may add that many movements of our 
 bayonet exercise recall those of Greek military 
 dances." 
 
 Plutarch testifies : " The military dance was 
 an indefinable stimulus, which inflamed courage 
 and gave strength to persevere in the paths of 
 honour and valour." 
 
 These martial dances fall into two principal 
 groups : the Pyrrhic and the Memphitic. 
 
 According to some authorities, the Pyrrhic 
 Dance, a sort of military pantomime, was in- 
 
 TANAGRA FIGURINE OF A DANCER 
 
 stituted by Pyrrhus at the funeral of his father 
 
 Achilles. Others ascribe the honour of it to a certain Pyrrhicus, a Cretan 
 or a Lacedaemonian. Others, again, derive the word from the Greek wvp, 
 fire, because of the fiery and devouring energy exhibited by its dancers. 
 Pindar derives it from Trvpa, a funeral pile, and asserts that Achilles first 
 danced it on the occasion of the cremation of Patroclus. And there are 
 some who hold that Minerva was the first to dance it, in commemoration 
 of the defeat of the Titans, and that she afterwards taught it to the 
 Tyndaridse. 
 
 It is certain that this dance was especially used in the Panathenaea, 
 a festival in honour of Minerva, and was performed there by young 
 men and maidens. Xenophon even describes it as having been danced 
 by one woman alone. Apuleius indicates its various steps and move- 
 ments. 
 
 The uncertain etymology of its name goes to prove the great antiquity 
 
 :-Tii:tti^^iim^^»>»">^'''''>'»'«*'9Hiit. 
 
i8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 of this dance. Highly esteemed by their forefathers, it lingers to this day 
 among the Greeks. It was by no means entirely a man's dance. The 
 
 Amazons excelled in 
 it ; the women of Ar- 
 gos, of Sparta, and of 
 Arcadia engaged in it 
 with ardour. 
 
 According to Plato, 
 the Pyrrhic Dance con- 
 sisted of those move- 
 ments of the body by 
 which we avoid blows 
 and missiles ; springing 
 to one side, for ex- 
 ample, leaping back, 
 stooping. It also simu- 
 lated oiFensive move- 
 ments ; the posture of 
 a warrior letting fly an 
 arrow, the hurling of a 
 spear, the manipulation 
 of various kinds of 
 weapons.* 
 
 The Pyrrhic Dance 
 retained its warlike 
 character for a long 
 time, but was merged 
 at last in the rites of 
 Bacchus, whose thyrsus and reeds displaced the shield and spear. 
 
 * The Greeks had several kinds of Pyrrhic Dances, the names of which varied with the 
 character of the performance. 
 
 The Hyplomachia imitated a fight with shields. 
 
 The Skiamachia was a battle with shadows. 
 
 The Monomachia was an imitation of single combat, given, according to Athenaeus, at 
 banquets. 
 
 Xenophon describes a martial dance performed for the Paphlagonian delegates by two 
 Thracians, their steps, attitudes, and blows keeping time to the music of flutes. After a 
 
 NVMPH DANCING 
 
 After Raphael Collin 
 
MIMETIC DANCES 
 
 19 
 
 The Memphitic Dance was in many respects akin to the Pyrrhic, t 
 Minerva was supposed to have founded it as a memorial of the defeat of 
 the Titans. Thus its 
 origin was eminently 
 sacred. As in the Pyr- 
 rhic, the performers car- 
 ried sword and shield 
 and spear, but, less war- 
 like, they danced to the 
 sound of the flute. Lu- 
 cretius assigned its 
 origin to the Curetes 
 and the Corybantes. 
 
 Among dances de- 
 rived from the Pyrrhic 
 and the Memphitic we 
 may mention the furious 
 Telesias, little known 
 outside of Macedonia ; 
 also the Berekyntiake 
 and the Epieredias of 
 the Cretans, 
 
 From time imme- 
 morial, scenes from life 
 have been represented by 
 pantomimic dances.* 
 
 A BACCHANTE 
 
 After Walter Crane 
 
 In the Karpaia, for example, the dancer imitated a labourer sowing his 
 
 desperate struggle one of the two fell, and was carried away by his friends. The victor 
 sang a song of triumph, and confiscated the arms of his opponent. The lookers-on cried 
 out, thinking the Thracian really dead. But it was merely a game. 
 
 * Cassiodorus attributes the institution of pantomime to Philistion ; Athenasus assigns it 
 to Rhadamanthus or to Palamedes. Pantomimists were distinguished by names that varied 
 among the different peoples of Greece. The most respectable of them were called 
 Ethologues : this word, derived from 'r/Sos and Xoyos, signifies painters of manners. One 
 of the most celebrated of the Ethologues was Sophron, a native of Syracuse. The 
 moral philosophy of these mimes was so pure that Plato on his death-bed kept a copy 
 of the poems of Sophron under his pillow. The Greek pantomimists depicted the 
 
20 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 field and attacked by enemies who, despite his courageous defence, seized 
 and carried him off with his plough.* 
 
 In the Komastike, two opposed lines of warriors met in a sham fight. 
 The attitudes of the Poiphygma inspired terror. The Lion Dance figured 
 
 the majesty and 
 strength of the 
 lion . The Podis- 
 mos showed a re- 
 treat and the pur- 
 suit of the van- 
 quished after a 
 battle. The Po- 
 lemic resounded 
 with the clang of 
 shields and spears, 
 to which suc- 
 ceeded a very 
 sweet music of 
 flutes. 
 
 In the Cheiro- 
 nomia, one of the 
 oldest of Greek 
 dances, the dancer 
 engaged in combat 
 with an imaginary enemy. According to Hippocrates, this dance was one 
 of the most highly esteemed of the physical exercises used by the disciples 
 of Pythagoras. In the Opoplaea, impassioned dancers, inspired by warlike 
 music, flung and twisted themselves about, celebrating a victory. 
 
 ARMED DANCE OF CORYBANTES 
 
 Front an Engraving by Grignion 
 
 emotions and the conduct of man so faithfully, that their art served as a rigorous 
 censorship and taught useful lessons. The pieces that they acted were called vwodca-es, 
 or moralities ; these differed essentially in character from the natyvia, or farces, 
 designed only to provoke laughter. To those mimes who played on the stage the 
 Greeks gave the generic name of dvixeXiKoi. The Athenians in particular were 
 distinguished for the excellence of their stage. — (De Laulnaye : De la Saltation 
 thedtrak.) 
 
 * This dance, half rustic, half warlike, was peculiar to the Magnesians. Kaprata, 
 from Kapiros, fruit or seed, 
 
THEATRICAL DANCING 
 
 21 
 
 DANCE OF NYMPHS AND SATYRS 
 
 From an Engraving by B, Picart, after Remond La Fage 
 
 The Thermagistris simulated the fury of battle ; it rang with the clash 
 of axes and swords, brandished by bare-armed dancers with dishevelled hair, 
 who worked themselves up to such a pitch of frenzy, that they bit their 
 own flesh, and hacked it with swords, till it bled. 
 
 In the Xiphismos, or sword dance, the performers contented themselves 
 with brandishing this weapon. 
 
 Noverre says, in his studies on dancing, that his readers will have to 
 follow him into a labyrinth where reason continually loses its way. Indeed, 
 the ancient authorities on this subject are so constantly at variance that 
 it is hard to see any clear path. 
 
 On the Greek stage, the female characters were acted by men ; and 
 dancers wore .masks adapted to their various parts. For a long time these 
 dancers sang their own accompaniments ; but at last the chorus came into 
 existence, forming what was known as the Hyporchematic Dance. Greek 
 theatrical choregraphy did not develop much elegance until after the 
 repression of the buffoons who parodied the verses of Homer, of Hesiod, 
 and of other bards. This effected, poets themselves appeared upon the 
 stage, declaiming their own works, which dancers at the same time illus- 
 trated mimetically. This association of poetry, music, dancing, and statuesque 
 refinement of attitude endowed Greek choregraphy with a beauty and a 
 character all its own. Mnasion (who sang the verses of Simonides) and Pylades, 
 raised the art of theatrical dancing to a high pitch of perfection. Noverre, 
 Gardel, and Dauberval, our great modern masters of choregraphy, have often 
 (says Professor Desrat) turned for inspiration to the magnificent compositions 
 
22 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 DANCE OF NYMPHS AND SATVRS 
 
 From an Engraving by B. Picart, after Remond La Fage 
 
 of Pylades, whose most celebrated ballet is that in which Bacchus ascends 
 
 to Olympus, accompanied by Bacchantes and Satyrs. 
 
 Greek dances were directed by certain functionaries, who beat time, 
 
 directing not only the musical cadence of the piece, but also the pace and 
 
 manner in which the action evolved itself. Now 
 they hastened, now they delayed movements, to 
 bring out finer gradations of meaning. They 
 wore sandals of wood or iron, differing in 
 thickness of sole according to the effects to be 
 produced. Lively music they accompanied by a 
 clinking together of oyster or other shells, held in 
 the hand, and used more or less as the Spaniards 
 use their castanets — which last are probably a 
 survival of the Greek contrivance mentioned. 
 
 Among their gayer measures were the Diple, 
 
 which was a vocal dance ; and the Ephilema, a 
 
 / " I ' .' ,' 1 ' .) sort of Ronde, chanted to an accompaniment of 
 
 musical instruments. The Niobe was a veritable 
 grand ballet in five parts : prelude, challenge, 
 combat, breathing-time, victory. 
 
 The Krinon was a Branle d'ensemble danced 
 and sung by choruses. The Parabena'i Tettara 
 was performed by four dancers only. The 
 
 Xulon Caralepsis was danced staff in hand. Pylades excelled in the 
 
 TANAGRA FIGURINE OF A DANCER 
 
 In the Louvre 
 
MIMETIC DANCES 
 
 23 
 
 DANCE OF NYMPHS AND SATYRS 
 
 From an Engraving by B. Picart, after Remond La Fage 
 
 Pyladeios, named after him, and doubtless one of his creations. The 
 Schistas Elkheim was a majestic dance, accompanied by a grave chorus. 
 
 The Greeks also indulged in comic dances, gay and lively, but often 
 marred by buffoonery, sometimes even by indecency. To these dances, 
 says Burette, people had recourse only when 
 excited by wine. Theophrastus, in his Charac- 
 ters, recounting the actions of a man lost to all 
 shame, reproaches him with having danced the 
 Cordax in cold blood, when sober. Cordax 
 was a Satyr who gave his name to this kind of 
 dance. 
 
 All comic dances were founded more or less 
 upon the Cordax. It lent itself readily to im- 
 provisation. 
 
 In the Chreon Apokope, the dancers acted 
 the carving of food. In the Hypogones, old 
 men came upon the stage bent upon their staves. 
 It is not permissible to describe the excesses 
 indulged in by the actor in the lodis. An 
 extravagant gaiety marked the Sobas and the 
 Stoicheia. In the Nibadismos the dancers 
 capered like goats. 
 
 The Morphasmos imitated the attitudes, the gait, the leaps and bounds 
 of animals. 
 
 TANAGRA FIGURINE OF A DANCER 
 
 In the Janze Collection 
 
24 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Among the mimetic dances, the majority of which were common to 
 Greeks and Romans, we may mention the following : The Loves of Adonis 
 and Venus, the Exploits of Ajax, the Adventures of Apollo, the Rape of 
 Ganymede, the Loves of Jupiter and Danae, the Birth of Jupiter, Hector, 
 the Rape of Europa, the Labours of Hercules, Hercules mad, the Graces, 
 
 CLASSIC DANCE 
 
 From an Engraving by Agoslino Veneziano 
 
 Saturn devouring his Children, the Cybele, in honour of Cybele, the 
 Cyclops, the Sorrows of Niobe, the Tragic end of Semele, the Wars of the 
 Titans, the Judgment of Paris, Daphne pursued by Apollo. 
 
 We must include in this summary of the choregraphy of all nations, 
 provinces, and cities, the Bucolic Dance, and the Dance of Flowers, in 
 which the Athenians repeated at intervals : " Where are the roses ? Where 
 are the violets ? " . . . One dance even took the name of a vessel used 
 by gold-smelters. There was the Dance of Noble Bearing, the Round, 
 the Combat, the Mortar, the Equal, the Exhortation, the Whirlwind of 
 Dust, the Judgment, the Satyrs, the Splendour, &c. Some commemorated 
 the victories of Hercules, others represented a naval engagement, some 
 

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26 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 were distinguished by the vases known as carnos, carried in their hands by 
 the performers. 
 
 In the Dance of Adonis the cadence was marked by gringrinae, Phoenician \ 
 flutes used in the worship of the god. The Hippogynes was an equestrian 
 dance performed by women, which shows the great antiquity of the musical \ 
 ride. The Koha took its name from the movement of the belly in jumping, 
 
 and suggests the 
 Danse du Ventre 
 of the AJmees, 
 which perhaps 
 owes its origin to 
 the Greeks. 
 
 Some of these 
 saltations or 
 dances were called 
 after the flutes 
 used by the priests 
 of Apollo. Others \ 
 imitated the move- 
 ments of the neck, 
 or were danced 
 with sticks in the hand. Then there were the Dances of Nymphs, the \ 
 furious rounds of the Sileni in Lacedasmonia, the Spear Dance, the World 
 on Fire, or Fable of Phaeton, the Dances of the Tresses, of the Knees, of v 
 Flight, of the Glass Goblet ; the Stooping Dance, the Dance of the 
 Elements, and of the Young Slave-girls. Some were more in the nature ' 
 of gymnastics than of dances, such as the Skoliasmos, a rustic dance sacred 
 to Bacchus, in which the performers hopped on inflated wine-skins, rubbed \ 
 over with oil to make them slippery. 
 
 To Theseus was ascribed the invention of the Crane, ostensibly an 
 imitation of the wanderings of this bird. But it had a deeper meaning, for, 
 according to Callimachus, it figured the endless windings and turnings that 
 Theseus had to follow before he could free himself from the labyrinth. 
 Dances in which animals were mimicked were, however, fairly numerous. | 
 Two kinds of owls, the vulture, the fox, and other creatures gave their 
 
 CLASSIC DANCE 
 
 After N. Poussin 
 
THE SIKINNIS 27 
 
 names to performances of this class. The Greeks had a third kind of 
 choregraphic drama known as the Sikinnis, or Satyric Dance, in which they | 
 sought relief from the poignant emotions of tragedy. 
 
 The Sikinnis was accompanied by light songs, daring witticisms, and 
 licentiously allusive poems. Occasionally it parodied a tragical dance, or its 
 
 THE BLIND MAN 
 
 After Boyd 
 
 actors, wearing masks which counterfeited the victims of their satire, 
 caricatured their fellow-citizens. Socrates was ridiculed on the. stage in 
 the Clouds of Aristophanes. The official and the private acts of the highest 
 personages were burlesqued in the Sikinnis. It was a dance supposed to 
 belong especially to the Attic races. But, despite the natural refinement of 
 the Athenian intellect, the primitive good humour and vivacity of the Satyric 
 Dance gradually disappeared ; drinking-songs, erotic verses, and indecent > 
 gestures accomplished its degradation. 
 
 In connection with the Sikinnis, Herodotus tells a story of Clisthenes, 
 king of Sicyon, who, desiring to marry his daughter suitably to her rank, 
 decreed a sort of competition for her hand, inviting to it all the notabilities of 
 Greece. A number of rich and powerful suitors presented themselves, among 
 others two Athenians. Upouithe last day of the festivities, Clisthenes, after a 
 hecatomb to the gods and a banquet, proposed a contest in music and poetry. 
 
28 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 
 \-J 
 
 Then Hippoclides, one of the two Athenians, whom the young princess 
 seemed to regard with special favour, had a table brought in ; upon this he 
 mounted, the better to perform an obscene dance. Supposing himself to be 
 encouraged by the silence of the spectators, he began in an Athenian fashion. 
 His head downwards, walking upon his hands, he traced the principal 
 
 figures of the Sikinnis in the air with his 
 outstretched legs. But Clisthenes, beside 
 himself with indignation, cried out : " Son 
 of Tisander, you have danced the breaking 
 off of your alliance with me." The reply 
 of the Athenian has become a by-word : 
 " Faith, my lord, Hippoclides cares little for 
 that ! " 
 
 According to Ulpian, the Sikinnis was 
 performed at banquets. Bacchus had brought 
 it from India with him. The Satyrs made it 
 particularly their own. Certain authors 
 describe it as light, lascivious, and varied ; 
 others as a martial dance. We know it was 
 performed in Roman triumphs and in the 
 Pompa Ludorum, when the dancers burlesqued 
 serious dances. Dionysius of Halicarnassus 
 saw it performed at funerals. 
 In the Satyros, a Laconian dance, derived from the Sikinnis, the 
 actors, wearing goat-skins, appeared as Satyrs. In the Seilenos the 
 dancers disguised themselves as Sileni or as Masnads. The Bacchike, 
 familiar to the people of Pontus and of Ionia, was a Satyric Dance in 
 honour of Bacchus. The Konisalos was a Satyric Dance of a degenerate 
 and lascivious type. 
 
 Dancing, while bound up with the religious ceremonies of Greece, and ( 
 honoured on the stage and in public festivals, was not likely to be neglected 
 in private life. As a matter of fact, every family feast, every happy event, 1 
 the arrival of a friend, the return of a traveller, the birth of a child or its 
 anniversary, the gathering in of crops, the harvest, the vintage, all were 
 made occasions for the enjoyment of dancing. Longus has described the 
 
 FIGURINE FOUND AT MYRINA 
 
 In the Louvre 
 
THE EPILENIOS 
 
 29 
 
 /i^'^ 
 
 ^'^l' >'"'l 
 
 DANCE OF NYMPHS 
 
 From a Drawing by Q. F. Romanelli 
 (In the possession of Mr. Wm. Heinemann) 
 
 Epilenios, or dance of the winepress,* in his pastorals. This dance, practised 
 
 originally by members of the family itself, with much vigorous leaping 
 
 and dexterous 
 
 exercises, with or 
 
 without accesso- 
 ries, was in the long 
 
 run given over 
 
 to professional 
 
 dancers and to the 
 
 hangers-on of the 
 
 household. In 
 
 this new form, 
 
 the Epilenios had 
 
 a marked affinity 
 
 with our modern 
 
 acrobatic feats and 
 
 circus perform- 
 ances. 
 
 The Alphiton Ekchuton was the Dance of the Spilt Meal. The Hymen 1 
 
 or Hymenaios, used at weddings, celebrated a hero who rescued some Spartan 
 
 girls from pirates. The Anthema 
 
 formed part of the Hymen. 
 
 Several other dances, reserved ll 
 
 more especially for women, such as 
 
 the Hygra, the Kallabis, and the 
 
 Oklasma, consisted of graceful 
 
 movements, measured by the sound 
 
 ' of flutes. The exquisitely artistic 
 
 * " Meanwhile Dryas danced a 
 vintage dance, making believe to gather 
 grapes, to carry them in baskets, to tread 
 them down in the vat, to pour the juice 
 into tubs, and then to drink the new 
 wine : all of which he did so naturally 
 and so featly that they deemed they saw 
 before their eyes the vines, the vats, the 
 tubs, and Dryas drinking in good sooth." 
 — {Daphnis and Chloe.) 
 
 NYMPH AND SATYRS 
 
 From a Drawing by G. B. Cipriani 
 (In the possession of Mr, Wm. Heinemann) 
 
30 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 s^^-^^r- iS't?*'«»?S»«^">> ' . s-i«4M^«iS3?l'~:f»lji^.^ J^ 
 
 DANCE OF APOLLO 
 
 After Giulio Romano 
 
 Statuettes found at Tanagra, of which we reproduce several fine specimens, 
 
 give some Idea of the beauty of 
 motion as practised by chosen bands 
 of young women, when, in the mar- 
 vellous setting of antique theatres, 
 under the blue skies of Greece, they 
 gave themselves up to those perform- 
 ances so highly esteemed among a 
 people with whom the love of beauty i 
 was a passion. 
 
 The fidelity of these records is 'j 
 unfailing, from the highest to' the 
 lowest efforts of plastic art. 
 
 The Greeks, .as M. Emmanuel i 
 has well said, had not only their 
 Apelles and their Phidias, they had 
 also their Dantans and Daumiers, their 
 Cherets, Caran d' Aches, and Forains, 
 all artists in their own domain, and 
 true interpreters of the artistic in- 
 stinct. Herculaneum and Pompeii 
 
 have made us familiar with the domestic life of antiquity ; the painted vases 
 
 A MUSE DANCING 
 
THE EROS OF MYRINA 
 
 31 
 
 DANCE OF NYMPHS 
 
 From a Relief in the Louvre 
 
 The delicious flying 
 
 of Greece offer us a history of caricature and impressionism, in which gaiety 
 and fancy are fixed in swift, unerring touches. 
 
 Sculptors vied with painters in this demonstration. 
 Eros, found at Myrina by Messrs. Pottier and 
 Reinach, his body leaning to the right, his 
 arm bent back above his head, describes a curve 
 of absolute anatomical correctness. It is entirely 
 free from conventionality ; the dancer of our 
 own day executes just such a movement. And 
 in the same way, the fourth-century figurine of 
 a Bacchante in thin and supple draperies, whirl- 
 ing round on one foot, reproduces the move- 
 ment and the appearance of a contemporary 
 ballet-dancer. 
 
 The swiftness and correctness of vision 
 necessary for realistic truth such as this soon 
 passed away and gave place to convention. It 
 is the glory of modern sculpture that it has been 
 able, aided by science, to recover truth in the 
 representation of movement. 
 
 While Greece was renowned for the splen- 
 dour of her feasts, celebrating by graceful dances and garlands of flowers / 
 
 CLASSIC DANCER 
 
 After Gdrome 
 
?2 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 A BACCHANALIAN CHORUS 
 
 In the Arraand Collection, Eibliotheque Nationale 
 
 the Muses, love, glory and beauty, Rome, stern and primitive, possessed ^ 
 but one dance, the wild and warlike Bellicrepa, invented by Romulus in 
 memory of the Rape of the Sabines. 
 
 Later on it appears that the nymph Egeria mysteriously revealed a new 
 measure to Numa Pompilius, a pacific sovereign who never opened the 
 temple of Janus, and who made an effort to polish the manners of the 
 Romans. Certain authors attribute its invention to Salinus of Mantinea ; 
 but, however that may be, Numa instituted the order of Salian priests, or 
 Salii, to the number of twelve, who were chosen from among those of noble 
 birth. Their mission was to celebrate the gods and heroes by dances. 
 Clothed for these ceremonies in purple tunics, with brazen baldricks slung 
 from their shoulders, their heads covered with glittering helmets, they 
 struck the measure with their short swords upon the Ancile or sacred 
 buckler of divine origin. 
 
 With the exception of these military and sacred dances, monotonous 
 processions rather than dances, which the Salii also performed during the 
 sacrifices and through the streets, the only spectacles of the austere city 
 were the games in the Circus.* 
 
 Livy tells us that in the year 390, during the Consulate of Sulpicius 
 
 "Heroic and barbarous Rome religiously preserved the memory of the first Brutus, 
 applauded the despair of Virginius, and devoted the head of the decemvir to the infernal 
 gods. Entirely absorbed in these great events, the queenly city knew nothing as yet of 
 other distractions, luxurious indeed, but necessary to people long civilised." — (Elise 
 Voiart.) 
 
THE LUDIONES 
 
 33 
 
 T^~fJr*j|p-m'-^( 
 
 Peticus, scenic games were invented to appease the gods and to 
 distract the people, terror-stricken by the plague that decimated the 
 city. 
 
 The Ludiones came from Etruria, accompanying their passionate 
 dances with the music 
 of their flutes. They 
 were called "histrions," 
 from the Tuscan word 
 hisier, signifying 
 " leaper," says Livy 
 again, and instead of 
 making use of impro- 
 vised verse, as they had 
 hitherto done, for at 
 first they had no writ- 
 ten poems, they soon 
 accustomed themselves 
 to follow a set plan, 
 and to measure their 
 
 
 gestures by rhythm 
 and cadence. The 
 Roman youth began to 
 take part in these exer- 
 cises, and learned to 
 recite poems to the ac- 
 companiment of musical 
 instruments. 
 
 Later on, the arts 
 of Greece penetrated 
 to Rome, and, dancing 
 
 to the sound of the lyre, the harp, the flute and the crotalum formed 
 a splendid portion of the sacrificial rites. These dances were frequently 
 solemn, but they also expressed joy and tenderness on secular oc- 
 casions. 
 
 Meanwhile the dance of Lycurgus, the Hormos, lost its graceful 
 
 THE BORGHESE VASE 
 
 In the Louvre 
 
34 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 character and became more warlike ; * the Crane Dance had "degenerated 
 into an amusement for villagers, says Lucian. 
 
 The Roman dances gradually lost their pure and modest character, and 
 depicted nothing but pleasure and obscenity. 
 
 RUSTIC DANCERS 
 
 From an Etching by R. Blyth, after J. Mortimer 
 
 " In the middle of autumn," says Victor Duruy, " Messalina represented 
 a vintage scene in her palace. The wine-presses crushed the grapes ; the 
 wine flowed into the vats ; half-naked women, clothed like Bacchantes, in 
 
 * "Minerva approaches. Beside her, with drawn swords, march Fear and Terror, 
 constant companions of the Goddess of War. Behind her a flute-player sounds the war- 
 hke Hormos, and by mingling with the muffled tones of his instrument sharp sounds like 
 those of a trumpet, he imparts to the melodies that he performs a more masculine and more 
 animated character." — (Apuleius.) 
 
ROMAN CHILDREN TRAINED TO DANCE 
 
 3? 
 
 doeskins, danced around, while Messalina, her hair unbound, the thyrsus in 
 her hand, and Silius, crowned with ivy, accompanied the licentious chorus." 
 " The austerity of the ancient Romans arose much more from poverty 
 than from conviction," continues Duruy. " Two or three generations had 
 sufficed to change a city which had only known meagre festivities and 
 rustic delights into the home of revelry and pleasure." 
 
 A FEAST AT THE HOUSE OF LUCULLUS 
 
 After Boulanger 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod-Valadon and Co. 
 
 " When I entered one of the schools to which the nobles send their 
 children," says Scipio ^milius, " I found more than five hundred girls and 
 boys receiving lessons in harp-playing, in singing, and in striking attitudes 
 amid histrions and infamous people ; and I saw one child, a boy of twelve 
 years of age, the son of a senator, performing a dance worthy of the most 
 degraded slave." 
 
 Thus it is clear that the Romans were acquainted not only with sacred 
 dances, but with military, theatrical, and private dancing. 
 
36 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Retaining the sacred dance of the Salii, which, being of Roman origin, \ 
 preserved a warlike character, the Romans borrowed from the Greeks the 
 Bacchanalia, whose origin, in Hellas, was religious. These were at first 
 reserved for the priests and priestesses of Bacchus, but later on they became 
 the accompaniment to nuptial feasts, every citizen took part in them, and, 
 from having lent a lustre to worship and a grace to love, they degenerated 
 into lascivious performances. 
 
 The Lupercalia were held on the 15 th of the Kalends of March in I 
 honour of the god Pan. The priests of the god, the Luperci, danced 
 naked through the streets of Rome, armed with whips, with which they 
 struck at the crowds of spectators. 
 
 Other dances accompanied funeral processions, with mourners and with 
 the Archimime, who wore a mask faithfully representing the deceased, whose 
 history he recited. 
 
 Until the time of Augustus, dancing was entirely given up to the 
 obscenities of celebrated mimes, who were principally Tuscan buffoons. 
 
 The Greeks used to represent actions by pantomime before they began 
 to recite their tragedies.* The Romans developed pantomime and made of \ 
 it a new art, which the Greeks, who had limited themselves to a series 
 of actions expressing only one sentiment, had never practised. The Ludiones 
 had outlined scenes at Rome which might be called the first pantomimes, but 
 the invention of the genuine mimetic drama appears to be due to Pylades 
 and Bathyllus, two celebrated actors who divided public enthusiasm during 
 the reign of Augustus. The former, born in Cilicia, created ballets of a 
 noble, tender, and pathetic order ; the latter, who came from Alexandria, 
 composed lively choruses and dances. Both were freed slaves. Mimes 
 and Archimimes enjoyed such favour that many were Parasites of the 
 gods. Some of them were admitted among the priests of Apollo, a dignity 
 coveted by the most illustrious citizens. 
 
 Juvenal tells us that Bathyllus depicted the transports of Jupiter in the 
 company of Leda with such realism that the Roman women were pro- 
 foundly moved, t 
 
 * Castil-Blaze. 
 
 t "The pantomimic actors aspired to the expression of intellectual ideas, such as 
 times past or future, arguments, &c. Although this was carried out by conventional 
 
PANTOMIME AMONG THE ROMANS 
 
 37 
 
 We can form but a faint idea of the perfection to which the art of 
 pantomime attained among the Romans. It ranged over the whole domain 
 of fable, poetry and history. Roman actors translated the most subtle 
 sensations by gestures of extraordinary precision and mobility, and their 
 audience understood every turn of this language, which conveyed far more 
 to them than declamation. 
 This imitative principle, 
 the strength, the infinite 
 gradations of this mute 
 expression, made the 
 dancing of the ancients 
 a great art. Indeed, 
 dancing deprived of such 
 elements is nothing but 
 a succession of cadenced 
 steps, interesting merely 
 as a graceful exercise. It 
 is the imitative prin- 
 ciple, common to it 
 with all the other arts, 
 which refines and en- 
 nobles it. 
 
 We understand the 
 Roman admiration for 
 pantomime, just as we 
 understand their con- 
 tempt for dancing when, 
 losing its exalted character, it became the mere medium of ribaldry. 
 
 By the word saltatio the Romans meant not only the art of leaping 
 or jumping, as might be supposed, but the art of gesture in general. 
 
 PASTORAL DANCE 
 
 gestures only, it was nevertheless an infringement of the limits ot the art at first. One 
 single actor represented several characters ; two actors sometimes sufficed for a piece, 
 perhaps not a complicated one, and more properly to be described as a scene than an entire 
 play. Later the number of actors increased, and ended by equalling that of the 
 characters." — (Butteux.) 
 
38 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 According to Varro, the word was derived, not from the Latin salto, but 
 from the name of the Arcadian, Salius, who taught the art to the Romans. : 
 Lucian relates that a Prince of Pontus, who had come to visit Nero, 
 was present at a performance in the course of which a famous mime 
 expressed the labours of Hercules as he danced. The dancer's gestures 
 
 A CLASSIC DANCE 
 
 From an Engraving by Gaucher, after Caspar Grayer 
 
 were so precise and expressive that the stranger followed the whole of the 
 action without the slightest hesitation. 
 
 He was so much struck by the incident, that on taking leave of the 
 Emperor he begged him to give him the actor. Noting the astonishment 
 of Nero at his request, he explained that there was a barbarous tribe 
 adjoining his dominions, whose language no one could learn, and that 
 pantomime would explain his intentions to them so faithfully by gestures, 
 that they would at once understand. 
 
WOMEN ADMITTED TO THE STAGE 
 
 39 
 
 The episode is credible enough. When travelling in Sicily, I noticed 
 that the Sicilians are in the habit of holding long communications by means 
 of gestures which escape the uninitiated visitor. This custom dates back to 
 remote antiquity. It is said that the suspicious Hiero, King of Syracuse, 
 fearing conspiracies among his people, forbade all verbal intercourse. The 
 Sicilians therefore had recourse to signs. For centuries they have been 
 reputed the best pantomimists in Italy, a superiority they owe perhaps to 
 the traditional use among them of a silent language they learn in their 
 earliest years. 
 
 An historian of antiquity has wisely said that the " soul dances in the 
 eyes." It is true, indeed, that every movement of the soul is translated 
 with lightning swiftness in the glance. 
 
 It was by her dancing that Salome obtained the head of John the Baptist 
 from Herod. 
 
 She danced before his golden throne, scattering flowers as before an 
 idol. The great lamps suspended from the palace vault struck out a 
 thousand magic gleams from the pearls and chalcedony of her necklaces, 
 the gem-encrusted bracelets on her arms and wrists, the gold embroideries 
 on her black veils, the iridescent draperies that floated above her feet, 
 cased in little slippers made from the down of humming-birds. 
 
 She danced " like the Indian priestesses, like the Nubians of the cataracts, 
 like the Bacchantes of Lydia, like a flower swaying on the wind. The 
 diamonds in her ears trembled ; sparks flew from her arms, her feet, her 
 garments." 
 
 And for her reward she claimed " the head of John the Baptist on a 
 
 charger." 
 
 The Romans, as a rule, did not care for dancing themselves, but they 
 were passionately fond of it as a spectacle. 
 
 For a long time no women appeared upon the stage ; their parts were 
 taken by young men, and that may have been one of the causes of the 
 degeneracy of the choregraphic art in Rome. Later on, women, who among 
 the Greeks were not even permitted to take part in tragedy or comedy, used 
 to appear in Rome in pantomime ; the best known of these actresses are 
 Arbuscula, Thymele, Licilia, Dionysia, Cytheris, Valeria and Cloppia. 
 
 Theatrical dancing at that time had attained unprecedented popularity 
 
40 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 in Rome. The degenerate city gave itself up to a frenzy of admiration for the 
 rival dancers Pylades and Bathyllus, and the gravest questions of State were 
 neglected on their account. Not content with having turned the heads of 
 the Roman ladies, they were a cause of disturbance to knights and senators. 
 Rome was no longer Rome when Pylades and Bathyllus were absent. 
 
 CLASSIC DANCE 
 
 After Mantegna 
 
 Their intrigues set the Republic in a ferment. Their theatrical supporters, 
 clad in different liveries, used to fight in the streets, and bloody brawls were 
 frequent throughout the city. 
 
 " The rivalries of Pylades and Bathyllus occupied the Romans as much 
 as the gravest affairs of State," says De Laulnaye. " Every citizen was a 
 Bathyllian or a Pyladian. Glancing over the history of the disturbances 
 created by these two mummers, we seem to be reading that of the volatile 
 nation whose quarrels about music were so prolonged, so obstinate, and 
 above all, so senseless, that no one knew what were the real points of 
 dispute, when the philosopher of Geneva wrote the famous letter to which 
 
ii'uAiou^^e ynv-rcoM. . <:?JmIo/ 
 
 cJi-U' 
 
PYLADES THE DANCER 
 
 41 
 
 no serious reply was ever made. Augustus reproved Pylades on one 
 
 occasion for his perpetual quarrels with Bathyllus. " Caesar," replied the 
 
 dancer, "it is well for you that the people are engrossed by our disputes ; 
 
 their attention is thus diverted from your actions ! " A bold retort, but \ 
 
 one which shows the importance attached by the Romans to the doings of 
 
 the two famous mimes. We find that the banishment of Pylades almost - 
 
 brought about an 
 
 insurrection, and 
 
 that the master 
 
 of the world was 
 
 forced to appease 
 
 his people by the 
 
 recall of the 
 
 histrion. 
 
 Classic writers 
 give various rea- 
 sons for the dis- 
 grace of Pylades. 
 Dion Cassius at- 
 tributes it to the 
 intrigues of 
 Bathyllus ; Mac- 
 
 robius to the disputes between Hylas and Pylades ; Suetonius to the effrontery 
 of the latter, who pointed at a spectator who had ventured to hiss him. The 
 boldness of Pylades, if Suetonius be right, was hardly surprising, when we 
 learn that one day, acting the madness of Hercules, he shot off arrows 
 among the spectators. Repeating the scene in the presence of Octavius, he 
 indulged in the same licence, and such was the Emperor's mastery of the 
 art of dissimulation, that he showed no sign of displeasure. On another 
 occasion, when Pylades was acting the part in public, some of the spectators, 
 partisans, no doubt, of Bathyllus, objected to his gestures as extravagant. 
 Annoyed by this injudicious criticism, he tore off his mask and shouted to 
 them : " Fools, I am acting a madman ! " 
 
 At another performance, Hylas was playing CEdlpus. After he had 
 put out his own eyes, his rival Pylades, who was present, called out : "You 
 
 CLASSIC DANCE 
 
 After Batista Franco 
 
42 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 can still see ! " Hylas had given an imperfect rendering of the hesitating 
 and timorous gait proper to the newly blind. 
 
 The said Hylas was beaten with rods, says Suetonius, at the complaint 
 of the Prffitor. This rude chastisement of a public favourite is surprising 
 enough, and no writer has explained such a derogation from established 
 precedents. Among other privileges Augustus accorded to the mimes, 
 were exemption from magisterial control and immunity from, scourging.* 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 .'/-' 
 
 
 CLASSIC DANCE 
 
 After Batista Franco 
 
 Are we to attribute to this degeneracy the contempt of the Romans 
 for dancing ? Cicero says : " No sober man dances unless he is mad " ; and 
 he reproaches the Consul Gabinus for having danced. Horace also rebukes 
 the Romans for dancing as for an infamy. Sallust, bitterly apostrophising 
 
 * "Yet Octavius," says De Lauinaye, "inflicted this punishment on Stephanie, the 
 author or actor of those pieces the Romans called ' Togataria,' because the actors in them 
 wore the toga. There is one very curious circumstance in the life of Stephanie. He 
 twice took part in the celebration of the Secular games. These games, as their name 
 indicates, only took place every hundred years, and the public crier, in announcing them, 
 described them as solemnities no living man had ever witnessed, or would ever witness 
 again. The Emperor, however, who ridiculed all the traditional laws and customs, 
 determined to celebrate the Secular games long before the expiration of a century since 
 those presided over by Augustus, and Stephanie, who had figured in the latter, appeared 
 again in those inaugurated by Claudius." 
 
ROMAN DANCERS 
 
 43 
 
 a lady, tells her that she dances with too much skill for a virtuous woman. 
 Dancing, therefore, was completely perverted ; Rome outdid our Bullier 
 and Moulin Rouge ; according to Valerius Maximus, the actors were so 
 corrupted that the Massaliots refused to grant them a theatre, lest their 
 own manners should 
 become perverted by 
 their indecency. 
 
 This was too much. 
 Domitian expelled 
 from the Senate some 
 Conscript fathers who 
 had dishonoured 
 themselves by danc- 
 ing. Tiberius, Nero, 
 and Caligula pro- 
 scribed dancers, 
 though they after- 
 wards recalled them. 
 Trajan displayed 
 more energy, and 
 tranquillity was re- 
 stored for a few 
 years. But the 
 mimes found ardent supporters among his successors. Constantine, who 
 had driven the philosophers from Rome, allowed three thousand dancers 
 to remain. Caesar had forced. the poet Laberius to dance on the stage, 
 and he gave him a gold ring and - five hundred thousand sesterces in 
 compensation of this indignity. But he could not restore to him his place 
 among the knights in the circus, as they refused to allow a dancer to sit 
 with them.* This was at the period of the decadence. Roman manners 
 were undermined, and the end of the Empire was at hand. 
 
 In addition to the licentious dances of theatres and festivals, the 
 Romans, still in imitation of the Greeks, used to call in bands of musicians 
 
 A BACCHANTE 
 
 After Delaplanche 
 
 A DANCER 
 
 After Verlet 
 
 * Fertiault, 
 
44 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 and dancers to divert their guests. Some appeared disguised as Nymphs, 
 some as Nereids, some naked. Discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii 
 have brought to light mural decorations of atria, representing women 
 who waited at table, and whose rhythmical movements were regulated by the 
 sound of the flute. 
 
 The Gaditanians, famous female dancers from Cadiz, were long the 
 
 delight of Ancient Rome. The 
 dance of the Gaditanians was 
 so brilliant and impassioned, 
 that poets declared it impos- 
 sible to describe the strange 
 charm it exercised over the 
 spectators. 
 
 Many ancient writers allude 
 to these dancers. Martial, him- 
 self a Spaniard, immortalised 
 them in his epigrams. Pliny 
 the younger mentions them in a 
 letter to Septicius Clarus ; 
 Petronius, Silias Italicus, Ap- 
 pianus, Strabo, and a number of 
 others all testify to the exciting 
 and seductive character of the Spanish dances of their times. 
 
 A German author, speaking of the dances of ancient Gades, says they 
 were "all poetry and voluptuous charm." An English writer asserts that 
 the famous Venus Cailipyge was modelled from a Gaditanian dancer in high 
 favour at Rome, probably the Telethusa of whom Martial sang. In his 
 Grandezas de Cadix, the Canon Salazar, who lived in the seventeenth 
 century, says that the Andalusian dances of his time were identical with 
 those so famous in antiquity. 
 
 " Father Marti, Canon of Alicante," says Baron Davillier, " was well 
 acquainted with all the dances in favour at Cadiz in his time, which he 
 called Gaditanian delights, delicias gaditanas. According to him, they were 
 identical with the ancient dances, though they had been brought to greater 
 perfection, to such perfection, indeed, that the former, and even the 
 
 AN IDYL 
 After a Picture by Mme. Demont-Breton 
 
CROTALIA AND CASTANETS 4^ 
 
 famous Phrygian Cordax, must have been mere puerilities in comparison 
 with them." 
 
 The use of castanets, which has persisted for more than a thousand 
 years, shows the strong affinity between the antique Spanish dances and those J|_ 
 of the present day. At Rome, as in modern Spain, popular dances were 
 cadenced by the clink, of castanets. The Spanish castanuelas differ but 
 slightly from the crotalia of the ancients. Both are composed of two 
 hollow portions, which, striking one against the other, give out a sharp, 
 resonant sound. The shape and size are much the same now as formerly. 
 The only essential difference is in their composition, for the crotalia of the 
 ancients were sometimes made of bronze. 
 
 A DANCER 
 
 From a MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
DANCE OF THE REDEEMED 
 
 From Fra Angelico's "Last Judgment," Florence 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 DANCING IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 Religious Dance;— Strolling Ballets— Dances of Chivalry— The " Ballet des Jr dents"— 
 
 Bergonzio di Bottd's Ballet 
 
 FTER the sack of Rome by Totila, dancing disappeared 
 almost completely. Most of the authors who have written 
 on the choregraphic art bear witness to an interval of some 
 centuries between ancient and modern dancing. Neverthe- 
 less, people still danced in Roman Gaul, although the wandering troupes 
 of dancers who travelled through Gaul as through the other provinces 
 of the Empire had brought dancing into marked disfavour. Dancing 
 was practised among the Franks and the Goths. Christianity had at first 
 encouraged primitive dances, and had even appropriated them to itself. 
 Christians celebrated Mysteries in churches by hymns and dances, as the 
 
EARLY CHRISTIAN DANCES 
 
 47 
 
 DANCE OF DEATH 
 
 After an Engraving in the BibliothSque Nationale 
 
 Jews had done before them ; they danced in the cemeteries in honour of 
 
 the dead, and it may well be that these dances were a sacred remembrance 
 
 of the worship of 
 
 olden days. 
 
 " Divine service," 
 
 says the Jesuit priest 
 
 Menestrier, who, 
 
 about 1682, wrote a 
 
 most interesting book 
 
 upon Dancing, " was 
 
 composed of psalms, 
 
 hymns, and canticles, 
 
 because men sang and 
 
 danced the praises of 
 
 God, as they read His ^ ^ 
 
 oracles in those extracts from the Old and New Testaments which we 
 
 still know under the name of Lessons. The place in which these acts of 
 
 worship were offered to God was called the 
 choir, just as those portions of comedies 
 and tragedies in which dancing and singing 
 combined to make up the interludes were 
 called choruses. Prelates were called in 
 the Latin tongue, Tr^esuks a Pr^siliendo, 
 because in the choir they took that part 
 in the praises of God which he who 
 led the dances, and who was called by 
 the Greeks Choregus, took in the public 
 games." 
 
 Scaliger corroborates this statement, 
 and says that the first bishops were called 
 Pr^suks because they led the dances on 
 solemn occasions. The chief priest 
 
 among the Salii, instituted by Numa Pompilius, had the title of 
 
 Prasul. 
 
 Dancing was so far permitted by the Fathers of the Church that 
 
 DANCE OF DEATH 
 
 After Holbein 
 
48 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 St. Gregory of Nazianzum only reproached the Emperor Julian with the 
 
 bad use he made of it. 
 
 " If you are fond of dancing," he said, " if your inclination leads you to 
 these festivals which you appear to love so passionately, dance as much as 
 you will ; I consent. But why revive before our eyes the dissolute dances 
 of the barbarous Herodias and of the pagans .? Rather perform the dances 
 
 of King David before the Ark ; 
 dance to the honour of God. 
 Such exercises of peace and piety 
 are worthy of an Emperor and 
 of a Christian." 
 
 Father Menestrier reminds us 
 that Plato considered dancing a 
 very efficacious remedy in cases 
 such as those to which it is still 
 applied in the famous Tarantula. 
 "For," says he, "to such persons 
 are sung certain songs calculated 
 to heat their blood, and to open 
 the pores, so as to admit of the 
 expulsion of the poison. Danc- 
 ing," he continues, " serves to 
 moderate four dangerous passions, 
 fear, melancholy, anger and joy ; fear and melancholy are relieved by 
 rendering the body active, supple, light and tractable, while the frenzy of 
 the two other passions is calmed by regular movements. But if dancing 
 be a remedy as regards these passions, it is natural to joy, which is, in 
 itself, a dance, and a gentle and agreeable agitation caused by the effusion 
 of the spirits which, rising" in the heart, spread themselves abundantly 
 through the whole body. Such is the argument of Plato." 
 
 Vestris also tells us that Christianity in its religious ceremonies had 
 followed ancient tradition, both bibHcal and pagan, and that in its early 
 days, according to all the evidence, religious dances were favourably 
 viewed by the Church. Such dances must have become confounded with 
 profane measures, for they were performed by layman as well as by clerics. 
 
 DANCE OF DEATH 
 
 In the Church of St. John at Basle 
 
DANCING IN CHURCHES 49 
 
 They were performed on certain days and at certain moments in the 
 service ; for example, hands were joined and dances performed during the 
 singing of the . hymn, O Filii. 
 
 M. Emmanuel, in his learned work upon Greek dancing, remarks that 
 " if Guido and Pomerancio have depicted ballets of angels, it is because 
 St. Basil, in his 
 Epistle to Gregory, 
 says that dancing is 
 their only occupation 
 jn heaven, and calls 
 those happy who can 
 imitate them upon 
 earth." * 
 
 "It is with this 
 idea," he adds, "that 
 commentators speak of 
 the apostles and mar- 
 tyrs as victorious 
 soldiers, 'dancing' 
 after, the battle." 
 
 Certain religious dances have disappeared, others have persisted to our 
 own days. One of the Acts of the latest Council of Narbonne proves 
 that the custom of dancing in churches and cemeteries on certain feast- 
 days obtained in Languedoc till the end of the sixteenth century. 
 
 In the seventeenth century, the people and clergy of Limoges danced 
 in the church of St. Leonard on the Feast of St. Martial, singing : 
 
 San Martiaou, pregas per nous et nous epingarer per bous. 
 
 DANCING ANGELS 
 
 From a Relief by Donatello, at Florence 
 
 Mahomet, imitating the Christian practice, instituted a sect of dancers, 
 the Dervishes, who twirl round and round with astonishing swiftness, some- 
 
 * St. Basil exhorts us to perform sacred dances upon earth in imitation of the angels. 
 " Quid itaque beatius esse poterit quam in terra tripudium Angelorum imitari ? " — 
 {Epist. i. ad Gregor.) " Philosophers have also existed who believed that these spirits had no 
 other means of communication among themselves but signs and movements arranged after 
 the manner of dances. After this w^e need not be' surprised that Virgil, in the Sixth Book 
 of the .iEneid, makes the spirits dance in the Elysian fields." — (Father Menestrier.) 
 
?o 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 times even till they fall down in a swoon, in honour of their founder 
 Menelaus. The latter, it appears, danced unceasingly for forty days to the 
 sound of the flute, and was rewarded by a divine ecstasy. 
 
 The institution of this sect of dancers is not, indeed, unique. At the 
 beginning of the present century, in 1806, just such another was founded 
 in New England, under the name of the Jumpers. They looked upon 
 dancing as an act of worship ; they alternated it with psalmody, and practised 
 it with the utmost fervour in honour of the Deity. Like the Dervishes, they 
 
 DANCING ANGELS 
 From a Relief by Donatello, at Florence 
 
 twirled round for hours at a time, sinking to the earth at last breathless and 
 panting. Some among them, like Menelaus, claimed to have achieved a 
 divine ecstasy by these means. 
 
 It is in Catholic Spain that religious dances have most notably persisted. 
 In the time of St. Thomas of Villanueva, Bishop of Valencia, it was cus- 
 tomary to dance before the Sacred Elements in the churches of Seville, 
 Toledo, Jeres, and Valencia, and, in spite of the abolition of religious 
 dances by Pope Zacharias, the holy prelate approved and upheld them. 
 
 Nor did they confine themselves merely to these dances in Spain. In 
 the Middle Ages, pieces known as farsas santas y fiadosas, holy and pious 
 farces, were performed in churches and monasteries. These were religious 
 compositions, relieved by ribald interludes and licentious dances. 
 
 It was the custom in Galicia to dance the Pela, a sort of sacred measure, 
 
THE SEISES OF SEVILLE ^i 
 
 on the Feast of Corpus Christi. A very tall man, carrying a magnificently 
 dressed boy on his shoulders, danced at the head of the procession. 
 
 In Catalonia, Roussillon, and several other Spanish provinces, mysteries, 
 interspersed with religious dances, were played even in the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 A traveller, who visited Spain at the beginning of the present century, 
 says Davillier, tells us how he saw Regnard's Legataire Universel performed 
 at Seville on the Feast of the Assumption, and transcribes the playbill, 
 which ran as follows : " To the Empress of Heaven, the Mother of the 
 Eternal Word, &c. . . . For her advantage, and for the increase of her 
 worship, the actors of this city will this night perform a very amusing 
 comedy, entitled Le Legataire Universel . . . The famous Romano will 
 dance the Fandango, and the theatre will be brilliantly lighted with 
 chandeliers." 
 
 Baron Davillier further tells us that the poems known as villancicos are 
 popular verses, originally intended to accompany religious dances, and that 
 they are very ancient in Spain. A poet of the later part of the fifteenth 
 century, Lucas Fernandez, published a collection of villancicos para se salir 
 cantando y vailando (to go singing and dancing), in which Christ, the Virgin, 
 and the angels play the principal parts. 
 
 Certain villancicos are still sung to the tunes of Seguillidas. Some of 
 them, the Villancicos de Natividad, are sung throughout Spain on Christmas 
 night. They are chanted to an accompaniment of somewhat unorthodox 
 dancing, and the Redeemer, the Holy Mother, and the angels figure in the 
 refrains, together with turron and Manzanilla wine. 
 
 The seises, the choir-boys of Seville Cathedral, have preserved the 
 tradition of the ancient representaciones and danzas which formed part of all 
 Corpus Christi processions in mediasval Spain, and the Dance of the Seises 
 was authorised in 1439 ^7 ^ ^"^^ °^ Vo^e. Eugpnius IV. 
 
 Don Jayme de Palafox, Archbishop of Seville, attempted to suppress 
 them in his diocese. But the Chapter chartered a vessel, and the seises, led 
 by their maestro di capilla, embarked for Rome, where they convinced the 
 Pope that their costumes and dances could but add to the splendour of 
 religious ceremony. 
 
 " The seises" says Baron Davillier, " are generally the children of 
 
r^ 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 artisans or workmen. They must be under ten years of age on admission. 
 They are easily to be recognised in the streets of Seville by their red caps 
 and their red cloaks adorned with red neck-bands, their black stockings, 
 and shoes with rosettes and metal buttons. The full dress of the seises is 
 exactly the same as that worn by their predecessors of the sixteenth century. 
 The hat, slightly conical in shape, is turned up on one side, and fastened with 
 
 a bow of white vel- 
 vet, from which 
 rises a tuft of blue 
 and white feathers. 
 The silk doublet is 
 held together at the 
 waist by a sash, and 
 surmounted by a 
 scarf knotted on 
 one side ; a little 
 cloak, fastened to 
 the shoulders, falls 
 gracefully about half- 
 way down the leg. 
 But the most cha- 
 racteristic feature of the costume is the golilla, a sort of lace ruiF, starched 
 and pleated, which encircles the neck. Lace cuffs, slashed trunk-hose or 
 calzoncillo, blue silk stockings and white shoes with rosettes, complete 
 the costume, of which Dore made a sketch when we saw it in Seville 
 Cathedral, on the octave of the Conception. The Dance of the Seises 
 attracts as many spectators to Seville as the ceremonies of Holy Week, 
 and the immense Cathedral is full to overflowing on the days when they are 
 to figure in a function." 
 
 At Alaro, a little town in the Balearic Islands, two religious festivals 
 still survive which are celebrated by dancing. 
 
 The following notes on the subject have been communicated to me by 
 H.H. the Archduke Salvator : 
 
 " One of these festivals is celebrated on the 1 5th of August, the day of the 
 Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the other on the following day, the feast 
 
 PROCESSION OF ELS COSIEKS 
 
PROCESSION OF ELS COSIERS 
 
 ?3 
 
 of the patron of the village of Alaro. On these occasions a body of dancers 
 called Els Costers play the principal part. They consist of six boys 
 dressed in white, with ribbons of many colours, and wearing on their heads 
 caps trimmed with flowers. One of them, la dama, disguised as a 
 woman, carries a fan in one hand and a handkerchief in the other. Two 
 others are dressed as 
 demons with horns and 
 cloven feet. The party 
 is followed by some 
 musicians playing on 
 the cheremias, the tam- 
 borino, and the fabiol. 
 After vespers the Cosiers 
 join the procession as 
 it leaves the church. 
 Three of them take up 
 positions on either side 
 of the Virgin, who is 
 preceded by a demon ; 
 every few yards they 
 perform steps. Each 
 demon is armed with a 
 flexible rod with which 
 he keeps off the 
 
 crowd. The procession stops in all the squares and principal places, and 
 there the Cosiers perform one of their dances to the sound of the tamborino 
 and the fabiol. When the procession returns to the church they dance 
 together round the statue of the Virgin. The following day, on the 
 occasion of the second fete, the Cosiers perform dances to the accompani- 
 ment of their band, in front of the high altar after Benediction. They 
 then betake themselves to the public square of the village, where a ball 
 ensues," 
 
 These processions, veritable strolling ballets, were a survival of 
 paganism. Appianus has described them, and attributes their invention 
 to the Tyrrheni, He relates that the young men who formed the 
 
 DANCING BOYS 
 
 From a Relief by Luca della Robbia, at Florence 
 
^4 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 procession in these Tyrrhenian celebrations, as he calls them, decked their 
 heads with golden garlands, and danced with precision and method. 
 Martial tells us that these strolling ballets, originating in Italy, passed into 
 Spain, where they have persisted to our time. The Portuguese, too, are 
 passionately fond of this kind of dance. For centuries their strolling 
 ballets have paraded the streets of their towns, and spread their long lines 
 through the country on the occasion of saints' days or other religious 
 solemnities. 
 
 In 1610, on the occasion of the canonisation of St. Carlo Borromeo, 
 the Portuguese organised a strolling ballet, which is still famous. A ship, 
 bearing a statue of St. Carlo, advanced towards Lisbon, as though to take 
 possession of the soil of Portugal, and all the ships then in the harbour 
 went out to meet it. St. Anthony of Padua and St. Vincent, patrons of 
 the town, received the newcomer, amid salvoes of artillery from forts and 
 vessels. On his disembarkation, St. Carlo Borromeo was received by the 
 clergy and carried in a procession in which figured four enormous chariots. 
 The first represented Fame, the second the city of Milan, the third 
 Portugal, and the fourth the Church. Each religious body and each 
 brotherhood in the procession carried its patron saint upon a richly decorated 
 litter. 
 
 The statue of St. Carlo Borromeo was enriched with jewels of enormous 
 value, and each saint was decorated with rich ornaments. It is estimated 
 that the value of the jewellery that bedecked these images was not less 
 than four millions of francs (^^ 160,000). 
 
 Between each chariot, bands of dancers enacted various scenes. In Por- 
 tugal, at that period, processions and religious ceremonies would have been 
 incomplete if they had not been accompanied by dancing in token of 
 joy.* 
 
 In order to add brilliancy to these celebrations, tall gilded masts, 
 decorated with crowns and many-coloured banners, were erected at the doors 
 of the churches and along the route of the choregraphic procession. 
 
 * "Ne dia fastidio, a nostri d'ltalia, massime ai Roraani, il sentire che nelle processioni 
 di santi e di tanta divodone come fti questa, si mescolassero e balli e danze, perche in 
 Portogallo non parebbe loro, massime ai popolari, fossero processioni nobili e gravi senza 
 simiglianti attioni di giubilo e d'allegrezza." — (Monsignor Accoromboni.) 
 
THE LOU GUE 
 
 ss 
 
 -).\\itcl> iiiavvlMiit|oin (csixu|>iit^iimvi 
 
 These masts also served to show the points at which the procession 
 
 should halt, for the dancers to perform the principal scenes of their ballet. 
 
 Such performances 
 
 were also common 
 
 in the South of 
 
 France. 
 
 In 1462, on 
 the eve of Corpus 
 Christi, the good 
 king, Rene of 
 Provence, organ- 
 ised a procession 
 called the Lou 
 Gue, a genuine 
 strolling ballet, 
 accompanied by 
 allegorical scenes, 
 combats, and 
 dances. These 
 allegorical scenes 
 were at that time 
 called entremets, 
 and were invented 
 to occupy the 
 guests at banquets 
 bet ween the 
 courses.* 
 
 The good king mingled the sacred with the profane in his strolling 
 ballet. Fame, mounted on a winged horse, and blowing a trumpet, headed 
 the march, knights bearing lances followed. Next came the Duke and 
 Duchess of Urbino, mounted on donkeys. For three centuries this 
 
 * Mathieu de Coucy speaks of a procession witnessed by the Burgundian Ambassadors 
 at Milan in 1459, which terminated by a performance of men and women, as warriors 
 doing feats of arms for love of the ladies. The procession at Aix, and the important 
 part played therein by the Prince of Love, are an imitation of these warlike, gallant and 
 religious festivals. — (Castil-Blaze.) 
 
 VINTAGE DANCB 
 
 From a MS. in the Biblioth^que de I'Arsenal, Paris 
 
?6 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 satirical figure of the Duke of Urbino, mounted on a donkey, followed the 
 Corpus Christ! processions. 
 
 Mythology had also her share in the festival. There might be seen 
 Mars and Minerva, Pan and Syrinx, Pluto and Proserpine, and many 
 
 A MEDIAEVAL DANCE 
 
 From a MS. in the Bibliotheqiie Nationale, Paris. 
 
 others, with a suite of Fauns, Dryads, and Tritons, dancing to the sound of 
 drums, fifes, and castanets, preceding the car of Olympus, whereon were 
 enthroned Jupiter, Juno, Venus, and Love. The cortege was closed by 
 three grimacing Fates. 
 
 Moreover, in this procession of pagan gods were interspersed horned 
 devils worrying King Herod, and demons pursuing a soul over which a 
 guardian angel watched. Then came the Jews, dancing round a Golden Calf, 
 the Queen of Sheba with a brilliant suite, and the Magi, following a star 
 hanging at the end of a long pole. These were succeeded by the Massacre 
 of the Innocents, by Christ bearing His cross and surrounded by the 
 
THE LOU GUE ^7 
 
 Apostles. St. Luke appeared bearing on his head the brow of an ox, 
 and ceaselessly scratching the scaly skin of a leper. Then came dancers, 
 mace-bearers, regular soldiers, and, finally, a hideous figure of Death, driving 
 before him with a gigantic scythe this crowd of divine and infernal beings, 
 kings, heroes, and saints. 
 
 " King Rene composed this religious ballet in all its details," says Castil- 
 Blaze ; " decorations, dance-music, marches, all were of his invention, and 
 this music has always been faithfully preserved and performed. The air 
 Lou Gue has some curious modulations ; the minuet of the Queen of 
 Sheba, the march of the Prince of Love, upon which so many noels have 
 been founded, and above all, the ve'ie de Noue, are full of originality. But 
 the wrestler's melody (^Vair des luttes) is good Rene's masterpiece, if it be 
 true that he is its author, as tradition afKrms. This classic air has a pleasing 
 melody with gracefully- written harmonies ; the strolling minstrels of Pro- 
 vence play it on their flutes to a rhythmical drum accompaniment, walking 
 round the a,rena where the wrestlers are competing." 
 
 " The richest and most elegant jewels and costumes were reserved for 
 this solemn occasion," says Castil-Blaze again. " These adornments it was 
 possible to prepare beforehand. Not so the puffs, the chignons and the 
 curls which ladies piled upon their heads, before the Republican era. 
 Legions of powdery hairdressers betook themselves to Aix. Their skill and 
 talent would hardly have carried them through, had they not begun their 
 work long before the event. A number of ladies, whose heads were dressed 
 in the very pink of fashion, curled, greased, and powdered, brilliant with 
 flowers, feathers, and pompons, consented to spend several nights with their 
 elbows on a table, and their heads resting on their hands, to ensure the 
 safety of the stately edifices. No lady who failed to make a magnificent 
 appearance could hope for a bouquet from the Prince of Love. The 
 ridiculous fashions of the day were put to a test which drew down open 
 reprobation upon them. The devil's dam, represented by a man six feet 
 high, appeared in the dress of a modish lady, with hair dressed in the pre- 
 vailing fashion, the absurdities of the whole costume grossly exaggerated." 
 
 A special revival of the Aix festival, instituted by King Rene in 1462, 
 took place at the beginning of the present century, in the year 1805, in 
 honour of the Princess Pauline Borghese. 
 
?8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Religious dances, however, like all dances, whether among the Greeks 
 or among the Romans, degenerated. In 554 King Childebert proscribed 
 them all in his territories, and in 744 a rescript issued by Pope Zacharias 
 
 forbade any ribald dances 
 {^danses haladoires).* 
 
 Odo, Bishop of Paris in 
 the twelfth century, also pro- 
 scribed dancing in churches 
 and processions, and especially 
 the funeral dances which 
 Sifihaf' f'^4. were wont to be held at 
 
 Wm ^^^1 \ ^^ ' night in cemeteries. Much 
 
 later, September 3, 1667, we 
 find a decree of the Parlia- 
 ment of Paris forbidding 
 religious dances in general : 
 the public dances of Jan- 
 uary I , and May i , the torch 
 dances of the first Sunday in 
 Lent, and those which were 
 held round bonfires on the 
 Vigil of St. John. 
 The clergy, who sold dancing indulgences, and to whom dancing 
 was a considerable source of revenue, looked askance at these interdictions,' 
 and resisted them accordingly. 
 
 It is said that a bishop who owned a property on the shores of the 
 
 THE VIGIL OF ST. JOHN 
 
 * "The abuses that with time had crept into these sacred dances, which had become 
 licentious and dissolute, caused them to be abolished, as the Agape or 'love feasts,' 
 and the kisses of peace that the faithful used to give one another in the churches were 
 abolished. For the same reason many churches gave up music and instruments, and 
 several bishops wisely forbade the chanting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah on the three 
 last days of Holy Week, in order to prevent the disorders that used to occur on such holy 
 days, owing to the great number of persons who were attracted by the orchestra and the 
 fine voices, rather than by piety. 
 
 "I myself have seen the canons take the choir-boys by the hand in some churches on 
 Easter Day, and dance in the church, singing hymns of thanksgiving, to say nothing of the 
 scandalous customs, introduced by the simplicity of past centuries, but so corrupted by 
 libertinage, that not only have severe laws been necessary for their suppression, but much 
 
THE ORIGIN OF DANTZIC 
 
 S9 
 
 Baltic Sea gave permission to his flock to dance, on condition that they 
 should only 
 use the space 
 enclosed by 
 joining in a 
 large ring the 
 hands of all 
 the inhabitants 
 of the neigh- 
 bouring vil- 
 lages. On this 
 space was after- 
 wards built a 
 town, says the 
 legend, the 
 town of Dant- 
 zic, or City of 
 Dancing. 
 
 " Neverthe- 
 less," says Paul 
 Lacroix, " the 
 good humour 
 and natural 
 gaiety of the 
 Gauls, their 
 passion for 
 violent exer- 
 cises and for 
 
 sensual gratifications, disposed them to love dancing, and to give themselves 
 up to it with keenness. One can thus understand how it is that dancing. 
 
 THE SHEPHERDS DANCE 
 
 From a MS. in the Bibliotheque de I'Arsenal, Paris 
 
 care and zeal on the part of most of our prelates to banish these dangerous abuses from 
 their dioceses. 
 
 " Our religious acts no longer consist of dances, like those of the Jew and the heathen. 
 We are content to make this exercise an honest diversion, which prepares the body for noble 
 and dignified actions, and serves for public rejoicings." — (Father Menestrier.) 
 
6o A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 in spite of the repugnance shown to it by the Roman aristocracy, in 
 spite of the anathemas and interdictions of councils and synods, has 
 always been the favourite pastime of the Gauls and French." 
 
 In 1373, during the reign of Charles V., an unknown illness came upon 
 France and Flanders to punish the people, say the old historians, for the 
 sins and abuses that marked their religious dances. Numbers of people 
 were seized with a dancing mania, threw off their clothes, crowned them- 
 selves with flowers, and, hand-in-hand, went singing and dancing through 
 the streets and churches. Many, from turning round and round, fell 
 breathless and exhausted. "They were so inflated by this exercise," 
 says Mezeray, " that they would have burst then and there, but for the 
 precaution of fastening bandages very tightly round their bodies." 
 Strange to say, people who beheld this turmoil of dancers were 
 seized with the same frenzy, and joined themselves to the bands of 
 madmen. This disease was known as the " Dance of St. John." Certain 
 sufi^erers were cured by exorcisms. Mezeray adds : " This punishment 
 put an end to the dances that were held in France before the churches 
 on Sundays and feast-days." 
 
 An analogy to this may be found in antiquity. Lucian relates that 
 the inhabitants of a Greek city were seized with a sort of frenzy after 
 witnessing a representation of the Andromeda of Euripides. They 
 might be seen, feverish, pale and exhausted, running through the streets 
 half naked, declaiming parts of the play, with hideous contortions. The 
 disease disappeared with the advent of colder weather, and after violent 
 bleeding at the nose had relieved the suff^erers. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, pantomimes and theatrical ballets disappeared, 
 but dancing remained a popular diversion ; and we know, from the 
 frequent interdictions pronounced by councils and synods, that dances were 
 performed at the feasts of patron saints, and on the eve of great church 
 festivals. Dancing, at first despised by the men of this period as an 
 amusement unworthy of them, was practised exclusively by women for a 
 time, which explains the fact that most of the early mediaeval dancing songs 
 were composed by women, and introduce female characters chiefly. Men 
 appeared only as spectators of such performances, which they watched with 
 an interest to which innumerable poems and romances bear witness. 
 
THE CAROLE 6i 
 
 " Under the walls of a castle named Beauclair," says a song of the twelfth 
 century, " a grand ball was soon arranged ; the damosels came thither to 
 carol, the knights to look on." * 
 
 Soon, however, the upper classes borrowed this diversion from the 
 populace. But it was not until the beginning of the thirteenth century, 
 when the harshness of primitive manners was modified to some extent, that 
 the sexes joined in the amusement. Knights and ladies, taking hands, 
 danced rounds. In the absence of instrumental music, the dance was 
 regulated by clapping hands, or by songs, the verses of which were sung by 
 a soloist, while the refrain was taken up by the whole band. This was the 
 famous Carole, so often described in mediasval poems and romances ; it 
 was long the favourite amusement at social gatherings and entertainments. 
 The author of Flamenca, a Provencal poem, relates that " Youth and Joy 
 opened the ball with their cousin. Prowess. Cowardice, ashamed, went and 
 hid herself." Paul Lacroix mentions a passage in the romance of Perce-Foret, 
 in which it is described how, after a banquet, while the tables were being 
 removed, all was prepared for a ball ; the knights laid aside none of their 
 accoutrements, but the ladies retired to don fresh toilettes. " Then," 
 says the did romancer, " the young knights and maidens began to play 
 their instruments to lead the dance, whence comes," he adds, " the old 
 Gallic proverb : Apres la panse, vient la danse " (after good cheer comes 
 dancing). 
 
 In time a musical accompaniment, though of a somewhat meagre 
 kind, took the place of singing. Evidently, these singing dances 
 were the origin of the more modern ballets and masquerades. As 
 the songs introduced various personages (the May Queen, the jealous 
 lover, &c.). It was natural that these characters, at first merely mentioned 
 in the text, should come to be represented by the dancers. There is, 
 in fact, no solution of continuity between the modest Caroles of the 
 
 * The preaching friar, Jacques de Vitry, clearly explains these proceedings by means 
 of an original but homely metaphor. Speaking of the women who led these dances, or 
 regulated them by their singing, he says that they wore round their necks the bell of the 
 Devil, who kept his eye on them : " It is thus the cow who wears a bell round her neck 
 informs the shepherd where the herd is to be found." In another passage he compares the 
 persons who sing for dancing to the chaplain who chants the versicles, and the clerks who 
 respond. 
 
62 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 thirteenth century, and the sumptuous masquerades of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth. 
 
 " The Middle Ages were the palmy days of dancing, especially in 
 France. The feasting and dancing seem to have been incessant, and one 
 would think, from reading the old poems and romances, that the French had 
 nothing to do but to dance at all hours of the day and night. Tabourot 
 
 JiS'l^^^W 
 
 THE BALL OF THE MAGDALEN 
 
 After a Picture by Lucas van Leyden in the Brussels Museum 
 
 assigns this very prosaic reason : ' Dancing is practised in order that it may 
 be discovered whether lovers are sound and healthy ; to this end, they are 
 permitted to embrace their mistresses, so that respectively they may smell and 
 savour one another, and see whether each has sweet breath ; therefore from 
 this point of view, as well as from many other conveniences that arise 
 therefrom, dancing is necessary for the proper organisation of society.' " — 
 (P. Lacroix.) 
 
MASQUES 
 
 63 
 
 In the thirteenth century there was a marked development m literature 
 and art ; the taste for assemblies and festivities was propagated in Italy and 
 in France, resuscitating dancing and theatrical performances. 
 
 "Maskers," says M. Desrats in his Dictionnaire de la Danse, "were 
 allowed such liberty of behaviour that we can neither explain nor comprehend 
 it. This unlimited liberty gave them admission to every private ball, 
 
 BALL IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 From a MS. in the Biblioth&que Nationale 
 
 without invitation, and they might dance with whomsoever they pleased, 
 without incurring the smallest observation from the master of the house. 
 Neither married ladies nor girls ever refused their invitations. Various 
 balls might be mentioned in which Charles VI. had tragic fits of madness, 
 and the practical jokes of Henry IV. are not yet forgotten." 
 
 Yet another diversion was a regular composition. A subject from 
 
64 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 fable or history was chosen, and two or three quadrilles were formed in 
 which the dancers wore appropriate costumes. An explanatory recitation 
 was sometimes added to the dance. A third diversion came nearer to our 
 ballet, and is to be found in full vigour in 1675. All have read of the 
 joyous masquerades of Charles IX., Henry III., Henry IV. and Louis XIII. 
 
 Louis XIV. figured in 
 person, on January 2, 
 1655, in a masquerade 
 given by Cardinal 
 Mazarin, and in many 
 other such spectacles. 
 
 Somewhat later, the 
 town of Lille gave a 
 fete to Philip the Good, 
 in which twelve ladies, 
 each representing a 
 virtue, and twelve 
 knights brilliantly 
 dressed, performed a 
 dance. 
 
 The town of Amiens 
 offered a ball, or per- 
 haps rather a ballet, to 
 Charles VI. 
 Another, which was given In Paris, at the house of the Duchesse de 
 Berri, was, as is well known, the occasion of the king's madness. This 
 ball has remained celebrated under the name of the Ballet des Ardents. 
 The Duchess invited the whole Court. At that time people were already 
 passionately fond of masquerades. 
 
 The king, followed by some companions, came to the ball disguised as a 
 savage. The Duke of Orleans took a torch in order to examine the new- 
 comers closely, and set fire to the tow held together by pitch that formed 
 their attire. The king nearly perished. Less fortunate than Charles (who, 
 however, went out of his mind), the Comte de Jouy and the Bastard of 
 Foix were burned to death. Young de Nantouillet only escaped by 
 
 THE BALLET DES ARDENTS 
 
 From the Froissart MS. in the Bibliotheque de I'Arsenal, Paris 
 
BERGONZIO DI BOTTA'S BALLET 6^ 
 
 jumping into a tub. of water. The Duke of Orleans built a chapel at the 
 Celestins in expiation of his folly. 
 
 In spite of this tragic adventure, which might have been expected to 
 put an end to masquerades, they were long continued. Towards the 
 close of the Middle Ages, both in France and elsewhere, they took the 
 form, at great entertainments, of gorgeous and fantastic allegories, accom- 
 panied by a species of ballet. 
 
 One of the most celebrated of festivities was the fete given in 1489 by 
 Bergonzio di Botta of Tortona, in honour of Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, 
 who had just married Isabella of Aragon. 
 
 " The Amphitryon," says Castil-Blaze, " chose for his theatre a 
 magnificent hall surrounded by a gallery, in which several bands of music 
 had been stationed ; an empty table occupied the middle. At the moment 
 when the_ Duke and Duchess appeared, Jason and the Argonauts advanced 
 proudly to the sound of martial music. They bore the Golden Fleece ; 
 this was the tablecloth, with which they covered the table, after having 
 executed a stately dance, expressive of their admiration of so beautiful a 
 princess, and of a Sovereign so worthy to possess her. Next came Mercury, 
 who related how he had been clever enough to trick Apollo, shepherd of 
 Admetus, and rob him of a fat calf, which he ventured to present to the 
 newly married pair, after having had it nobly trussed and prepared by the 
 best cook of Olympus. While he was placing it upon the table, three 
 quadrilles that followed him danced round the fatted calf, as the Hebrews 
 had formerly capered round that of gold. 
 
 " Diana and her nymphs followed Mercury. The goddess' followers 
 bore a stag upon a gilded stand. It is unnecessary to say that a fanfare of 
 hunting-horns heralded the entrance of Diana, and accompanied the dance of 
 her nymphs. 
 
 " The music changed its character ; lutes and flutes announced the 
 approach of ^Orpheus. I would recall to the memory of those who might 
 have forgotten it, that at that period they changed their instruments 
 according to the varying expression of the music played. Each singer, each 
 dancer, had his especial orchestra, which was arranged for him according to 
 the sentiments intended to be expressed by his song or his dance. It was 
 an excellent plan, and served to vary the symphonies ; it announced the 
 
66 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 MORRIS DANCERS 
 
 Beverley Minster 
 
 return of a character who had already appeared, and produced a varied 
 succession of trumpets, of violins with their sharp notes, of the arpeggios 
 of lutes, and of the soft melodies of flutes and reed pipes. The orchestra- 
 tions of Monteverde prove that composers at that time varied their 
 instrumentation thus, and this particular artifice was not one of the least 
 causes of the prodigious success of opera in the first years of its creation. 
 
 " But to return to the singer of Thrace, whom I left standing somewhat 
 too long at the door. He appeared chanting the praises of the duchess, 
 and accompanying himself on a lyre. 
 
 " ' I wept,' he went on, ' long did I weep on the Apennine mount 
 the death of the gentle Eurydice. I have heard of the union of two 
 lovers worthy to live one for the other, and for the first time since my 
 misfortune I have experienced a feeling of pleasure. My songs changed 
 with the feelings of my heart. A crowd of birds fluttered down to 
 listen to me ; I seized these imprudent listeners, and I spitted them all to 
 roast them for the most beautiful princess on earth, since Eurydice is no 
 more.' 
 
 " A sound of brass instruments interrupted the bird-snaring virtuoso : 
 Atalanta and Theseus, escorted by a brilliant and agile troop, repre- 
 sented a boar hunt by means of lively dances. It ended in the death of 
 the boar of Calydon, which they offered to the young duke, executing a 
 
BERGONZIO DI BOTTA'S BALLET 67 
 
 triumphal ballet. Iris, in a chariot drawn by peacocks, followed by nymphs 
 clad in light transparent gauze, appeared on one side, and laid on the 
 table dishes of her own superb and delicate birds. Hebe, bearing nectar, 
 appeared on the other side, accompanied by shepherds from Arcady, and by 
 Vertumnus and Pomona, who presented iced creams and cheeses, peaches, 
 apples, oranges and grapes. At the same moment the shade of the 
 gastronomer Apicius rose from the earth. The illustrious professor came 
 to inspect this splendid banquet, and to communicate his discoveries to 
 the guests. 
 
 " This spectacle disappeared to give place to a great ballet of Tritons 
 and of Rivers laden with the most delicious fish. Crowned with 
 parsley and watercress, these aquatic deities despoiled themselves of their 
 headdresses to make a bed for the turbot, the trout, and the perch that 
 they placed upon the table. 
 
 "I know not whether the epicures invited by the host were much 
 amused by these ingenious ceremonies, and whether their tantalised 
 stomachs did not cry out against all the pleasures offered to their 
 eyes and ears ; history does not enter into these details. Moreover, 
 Bergonzio di Botta understood too well how to organise a feast not to 
 have put some ballast into his guests in the shape of a copious luncheon, 
 which might serve as a preface, an argument, an introduction if you will, 
 to the dinner prepared by the gods, demigods, Nymphs, Tritons, Fauns, 
 
 and Dryads. 
 
 " This memorable repast was followed by a singular spectacle. It was 
 inaugurated by Orpheus, who conducted Hymen and Cupids. The Graces 
 presented Conjugal Fidelity, who offered herself to wait upon the princess. 
 Semiramis, Helen, Phaedra, Medea and Cleopatra interrupted the solo of 
 Conjugal Fidelity by singing of their own lapses, and the delights of 
 infidelity. Fidelity, indignant at such audacity, ordered these criminal queens 
 to retire. The Cupids attacked them, pursuing them with their torches, 
 and setting fire to the long veils that covered their heads. Some- 
 thing, clearly, was necessary to counterbalance this scene. Lucretia, 
 Penelope, Thomyris, Judith, Portia, and Sulpicia advanced, and laid at the 
 feet of the duchess the palms of virtue that they had won during their lives. 
 As the graceful and modest dance of the matrons might have seemed a 
 
'Hi -i^^ 
 
 
BERGONZIO DI BOTTA'S BALLET 
 
 69 
 
 somewhat cold termination to so brilliant a fete, the author had recourse to 
 Bacchus, to Silenus and to the Satyrs, and their follies animated the end of 
 the ballet." 
 
 This dramatico-gastronomic entertainment made a great sensation. All 
 Italy was delighted with it, and descriptions of it travelled throughout 
 Europe ; but it was one of the \-&sX. fetes of its kind. Modern dancing gave 
 rise to choregraphic tourneys, and ballets with mechanical contrivances, 
 more splendid,' perhaps, but certainly less original. 
 
 FOOLS DANCE 
 
 From a MS. in the Bodleian Library 
 
^^"^1 f -%^. 
 
 ;^^v'^' 
 
 THE FARANDOLE 
 
 After Jules Gamier 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The grand Ballet — French 'Dances of the Close of the Middle Jges, and 
 
 of the Renaissance — 'Basse Dances — The Volte — The Qaillarde — 
 
 The Tordion — Branles — The Tavane 
 
 T is a singular fact that modern theatrical dancing makes its 
 first appearance under Sixtus IV., in the Castle of St. Angelo, 
 where, towards the end- of the fifteenth century, Cardinal 
 Riario, nephew of the Holy Pontiff, composed ballets and had 
 them performed. 
 
 At about the same time, though sacred dances had been long forbidden 
 by the Church, Cardinal Ximenes reinstated the Mass of the Mozarabes, 
 the author of which was a bishop of Seville in the Cathedral of Toledo. 
 It was celebrated with dances in the nave itself 
 
 Nevertheless, Cardinal Riario failed to inspire the Pope with a taste for 
 dancing and the ballet, so preoccupied was his Holiness with Venice and 
 the Medici. 
 
 It was under Leo X. that ballets came specially into favour. Cardinals 
 not infrequently had them produced. Even Protestants shared the 
 common passion for an amusement little in accordance with their austere 
 
DANCING AT THE COURT OF FRANCIS I. 71 
 
 ideal. Brantome tells how Queen Elizabeth received the Grand Prior of 
 
 France and the Connetable de Montmorency at a supper, followed by a 
 
 ballet danced by the ladies of her Court. Its subject was the Gospel story 
 
 of the wise and the foolish "Virgins. The former carried their lamps 
 
 burning, 
 
 while the 
 
 lights of the 
 
 others had 
 
 gone out ; 
 
 the lamps 
 
 of all alike 
 
 were of mas- 
 
 sive silver, 
 
 marvellously 
 
 chased. 
 
 The ho- 
 nour of the 
 restoration 
 
 of dancing properly belongs, however, to Bergonzio di Botta, whose fete 
 we have described. 
 
 In fact the success of this pageant, organised for Galeazzo, Duke of 
 Milan, was such as to make hke diversions the fashion, and to stimulate 
 the production of grand pantomimic ballets, allegorical and historical. 
 
 These first appeared at royal courts, and celebrated Illustrious births and 
 marriages, and important public events. They were all of five acts and 
 two entrees, which latter were performed by quadrilles of dancers, usually 
 dressed alike, whose gestures, attitudes, and movements helped to explain 
 the meaning of the ballet. 
 
 The Court of Francis I. was much given to dancing, in which art the 
 graceful Marguerite de Valois achieved unheard-of success. We read how 
 Don John of Austria rode post from Brussels, and came secretly to Paris 
 expressly to see her dance. He went away dazzled. Afterwards he used 
 perpetually to say, " How much there is in a minuet ! " This phrase has 
 also been attributed to Professor Marcel. 
 
 Catherine de' Medici entertained the French Court with ballets, the 
 
 THE BALLET DES RIDICULES 
 
 After a Drawing in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
72 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 poetical refinement of which contrasted curiously with the more than 
 doubtful morality of the gaieties accompanying them. Her maids of 
 honour, scantily draped and with loosened hair, offered food upon dishes of 
 silver, after the antique festal manner. Music and dancing formed part of 
 these festivities, at which Henry III. often appeared in female dress, while 
 the women donned masculine attire ! 
 
 Henry III. was not the only king who had a taste for masquerading. 
 
 According to Menestrier, 
 " princes take pleasure in 
 donning some ridiculous 
 disguise at times, as is the 
 custom at the German 
 Wirthschafts. This cus- 
 tom is derived, no doubt, 
 from the ancient Saturnalia, 
 in which the slaves figured 
 as their masters and the 
 masters as slaves. Greatness 
 becomes a burden to the 
 great in their diversions, 
 and to make these freer and more amusing, they are glad to lay 
 aside their rank for a few hours, and to mix on terms of equality with 
 those they are accustomed to see at their feet in all the circumstances 
 of life. 
 
 " With good reason," he continues, " has Antiochus, king of Syria, 
 surnamed Epiphanes, and in derision Epimanes, been branded a fool and a 
 madman ; he mingled with the lowest of the people in all their amusements, 
 sullying the splendour and profusion of his festivals by base conduct and 
 actions unworthy of his birth and rank, dancing with buffoons and actors, 
 arranging his banquets himself, removing the dishes, and introducing the 
 various courses. Once, in the midst of one of the most magnificent 
 entertainments ever given, he had himself carried into the assembly rolled in 
 sheets, emerging from which, he danced an entree^ figuring a sleepy man 
 with such extravagance, that all sensible persons present withdrew, unwilling 
 to witness such degradation. (Athenasus.) Plancus cut a figure no less 
 
 THE BALLET DES RIDICULES 
 
 After a Drawing in the Bibliothfeque Nationale 
 
THE BALLET OF CIRCE 73 
 
 undignified, when, representing the sea-god, Glaucus, he donned a fish's 
 tail, and danced upon his knees." 
 
 These warnings of antiquity notwithstanding, Catherine diverted the 
 attention of her sons from aiFairs of state by a whirl of midnight gaieties, 
 cunningly designed to mask her own dark schemes. 
 
 In the midst of these festivities, the crime of St. Bartholomew was 
 hatching, murder was plotted to the sounds of music, the victims were 
 marked out among the dancers, the executioners were chosen and prepared. 
 
 Nevertheless, she did much for the improvement of theatrical music, 
 introducing Italian musicians, and supporting her ballets by the most effective 
 orchestras. 
 
 Among certain violinists sent to the Court by the Marechal de Brissac, 
 Governor of Piedmont, was an Italian called Baltasarini, who lost no time, 
 however, in adopting the more brilliant name of Beaujoyeux. This artist 
 introduced a regularity and method hitherto unknown into the management 
 of the Court ballets. He was made valet de chambre to the queen-mother, 
 and chief organiser oi fetes and entertainments. 
 
 A poet of the day celebrated his talents as master of the royal revels in 
 
 the following couplets : 
 
 " Beaujoyeux, qui premier des cendres de la Grece 
 Fait retourner au jour le dessein et I'adresse, 
 Du ballet compose, en son tour mesure 
 Qui d'un esprit divin toi-meme te devance, 
 Geometre inventif, unique en ta science 
 Si rien d'honneur s'acquiert, le tien est assure." 
 
 In 1 58 1, on the occasion of the marriage of the Due de Joyeuse, 
 Beaujoyeux composed the celebrated Ballet Comique de la Reine, or Ballet of 
 Circe, said to have been a masterpiece of choregraphic composition. The 
 king's almoner, Lachesnaye, supplied the libretto ; his music-masters, Beaulieu 
 and Salomon, the music. In L'Estoile's Journal we read that the queen 
 and princesses figured as Nereids and Naiads. 
 
 "Lorsque Circe parut en ce ballet pompeux 
 Aux yeux de Medici oiFert par Beaujoyeux 
 On choisit les danseurs parmi cette noblesse 
 Qui joignait au courage et la grace et I'adresse."* 
 
 * Despreaux. L'Art de la Dame. 
 
74 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The princes and princesses donned costumes so costly on this occasion 
 that even the courtiers blamed their extravagance. " Never," it was said, 
 "can the king afford another /"^V^ / " Some of the costumes cost eighty 
 thousand francs. The dresses of the king and queen in especial shone with 
 precious stones and gold embroideries. This wedding cost the king the 
 enormous sum of a hundred and twenty thousand crowns. 
 
 "On Monday, September i8, 1581," says L'Estoile, "the Due de 
 Joyeuse and Marguerite de Lorraine, daughter of Nicholas de Vaudemont, 
 the Queen's sister, were betrothed in the Queen's chamber, and on the 
 following Sunday, at three o'clock, they were married in the parish church 
 of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. The King conducted the bride to the abbey, 
 followed by the Queen, the princesses, and the Court ladies, all so richly 
 attired, that nothing so sumptuous was ever seen in France, The King and 
 the bridegroom were dressed alike, in costumes covered with embroideries, 
 pearls, and precious stones, of inestimable value. Some of the accoutre- 
 ments had cost ten thousand crowns to fashion ; and yet at every one of 
 the seventeen festivals given at the King's command after the marriage by 
 the lords and princes related to the bride, and other great nobles of the 
 Court, all the lords and ladies wore fresh costumes, most of them fashioned 
 of cloth of gold or silver, enriched with embroideries and precious stones, 
 in great numbers and of great price. 
 
 " The expenditure had been so great, taking into account the tourna- 
 ments, masquerades, presents and devices, music and liveries, that it was 
 commonly reported the King was over twelve hundred thousand crowns out 
 of pocket. 
 
 "On Tuesday, October 10, the Cardinal de Bourbon gave his entertain- 
 ment at his residence at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, at vast 
 expense. He caused a magnificent structure to be made on the Seine, a 
 huge boat, in the form of a triumphal car, in which the King, the princes, 
 the princesses, and the newly wedded pair were to pass from the Louvre to 
 the Pre-aux-Clercs in solemn state. This splendid car was to be drawn 
 along by other boats in the shape of sea-horses, Tritons, dolphins, whales, 
 and other marine monsters, to the number of twenty-four. Those in front 
 were to bear, concealed in their bellies, trumpets, clarions, cornets, violins, 
 hautbois, and various excellent musicians, together with certain persons to 
 
^ 
 
 
THE CARDINAL DE BOURBON'S MASQUE 7^ 
 
 let ofF fireworks, all of which was designed to divert the King on the way, 
 
 TSIGANE DANCE 
 
 After Adrien Moreau 
 By jrermission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
 as well as the fifty thousand persons assembled on the banks. But the 
 spectacle was not very successful, for it was found impossible to make the 
 
76 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 monsters advance in the fashion proposed. Whereupon the King, having 
 v/aited fruitlessly from four in the evening till seven for the starting of 
 these animals, said, with some heat, that he saw the beasts were all managed 
 by beasts as stupid as themselves [cetaient des hetes qui commandaient a 
 d'autres betes). So, getting into his coach, he went off with the Queen and 
 all the Court to the entertainment, which was the most magnificent of all 
 
 A KERMESS 
 
 After Adrien Moreau 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
 that were given, notably because the said cardinal had prepared an artificial 
 garden full of flowers and fruit, as if it had been May, July, or August. 
 
 " On Sunday, October 15, the Queen's revels were held at the Louvre, 
 terminating with the Ballet of Circe." 
 
 To this splendid display was added the novelty of a ballet of horses. 
 Such performances had been known to the Sybarites, whose horses — if we 
 credit ancient writers — became at last so fond of music that the Crotoniats 
 hit upon the device of advancing with flute-players against the Sybarite 
 
EQUESTRIAN BALLETS 
 
 77 
 
 cavalry, who were flung to the ground and discomfited by the dancing of 
 their horses when the flutes began. 
 
 Things still more extraordinary are told of the Sybarites in this 
 connection. They were, it is said, in the habit of following up their 
 banquets with performances by horses so well trained, that they rose 
 
 RUSTIC PLEASURES 
 
 After a Picture by Toudouze 
 
 on their hind legs at the sound of the flute, and executed a sort of 
 dance in this attitude, following the rhythm of the music with great 
 precision. Arrianus tells us that the art of dancing was taught to elephants 
 in India. We know how extremely intelligent the animal is. It is said 
 that in the reign of Domitian, an elephant, who had been corrected by his 
 dancing-master for his unskilfulness, was found practising his steps by 
 moonlight. 
 
 * Reference is made in Pliny to ballets danced by elephants, and Martial writes : 
 "Et molles dare jussa quod choreas 
 Nigro bellua nil negat magistro, 
 Quis spectacula non putet deorum ? " 
 
78 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 However this may be, equestrian ballets were seen in Florence in 1608 
 and in 161 5, and at the magnificent tournaments of Louis XIII. and of 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 And in Baucher's Dictionnaire raisonne d' Equitation, published in 1833, 
 I find : 
 
 " CoNTREDANSE : Horsemanship, carried to a certain perfection, 
 permits of the performance of all imaginable movements by horses, the 
 formation of quadrilles, the complete execution of the figures of the 
 contredanse. Thanks to this exercise, as useful as it is charming, our 
 amazons can practice in the riding-house in the morning what they dance 
 at night. Here, as in the ball-room, they may gain an easy and supple 
 carriage, and display the grace and tact which they bring to everything 
 they undertake. Nor will there henceforward be anything to hinder our 
 young gallants from talking horsemanship to ladies. The latter will, on 
 the contrary, be perfectly at home in such conversation ; they will, further, 
 after a i&vf lessons in the mounted contredanse, be able to manage a horse 
 with every kind of skill and elegance. 
 
 " In teaching it, I ask my pupils to wear a tiny spur. This, with the 
 ordinary riding-whip, suffices to accurately direct the movements of the 
 horse. Thus equipped, ladies execute without serious difficulty most of the 
 manoeuvres hitherto believed to be within the powers of the best horsemen 
 only. Therefore I invite my fellow riding-masters to enliven their lessons 
 by this powerful means of emulation and attraction. 
 
 " The combined use of spur and whip once mastered, pupils may at 
 once turn from the paces of the haute hole to those of the contredanse. 
 The fear of leaving quadrilles incomplete will conduce to regularity of 
 attendance ; so that within a limited time debutantes will fit themselves for 
 the brilliant and public display of their skill." * 
 
 A month after the De Joyeuse fete another great ballet was produced 
 under the patronage of the Cardinal de Bourbon at his residence in the 
 Abbaye de St.-Germain-des-Pres. It represented the triumph of Jupiter and 
 Minerva. The queen figured in it as premiere danseuse. The Princess of 
 Lorraine, the Duchesses de Mercoeur, de Guise, de Nevers, and d'Aumale, 
 were secondes danseuses, and appeared as Naiads. 
 * Baucher goes on to describe his figures and their execution in elaborate technical detail. 
 
THE CARDINAL DE BOURBON'S BALLET 
 
 79 
 
 A novel feature in this ballet was a vast fountain, the twelve sides of 
 which supported twelve Nereids and the musicians. Above this fountain, 
 so transparent as to show a number of fish swimming in the water, rose 
 another, surrounded by balustrades, between which were niches for twelve 
 Nymphs. On the principal facade, dolphins, bearing up a crown, formed 
 a throne for the Queen. Surmounting this prodigious edifice was a ball of 
 
 AN OPEN-AIR BALL 
 
 From a print by Abraham Bosse in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 gold, five feet in diameter, beneath which other dolphins spouted water in 
 glittering jets. The whole structure seemed to be drawn along by sea- 
 horses, accompanied by Tritons and Sirens. The Queen and her suite of the 
 corps de ballet wore robes of crape embroidered with silver, and carried gold 
 
 aigrettes in their hands. 
 
 This display of dancing began at ten o'clock in the evening and went on 
 till four next morning. It was on this occasion that small presents were 
 first distributed among the dancers.' The King began by giving the Queen 
 a medal bearing on one side a dolphin, and on the other the punnmg 
 inscription : 
 
8o 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 " TDelphinum ut delphinum refendas " : "I give a dolphin (dauphin), 
 expecting a dauphin in return." 
 
 The Duke of Guise received from the Duchesse de Nevers a medal, on 
 which was engraved a sea-horse with these words : 
 
 " Adversus semper in hostem " : " Always ready for the enemy." 
 
 BALL IN THE TIME OF LOUIS XIII. 
 
 After Abraham Bosse 
 
 M. de Senevois presented to the Duchesse de Guise a medal, bearing this 
 legend : 
 
 " Populi superat, prudentia fluctum " : " Discretion appeases the disquiet 
 of the populace." 
 
 The Marquis de Pons received from the Duchesse de Nevers a sort of 
 whale, bearing her motto : 
 
 " Sic famam jungere fame^' which a poet freely translated : 
 
 "Si vous voulez pour vous fixer la Renomme, 
 Occupez toujours ses cent voix." 
 
 The Due d'Aumale received from the queen a Triton armed with a 
 trident, riding on stormy waves, with the inscription : 
 
 " Commovet et sedat'' : "He troubles and he soothes them." 
 
BALLETS OF THE PAPACY 
 
 8i 
 
 The branch of coral offered by Madame de Larchant to the Due de 
 Joyeuse had for device an epigram : 
 
 " Eadem natura remansit" : "In vain he changes, he remains the same." 
 
 Professor Desrat thinks that this distribution of tokens may have 
 been the origin of our 
 modern custom of 
 giving presents in the 
 cotilHon.* 
 
 Pope Alexander VL 
 and the Borgias 
 patronised ballets 
 which recalled those of 
 Messalina. 
 
 In 1500, the sove- 
 reign pontiffs already 
 possessed a theatre with 
 scenery and mechanical 
 appliances ; and when 
 Cardinal Bernardo Bib- 
 biena had the comedy of 
 La Calandra played 
 before Leo X., certain 
 decorations painted by 
 Peruzzi (the Sanquirico 
 of the day) were much 
 admired, t 
 
 • The Council of Trent was distinguished by a ballet given in honour 
 of the son of Charles V. Cardinals and bishops took part in it, and it 
 was opened by Cardinal Ercole of Mantua. 
 
 * We know little of the choregraphic details of the Circe. One author tells us, 
 artlessly enough, that the performers " danced face to face, back to back, in circle, in 
 square, across, in line, fleeing, stopping, and falling into poses, interlacing themselves 
 together." Which suggests to Professor Desrat the comment : " These steps must have 
 been mainly glided through, since the Basse Danse still reigned supreme. And, as the 
 expression of the plot was always imperative in these ballets, the steps must have been a 
 good deal eked out by gestures." 
 
 t Castil-Blaze. 
 
 ESMERALDA DANCtNG WITH HER GOAT 
 
 From a Print in the Bibliothdque Nationale 
 
82 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 One of the greatest Itinerant ballets ever seen was that organised by 
 the Church itself in Portugal, in 1609, on the occasion of the beatification 
 of Saint Ignatixis Loyola. This ballet represented the capture of Troy ! It 
 was also danced in Paris, where its first act, performed before the Church of 
 Notre Dame de Lorette, introduced the famous horse, an enormous mass of 
 wood, set in motion by a secret mechanism. Around this animal, dancers 
 
 ' acted various epi- 
 sodes of the siege. 
 Then the troupe, 
 followed by the 
 gigantic horse, 
 moved on to the 
 ancient Place St. 
 Roch, where was 
 the church of the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 Scenery, set up 
 round the Place, 
 represented the 
 city of Troy with 
 its towers and high walls ; all of which fell down upon the approach of 
 the horse. Then the Trojans advanced among the ruins, performing a 
 martial dance like the Pyrrhic of Greece, surrounded by fireworks ; 
 while the flanks of the horse poured forth rockets upon the smoking 
 city. "A most beautiful spectacle," says Father Menestrier, "was the 
 simultaneous discharge from eighteen trees, all loaded with similar 
 fireworks." 
 
 Next day, the ballet was continued in the second act by a nautical fete, 
 wherein appeared four brigantines decorated richly with gold and with flags, 
 on which were stationed choirs of singers. It was terminated by a grand 
 procession, in which three hundred horsemen, dressed in the antique fashion, 
 escorted ambassadors from the four quarters of the world to the College of 
 the Jesuits. And the four quarters of the world themselves were represented 
 in a final scene. 
 
 " Having arrived," says Father Menestrier, " at the Place de la Marine 
 
 BALLET OF THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE GLOBE. ENTREE OF THE GRAND KHAN 
 
 After a Drawing in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 

 ° 3 
 
 s « 
 
 H < 
 
84 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 
 (at Lisbon, I suppose), the ambassadors descended from the brigantines and 
 mounted certain superbly ornamented cars. Upon these they advanced to 
 the college, preceded by several trumpeters, and accompanied by the three 
 hundred cavaliers. After which, various persons, clothed in the manner of 
 different countries, performed a very agreeable ballet, forming four troupes 
 or quadrilles to represent the four quarters of the world. The kingdoms 
 and provinces, represented by as many genii, marched with these various 
 
 nations and peoples be- 
 fore the cars of the 
 ambassadors of Europe, 
 of Asia, of Africa, and 
 of America, each of 
 whom was escorted by 
 seventy cavaliers. The 
 troupe of America was 
 the foremost, displaying, 
 among other dances, a 
 very whimsical one of 
 young children disguised 
 as apes, monkeys, and 
 parrots. Before this car 
 rode twelve dwarfs upon ambling nags. The car of Africa was drawn by 
 a dragon. Variety and richness of apparel was not the least among the 
 attractions of this fete ; some persons wearing precious stones to the value 
 of over two hundred thousand crowns." 
 
 Under the Good King Henry, dancing inclined chiefly to jollity. The 
 Bearnese have always been famous dancers. Henry IV. excelled in the 
 Tricotet, to which he even added a variation that was called after him.' 
 The Tricotet was a very ancient and merry dance ; it demanded a motion of 
 the feet quick as that of needles in knitting — whence the name, says La' 
 Monnoye, in his glossary of Christmas songs. 
 
 Henry danced it, we are told, to a favourite tune of his, the words of 
 
 which were : 
 
 "J'aimons les filles, 
 Et j'aimons le bon vin. 
 De nos bons drilles 
 
 BALLET AT THE ChAtEAU DE BICETRE. ENTREE OF DRUNKEN 
 PEASANTS 
 
 After a Drawing in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
JlxrLf4>-&L. . zj/riy&- JyCLmouru) 
 
TRICOTETS 
 
 Voilk tout le refrain : 
 
 J'aimons les filles, 
 
 Et j'aimons le bon vin." 
 
 8? 
 
 These Tricotets were performed in many ballets to airs divided into 
 
 PEASANTS DANCE 
 
 After a sixteenth-cenlury Print in the Bibliothcque Nationale 
 
 four couplets and entrees. The last of them v/as danced to the tune Vive 
 Henri ^aire, which has remained so popular in France. Gardel intro- 
 duced it in 1780, in his ballet of dinette a la Cour, where it had an immense 
 success. So well did the step suit the words, that at its performance the 
 whole audience burst out all but simultaneously into the chorus : " Vive 
 Henri ^atre, vive ce roi vaillant .' " * 
 
 The grave Sully himself supervised the royal fetes. Touching this we 
 find the following passage in his J^emoires: 
 
 * Professor Desrat. 
 
86 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 " While we had Henry of Beam with us, little thought was given to 
 anything save to merrymaking and gallantry ; inexhaustible opportunities 
 for which were afforded him by the felish Madame, the king's sister, had 
 for these things. It was this princess who taught me my trade of courtier, 
 to which I was then very new. She was good enough to have me invited 
 to all entertainments ; and I remember that she was pleased to teach 
 
 
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 THE EGG-DANCE 
 
 After a Piclure by Aertzen in the Amsterdam Museum 
 
 me herself the steps of a ballet afterwards performed with much 
 magnificence. . . . These sports and shows, which needed a certain amount 
 of preparation, always took place in the Arsenal. ... I had a spacious hall 
 erected for the purpose." 
 
 In the twenty years of Henry IV.'s reign (1589 to 16 10), over eighty 
 ballets were performed at Court, besides balls and masquerades. One, the 
 so-called Sorcerers' Masquerade, was given on February 23, 1597, the first 
 Sunday in Lent ; the king had a passion for masquerades, and frequented all 
 the assemblies and balls in Paris. " He patronised," says L'Estoile, " the 
 salons of Madame de Saint-Andre, of Zamet, and of many another. 
 Wherever he went he always had with him the Marquise de Verneuil, who 
 used frequently to take off his mask and kiss him, wherever he might be." * 
 
 * Castil-Blaze. 
 
THE MOUNTAIN BALLET 
 
 87 
 
 ~Franca Tri 
 
 It was while at one of these feies that news reached him of the taking of 
 Amiens by the Spaniards. " This is God's chastisement ! " he exclaimed. 
 " Long enough have I followed the fashion of the kings of France ; 'tis 
 time I play the King of Navarre ! " Then, turning to his beautiful 
 Gabrielle, he added : " Fair mistress, I must betake me to other arms, and 
 mount and ride upon another warfare." 
 
 The Court of Louis XIII. was somewhat gloomy. The Due de 
 Nemours composed ballets 
 to enliven it, one of these 
 being the Ballet of the 
 Gouty. : To assist at this 
 fantastic performance, given 
 in 1630, the duke had him- 
 self carried in on a litter, 
 from which he beat time with 
 his baton. 
 
 ; The Mountain Ballet, 
 perforrned in August, 1631, 
 was also characteristically 
 whimsical. 
 
 The scenery consisted of five great mountains — the Windy, the 
 Resounding, the Luminous, the Shadowy, and the Alps. In the midst was 
 a certain Field of Glory, of which the inhabitants of these five mountains 
 wished to take possession. Fame opened the ballet and explained Its 
 subject. Disguised as an old woman, she rode an ass and carried a wooden 
 trumpet. 
 
 Then the mountains opened their sides, and quadrilles of dancers came 
 out, in flesh-coloured attire, having bellows In their hands, and windmills on 
 their heads. These represented the Winds. Others rushed out, headed 
 by the nymph Echo, wearing bells for head-dresses, and on their bodies 
 lesser bells, and carrying drums. Falsehood hobbled forward on a 
 wooden leg, with masks hung over his coat, and a dark lantern in his 
 hand. 
 
 After these came the inhabitants of the Luminous Mountain— Sleep, and 
 Dreams, and True Fame (as opposed to the farcical Fame of the wooden 
 
 GROTESQUE DANCERS 
 
 After an Engraving by Callot in the BibliothSque Nationale 
 
88 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 trumpet) — and certain horsemen in brilliant costumes, who put to flight 
 the Winds, the Echoes, &c. 
 
 The king himself danced in certain ballets of the period, which were 
 somewhat coarse in their buffoonery. Such were the "Ballet of Sir 
 Balderdash " and the " Grand Ball of the Dowager of Confusion and her 
 Darling of Sillytown " {Ballet de Maltre Galimathias et le Grand Bal de 
 la douairiere de Billebahaut et de son fanfan de Sotteville). 
 
 Cardinal Richelieu, anxious to introduce spectacles of a somewhat 
 
 higher order, had the Grand 
 Ballet of the Prosperity of the 
 Arms of France put on the 
 stage. In the first act, which 
 passed in hell, there were to 
 be seen Pride, Guile, Mur- 
 der, Tyranny, Disorder, 
 Ambition, and Pluto, sur- 
 rounded by Fates and 
 Furies. The second act 
 returned to earth, where 
 Italian, Spanish, and French 
 Rivers engaged in mortal 
 combat. Then came the 
 capture of Arras. In the third act appeared Sirens, Nereids, Tritons, 
 America, and a procession of the gods of Olympus. This was all, as we 
 see, very tedious and incoherent. 
 
 We have already alluded to those personalities which abounded in the 
 plays of Aristophanes and contemporary Greek poets. Ballets, somewhat 
 akin in this respect to the Greek comedies, were not unknown in France, 
 and rapidly degenerated into mere vulgar buffooneries. A ballet, given in 
 1616 at Court, recalled the first thymelic ballets by its pointed allusions to 
 the arrest of the Prince of Conde. The passage is in a dialogue between 
 Damon and Sylvia : 
 
 'Damon. Who could see the lilies of your face without longing to serve you ? 
 
 Sylvia. Yet you would dare to steal them from me ! 
 
 'Damon. Oh, sweet it is to see the myrtle that -crowns you ! 
 
 Sylvia. It is a crown to be admired, not clutched at ! 
 
 •Jrac'tschmST' 
 
 GROTESQUE DANCERS 
 
 After an Engraving by Callot in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
BALLET PERFORMED AT THE COURT OF THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY DURING THE CARNIVAL OF 1616 
 
 After SLR Engraving by Callot in the Bibllotheque Nationale 
 
 M 
 
90 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 But the Court had seen ballets of a higher order than this. 
 
 " Rarely," says Menestrier, " has there been seen a ballet more superb 
 than that performed in the Salle de Bourbon, March 19, 16 15, for the 
 marriage of Madame with the King of Spain. Thirty genii (being the 
 chamber and chapel musicians of the King), suspended in the air, heralded 
 the coming of Minerva, the Queen of Spain. This goddess, surrounded by 
 fourteen nymphs, her companions, appeared in a mighty gilded car drawn 
 by two Cupids. A band of Amazons accompanied the car and made 
 a concord of lutes. Then Minerva danced to five separate tunes, 
 several figures to each tune. And in a sixth tune, all voices and lutes 
 and violins joined. Then Minerva and her nymphs danced together. 
 Forty persons were on the stage at once, thirty high in the sky, and 
 six suspended in mid-air ; all of these dancing and singing at the 
 same time." 
 
 The Duke of Savoy brought the carnival of 1697 to a close by the 
 ballet of Circe driven from her Dominions. He gave it as an entertain- 
 ment to the ladies of the Court. Circe and her attendants danced while 
 " they wrought their enchantments with wands, turnings, and intertwinings." 
 There came twelve rocks dancing various figures, and in the end heaping 
 themselves upon each other, so as to make but one mountain, from the 
 sides of which issued dogs, cats, tigers, lions, boars, deer, wolves, which 
 mingled their cries, their mewings, their roarings, and their bowlings with 
 the sounds of the orchestra ; the whole forming " the most grotesque 
 concert ever heard," says Father Menestrier. 
 
 This hurly-burly over, a cloud descended from heaven and covered all 
 the mountain ; and the twelve blocks of rock, heaped upon each other, 
 transformed themselves miraculously into twelve brilliant cavaliers, who 
 executed a dance. It became customary to organise splendid entertain- 
 ments in honour of all important events. 
 
 This same year a ballet was danced at the Court of Savoy, on the 
 Duke's birthday, the subject of which was Prometheus stealing Fire from 
 Heaven. 
 
 In 1628, the students of the College of Rheims gave a ballet to celebrate 
 the taking of La Rochelle, which event brought about the political unity 
 of France. The subject was the capture of the Car of Glory by the great 
 
COURT BALLETS 
 
 91 
 
 Theander. A certain Black Tower was infested by giants, who challenged 
 all knights-errant to fight for the famous car. This tower was environed 
 by sorceries, so that its gates could not be forced, save by the blast of an 
 enchanted horn. Subject and allusions were alike puerile : the Black Tower 
 
 THE INFERNAL DEITIES, A SCENE FROM THE BALLET PERFORMED AT THE COURT OF TUSCANY_IN 1616 
 
 After an Engraving by Callot in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 was La Rochelle, and the sorceries that guarded it were Heresy and 
 Rebellion. 
 
 At Savoy again, in 1634, they danced a "moral ballet," for the 
 birthday of Cardinal Richelieu, the theme of which was Truth, the enemy of 
 Seeming, upheld by 'Time. 
 
 It opened with " a chorus of those False Rumours and Suspicions which 
 usher in Seeming and Falsehood," writes Father Menestrier, who shall 
 speak for himself, that we may lose nothing of the raciness of his 
 description : 
 
 " These were represented by actors dressed as cocks and hens, who sang 
 
92 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 a dialogue, partly Italian, partly French, with a refrain of clucking and 
 crowing. The hens sang : 
 
 " Su gli albori matutini, 
 
 Cot, cot, cot, cot, cot cantando. 
 Col cucurros s'inchini, 
 
 E bisbigli mormorando 
 Fra i sospetti, e fra i rumori, 
 
 Cu, cu, cu, cu, cu, cu, cu, 
 Salutiam del novo sol gli almi splendori." 
 
 The cocks replied : 
 
 "Faisant la guerre au silence 
 
 Cot, cot, cot, avec nos chants, 
 Cette douce violence 
 
 Ravit les cieux et les champs ; 
 Et notre inconstant hospice, 
 
 Cot, cot, cot, cot, cot, cot, cot, 
 Couvre d'apparence un subtil artifice." 
 
 " After this song of cocks and hens the background opened, and 
 Seeming appeared, seated upon a huge cloud and accompanied by the 
 "Winds. She had the wings and the great tail of a peacock, and was covered 
 with mirrors. She hatched eggs from which issued Pernicious Lies, 
 Deceptions, Frauds, Agreeable Lies, Flatteries, Intrigues, Ridiculous Lies, 
 Jocosities, Little Fibs. 
 
 " The Deceptions were inconspicuously clad in dark colours, with 
 serpents hidden among flowers. The Frauds, clothed in fowlers' nets, had 
 bladders which they burst while dancing. The Flatteries were disguised 
 as apes ; the Intrigues, as crayfishers, carrying lanterns on their heads and 
 in their hands ; the Ridiculous Lies, as crippled beggars on wooden legs. 
 
 " Then Time, having put to flight Seeming with her train of Lies, had 
 the nest opened from which these had issued ; and there was disclosed a 
 great hour-glass. And out of this hour-glass Time raised up Truth, 
 who summoned the Hours, and danced the grand ballet with them." 
 
 But let us now return to the dances, properly so called, from which 
 theatrical choregraphy has caused us to wander. 
 
 Tabourot, in his Orcheso^raphie, describes two dominant types of 
 
THE BASSE DANSE 
 
 93 
 
 dancing as existing towards the close of the Middle Ages. These were 
 the Basse Danse, or 
 Low Dance, and the 
 Danse Baladine, or 
 High Dance. The 
 Basse Danse was 
 grave and slow,' ori- 
 ginally a monopoly 
 of the aristocracy ; 
 it had, however, 
 descended among the 
 common people in 
 his time, and he 
 notes its abandon- 
 ment by the upper 
 classes with regret. 
 " It has been out 
 of fashion this forty 
 or fifty years, but I 
 foresee that wise and 
 modest matrons will 
 
 THE TORCH DANCE 
 
 After an Engraving by Crispin de Pas in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 yet return to it.' 
 
 The Branle, the Pavane, the Gaillarde, the Courante, and, above all, 
 the Volte, were extremely popular. 
 
 The measure of the Basse Danse was triple. It was accompanied by 
 the hautboy, or long flute, and the tabour.* 
 
 The Basse Danse was divided, as follows : 
 
 1. The Reverence. 
 
 2. The Branle. 
 
 3. The Passes. 
 
 4. The Tordipn. 
 
 * " The tabour, accompanied by the long flute, was, in the days of our fathers, 
 employed because one player could manage both instruments together, and produce entire 
 symphony and accord, without need of further expense, or the hiring of other musicians, 
 such as violinists and the like." — (Thoinot Arbeau : Tabourot.) 
 
94 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 GENTLEFOLKS DANCING 
 
 After an Engraving by Theodore de Bry in the Bibliotheque Nation^e 
 
 The Tordion was independent of the others. Rapid jumping move- 
 ments were naturally excluded from all of them. 
 
 Tabourot lays down the following precepts concerning the Basse Danse : 
 
 " When you have entered the place where is the company awaiting the 
 dance, you will choose an honest damosel according to your inclination. 
 Then, doffing your hat or cap with your left hand, you will offer her your 
 right hand to lead her out to dance. She, discreet and well-instructed, will 
 give her left hand, and rise to follow you. You will conduct her to the end 
 of the hall in view of everybody, and warn the musicians to play a Basse 
 Danse ; otherwise they may inadvertently strike up another kind of dance. 
 When they begin to play you begin to dance. And see, in demanding of 
 them a Basse Danse, that they understand it to be a regular and usual one. 
 But if the air of one Basse Danse suit you better than another, you may 
 give them the beginning of the song." 
 
 The worthy Tabourot gives some humorous counsel touching 
 deportment : 
 
 " Having mastered your steps and movements and a good cadence, 
 do not in company keep your eyes on your feet, bending your head to 
 see if you dance well. Carry yourself uprightly, and with an assured 
 look. Spit and blow your nose sparingly ; but if necessity constrain you 
 thereto, turn your face another way, and use a clean handkerchief 
 
 " Let your speech be gracious, gentle, and well-bred. Let your hands 
 hang easily, neither as if dead, nor yet as if in travail to gesticulate. Be 
 neatly dressed, with your hose pulled tightly up, and clean shoes. 
 
 " You may, if you will, lead out two damosels ; but one is sufficient ; for, 
 as the proverb says, ' He who leads two leads one too many.' Likewise 
 when you stand at the end of the hall with a damosel, another may set 
 
THE TORDION 
 
 9^ 
 
 PEASANTS DANCING 
 
 After, an Enj^raviug by Theodore de Bry in the Biblioth&que Nationale 
 
 himself at the other end with his mistress, and when you approach each 
 other in dancing, you must either retreat or turn aside." 
 
 The Gaillarde, otherwise called the Romanesque, had its origin in the 
 Roman Campagna, where it is still popular, according to Kastner. It was 
 a Basse Danse, unknown to the common people, patronised by the gentry, 
 and danced like others of its class to the music oi" the tabour and hautboy. 
 
 Hear the good Tabourot again : 
 
 "Those in the towns who now (in 1588) dance the Gaillarde, dance it 
 tumultuously, nor do they attempt more than five steps. In the beginning it 
 was danced more discreetly ; the dancer and his damosel, after making their 
 bows, performed a turn or two simply. Then the dancer, loosing his 
 damosel, danced apart to the end of the room. . . . Young people are 
 apter to dance it than old fellows like me." 
 
 The Gaillarde was long a favourite dance. The Gaillardes most in 
 use were : // traditore mi fa morire, U Anthoinette, La Milanaise, and Baisons- 
 nous, ma belle. 
 
 This last should have been the most popular ; " for," says Tabourot, 
 "we may conjecture that it gave graceful occasion for a delectable 
 
 variation." 
 
 The Tordion, or Tourdion, generally danced after the Basse Danse, to 
 which its livelier rhythm made a diversion, differed little from the 
 Gaillarde. Its steps were smoother and more gliding ; the performers 
 walked and sidled more than they danced. Tabourot gives some hints as 
 to the manner of dancing it : 
 
 " So long as the musicians continue to play, you must change from foot 
 to foot, and keep time reciprocally. In dancing the Tordion you always 
 hold the hand of your partner, and he who dances it too vigorously \^•ill 
 
5 « 
 
^ 
 
 BELLE QLTI TIENS MA VIE 
 
THE VOLTE 99 
 
 much distress and jolt his damosel. When the music ceases, you will bow 
 to your partner, restore her to her place with gentleness, and, taking leave 
 of her, thank her for the honour she has conferred on you." 
 
 The Haute Danse, or Danse Baladine, had none of the stateliness and 
 gravity of the Basse Danse ; it was the free and easy dancing of the 
 
 RURAL DELIGHTS 
 
 After Adrien Moreau 
 
 populace, and included Rondes, Bourrees, Farandoles, and all sorts of 
 fantastic pantomime. 
 
 As for the Volte, which gradually superseded the Basse Danse, it dates' 
 from the time of Henry III., who, says Professor Desfat, was the first to 
 dance the waltz " a trots temps" under the name of the Volte. 
 
 A description of its earliest appearance, given in Tabourot's Orcheso- 
 graphie (1589), clearly defines the character of this dance. 
 
 The Volte, known later as the Valse or Waltz, is of French origin : it 
 came from Provence to delight the Court of the Valois. 
 
100 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 In writing of the Volte, the good-humoured Tabourot shows a spice of 
 malice : 
 
 " The damosel, her skirts fluttering in the air, has displayed her chemise, 
 and even her bare leg. And you shall return her to her seat, where, put 
 what face on it she may, she will find her shaken-up brain full of 
 swimmings and whirlings ; and you will not, perhaps, be much better. I 
 leave you to consider if it be decorous for a young girl thus to straddle 
 and stride, and whether, in this Volte, honour and health be not hazarded. 
 . . . you may pursue the Volte thus through many turnings, whirling now 
 to the right, now to the left." 
 
 The Branle, according to Jean Jacques Rousseau, was extremely popular 
 down to the seventeenth century. It was probably the oldest of our figure 
 dances. A ball would commonly begin with a Branle d'Entree and terminate 
 with a Branle de Sortie, like the modern Boulangere — a dance accompanied 
 by singing, as were all Branles. The refrain was repeated at the end of each 
 couplet, both in the Boulangere and in the Branle, and in both the dancer 
 embraced his partner. 
 
 " This is perhaps the dance which has left the most appreciable traces 
 on our popular amusements and our children's games," says M. Celler in 
 his Origines de VOpera. He instances in support of this opinion the 
 Boulangere, the Carillon de Dunkerque, the Chevalier du Guet, Vive Henri 
 Quatre, and so on. Rameau, in his Mattre a Danser, describes the gravity 
 of the Branle at the Court of Louis XIV., while Tabourot shows it as full 
 of gaiety and animation under Henry III. 
 
 Tabourot's counsels and instructions are always amusing : 
 
 "The Branle," he says, "Is performed to four bars of the song, 
 accompanied by the flute. In the first bar, the dancer turns to the left, 
 keeping the feet together and moving the body gently ; during the second, 
 he faces the spectators on the right ; during the third, he again looks to the 
 left ; and during the fourth, to the right once more, while stealing a sweet 
 and discreet glance at his damosel. 
 
 " And first of all in the Double Branle, you will walk a double to the 
 left side, and then a double to the right side. You know well that a double 
 consists of three steps and then feet together. To perform It you will, 
 after making your bow for the first bar, keep the right foot firm and steady, 
 

THE BRANLE 
 
 lOI 
 
 throwing to one side the left foot, which will for the time be held in the 
 air. For the second bar, the left foot is the firm one, and the right is the 
 one extended, the leg being nearly straight. The third bar is a repetition 
 of the first. For the fourth bar, bring the feet together. These four steps, 
 performed in four bars or beats of the tabour, we call the double to the 
 
 THE MINUET 
 
 After Adrien Moieau 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
 left ; and the same you will perform to the right side, reversing the preceding 
 double, 
 
 " The players upon instruments are all accustomed to begin a ball by 
 the Double or Common Branle ; after that cometh the Simple Branle ; then 
 the Gay Branle ; and last of these are the Branles called Branles of 
 Burgundy, and Branles of Champagne. This sequence of four sorts of 
 Branles is appropriate to the different persons who take part in them. The 
 old step gravely through Double and Simple Branles ; young married 
 
I02 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 people dance Gay Branles ; and the youngest lightly trip the Branles of 
 Burgundy : all, however, doing their best." 
 
 Branles were at one time so widely popular that almost every province 
 had its own. Among the best known were those of Burgundy and of 
 Gascony (mentioned by Queen Margot in her twenty-eighth Nouvelle), and 
 the Branles of the Haut Barrois, of Poitou, of Scotland, of Brittany, of 
 Malta, and others. There were also the Pea Branle, the Mustard Branle, 
 the Rubbish Branle, and so on. In the Laundresses' Branle, every one 
 clapped hands at intervals to imitate the noise of the beetles. In the 
 Hermits' Branle, the couples saluted their neighbours to right and left, 
 crossing their hands on their breasts, after the manner of monks. A figure 
 in the children's Round, the Bridge of Avignon, recalls this Branle. 
 
 In the Wooden Shoe or Horses' Branle, the performers stamped noisily 
 on the ground, a peculiarity we meet with again in the Bourrees of 
 Auvergne and Limousin. 
 
 In the Branle of the Official, we already find an admixture of the Volte; 
 it was slower than others, but in its last bars, the dancer took his partner by 
 the waist and jumped her into the air. I have seen the same thing in the 
 popular dances of Roussillon. 
 
 Queen Margaret of Valois excelled in the Torch Branle. This dance 
 had a most aristocratic vogue. " A dancer, holding a flambeau in one 
 hand, chose and danced with a partner. Then he handed her the flambeau. 
 She in turn selected a gentleman, with whom she danced. The latter took 
 the torch ; and so on with the rest."* 
 
 A survival of this is to be found, thinks Professor Desrat, in the 
 Cotillion figure called the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance. But 
 here the lady returns the candle to a cavalier whom she rejects. 
 
 We must not forget the Gavotte Branle, " in which the damosel is not 
 to be lifted, nevertheless she is to be kissed," says Tabourot; adding, in 
 token of its novelty : " Had this Branle existed in my young days, I'had 
 not failed to have taken note of it." 
 
 The Bocane was fashionable at Court under Louis XIII. and during 
 the Regency of Anne of Austria. According to Piganiol de la Force, its 
 
 Vestris. 
 
THE PA VANE 
 
 lO^ 
 
 inventor was Jacques Cordier, surnamed Bocan, a dancing-master absolutely 
 illiterate, and even ignorant of- music. He was crook-shanked and gouty, 
 his hands and feet being distorted by his malady. Yet this poor wretch 
 was the wonder of his age, playing the violin miraculously, and composing 
 charming airs. He taught all the great ladies ; among his pupils were the 
 queens of France, Spain, England, Poland, and Denmark. Charles I. of 
 
 THE FOOL S DANCE 
 
 After a Picture by P. Codde in the Hague Museum 
 
 England held him in high esteem, heaped presents upon him, and invited 
 him often to his table. 
 
 " The Pavane," writes Madame Laura Fonta, " was a noble and 
 beautiful dance, in high favour from about 1530 until the minority of 
 Louis XIV., who preferred the Courante. Historians differ as to its 
 origin : some refer it to Spain, others to Padua. 
 
 " The Pavane, although dating, so far "as its mimetic movements are 
 concerned, from the thirteenth century, appears to have gradually assimilated 
 the character of the Basse Danse. It was, however, both in its step and 
 its time (which was duple) less grave than the latter ; and it was 
 
io6 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 undoubtedly an amiable kind of dance, since it permitted at its wind-up ' the 
 stealing of a kiss ' from one's damosel, instead of the mere ' discreet ogling ' 
 of the Basse Danse." 
 
 This majestic Pavane was a dance of courts ; all the princely caste of 
 
 ANDANTE 
 
 Europe adopted it ; it was a point of honour to dance the Pavane gracefully. 
 Admiring crowds gathered about the dancers. And it was truly beautiful 
 to see kings, princes, and great lords, draped in fine cloaks tilted up by 
 swords, and queens and princesses in robes of state, held up by maids of 
 honour, advancing to the sound of instruments, and pacing in cadence, 
 rather than dancing, with a pomp and a majesty as of gods and 
 goddesses. 
 
 "Splendeur doree et rose et bleue 
 D'un innombrable diamant, 
 Le paoii miraculeusement 
 
THE PAVANE 
 
 107 
 
 Developpera son ample queue; 
 
 En la largeur de ses deplis 
 
 Tout un etal d'orf^vre tremble, 
 Et la Pavane lui ressemble, 
 
 Mais avec des pieds plus jolis ! " 
 
 One understands why certain authors derive the name from the Latin 
 pavo, peacock ; for these dancers recalled the slow strutting of that bird 
 of marvellous plumage as he spreads the glittering sheen of his tail. 
 
 Thoinot Arbeau tells how the earliest Pavanes were sung and danced 
 by their performers to the music of tabours, viols, hautbois, and sackbuts, 
 in duple time. Marguerite de Valois, whom Brantome calls " the sweetest, 
 lady on earth," was as supreme in the Pavane as in the Volte. Henry III., 
 too, distinguished himself in this dance, among his minions, at the 
 sumptuous fetes of his Court. 
 
 We have noted the various phases through which dancing passed in the 
 Middle Ages, the sixteenth century, and the early years of the seventeenth. 
 We shall see it becoming grave and pompous at 
 the Court of Le Rot Soleil, like that monarch 
 himself, who was, indeed, a proficient in the art, and 
 we shall have yet another opportunity of pointing 
 out how faithfully this graceful pastime reflects the 
 character of different epochs in our history. 
 
 DANCE OF PEASANTS 
 
 From a M5< in the Biblioth&que Natiooale 
 
THE MINUET 
 
 After a Picture by Toudouze 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 'Dancing in the " (^reat Century " — (jrand 'Ballets under Louis XIV. — [Masked 'Balls 
 
 — Tlie Tavane — Tie C our ante — The (gavotte — The -Chacone — The Saraband — 
 
 The Allemande — The Passepied — The Passacaille 
 
 ATHERINE DE' MEDICI, Henry IV., and Cardinal 
 Richelieu, passionate admirers of choregraphic spectacles, had 
 encouraged all such displays, and made them fashionable. 
 Louis XIV. supported them even more actively than his 
 predecessors. The continuity of such pageants at his Court and in his 
 capital caused dancing to be finally accepted as one of the habits of 
 
LOUIS XIV. IN BALLETS 
 
 109 
 
 French society. The influence he exercised 
 on the art was strongly felt tliroughout the 
 eighteenth century, and has persisted to our 
 own times. 
 
 There was a great deal of dancing 
 under Le Roi Soleil, 
 
 " On n'a de plaisir que d'exercer des violons, 
 Danser un peu de chaque danse, 
 Et les tricotets d'importance," 
 
 A COURTIER IN THE BALLET OF NIGHT 
 
 Performed in 1653 
 
 said a rhymer of the day 
 
 Choregraphic spec- 
 tacles had hitherto 
 been confined exclu- 
 sively to Courts. 
 Louis XIV., who fre- 
 quently figured on 
 the stage himself 
 threw open the doors 
 of the theatre 
 to the public, 
 which soon 
 developed a passion 
 for the new amusement ; and, under the 
 impulse given it from such exalted quarters, 
 dancing, no less than the other arts, shone 
 with unparalleled lustre. The ballet de- 
 veloped all sorts of novel combinations and 
 happy audacities, resulting in marvellous 
 effects. Poets and musicians could count 
 most surely on the King's favours by de- 
 voting themselves to inventions of this class, 
 as Benserade, Lulli, and even Moliere himself 
 discovered. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. AS Lc Roi Soleil in the ballet 
 
 OF NIGHT 
 
 Performed in 1653 
 
no 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The grand ballet d'action, which gave rise to a considerable 
 
 development in theatrical 
 dancing, dominated the 
 choregraphy of the cen- 
 tury of Louis XIV, But 
 there was also much 
 dancing of a more in- 
 timate kind, Minuets, 
 Gavottes, Courantes, 
 Pavanes, Passacailles, 
 and Passepieds. The 
 middle-classes danced the 
 Pavane, Cotillions, Con- 
 tredanses, and Brandons ; 
 the people affected Branles, 
 Rondes, and the ancient 
 rustic measures. 
 
 In 1 66 1, the Royal 
 Academy of Dancing was 
 founded by royal decree. 
 But the appointed mem- 
 bers of this new Areopagus 
 
 took very little interest in it, and their proceedings were chiefly confined 
 
 to revels in the tavern of V Epee-de-Bois, which they had chosen as their 
 
 meeting-place. 
 
 Besides the ballets Introduced in the operas of LuUi and other musicians 
 
 of the period, a great many ballets were danced at the Tuileries, and others 
 
 at the Louvre, at Versailles, and at Fontainebleau. 
 
 In 1 6 5 1 , when the King was thirteen, he danced in public for the first 
 
 time in the Masque of Cassandra. It was not until 1670 that he ceased to 
 
 appear on the stage. It is said that the following couplets in Racine's 
 
 Britannicus caused him to discontinue the practice : 
 
 BALLET DANCER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 After a Print in the Eibliotheque Nationale 
 
 " Pour toute ambition, pour vertu singuliere, 
 II excelle a conduire un char dans la carriere, 
 
LOUIS XIV. IN BALLETS 
 
 III 
 
 A disputer des prix indignes de ses mains, 
 
 A se donner lui-meme en spectacle aux Remains, 
 
 A venir prodiguer sa voix sur un theitre, 
 
 A re'citer des chants qu'il veut qu'on idolatre." 
 
 The King generally figured as one of the gods, but he occasionally 
 appeared in a less ex- 
 alted character. In the 
 Triumph of Bacchus, 
 for instance, he took 
 the part of a thief, 
 excited by copious 
 libations. 
 
 In the Ballet of 
 the 'Prosperity of the 
 Arms of France, the 
 King played the lead- 
 ing part, and appeared 
 surrounded by his 
 whole Court. This 
 spectacle caused some 
 surprise among the 
 Parisians,' who came in 
 crowds to see him. 
 
 As was customary 
 in all the Court ballets, 
 
 the King wore a mask typical of the character represented, after the 
 fashion of the classic stage.* 
 
 Father Menestrier describes this ballet, an extraordinary jumble of the 
 siege of Cassel, the taking of Arras, Flemish topers, Spanish and French 
 soldiers fighting to music, and the gods of Olympus ! 
 
 BALLET DANCER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 After a Print in the Bibliothfeque Nationale 
 
 * Gardel the elder was the first dancer who appeared on the stage without a mask. 
 Strange to say, this innovation was not much to the taste of the spectators. It persisted 
 however, and two years later, when Gaetan Vestris was urged to resume his masic, he could 
 not make up his mind to do so. 
 
I 12 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 It would be tedious to enumerate all the ballets given at the Court. 
 Suffice it to say that the King danced in twenty-seven grand ballets, not 
 
 to mention the intermezzi of lyrical tragedies and 
 comedy-ballets. 
 
 Dans des ballets brillants que la France admirait 
 Entourc de sa cour, lui-meme il figurait." 
 
 We may instance, as a typical example 
 
 of such performances, the famous Ballet 
 
 dii Carrousel, held on a large open space 
 
 in front of the Tuileries in 1662. On 
 
 this occasion, royalty was well represented 
 
 in the cast. The King danced at the 
 
 head of the Romans, his brother led the 
 
 Persians, the Prince de Conde commanded 
 
 the Turks, and the Due de Guise the 
 
 Americans. 
 
 In the Grand Ballet du Roi, 
 performed at the Louvre in 
 1664, IVIercury, Venus, and 
 Pallas sang a prologue. Cupids, 
 disguised as blacksmiths' appren- 
 tices, issued from Vulcan's cave 
 to the clang of hammers. Venus 
 then appeared, showing Mark 
 Antony and Cleopatra in a galley drawn by Cupids, while a naval 
 engagement raged on the horizon. Then came Pluto, carrying ofF 
 Proserpine, Nymphs, and more Cupids. The gardens of Ceres, and of 
 Armida and Rinaldo appeared in turn. It was one of the most marvellous 
 ballets of the period. 
 
 The year following, the poetical ballet of the Birth and Power of Venus 
 was given at Versailles. In this, of course, the gods and goddesses 
 appeared in full force. 
 
 " Neptune and Thetis, followed by Tritons, who acted as chorus, 
 
 MLLE. SUBLIGNY 
 
 From an old Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
A COURT BALLET 
 
 After an Engraving by Sdbastien Le Clerc in the Biblioth&que Nationale 
 
114 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 expressed their pride and delight that a goddess of incomparable beauty, 
 destined to reign throughout the world, should be born in their realm. 
 Neptune began thus : 
 
 " Taisez-vous, flots impetueux, 
 Vents, devenez respectueux. 
 Li mere des Amours sort de ma vaste empire. 
 
 Voyez comme elle brille en s'elevant si haut, 
 Jeune, aimable, charmante, et faite comme il faut 
 Pour imposer des lois a tout ce qui respire. 
 
 Quelle gloire pour la Mer, 
 D'avoir ainsi produit la merveille du monde, 
 Cette divinite, sortant du sein de I'onde, 
 N'y laisse rien de froid, n'y laisse rien d'amer. 
 
 Quelle gloire pour la Mer ! 
 
 " Venus then rises from the sea on a throne of pearl, surrounded by 
 
 Nereids, and is presently car- 
 ried up to heaven by Phosphor 
 and the Hours. The marine 
 gods and goddesses press for- 
 ward to see her. The Winds 
 arrive with a rushing sound, 
 .ffiolus, apprehensive of the 
 destruction they generally 
 work, locks them up in their 
 cave. Castor and Pollux de- 
 clare that navigation shall 
 henceforth be prosperous, in 
 honour of this birth. Sea- 
 captains, merchants, and 
 sailors rejoice at their appear- 
 ance. The Zephyrs, who had 
 left the other winds to bring 
 the happy news to earth, an- 
 
 A BALLET DANCER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY • r \. C ' 
 
 From a Print in the BibliotUque Nauonale nOUnCe it fi r S t tO Spring, 
 
THE BALLET OF HERCULES IN LOVE 
 
 11^ 
 
 Frolic, and Laughter, who hasten to devote themselves to the new 
 divinity. Flora and Pales, with a bai\d of shepherds and shepherdesses, 
 swear to obey no laws but hers. The Ballet of the "Birth of Venus ended 
 here, the second part illustrating her power. The Graces proclaim it, 
 declaring that the sway of 
 the goddess extends through- 
 out the whole world. The 
 rest of this allegory, composed 
 for the late Madame of France, 
 was made up of some dozen 
 entrees of Gupids, Jupiter, 
 Apollo, Bacchus, Sacrificing 
 Priests, Philosophers, Poets, 
 Heroes and Heroines subject 
 to Beauty, and the episode of 
 Orpheus seeking Eurydice in 
 hell." 
 
 The Ballet of Hercules 
 in Love was given on the 
 occasion of the King's 
 marriage in 1660; it is 
 memorable for its ingenious 
 mechanism. 
 
 The first tableau showed 
 a rocky region with a back- 
 ground of sea and mountains. 
 
 Fourteen rivers under the sway of France appeared reclining upon 
 the mountains. Clouds descended from the sky, and parted near the 
 ground, disclosing fifteen women, symbolical of the fifteen imperial houses 
 from which the royal family of France was derived. These, after perform- 
 ing a stately dance, were again enveloped by clouds, and carried up to 
 heaven. Then mountains, rocks, sky and sea, moon and stars, sang in 
 chorus, praising the King and Queen. 
 
 The Ballet of Cupid and Bacchus, the music of which was by LuUi, and 
 the dances by Beauchamp, was performed before the ladies of the Court in 
 
 AN ACTRESS DANCING 
 
 From a seventeenth century Print in the Bibliothfeque Nationale 
 
ii6 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 1672, by the Master of the Horse, the Duke of Monmouth, the Due de 
 
 Villeroy, and the Marquis de Rossey. 
 
 On February 14, 1667, Benserade's ballet of The Muses was given at 
 
 Saint-Germain- en- 
 Laye. In this ballet, 
 Moliere's Melicerte 
 and Pastorale Comique 
 were performed as 
 interludes at first, 
 and were replaced 
 afterwards by his little 
 - comedy, Le Sicilien. 
 A masque of Moors 
 followed after the 
 comedy, and brought 
 the ballet to a close. 
 Four noble Moors and 
 four Moorish ladies 
 were represented by 
 the King, M. Le 
 Grand, the Marquis 
 de Villeroy, the Mar- 
 quis de Rossan, 
 Madame Henriette of 
 England, Mile, de la 
 Valliere, M'me. de 
 Rochefort, and Mile. 
 
 de Brancas. A few months later Le Sicilien was played at Moliere's 
 
 theatre in the Palais-Royal by the author. La Grange, La Thorilllere, 
 
 Du Croisy, Mile, de Brie and Mile. Moliere.* 
 
 ''M^^'^^y^^^ 
 
 ■^*m.j^ 
 
 THE BALLET OF THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE 
 
 From an old Print in tiie Bibliothcque Nationale 
 
 * On January 20, 1861, this ballet-comedy was revived at the Comedie Fran9aise. 
 Lulli's intermezzi were replaced by a Pas-Je-trois, danced by Mile. Nathan, Morando, and 
 Genat, of the Opera. The dance called the Swallow, which forms part of the ballet, is 
 suggested by Isidore, one of the characters, who asks : "What gratitude do I owe you, if 
 you but change my present slavery to one still harsher, and do not allow me any taste of 
 liberty .!■" This dance is an imitation of a game played by Greek girls, the tradition of 
 
THE BALLET OF IMPATIENCE 117 
 
 In the Triumph of Love, performed in 1681, women first appeared 
 on the stage. Their parts 
 had hitherto been taken 
 by men. Q^inaut and 
 Lulli broke down the tra- 
 dition, and persuaded some 
 of the greatest ladies of the 
 Court to play, among others, 
 the Dauphiness, the Prin- 
 cesse de Conti, and Mile, de 
 Nantes. 
 
 Impatience was a comic 
 
 ballet, composed of a series 
 
 of disconnected scenes, all 
 
 bearing upon the title of 
 
 the pLeoe. It was very 
 
 curious. Famished persons 
 
 burnt their mouths in 
 
 their haste to swallow 
 
 their soup ; fowlers waited 
 
 in vain by their snares ; 
 
 impatient creditors appeared, 
 
 litigants, &c. Dupin, who played the part of an owl, recited these 
 
 verses: 
 
 " Mon petit bee est assez beau, 
 Et le reste de ma figure 
 Montre que je suis un oiseau, 
 
 Qui n'est pas de mauvais augure." 
 
 
 -= 
 
 'M 
 
 ) 
 
 
 i 
 
 •it 
 
 " mr^ 
 
 9 
 
 ~ 
 
 :l^ 
 
 Vs. J 
 
 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 COMIC DANCER IN PEASANT'S DRESS 
 
 From a Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 which survived till the eighteenth century. (See the letters of Andre Chenier's mother.) 
 In this game a young girl held a swallow captive. It escaped, she and her companions 
 pursued, and finally recaptured it. At the last performance of the piece, which was given 
 at the Opera on March 19, 1892, during the Franco-Russian ///«, for the benefit of city 
 ambulances and the sufi^srers in the Russian famine, the Moorish masqueraders were 
 supplemented by four couples of Harlequins, four couples of Louis XIII. pages and waiting- 
 maids, and eight couples of gardeners, male and female. They danced a Rigaudon by 
 Rameau, a Chacone by Lulli, a Sicilienne by Bach, and a Forlane from Campra's Fetes 
 'D'cnitiennes, 
 
1 1 
 
 8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The following couplet occurred in Louis XIV.'s part : 
 
 " De la terre et de moi qui prendra la mesure, 
 Trouvera que la terre est moins grande que moi." 
 
 In this series of curious and remarkable ballets we must include 
 
 that of ne Game of Tiquet, an 
 intermezzo in Thomas Corneille's 
 1'riomphe des Dames, played in 
 1676. 
 
 The four knaves appeared 
 first with their halberds, to pre- 
 pare the stage and place the 
 spectators. Then came the 
 kings, leading the queens, whose 
 trains were borne by slaves. 
 These slaves represented Tennis, 
 Billiards, Dice, and Backgammon, 
 and were dressed in appropriate 
 costumes ; the dresses of the 
 kings, queens, and knaves were 
 exactly copied from ordinary 
 playing-cards. They proceeded 
 to dance with their suites of 
 
 MLLE. DUFANT 
 
 From a Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 aces, eights, nines, &c., in com- 
 binations forming tierces, 
 quarts, and quints; eight 
 champions in the background represented the ecart, or reserve of cards. 
 Red and black cards then ranged themselves in opposite lines, and finished 
 the ballet by a general dance, in which the colours intermingled. 
 
 Sainte-Foix is of opinion that this intermezzo was not a novelty, and 
 that Thomas Corneille or his collaborators took the idea from a grand 
 ballet performed at the Court of Charles VII., which suggested the game of 
 piquet. This piece of information is offered to those persons who play 
 piquet every day, unconscious of its origin (Castil-Blaze). There was 
 some idea of reviving this ballet at Angers, in 1892, for the quingentenary 
 of the invention of playing-cards. 
 
FAMOUS DANCERS UNDER LOUIS XIV. 
 
 119 
 
 All the historical and allegorical ballets of the reign of Louis XIV. 
 were distinguished by the extraordinary complexity of the mechanical con- 
 trivances, and a theatrical pomp, a presentment of strange and imposing 
 effects, unprecedented in those 
 times. 
 
 As we have already shown, 
 the cornposers of the period 
 were ably seconded by the in- 
 terpreters of their grandiose 
 conceptions. 
 
 La Bruyere compared Pe- 
 cour and Le Basque, two famous 
 opera-dancers, to Bathyllus of 
 ancient Rome. "He turned 
 the heads of all the women 
 by his airy grace," he re- 
 marked of one of them. 
 
 Beauchamp, the inventor of 
 choregraphic writing, a con- 
 summate artist and learned 
 composer, was Director of the 
 Royal Academy of Dancing, 
 Master and Superintendent of 
 the King's ballets, and after- 
 wards Ballet - master of the 
 
 Royal Academy. He excelled in lofty and imposing compositions, and 
 often danced himself, side by side with the King. 
 
 At a somewhat later date, Dupre (the Great) outshone all his predeces- 
 sors by the gracefiil distinction of his steps and the nobility of his attitudes. 
 " It was the rare harmony of all his movements that won for Dupre the 
 glorious title of the God of Dancing," says Noverre in his letters. Indeed, 
 this famous dancer is said to have looked more like a god than a man upon 
 the stage. 
 
 At last Ballon appeared, justifying his name by the lightness of 
 his steps. 
 
 BALLON, AN OPERA DANCER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 From an old Print in the Biblioth^que Nationale 
 
120 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The balls given by Louis XIV. were very magnificent, but not very 
 enjoyable. Cold ceremonial is the natural enemy of pleasure. The grandest 
 of these balls was perhaps that given on the occasion of the Duke of 
 Burgundy's marriage. " The gallery at Versailles," says an eye-witness, " was 
 
 divided into three equal parts 
 by two gilded balustrades four 
 feet in height. The middle 
 portion formed the centre, as it 
 were, of the ball, having a dais 
 of two stages, covered with the 
 most beautiful Gobelins tapes- 
 try, at the back of which were 
 placed chairs of crimson velvet, 
 ornamented with deep gold 
 fringe. These were for the 
 King, the King and Queen of 
 England, the Duchess of Bur- 
 gundy, and the princes and 
 princesses of the blood royal. 
 The three other sides were 
 lined in the front row with 
 very handsome chairs for the am- 
 bassadors, the foreign princes 
 and princesses, the dukes 
 and duchesses and great officials 
 of the Crown ; other rows of 
 chairs behind these were filled by important personages of the Court and 
 town. To right and left were crowds of spectators, arranged as in an 
 amphitheatre. To avoid confusion, these spectators were admitted through 
 a turnstile, one after the other. There was another little amphitheatre 
 for the King's twenty-four violinists, six hautbois-players, and six flautists. 
 
 " The whole gallery was lighted by large crystal lustres, and a number 
 of branched candlesticks filled with thick wax candles. The King had sent 
 cards of invitation to every one of any distinction, with a request that they 
 should appear in their richest costumes ; in consequence of which command, 
 
 MLLE. MAUPIN 
 
 From an old Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
A FRENCH BALL IN lb82 
 
 From an Almanack of that date in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
122 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 the simplest coats of the gentlemen cost as much as three or four hundred 
 pistoles. Some were of velvet embroidered with gold and silver, and lined 
 with brocade worth no less than fifty crowns a yard ; others were of cloth of 
 gold or silver ; the ladies were equally splendid, the brilliance of their jewels 
 
 making an admirable effect 
 in the light. 
 
 " As I leaned on the bal- 
 ustrade opposite the King's 
 dais, I reckoned the assem- 
 bly to be composed of eight 
 hundred persons, their dif- 
 ferent costumes forming a 
 charming spectacle. Mon- 
 seigneur and Madame of Bur- 
 gundy opened the ball with 
 a Courante, then Madame 
 of Burgundy danced with 
 the King of England, and 
 Monseigneur with the Queen 
 of England ; she in her turn 
 danced with the King, who 
 then took Madame of Bur- 
 gundy ; she then danced 
 
 THE BALLET OF YOUTH, DANCED IN 1680. ONL OK THE LAST 
 PERFORMED IN THE GARDENS AT VERSAILLES 
 
 From a Piint in the Hennin Collection, Bibllotl.eque Na.ionale 
 
 with Monseigneur, and he 
 with Madame, who ended 
 with the Due de Berri. 
 
 Thus all the princesses of the blood danced in succession according to their 
 
 rank. 
 
 " The Due de Chartres, who is now Regent, danced a Minuet and a 
 
 Saraband so beautifully with Madame la Princesse de Conti, that they 
 
 attracted the admiration of the whole Court. 
 
 " As there were a great number of the princes and princesses, this 
 
 opening ceremony was a long one, making a pause in the general dancing, 
 
 during which the Swiss guards, preceded by the chief officers of the royal 
 
 table, brought in six stands, covered with a superb cold collation, including 
 
A COURT BALL 
 
 123 
 
 all kinds of refreshments. These were placed in the centre of the room, 
 and any one was at liberty to eat and drink what he would for half an hour. 
 
 " Besides these tables, there was a large room to one side of the gallery, 
 with two tiers of shelves, on 
 which were ranged bowls full 
 of everything one could 
 imagine to make up a su- 
 perb collation, enchantingly 
 served. Monsieur and sev- 
 eral ladies and gentlemen of 
 the Court came to see this, 
 and to take refreshment ; I 
 also followed them. They 
 only took a few pomegra- 
 nates, lemons, oranges, and 
 some sweets. As soon as 
 they had gone, the public 
 was admitted, and in a 
 moment everything had dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 " In another room were 
 two large buffets, one with 
 all kinds of wine, and the 
 other with various liqueurs 
 and cordials. The buffets 
 
 were railed off by balustrades, and from behind these a great number of 
 officers of the buttery were ready to serve to any one whatever he^ wanted 
 during the ball, which lasted till morning. The King went to supper 
 at eleven with the King and Queen of England the Queen, and the 
 princes of the blood ; while they were away, only grave and serious 
 dances were performed, in which the grace and nobility of the art were 
 shown in all their beauty." 
 
 Masked balls, which were very fashionable in the reign of Louis XIV., did 
 not begin till after midnight. Most of them differed from Court balls by 
 the greater liberty of manners allowed, which by no means destroyed their 
 
 A LADY OF QUALITY DANCING 
 
124 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 beauty. If any one at this period wished to go to a ball, but not to dance 
 he simply wrapped himself in a large cloak. The ladies put on a scarf. 
 This convention was nearly always respected, though sometimes the ladies 
 tried to pull off a refractory cloak, and force the wearer to change his mind . 
 It was a great triumph if their efforts were successful. 
 
 The Pavane, the noble dance of Henry III.'s Court, or the grand bal, 
 
 DANCE OF FLEMISH PEASANTS 
 
 From a contemporary Print after Jan Miel 
 
 as it was formerly called — which had taken the place of the Basse Danse 
 on great occasions — still survived at the Court of Louis XIV. It was not, 
 however, that spoken of by Tabourot : " The gentleman may dance it 
 wearing his hat and his sword, and you ladies wearing your long dresses, 
 walking quietly, with a measured gravity, and the young girls with a 
 humble expression, their eyes cast down, occasionally looking at the 
 audience with a maidenly modesty. . . ." 
 
THE PAVANE 
 
 12^ 
 
 It is the Pavane, he says again, "which our musicians play at the wed- 
 ding ceremony of a girl of good family, . . . and the said Pavane is played 
 by hautbois and sackbuts, and called the grand bal, and it lasts until all 
 those who dance have been two or three times round the room, unless they 
 prefer to dance backwards and forwards." 
 
 For more than a century the principal dancers of the grand ballet had 
 
 PEASANTS DANCING IN A FLEMISH TAVERN 
 
 After a Picture by Tenters 
 
 made their entrance to the tune of the Pavane. And it was not only a 
 favourite in theatres and at the Court, but the delight of the French middle 
 classes. The gentleman, his hat in one hand, his sword at his side, a large 
 cloak thrown over his arm, gravely offered his right hand to his partner, 
 rigid in her long train, heavy and stiff with gold and jewels. Like a couple 
 of idols, the lord and the lady advanced in solemn cadence. . . . Before 
 beginning the dance they walked gravely round the room, bowing to the 
 master and mistress of the house. To amuse the onlookers, a Gaillarde was 
 sometimes danced after the old-fashioned Pavane. 
 
126 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The Pavane was above all things a ceremonial dance.* 
 
 After having gone through various modifications 'which gradually altered 
 
 its primitive character, this dance became altogether pretentious under 
 
 Louis XIV. and finally disappeared. f 
 
 The great monarch himself preferred the Courante, which had been very 
 
 FLEMISH KERiMESS 
 
 After a Picture by Ten.ers in the Munich PinacotViek 
 
 fashionable in the sixteenth century. It was one of the oldest figure dances. 
 Tabourot has described a little ballet scene which, in his youth, served as an 
 introduction to this dance : 
 
 * "It serves as an opportunity for kings, princes, and lords to show themselves on 
 solemn occasions in their robes of state, when they are accompanied by their queens, 
 princesses and ladies, their long trains often carried by young girls. The Pavane also 
 serves to usher in a masquerade of triumphal cars of gods, goddesses, emperors, &c. 
 
 "The Pavane may be played on spinets, flutes, hautbois, and like instruments, and may 
 even be danced to singing, but the rhythmic beating of a small drum helps wonderfully in 
 making the different movements." 
 
 t It is interesting to see the theory of the Pavane transcribed by Professor Desrat, 
 the music re-arranged by Signoret. (Borneman, publisher, 15 Rue de Tournon.) 
 
THE CO UR ANTE 
 
 127 
 
 "When I was young, the Courante took the form of a game or ballet; 
 three young men chose three girls, and, placing themselves in a row, the 
 first danced with his partner, and then led her to the other end of the 
 room, returning alone to his companions ; the second did the same, then 
 the third ; and when the 
 third returned, the first 
 went to fetch back his 
 partner, making desperate 
 signs of love ; the damosel 
 refused him her hand, or 
 turned her back upon him ; 
 the young man then re- 
 turned to his place, pre- 
 tending to be in despair. 
 The two others did the 
 same. At last they all went 
 together to their daniosels, 
 each one to his own, kneel- 
 ing down and begging, with 
 clasped hands, for mercy. 
 The three damosels then 
 yielded, and all danced the 
 Courante together." 
 
 The gravity and state- 
 liness of this dance had 
 caused it to be adopted in 
 the Court receptions and the 
 
 houses of the nobility. The Philidor collection contains many Courantes 
 danced before Henry II., Charles IX., and Henry III. Cahuzac tells 
 us that Louis XIV. danced it perfectly. The drama of the day is full 
 of allusions which testify to its popularity. 
 
 " Pecour gives him lessons in the Courante every morning," says 
 Regnard. 
 
 " Our dear Baptiste (Lulli) has not seen my Courante," says Moliere. 
 
 Littre says that the Courante began by bows and curtseys, after which 
 
 FRENCH DAN'CIN'G 
 
 After a seventeenth Century Drawing in the Biblioth&que Nationale 
 
12 
 
 8 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 the dancer and his partner performed a step of the Courante, or rather a 
 set figure, which formed a sort of elongated ellipse. This step was in two 
 parts : the first consisted in making a -pile releve, at the same time bringing 
 the foot from behind into the fourth position in front by a pas glisse (that 
 is, sliding the foot gently forward along the floor), the second consists of a 
 demi-j'ete with one foot, and a cowpe with the other foot. 
 
 "This shows," he adds, " that the Courante was rather a march or walk, 
 full of stately poses, than a dance, for the feet never left the floor." 
 
 The Courante step was very like that of the Minuet. It is a purely 
 French dance, of backward and forward steps, which have been assimilated 
 to those of the Spanish Seguidilla. 
 
 The Gavotte of Louis XIV. 's reign reappears with Marie Antoinette, 
 and again after the Revolution. 
 
 The origjn of the Chacone is obscure. Cervantes says that it was a 
 primitive flegro dance, imported by mulattoes to the Court of Philip II., 
 and modified by Castilian gravity. The Chacone, a complicated dance, 
 better suited to the theatre than to general society, was distinguished by its 
 grand style and its artistic character. It was in great favour as a cere- 
 monial dance at the Courts of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. 
 
 Most of the grand operas concluded with the Chacone. Its varied and 
 charming music admitted of the arrangement of all Yxwdi-ioi tableaux vivants, 
 while the solo dancer executed its steps with precision and skill. As late as 
 the eighteenth century, Gaetano Vestris had a great success in the Chacone. 
 His master, the celebrated dancer Dupre, distinguished himself in Rameau's 
 Chacones. Jean-Etienne Despreaux compared this dance to an ode : 
 
 " De I'ode la Chacone a I'eclat, I'energie ; 
 Elevant jusqu'au ciel son vol audacieux, 
 La Chacone sans doute est la danse des dieux. . . ." 
 
 The Saraband, which comes from Spain, was a noble and impassioned 
 dance. 
 
 A number of Spanish authors of the sixteenth century discussed the 
 origin of the Zarabanda. It appeared for the first time, they say, towards 
 1588, at Seville. The historian Mariana regrets the frenzy which seems to 
 possess every one when the Saraband is danced, calling it el pestifero bayle de 
 Zarabanda — that pestiferous dance, the Saraband. 
 

 LE CARNAVAL 
 
 SARABANDE 
 
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THE SARABAND 131 
 
 According to Gonzales de Salas, who wrote in the seventeenth century, 
 a distinction was made in Spain between Danzas and Bayles. Danzas were 
 composed of grave, solemn, measured steps, the arms never sharing in the 
 action. Bayles, on the contrary, from which the majority of the Spanish 
 dances were derived, were dances in which the entire body took part. 
 
 The Saraband was the most popular of all the Bayles ; it was generally 
 danced by women, to the guitar. Sometimes flutes and harps sustained the 
 notes of the guitar, and accompanied the song and dance. Dancers some- 
 times performed the Saraband, accompanying themselves with guitar and 
 voice. 
 
 The enormous success of the Saraband extended beyond the Pyrenees. 
 It was the triumph of Ninon de I'Enclos ; the Due de Chartres and the 
 Princesse de Conti also excelled in it. 
 
 The Saraband was also in high favour at the Court of Charles II. of 
 England. This King, the grandson of Henry IV. and the son of one of 
 the most typically French of princesses, graduated in all the elegancies of 
 the French Court during his years of exile from his kingdom, to which he 
 returned almost more French than the French. A curious document in 
 this connection is the picture by Janssens der Tanzer at Windsor, in which 
 he appears at a ball given at the Hague on the eve of his restoration (p. 133). 
 
 An Italian named Francisco composed the air of one of the most 
 celebrated Sarabands. The Chevalier de Grammont wrote as follows on this 
 subject :^" It either charmed or annoyed every one, for all the guitarists of 
 the Court began to learn it, and God only knows the universal twanging 
 that followed." 
 
 Such was the enthusiasm excited by these airs, that Vauquelin des 
 Yveteaux actually wished to die to the sounds of the Saraband, " so that his 
 soul might pass away sweetly." He was eighty years old ! 
 
 But the popularity of the Saraband died out after the seventeenth 
 century. Jean-Jacques Rousseau says that in his time it was never danced, 
 except in a few old French operas. 
 
 The Minuet, on the other hand, was the special dance of the Court of 
 Louis XV., though Louis XIV, had danced several Minuets, the music of 
 which LuUi had composed expressly for him. 
 
 The Allemande was a very old dance, rather heavy in style. It was 
 
132 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 danced in 1540 at ^t fetes given by Francis I. to Charles V. One of the 
 peculiarities of this dance was that the dancer held his partner's hands 
 through all the turns and evolutions. 
 
 Tabourot says : " It can be danced by a large company, for, as you are 
 
 THE ALLEMANDE 
 
 From an Engraving by Caldwell after Brandoin 
 
 holding your partner's hand, many others can place themselves behind you, 
 each one holding his own partner, and walking forward and retreating in 
 duple time, three steps and one pause (the foot raised), without a hop. When 
 you have walked to the end of the room, you turn, without loosing your 
 partner's hands. The others follow in time, and when the musicians have 
 finished this first part, every dancer stops and faces his partner, beginning as 
 before for the second part. The third part or figure is also danced in 
 duple time, but faster and more lightly, with little hops, as in the 
 Courante." 
 
 "In dancing the Allemande," observes one author, "the young men 
 
H -3 
 
1^4 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 often steal the ladies, carrying them ofF from the partners who hold them, 
 and he who is thus forsaken tries in his turn to seize another lady. But I 
 do not approve of this style of dancing, as it may cause quarrels and 
 disagreements." 
 
 The AUemande was in favour up to the end of the eighteenth century. 
 
 It has another special feature — it is executed by a great number of 
 persons, directed by a single couple. It may therefore be considered a sort 
 of Branle. The description given by Thoinot shows that it is somewhat 
 like the English Sir Roger de Coverley, a dance in which the partners 
 are placed opposite each other in parallel lines. A couple advances, followed 
 by the rest, and, after having walked to the end of the ball-room, all 
 come back and turn, still retaining their partners. The music of the first 
 AUemande is given in the Orchesografhie, with a description of the steps. 
 The old and the modern Allemandes are not at all the same ; both dance 
 and music differ essentially. Pecour, the celebrated dancing-master of the 
 Opera under Louis XIV., has left us the music of the AUemande in Magny's 
 Choregraphie, a measure in | time — fairly lively for those days. The 
 principal steps are borrowed from the Courante and the Gaillarde. The 
 two dancers advance down the room, and separate in turning, one to the 
 right, the other to the left ; after a few steps they unite again in the centre, 
 separating once more, and walking alone down the sides. The gentleman in 
 one angle and the lady in the opposite angle execute a few steps that form a 
 square ; they then meet again and take their first places to finish (Desrat). 
 
 The Passepied, a figure dance originating in Brittany, as is supposed, was 
 a favourite for a long time at the Court, in spite of its quick, rhythmical 
 movement in triple time. 
 
 Madame de Sevigne danced the Passepied at the festivities held at the 
 meeting of the Estates in Brittany. Her daughter, Madame de Grignan, one 
 of the best dancers of the day, was also fond of this dance. 
 
 The Passepied was a sort of lively Minuet. Noverre, in his letters, 
 speaking of Mademoiselle Prevost, of the Opera, mentions how gracefully 
 she danced the Passepied : 
 
 "Le le'ger Passepied doit voler terre a terre." 
 " The Passacaille," says Professor Desrat, " came from Italy." Its slow 
 
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 - -^^ . 
 
THE PASSACAILLE 
 
 137 
 
 grave movement, in triple time, was full of grace and harmony. The ladies 
 took much pleasure in this dance ; their long trains gave it a majestic 
 character." 
 
 These, if we exclude ballets, were the principal dances in favour in the 
 Great Century. ;; 
 
 BALLET DANCLRS OF THE EIGHTEEN'TH CENTURY 
 
 From Print in the Hennin Collection, Eibliotheque Natioiiale 
 
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 MADAME COCHOrS DANCING 
 
 After a Picture by Pesne in the Berlin Museum 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Djnct?ig under Louis XT. — Taiiiters of Fetes Galantes — (Maaemoisehe Salle — La 
 Camargo — The SVLinuet — The Tassepied — [N^overre and the Hallet — 
 Gaetan and ^uguste IJestris 
 
 RT, at the close of the seventeenth century, was full of 
 vague aspirations towards new developments. The open- 
 ing of the eighteenth century was marked by a reaction 
 against the majestic solemnity, the monstrous etiquette, and 
 the official piety that had prevailed during the later years of the Grand 
 Monarqrie. The art of the new era inclined to artificiality; but it had a 
 peculiar and distinctive charm. Painters sought inspiration in love and joy, 
 in sylvan delights, in dainty idylls. The influential classes were less 
 ostentatious and more refined than in the seventeenth century. The nobles 
 
THE ART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 139 
 
 still ruled society, but great financiers began to patronise dawning talent, 
 
 and to encourage the growth of a luxurious 
 
 elegance. 
 
 It was a reign of daintiness and of taste, 
 of a very fine-spun taste, of a daintiness 
 perhaps a trifle mincing and affected. Pictorial 
 art lacked energy and deep feeling — lacked 
 greatness, in a word ; but it was pretty, it 
 was seductive. Decorative art was charming. 
 On the walls of the rooms, between the 
 windows, long mirrors were embayed in finely 
 voluted woodwork. Pearly tinted boudoirs 
 and drawing-rooms, scented with ambergris 
 and benjamin, and gay with garlands of painted 
 flowers, displayed frail serpentine caprices of 
 
 , - , rill ^ DANCER IN PEASANT COSTUl\rK 
 
 ornamental carvmg, furniture of the school ot After Aug. de st. Aubin 
 
 MLLE. SALl6 ' 
 
 From a Print in the Bibliotheque Nationals 
 
 Boule, and Vernis-Martin 
 panels — vivid, glowing 
 like flower-beds, islanded 
 in gold. Workers in pre- 
 cious metals designed 
 graceful, multicurved 
 ornaments. Miniatures 
 were enshrined in price- 
 less cases. Ladies affected 
 gauzy tissues, bedecked 
 with mauve ribbons and 
 bouquets ; they put 
 patches on their cheeks 
 and carmine on their lip?, 
 and cased their dainty 
 feet in high - heeled 
 shoes, 
 
140 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 There was a passion for painters who could fix the gala life of this 
 elegant time on canvas. Such were Watteau (already famous at the end 
 of Louis XIV.'s reign), Lancret, and Boucher. Much of their work was 
 
 inspired by the theatre, 
 at that time the delight 
 of the whole nation. 
 Watteau, who was the 
 incarnation of his age, 
 dressed his characters in 
 the most elegant cos- 
 tumes, decking them out 
 in ruffles and jabots. 
 He was the creator of 
 'The Embarkation for 
 Cythera. From the 
 palette of Boucher, the 
 king's painter, flowed 
 an unending stream of 
 Loves and roses, ex- 
 quisitely in keeping 
 with the delicate panel- 
 ling, water green, pale 
 blue, ivory relieved by 
 gold, in which they 
 were set. Boucher and Watteau filled the boudoirs of the day with 
 pictures of curly sheep led in green pastures by be-ribboned shepherds 
 and shepherdesses. Lancret painted graceful courtiers dancing the 
 Minuet with dream-women, on flowery lawns, in a setting of rose and 
 azure hillsides. Latour, the pastellist, the lover of a dancer, was inspired, 
 unwittingly perhaps, by the gauze of his mistress's skirts ; and modelled 
 his portraits in diaphanous tones, fresh and dewy as the dawn. 
 
 Dancing followed the new impulse of the other arts. The cold and 
 majestic Pavane gradually made way for the graceful and noble Minuet, the 
 rapid Passepied, the lively Gavotte. The ballet yielded to the same 
 inspiration — in its pursuit of elegance, in the variety of its steps, of its 
 
 A DANCIMi LKSSuN 
 
 After Pietro Longhi 
 

 4 
 
 ■^ 
 
SALLE AND LA CAMARGO 
 
 141 
 
 attitudes, of its grouped combiiiHtions. Noverre appeared, and attained 
 undeniable success in a hundred ballets. 
 
 And two women, two dancers, Mademoiselle Salle and Mademoiselle 
 
 l'amOUK AU TH^ATKE FRAN9AIS 
 
 From a Print after Watteau in the Bibliothcrque Nationale 
 
 Camargo, stand out in graceful silhouette against the rosy background ot 
 the eighteenth century. 
 
 Voltaire apostrophises them thus : 
 
 "Ah ! Camargo, que vous etcs brillantc ! 
 Mais que Salle', grand Dieu, est ravissantc ! 
 Oue vos pas sonc Icgers et que les siens sont doux ! 
 
 Elle est inimitable qt vous etes nouvclle ! 
 Les nymphes dansent comme vous, 
 
 Et les Graces dansent comme ellc ! " 
 
 Mademoiselle Salle knew how to give expression to her dancing, but 
 
1^3 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 she disliked very rapid measures and choregraphic eccentricities, and would 
 never attempt them. 
 
 She was idolised. The huge crowds that pressed about the doors of the 
 theatre fought for a sight of her. Enthusiastic spectators, who had paid 
 great sums for seats, had to make their way in with their fists. Upon her 
 benefit appearance in London, at the close of the piece, purses filled with 
 guineas and jewels were showered on the stage at her feet. The Cupids 
 and Satyrs of her troupe, keeping time to the music, picked up this 
 spontaneous tribute. On this memorable night. Mademoiselle Salle received 
 more than two hundred thousand francs, an enormous sum for that 
 time. 
 
 As to Mademoiselle Camargo, she revealed the bent of her genius 
 almost in her cradle. It is said that on hearing a violin played when 
 she was but ten months old, she moved to it so excitedly, and yet so 
 rhythmically, that those who saw her prophesied that she would be one 
 of the first dancers of the world. 
 
 Born in Brussels, she was the daughter of a dancing-master. Her 
 grandmother was of the noble Spanish family of Camargo, which had given 
 several cardinals to the Sacred College. 
 
 In her tenth year, the prediction called forth by the incident of the violin 
 entered upon fulfilment. She was sent to Paris by the Princesse de Ligne, 
 who had remarked her extraordinary talent, and became the pupil of Made- 
 moiselle Prevost, the famous performer of the Passepied. Three months later 
 she made her debut at Rouen. At sixteen she appeared at the Opera, in 
 the Car ac teres de la Danse, with unparalleled success. Nimble, coquettish, 
 light as a sylph, she sparkled with intelligence. "She added," says Castil- 
 Blaze, " to distinction and fire of execution, a bewitching gaiety which was 
 all her own. Her figure was very favourable to her talent : hands, feet, 
 limbs, stature, all were perfect. But her face, though expressive, was not 
 remarkably beautiful. And, as in the case of the famous harlequin 
 Dominique, her gaiety was a gaiety of the stage only ; in private life 
 she was sadness itself." 
 
 When she danced, people fought for places at the doors of the Opera as 
 they had done to see Mademoiselle Salle. Disputants wrangled fiercely as 
 to her merits ; novelties in fashion took her name ; a shoemaker made his 
 
LA CAMARGO 
 
 143 
 
 fortune out of her — the most elegant ladies of Paris demanded to be shod a 
 la Camargo. Introduced at the Tuileries by the Marquise de Villars, she 
 was received with an ovation. This splendid triumph awoke the jealousy 
 
 A DANCE UNDER A COLONNADE 
 
 After a Picture by Walteau in the New Palace, Berlin 
 
 of Mademoiselle Prevost, who discontinued her lessons, and even intrigued 
 against her brilliant pupil. La Camargo then put herself under the 
 instructions of the celebrated dancer, Blondi. 
 
 In spite of her successes, she had to resign herself at first to be a mere 
 
144 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 figurante in the corps de ballet. One night, however, DumouHn, nicknamed 
 the Devil, was to have danced a pas seul. Something occurred to retard 
 his entrance, although the musicians had struck up his tune. A sudden 
 inspiration seized the Camargo (who was one of a troupe of attendant 
 
 demons), and quitting her place, she 
 executed Dumoulin's dance with diabolica 
 energy before an enthusiastic audience. 
 
 La Camargo brought about an abso- 
 lute revolution in opera by her fanciful 
 "''#'-^11^^."^. ^"'^ ingenious improvisations.^ The con- 
 
 -j^ ^i'''\k«^ quest of difficulties of execution delighted 
 
 her. She offended the upholders of the 
 classic tradition, who sang of her as : 
 
 " Cettc admirable gigotteuse, >• 
 
 Grande croqucuse d'entrechats." 
 
 But they were wrong about these 
 
 entrechats (of which La Camargo "cut" 
 
 the first in 1730).* She crossed her 
 
 feet in the air four times only ; thirty 
 
 years later Mademoiselle Lamy of the Opera crossed hers six times ; 
 
 and, later still, eight crossings were achieved. 
 
 " I have even seen a dancer cross sixteen times," writes Baron, " but 
 don't suppose I admire such gymnastics, or your pirouettes either." 
 
 The Comte de Melun carried off the young dancer when she was 
 eighteen years old. La Camargo had made it a condition that she should 
 be accompanied by her little sister ! Their father, Ferdinand de Cupis de 
 Camargo, petitioned Cardinal de Fleury that the Count should be made to 
 marry the elder girl and portion the younger. 
 
 Mademoiselle Camargo had certainly no vocation for marriage. She 
 soon left the Count for his cousin, Lieutenant de Marteille. This 
 brilliant officer was eventually killed in Flanders, when his mistress was 
 
 DAiVCING ATTITUDES 
 
 Alter an Engraving by Gravelot in the 
 
 Bibliotheque Natiorale 
 
 " In the entrechat^ the dancer springs up, crossing his iect several times in the air."- 
 (Professor Desrat.) 
 
OPERA BALLS 
 
 14^ 
 
 so profoundly afFected as to retire from the stage for six years. She 
 quitted it finally in 1741, and lived in seclusion till her death. 
 
 " Her neighbours and friends regretted her as a model of charity, of 
 modesty, and of good conduct," says one writer. " She was granted the 
 
 A CARNIVJi.L DANCE 
 
 From a Print after Tiepolo in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 honours of a ' white,' or maiden's, funeral. She had had, however, many 
 lovers, aniong whom were the Due de Richelieu and the Comte de 
 Clermont, to whom she had borne two children. But she was remembered 
 only as the grave, sweet woman whose last years had been spent in lone- 
 liness and meditation." 
 
 Opera-balls were inaugurated in the early days of the Regency, and with 
 such success that three took place every week throughout the carnival. 
 The theatre buildings then formed part of the Palais-Royal. On ball- 
 nights, the auditorium was converted into a saloon eighty-eight feet long ; 
 the boxes were adorned with balustrades draped with costly hangings of the 
 
 T 
 
146 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 richest colours. Two buffets, one on each side, separated the boxes trom 
 the space set apart for the dancers. These fetes were arranged on a scale of 
 the most luxurious magnificence ; " the room was lighted by over three 
 hundred large wax candles, to say nothing of the tapers and lamps, arranged 
 in the wings. The orchestra was composed of thirty musicians, fifteen at 
 
 
 i 
 
 I'.ALL COSTUMES OF THE EIGHTEEN' t H CENTURY 
 
 Fron: ^ Print in the Eibliotheque Nationale 
 
 each end of the ball-room. Half an hour before the ball began, the 
 musicians assembled in the Octagon room^ with kettledrums and 
 trumpets, and gave a concert, performing the great symphonies of the best 
 masters." 
 
 In connection with these balls, G. Lenotre describes an adventure ot 
 which Louis XV was the hero. 
 
 "On Shrove Tuesday of 1737," he says, "we find in Barbier's Journal 
 that Louis XV. came from Versailles incognito to the opera-ball. The 
 Due d'Ayen had supped with the King, who said nothing of the project. 
 After the Court had retired, the King, attended by a footman, went up to 
 the Duke's apartments. D'Ayen had gone to bed. The King knocked. 
 
AN ESCAPADE OF LOUIS XV. 147 
 
 The Duke inquired who was there. 'It is I.' 'I don't know who you 
 
 A DANCE IN A I'ARK 
 
 After a Picture by Wattenu in the Edinburgh Gallery 
 
 mean. I am in bed.' 'It is I, the King.' The Duke, recognising the 
 King's voice, hastened to open the door. ' Where are you going, Sire, at 
 
148 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 this hour ? ' ' Dress yourself at once.' ' Allow me to ring, I have no 
 shoes.' 'No,' replied the King, 'no one must come.' 'But where are we 
 going ? ' 'To the Opera Ball.' ' Oh, very well ! ' said the Duke ; ' let me 
 find the shoes I have just taken off.' When he was dressed, they descended 
 into the courtyard. The King, who had not put on his blue ribbon, took 
 the Duke's arm to pass the sentries. The latter made himself known 
 ' It is I, the Due d'Ayen.' ' I have the honour of knowing you perfectly 
 well, Monseigneur,' said the guard. 
 
 " They got through, and went to the carriages that were waiting for them 
 in the street. Relays had been posted at Sevres since six o'clock in the 
 evening. 
 
 " The King wore a blue costume, with a rose-coloured domino. He 
 got out of his carriage in the Rue Saint-Nicaise, and with his eight 
 companions, all, like himself, in dominoes, made his way to the „Opera 
 House. By some mistake, only seven tickets had been taken, so they were 
 stopped at the door, where they paid two crowns of six francs to be allowed 
 to go in all together. The King remained for over an hour and a half, 
 unrecognised by any one. He enjoyed himself greatly, and mixed freely 
 with the crowd. He did not take the road to Versailles again till six 
 o'clock in the morning. 
 
 "But he had to pass through the private apartments, which were shut up 
 and guarded. They knocked. A sentry of the bodyguard demanded who 
 they were. The reply was : ' Open at once. It is the King.' 'The King 
 is in bed, and I shall not open the door or allow you to pass, whoever you 
 may be.' They had to wait and get a light. The sentry then recognised 
 the King. ' Sire, 1 beg your pardon, but my orders are to let no one pass ; 
 therefore, have the goodness to cancel my instructions.' " 
 
 " The King," says Barbler, " was much pleased by the sentry's pre- 
 cision." 
 
 " The courtiers of Henry II., the cruel associates of Charles IX., the 
 favourites of Henry III., the warlike nobles of Henry IV., the flatterers of 
 the Cardinal Minister, the great men of Louis XIV. 's Court, the rakes of 
 the Regency — all alike danced the unbending Haute Danse," says Elise 
 Voiart. Gayer measures were only permitted at the end of a ball. 
 
 The Minuet, a dance of little steps, as the name indicates, had come 
 

 
1^0 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 BALLET DA^'CERS 
 
 After a Print in the Hennin Collection, Bibliolheque Nationali 
 
 from Poitou, where it contrasted sharply with the clog-step of the Branle 
 
 Poitevin. At first a gay and 
 lively dance, simple, yet not 
 without distinction, it soon lost 
 its original vivacity and sport- 
 iveness, becoming grave and 
 slow, hke other fashionable 
 Court dances. 
 
 It was in this denaturalised 
 Minuet that Louis XIV. 
 excelled. Pecour, the great 
 dancer, gave a new vogue to 
 
 the Minuet by restoring some of its original charm.* 
 
 But the golden age of the Minuet was the reign of Louis XV., when 
 
 this dance held the foremost 
 
 place. It was the fashion then 
 
 both at the Court and in the 
 
 city. 
 
 The Court Minuet was a 
 
 dance for two, a gentleman 
 
 and a lady. It was danced in 
 
 moderate triple time, and was 
 
 generally followed by the 
 
 Gavotte. t 
 
 The Minuets most memor- 
 able in the annals ot dancing are 
 
 the Dauphin's Minuet, the Queen's Minuet, the Menuet d'Exaudet, and the 
 
 Court Minuet. 
 
 In his TDictionnaire de la T)anse Compan dilates at some length upon 
 
 r.ALLET DANCERS 
 
 .After .1 Print in the Hennin Collection. Bibliolheque Nationals 
 
 * "The characteristic of this dance is a noble and elegant simplicity ; its movement is 
 rather moderate than rapid ; and one may say that it is the least gay of all such dances." — 
 {Grande EncyclopeJie.) 
 
 t "The Minuet consists of three movements and a step on the point of the foot. 
 The first is a liemi coupe of the right foot and one of the left. The second is a step 
 taken on the point of the right foot, both legs straight at the knee. In the third, at the end 
 of the last step, you drop the right heel gently on the floor, so as to permit a bending of the 
 
THE MINUET i^i 
 
 the Minuet. He tells how in " set '' balls, a king and queen were 
 
 THE CONTKEDANSE 
 
 From a Print after Watteau in tlie £cole des Beaux Arts 
 
 appointed, who opened the dance. The first Minuet over, a fresh cavalier 
 was chosen by the queen. This gentleman, when he in his turn had danced 
 
 knee, which movement causes the left leg to rise ; it pass'es to the front with a demi coupe 
 kiappe— which, is the third movement of the Minuet and its fourth step. 
 
 " The true step of the Minuet is composed of four steps, which nevertheless by their 
 connections (to use the technical word) are but one step. 
 
 "There was another and easier method of executing the Minuet." Bringing the left foot 
 in front, let it support the weight of the body ; and bring the right foot close to the left in 
 the first position. This right foot is not, however, to touch the ground ; the right knee is 
 bent a little, so that the foot is clear of the floor. Next, with this right knee sufficiently 
 bent, the right foot is brought to the front, in the fourth position, and the body raised on 
 the toes, both legs being straightened one after the other. Then, in its turn, you allow the 
 right heel to support itself on the floor (without putting the left down), and you bear with 
 the weight of your body upon the right foot, and pass the left foot forward (just as you 
 
Ip 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 his Minuet, escorted the queen back to her place and, bowing, inquired her 
 pleasure as to her next partner. The queen having pointed out the partner 
 
 of her choice, her late cavalier went in 
 search of him, and, bowing low, requested 
 him to dance. 
 
 The Minuet was introduced into 
 opera -ballet. " Composers introduced 
 its airs in sonatas, duets, and other 
 musical pieces, as they had formerly 
 done with the Jig and the Gavotte," 
 says Vestris. " But of all these," he 
 adds, " the Minuet alone was long-lived. 
 Indeed it is still introduced in sym- 
 phonies." 
 
 As we have seen, the Minuet was 
 the fashionable dance, the Passepied 
 and the Gavotte claiming a fair share of 
 popularity as well. 
 
 We have already spoken of the 
 Passepied. 
 As to the Gavotte, it was popular under Louis XV. ; but it was 
 supreme under Louis XVI., and we shall consider it later on in the height 
 of its glory. 
 
 In 1745, Rameau introduced the Contredanse in ballets.. It was so 
 favourably received that it at once superseded the Bourree, the Minuet, and 
 the Cosaque, and even temporarily eclipsed the ambitious Gavotte. 
 
 BARBARA CAM I'ANI .\I, CALLED LA BARDARIXA 
 
 After a Picture by Pesne in the Palace, Berlin 
 
 formerly did with the right) to the fourth position. Then you raise yourself upon this left 
 foot and walk the two remaining steps on the toes, the first step being on to the right point, 
 the second on to the left again — but at the last you must drop once more on the left heel, 
 so as to start again firmly." — (Vestris.) 
 
 Compan says : 
 
 "The number of bars in each of these repetitions should be four, or some multiple 
 of four, for this is needful to the due execution of the Minuet step. And care should be 
 taken by the musicians to emphasise each division by a noticeable drop in the music, so as 
 to aid the ear of the dancer, and keep him in time." 
 
 There are divers other Minuet steps, such as the Minuet Backwards, and the Sideways 
 or Open Minuet ; but these are mere variants upon the standard dance. 
 
"^ 
 
THE BALLET IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY i^^ 
 
 The majority of writers derive the French word Contredanse from 
 Country Dance. If we accept this etymology, the Contredanse was of 
 Enghsh origin. It bears some resemblance to our modern Quadrille. 
 
 Pecour, Beauchamps, Dupre, Feuillet, Desaix, and Ballon make up a 
 
 ' ----.««■ 
 
 irfBTflfaii \\ II 
 
 THE OLD ACE OF A PRINCE 
 
 After a Picture by Rossi 
 By permission of Messis. Boussod Valaclon and Co. 
 
 brilliant constellation of composers and choregraphers at this period. But, 
 notwithstanding their renown, they diverged but little from the old routine, 
 and effected no thorough-going reform of ballet-opera or of operatic 
 entertainments. Every opera had Passepieds in its prologue, followed by 
 Musettes in the first act, by Tambourins in the second, and by Chacones 
 and Passepieds in the acts following. Such was the consecrated formula, 
 upon which no one dared to -innovate. "These matters," says Baron, 
 " were decided, not by the development of the opera, but by considerations 
 quite apart from this. Such and such a dancer excelled in Chacones, 
 
1^4 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 such another in Musettes. Now, in every opera, each leading character 
 had to dance his special dance, ard the best dancer always concluded. It 
 
 was by this law, and 
 not by the action of the 
 poem, that the dancing 
 was governed. And 
 what intensified the 
 mischief was that poets, 
 musicians, costumiers, 
 decorators, never con- 
 sulted one another. 
 Each had his prescriptive 
 routine ; each pursued 
 his own old path, indif- 
 ferent as to whether he 
 
 IMASQUERADERS 
 
 After a Print in the Bibliolheque Natlonale 
 
 arrived at the 
 
 same 
 
 goal as his neighbour. 
 
 To reform all this was a Herculean task. No single individual could 
 
 diverge from the beaten track till all abandoned it, till there was mutual 
 
 understanding, concerted action. Concerted action — that was asking too 
 
 much ! 
 
 "Enfin Noverre vint, ct le premier en France 
 Du feu de son genie il anima la danse ; 
 Aux beaux temps de la Grece il sut la rappeler ; 
 En recouvrant par lul leur antique eloquence 
 Les gestes ct les pas apprirent a parler." 
 
 Noverre, the celebrated ballet-master of the Courts of France, Stuttgart, 
 Vienna, and St. Petersburg, revived the art of pantomime, and created 
 the Grand Ballet d' Action in its present form. The two Gardels and 
 Dauberval perfected it, giving it a more scrupulous correctness, a more 
 elegant refinement. 
 
 Noverre revolutionised dancing. Rejecting outworn conventions, he 
 appealed straight to nature. "A ballet," he said, "is a picture, or rather 
 a series of pictures, connected by the action which forms the subject of the 
 ballet." To him, the stage was a canvas on which the composer expresses 
 

1^6 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 his ideas, notes his music, displays scenery coloured by appropriate costumes. 
 
 "A picture," he continued, "is 
 an imitation of nature ; but a 
 good ballet is nature itself, en- 
 nobled by all the charms of art." 
 We pass over Noverre's definition 
 of painting ; to discuss it would 
 be to wander from our subject. 
 He expands it thus : " The music 
 Is to the dancing what the libretto 
 is to the music " — a parallel by 
 which he meant that the musical 
 score is, or ought to be, a poem, 
 fixing and determining the move- 
 ments and the action of the 
 dancer — a poem which the artist 
 is to recite and interpret by 
 means of energetic and vivid 
 gestures, and by the flexibility 
 
 and animation of his countenance. It follows that the action of the dancer 
 
 should be an instrument 
 
 for the rendering and 
 
 the exposition of the 
 
 written idea. 
 
 Noverre not only 
 
 carried his care for de- 
 tail to an extreme in 
 
 his regulation of the 
 
 ballet, but he persuaded 
 
 himself that dancing 
 
 could express every- 
 thing : 
 
 THE BALLET OF THE PRIXCE OF SALEKNO 
 
 After an eighteenth Century Print 
 
 ^ *^^ *~'^si^'^^ 
 
 THE MAGNIFICENT BALLET GIVEN AT CHANTILLY FOR 
 THE DIVERSION OF HIS MAJESTY LOUIS XV. 
 
 " Noverre, sur un art qu'il crut universe], 
 Du ton Ic plus auguste cndoctrinant I'Europe, 
 Eut fait danser Joad, Phcdre, et le Misanthrope." 
 
THE BALLET IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 1^7 
 
 Besides, was there not a ballet-master who claimed to have translated 
 Beaumarchais' epigrams into entrechats and jet'es battus .? 
 
 Noverre did his best to drive masks, paniers, and padded coat-skirts 
 from the stage ; he strove 
 to effect a reformation in 
 costume.* Actors were 
 often negligent in their 
 dress for lack of means. 
 At this time leading actors 
 had a salary of one hundred 
 louis a year ; while figurants, 
 singers, and dancers thought 
 themselves happy with four 
 hundred francs. Singers 
 appeared on the stage in 
 costumes that had some- 
 times done duty for eight 
 years, their tarnished 
 spangles showing the under- 
 lying tin or copper. 
 
 Noverre found it hard 
 to rouse the theatre from 
 its torpor. He had a long 
 
 struggle with the costumier, who used often to bid him mind his own 
 business, and stick to his dancing. 
 
 In the Ballet of the Horatii, by Noverre, Camilla appeared in a huge 
 
 THE BALLET OF PYGMALION (1759) 
 
 After a Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 * But not with complete success, according to Castil-Blaze. We read in fact that " on 
 January 21, 1772, Castor and Pollux was performed — an opera by Rameau, and an old 
 favourite with amateurs, from whom it had long been withheld. In the fifth act 
 Gaetan Vestris was to appear as the fair-haired Apollo ; he represented the Sun-God in an 
 enormous black full-bottomed wig, and a mask, and wore a big gilded copper sun on his 
 breast. For some reason M. Vestris could not take his part that night, and M. Gardel 
 consented to act as a substitute, but only on condition that he should be at liberty to 
 appear in his own long fair hair, and that he should be allowed to discard the mask and the 
 ridiculous copper sun. This happy innovation pleased the public, and from that moment 
 leading actors abandoned the mask. It continued, however, to be used for some years by 
 the chorus, by ' furies ' and ' winds,' and by ' shades ' — whose white masks were considered 
 
i6o 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 "MW" # 
 
 personages of his ballet thus rigged out. He triumphed at last, but only 
 after many struggles. 
 
 The revolution Noverre had inaugurated in theatrical dancing 
 
 gained ground steadily. There were 
 many clever dancers on the French 
 stage, the Vestris, Gardel, and Dau- 
 bervals but it was impossible for 
 them to execute dances properly 
 so-called. They came on in. enor- 
 mous helmets, crowned by a mass 
 of plumes, their faces concealed by 
 masks. They advanced from the 
 back to the front of the stage with 
 prodigious bounds, displaying the 
 suppleness of their figures with great 
 effect ; each one of them was careful 
 to bring out his particular strong 
 point, the beauty of his arm, the 
 perfection of his leg ; but this was 
 hardly dancing in the true sense of 
 the term. 
 " Would you know what theatrical dancing really is .'' " cried an author of 
 the day. " Transport yourselves in fancy to the happy times of Pylades 
 and Bathyllus. See Pylades plunging the spectators into the deepest grief, 
 see them turn pale when Orestes dances, listen to the passionate cries of the 
 Roman ladies. Or would you take your idea of dancing from another 
 quarter .'' This century has produced three or four ballets in the true 
 style. Are you not deeply impressed by the transports of Medea, in 
 the illustrious Noverre's ballet.? How the truth of Madame Allard's 
 acting holds us captive ! How we feel the woes of Creiisa, as 
 depicted by Mile. Guimard ! How Jason fascinates us ! This is true 
 dancing !...." The author then expatiates on the ballet, Sylvia : - 
 
 " How delicious is that moment when the Faun (Daaberval) at last finds 
 himself again in the arms of his beloved Sylvia, who had avoided him, 
 and whom he himself had been forced to avoid ! 
 
 J\ILLE. AI.I.AItn AS HERE 
 
REFORM OF THEATRICAL COSTUME i6i 
 
 ' Le feu de leurs regards s'anime avec la danse ; 
 L'amour, sans se montrer, fait sentir sa presence : 
 Et plein d'un sentiment vif et delicieux, 
 Chacun sent le plaisir qu'il a vu dans leurs yeux.' 
 
 " This is dancing indeed ! What we lack is not talent, but emulation. 
 It almost seems, in fact, as if this were deliberately repressed. How I 
 
 BALLET AT THE OPERA HOUSE 
 
 From an Engraving by Basan, after a Drawing by A. de St. Aubin 
 
 should rejoice to see a great dancer performing some noble part without 
 plumes or wig or mask ! I should then be able to applaud his sublime 
 talent with satisfaction to myself ; and I could then justly apply the term 
 ' great ' to him, whereas now the most I can say is : ^Jh ! la bella gamha I ' 
 It is evident, therefore, that theatrical dancing demands many reforms. 
 They cannot, of course, all be carried out at once ; but we might at least 
 
 X 
 
i^^'-^'^-^i'X^^,^ 
 
 PASSE-PIED EN RONDEAU 
 
 PIANO 
 
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 fF^ 
 
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 riten 
 
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 \],/|;' Li.MJ 1 
 
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 L^4=^ 
 
 cuy^fd 
 
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 Presto 
 
 T^ — n^ 
 
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 =^=^ 
 
164 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 begin. Let us do away with those cold, painted masks, which deprive us 
 of what would be one of the most interesting features of a pas-de-deux, the 
 expressions of the performers' faces. The disappearance of the periwig 
 would follow of itself, and a shepherd would no longer dance in a plumed 
 
 helmet. See with what satis- 
 faction the suppression of one 
 single mask was hailed by the 
 public ! Note the superiority of 
 Vestris dancing with uncovered 
 face in the Champs Elysees, and 
 Vestris as a shepherd in a wig 
 and mask ! How much we all 
 preferred Gardel as the Sun- 
 God without his wig and mask! 
 How we admire Dauberval be- 
 cause he has thrown off con- 
 vention, because he dances a 
 shepherd dressed as a shepherd, 
 and gives true expression to 
 his steps, his gestures, and his 
 face ! " 
 
 Noverre's ballets are usually 
 in the grave style, and are all 
 remarkable for their ingenuity. 
 Our ballet-masters and librettists still find it to their advantage to study 
 his Letters on the Imitative Arts. Among his principal choregraphic 
 works we may mention The Death of Ajax, The Judgment of Paris, 
 Orpheus' Descent into Hell, Rinaldo and Armida, The Caprices of 
 Galatea, The Toilette of Venus or the Roses of Love, The Jealousies of the 
 Seraglio, The Death of ^Agamemnon, Telemachus, The Clemency of Titus. 
 But Noverre sometimes turned from the serious ballet to works in 
 a lighter vein, such as Cupid the Pirate and The Embarkation for 
 Cythera. 
 
 Noverre made an attempt to perpetuate the most successful chore- 
 graphic steps by means of writing, though the Academy of Music took but 
 
 MLLE. VESTRIS AS A SHEPHERDESS 
 
a: a 
 
^ | - TiTi i>/^'-^ ----- ^''^^^^^^^^^'^^^^^^V"-"^^ 
 
1 66 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 a languid interest in the subject. The Egyptians, it is said, had already- 
 made use of hieroglyphs to indicate dances. The Romans had a method of 
 notation for saltatory gesture. Under Louis XIV., the dancer Beauchamp 
 gave a new form to this notation, of which he was declared the inventor by 
 
 (K:^^$^^~"^=^ 
 
 • 
 
 r 
 
 V 
 
 U 
 
 \}3 
 
 I 
 
 V" 
 
 
 a parliamentary decree. In the treatise on choregraphy published in Paris 
 about 17 13 by Feuillet and Desaix, there are some fifty plates in which 
 dancing is represented by means of engraved characters. They look like 
 forms of incantation, the mysterious pages of a book of magic. Lines, 
 perpendicular, horizontal, oblique, complicated curves, odd combinations of 
 strokes, somewhat akin to Arabic characters, musical notes sprinkled 
 apparently haphazard over the page, represented the movements of the 
 dancer's feet with the most logical precision. 
 
THE VESTRIS FAMILY 
 
 167 
 
 To Noverre we owe the constellation of ballet-composers who succeeded 
 him — Gardel, Dauberval, Dupoi:t, Blasis, Milon, and the Vestris family ; 
 just as we owe the brilliant dancers of the end of the eighteenth century to 
 the inspiration of Mademoiselle Salle and La Camargo. 
 
 After the retirement of La Camargo, the principal honours of the stage 
 fell to the lot of the fa- 
 mous Gaetan Vestris, pupil 
 and successor of Dupre. 
 Dupre had shone before 
 the footlights for thirty 
 years ; he was tall, of a 
 superb carriage, and he 
 danced Chacones and Pass- 
 acailles with incomparable 
 mastery. 
 
 The Vestris family, of 
 Florentine origin, swayed 
 the sceptre of dancing for 
 nearly a century. Gaetah, 
 who was called "the hand- 
 some Vestris" (to distin- 
 guish him from his four 
 brothers in the same 
 profession), appeared on 
 the stage in 1748, at the 
 
 Opera, from which he did not finally retire till 1800. "Few dancers 
 have been so highly favoured by nature," says Baron. "He was about 
 five feet six inches in height, with a well-turned leg, and a noble and 
 expressive face. He made his first appearance on the stage in 1 747 . and 
 retired in 1781. But having, like the actor Baron, the rare good fortune 
 to preserve his vigour and grace to extreme old age, he reappeared at 
 intervals — in 1795, I799> and 1800 — always with great applause." 
 
 His dancing was full of grace and distinction. He carried himself 
 superbly, surpassing even the great Dupre. His fatuous conceit, however, 
 became proverbial. He used to say : " This century has produced but - 
 
 THE DANCING LESSON 
 
 After an Engraving by Lebas in the Biblioth^que Nationale 
 
[68 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 
 A* 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^/^- ^^— ^' ^t 
 
 three great men — myself, Voltaire, and 
 Frederick the Great ! " Berchoux re- 
 cords his vanity in the following quat- 
 rain : 
 
 " Ses yeux ne daignaient voir de son temps sur 
 
 la terre, 
 Que trois grands hommes : lui, Frederic, 
 
 Voltaire. 
 Quand il fallait entre eux determiner son 
 
 choix, 
 II se mettait toujours a la t^te des trois." 
 
 In the time of the Vestris, dancing 
 was strictly divided into three varieties 
 
 C*j-yy^^ Oftt-^-i^ t^ 
 
 PUt-tJ't-L^^ '£}i^VI 
 
 ^rrJiK*^*^ 
 
 
 — the serious, the serio-comic, 
 and the comic. The most 
 celebrated of the comedy 
 dancers of the time was M. 
 Lany, who first appeared at 
 the Opera in 1750, and did 
 not retire till 1769. His 
 drollery never sank to tri- 
 viality. He was inimitable in 
 " shepherd " parts : 
 
 " Dans les patres Lany fut le 
 premier en France 
 Qui fit sentir jadis une juste 
 cadence, 
 
 
 #^B> -^^ 
 
 4' 
 
 s- ^i'^'-eN-' 
 
 
 
 
 LA CAMARGO 
 
 From a Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 
\:^:r\fjs?^^^^?^:TntiK'^s^7v^^^^^ 
 
THE VESTRIS FAMILY 
 
 169 
 
 THE DANCING SCHOOL 
 
 From an Engraving in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 D'uti temps m!s a sa place enseigna le pouvoir, 
 Et soumit Terpsichofe aux regies du devoir. 
 Par ce maitre savant la danse reparee, 
 N'offrit plus rien de rude a la scene epuree. 
 Les danseurs en mesure apprirent a tomber, 
 Et le pas sur le pas n'osa plus enjamber ; 
 Tout reconnut les lois de ce guide fiddle, 
 Gardel et Dauberval, il fut votre modele." * 
 
 Auguste Vestris, the son of Gaetan, was received with enthusiastic 
 applause on his first appearance before the public, August 25, 1772, in the 
 ballet of La Cinquantaine, at the Opera. Born in March 1760, he was not 
 quite twelve years old at the time. He was a youthful prodigy. His 
 
 Despreaux, V Art de la 'Dame. 
 
1 70 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 mother, Madame Allard, of the Opera, used to say that the first steps her 
 son had taken in this world were dancing steps. His sublimely fatuous 
 father, recognising the talent of the child, named him " the god of 
 dancing '" ; reserving, however, for himself the title of " his inspired 
 creator." In two strides the young Auguste used to cover the whole 
 distance from the back of the stage to the footlights. His high bounds 
 were so prodigious that they drew forth from his father the well-known 
 boast : " If Auguste does not stay up in the air, it is because he is 
 unwilling to humiliate his comrades ! " 
 
 Fragment of a Picture by Watteau in the Berlin Gallery 
 
A WOODLAND DANCE 
 
 After a Picture by Lancret in the Berlin Gallery 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 (Madeleine Guimard — Dancing under Louis XVI. — The (gavotte — The Ballet — 
 
 Dances and Fetes of the Revolution and the Republic — 'Balls and Ballets of the 
 
 Directory, the Empire, and the Restoration — (Marie Taglioni 
 
 OWARDS the end of the last century a brilliant dancer 
 appeared, who was the darling of the Court and city for 
 twenty-six years. She was not content to enchant all 
 beholders by the expressive grace of her dancing, the 
 voluptuous elegance of her movements, the rhythmic harmony of her 
 steps. " She is a shadow, flitting through the Elysian groves, a graceful 
 Muse who captivates mortals," said an author of the day. She dazzled 
 
172 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 i: 
 
 
 v=^ 
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 -ft/f} 
 
 li 
 
 %*«' 
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 Ikv,. 
 
 
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 W 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
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 If 
 
 4 * 
 
 society by her magnificence and the splendour of her entertainments, which 
 rivalled those of royalty. 
 
 She was born in Paris in 1743. She is said to have been marvellously 
 gifted, to have had an exquisite figure, marvellous grace, and extremely 
 
 distinguished manners ; 
 and, further, a disposition 
 at once impressionable, 
 tender-hearted, and 
 kindly. 
 
 During the construc- 
 tion of her house, she 
 noticed a young artist 
 engaged in painting the 
 panels, who seemed very 
 sad. On asking the cause 
 of his trouble, she learned 
 that he was greatly dis- 
 tressed at his poverty, 
 which prevented him from 
 continuing his studies. 
 She immediately obtained 
 a pension enabling him 
 to go to Rome. The 
 painter was David. She 
 was also the patroness of 
 Fragonard, who was a 
 constant visitor at the little theatres she had built in her country-house at 
 Pantin, and in her hotel in the Chaussee d'Antin ; these certainly inspired 
 some of his prettiest scenes, notably those in which his characters are 
 masked, for, in spite of Noverre's efforts, the mask was worn at the 
 theatre until 1772. 
 
 Year after year the Prince de Soubise made her a handsome present of 
 jewellery as a new year's gift. On one occasion, the winter having been 
 particularly severe, she wrote to the Prince and asked him if he would let 
 her have the value of his usual offering in money. M. de Soubise sent 
 
 MLLE. GUIMARD 
 
 From a Lithograph 
 
MLLE. GUIMARD 
 
 173 
 
 her six thousand livres ; whereupon she explored the dreary tortuous alleys 
 round about her, and distributed the sum in alms to the poor in their 
 wretched houses and garrets. 
 
 "Along with these impulses of charity, and pity for the poor and 
 suiFering," says M. Bauer, 
 " she had a diabolical 
 spirit of intrigue, and was 
 the soul of all the cabals 
 which were the despair 
 of the Opera. Backed up 
 by Saint - Huberty, she 
 made the theatre subject 
 to her will, and imposed 
 her authority on the 
 Court, her associates, and 
 even oh the public, brook- 
 ing no rival about her." 
 
 Ardent, proud, gene- 
 rous and passionate, she 
 was equally reckless in the 
 expenditure of her wealth 
 and of her affections. 
 
 Both at her country- 
 house and in the Chaussee 
 
 d'Antin, her theatre was provided with private boxes, to which the ladies 
 of the Court resorted to see the comedies In vogue. 
 
 The brilliance of this fascinating assembly was incomparable. The 
 prettiest women of Paris vied with each other in beauty, grace, and 
 toilettes. Princes of the blood, dignitaries of the Court, and Presidents of 
 Parliament were noticeable among the men, and the darker boxes were often 
 visited by prelates, and occasionally by academicians. It was a gala day, 
 says Fleury, for one of our actors, when he could escape from the desert 
 of the Coraedie Fran^alse, and disport himself on the boards of a theatre so 
 perfectly arranged.* 
 
 * Henri Bauer, Illustration. 
 
 MLLE. GOIMARD 
 
 From a Lithograph 
 
174 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 In addition to the most distinguished persons of the day, Mile. 
 Guimard received the habitues of the Court, and delighted to vex the 
 authorities by making her entertainments clash 
 with those given by the King. She discussed 
 questions of dress and coiffure with the 
 Queen, who sought her advice - on these 
 matters. 
 
 Her table was long the meeting-place of 
 courtiers, celebrated authors, and all that was 
 great and illustrious in Paris. She was pen- 
 sioned by a prince, a financier, and a bishop. 
 
 The revolution- 
 ■^*'^"-' arystorm,which 
 
 destroyed so 
 
 many things, 
 
 was the ruin of 
 
 Guimard. 
 " Some years 
 
 before this," 
 
 says M. Henri 
 
 Bauer, " Mile. 
 
 ,-ti..s^':^- 
 
 
 MLLE. GUIMARD 
 
 From a contemporary Drawing {1770) 
 
 
 
 .>l)c 
 
 li , 
 
 '\i 
 
 
 m. 
 
 ;)^ 
 
 
 Guimard's money difficulties obliged her to 
 get rid of her mansion in the Chaussee 
 d'Antin. Her mode of selling it was some- 
 what original : she had it put into a lottery, 
 issuing 2500 tickets at 120 livres a-piece. 
 The prize was won by the Comtesse du Lau, 
 who immediately resold the house for 500,000 
 livres to the banker Perregaux. Seventy- 
 five years later it was the scene of M. Arsene 
 Houssaye's marriage with his second wife. 
 Mile. Jane della Torre." 
 Mile. Guimard retired from the Opera in 1789, and married the dancer 
 Despreaux. 
 
 After having enjoyed every pleasure, and revelled in splendour, Guimard 
 
 i'^~^-&alt^ o '<y^4«^ 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE IN THE BALLET 
 DE LA EEINE 
 
A BALL IN A PAKK 
 
 After a Picture by Lancret in the Berlin Gallery 
 
176 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 had to struggle in her old age with difficulties verging on misery, and she 
 
 died neglected at the age of seventy-' 
 three.* 
 
 The Gavotte was the favourite 
 dance under Louis XVI. and 
 throughout the time of the Direc- 
 tory. This dance was of very 
 ancient origin ; it dated from the 
 sixteenth century, and was, as we 
 have said, a sort of Branle. 
 
 Not only did the leading couple 
 choose and kiss the lady and 
 gentleman who were to lead after 
 them, but the leaders generally 
 embraced all the dancers one after 
 the other. 
 
 In Sandrin ou Vert galant there 
 is an account of a Gavotte, in 
 
 which instead of kisses, little presents were given : 
 
 " Michaud prend Marion, la tire de la dance, 
 Et apres avoir fait sa noble reverence, 
 
 VESTRIS AS COLAS 
 
 From a Print in the Bibliotheque Natlonale 
 
 * " Monsieur de Goncourt," says M. Henri Bauer, "has given us quite a touching picture 
 of her old age. She lived in the Rue Menars, at the corner of the Rue de Richelieu, and 
 still received a number of her old friends and associates. The conversation naturally often 
 turned on the brilliant successes she had achieved on the boards of the Opera, which stul 
 interested her. 
 
 " One day the company pressed her strongly to dance some of the steps that had made 
 her so celebrated, with her husband, Despreaux. They refused for some time, but finally 
 yielded. Some boards were put up on trestles in an adjoining room, but with what seems 
 to us quite a fine touch of coquetry, the dancers arranged a curtain to conceal half the 
 stage, so that only their legs were visible. Those present at the performance were fired with 
 enthusiasm, and accorded a regular ovation to the two dancers, who were great artists stul. ■ 
 
 " But entreaties to repeat the experiment, even with the promise of a great financial 
 success, were in vain : they were wise enough not to do so, knowing that the brilliant days 
 of the winter of life have no to-morrows. 
 
 " Her feet on her foot-warmer, she liked to talk of the past, and when the conversation 
 turned to memories of the ballets in which she had danced, she took from beside her, 
 where it was hidden under her dress, a little toy theatre, put her hand into the aperture, and 
 with her thin bony fingers indicated with swift, unerring gestures the steps, movements, and 
 attitudes of herself and her comrades." 
 
THE GAVOTl'E 
 
 II la baise a la bouche et cliquetant les dois, 
 Monstre qu'^ bien dancer il ne craint villageois ; 
 Or, il a les deux mains au c6te, puis se tourne, 
 Et devant Marion presente sa personne ; 
 Puis resautant en Pair gambada lourdement ; 
 ,Haut troussant le talon d'un sot contournement, 
 
 177 
 
 A DANCE 
 
 After a Picture by Lancret in the Berlin Gallery 
 
 La fille s'enhardit et son homme regarde, 
 
 Et a tout ce qu'il fait de pres elle prend garde. 
 
 S'il fait un saut en Fair, Marion saute aussi ; 
 
 S'il dance de coste, elle fait tout ainsi, 
 
 Tant qu'a les voir dancer, a tout le monde il semble 
 
 Qu'ils aient recorde leurs tricotes ensemble. 
 
 Or, Michaud ayant fait suant et halletant, 
 
 Son devoir de dancer, le bouquet bien content 
 
lyS A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 II livre entre les mains de Marion, puis passe, 
 
 Et seule la laissant se remet a sa place. 
 
 Marion tourne autour et si hien se conduit 
 
 Qu'au vueil des assistants prend Sandrin, qu'elle suit. 
 
 Qui lui prete la main comme par moquerie. 
 
 Puis dan9ant de plus beau, saute comme une pie. 
 
 Sandrin, qui la de'daigne, avecques gravite, 
 
 Vous dance a la grandeur d'un pas non usite 
 
 Aux dances du village, et tant et tant s'oublie 
 
 Ou'il ne daigne baiser la fillette jolie, 
 
 Laquelle souriant lui laisse le bouquet, 
 
 Puis reprend pour dancer la gauche de Jaquet.'' 
 
 Then farther on : 
 
 " Claudin premierement 
 En tire le miroir qu'il donne gentiment 
 A cellc qu'il menait, qui, honteuse fillette, 
 L'ayant rc^u montre sa couleur vermeillette. 
 La fille de Pierrot, que Thibaut conduisait 
 De luy le peloton, et la bourse revolt, 
 La fille de Samson, gentille de nature, 
 Gayement prend du don la plus belle ceinture." 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 " By the term Gavotte, properly speaking," writes Mme. Laure Fonta, 
 " we must understand the dances in short parts when good merry dancers 
 vary the movements in the most fantastic fashion, even intermingling with 
 the duple rhythm of these dances the triple rhythm of some Gaillarde. 
 
 But this bright, sparkling dance was modified like so many others that 
 have undergone the influence of time. In the eighteenth century it had 
 points of resemblance with the Minuet ; it became languid and gliding, 
 rather solemn, and somewhat pretentious. 
 
 Vestris tells us that the Gavotte consisted of three steps and an 
 assemble. 
 
 Littre says that the step of the Gavotte differs from the natural step, in 
 that one springs upon the foot which is on the ground, and at the same 
 time points the toe of the other foot downwards. This movement is the 
 sole indication that one is dancing and not walking. 
 
 The air of the Gavotte was in duple time, moderate and graceful, 
 sometimes even tender and slow ; it was divided into two parts, each or 
 
THE GAVOTTE 
 
 179 
 
 ■which began with the second beat and ended with the first, the phrases 
 and rests recurring with every second bar. Famous Gavottes were written 
 for the stage by Gluck, Gretry, &c. The one in Panurge by Gretry was 
 a particular favourite, and was danced at every ball ; its success was due to 
 its strongly marked rhythm. 
 
 
 a valuable quality for ordinary 
 dancers. This Gavotte had 
 no second part, and, to supply 
 the want, the composer had 
 the first part repeated four 
 times, a convenient device 
 certainly, but a puerile one, 
 necessitating a good deal of 
 wearisome iteration. 
 
 The Gavotte had lost 
 favour, save at the theatre 
 and among professional 
 dancers, when Marie Antoi- 
 nette restored it to fashion. 
 We know that this graceful 
 queen danced the Minuet to 
 perfection ; she was delighted 
 with the one which Gretry 
 composed on the air of a 
 Gavotte in his opera Cephale 
 et Procris, though Gretry's air 
 is said to have been wanting 
 in spirit and in charm, and to 
 have made the steps difficult 
 
 of execution. Be this as it may, the Gavotte became the fashion hence- 
 forth at society balls, with a itw other dances reserved for distinguished 
 amateurs. 
 
 Moreover, various Gavottes in light and tender rhythms were in vogue 
 at this period. Fertiault, in his Histoire de la Danse, describes the Gavotte 
 as follows : 
 
 DANCE ON THE TERRACE AT ST. CLOUD 
 
 After A. ile St. Aubin 
 
i8o 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 " Skilful and charming offspring of the Minuet, sometimes gay, but 
 often tender and slow, in which kisses and bouquets are inter- 
 changed." 
 
 All evidence shows that the Gavotte was closely akin to the simple 
 Branle, to which it owed its origin. This dance, which was in great 
 
 AN OFEN-AIR DANCE 
 
 After Charles Eisen 
 
 favour for six centuries, still retained the first three steps of the Branle, 
 under the Directory, and at the beginning of the present century. 
 
 "In 1779," says G. Lenotre, " we catch a glimpse of Marie Antoinette 
 at the Opera Ball in the Comte de Mercy's letters. She had been once with 
 the King, who encouraged her to go again, in strict incognita, accompanied 
 only by one of her ladies. 
 
 " The Queen accordingly left Versailles without any suite, and at 
 the barrier, got into a hired carriage to avoid recognition. Unfortunately, 
 the carriage was so old and ramshackle, that it broke down at a little 
 
MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE OPERA BALL i8i 
 
 distance from the theatre. The Q,ueen, with the Comtesse de Henin, who 
 
 A MASKED BALL GIVEN BY 1 HE CITY OF 'PARIS ON THE OCCASION OF THE BIRTH OF THE DAUPHIN 
 
 After an Engraving by Moreau the younger 
 
 was in attendance, were obliged to go into the nearest house, which was a 
 silk-mercer's shop. She did not unmask, and as it was impossible to mend 
 
1 82 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 the carriage, the first hackney-coach that passed was hailed, and Marie 
 Antoinette arrived at the ball in this equipage. She there found several of 
 her household, who had come on separately, and who remained with her all 
 the evening. The details of this little adventure produced no effect at 
 Versailles, beyond causing the King to laugh, and to rally his consort on 
 her journey in the hackney-coach ! 
 
 " M. de Mercy was mistaken," adds Lenotre. " The numerous enemies 
 the Queen had already made would not allow such a fine opportunity for 
 calumny to pass by. 
 
 " Opera Balls were then the common scene of all sorts of adventures. 
 Two days after Marie Antoinette's accident, another adventure took place 
 which eventually became a matter of some importance. On Shrove 
 Tuesday the Comte d'Artois took advantage of his incognito to address 
 some rather cavalier speeches to the Duchesse de Bourbon, who, in a 
 moment of irritation, threw aside the muslin veil that concealed the features 
 of the future Charles X with her fan. The Prince, angry in his turn, 
 pulled her away from her partner, M. de ToncheroUes, and crumpled up 
 her mask on her face. 
 
 " The next day, M. de Bourbon sent a challenge to his cousin, which 
 the King forbade his brother to notice. The Comte d'Artois was inclined 
 to obey ; but most of the princes and nobles of his circle agreed between 
 themselves, and notified to the prince, that if he refused M. de Bourbon satis- 
 faction, the nobles would refuse him all service and honour in the kingdom, 
 and that his regiment would no longer consider him worthy of his command. 
 
 "The two princes accordingly fought. M. de Crussol, Captain of the 
 Bodyguard, begged them, as they crossed swords, to be sparing of blood 
 that might be precious to the State. The duel took place in the Bois de 
 Boulogne, and during the engagement the Queen and her suite were 
 present, in a sadly preoccupied frame, at the first night of Irene at the 
 Comedie Fran^aise. All at once the persons in the pit got up and began 
 to clap their hands. The Comte d'Artois, who had been slightly wounded 
 in the arm, came in arm-in-arm with the Due de Bourbon. The whole 
 audience rose and cried ' Bravo ! ' The popular joy knew no bounds when 
 the King's brother advanced to the front of his box, and gracefully saluted 
 the Duchesse de Bourbon with his wounded hand." 
 
Wi!i'WrwmJTmi^^mmsw^m^^m^mms7s^^mmm:;TW¥: 
 
 •■ ' 'i^ ^fc ^*; .. J*.-** W-* * 
 
 ^JM«? 
 
 ■ >": 
 
 
 
 
 
AUGUSTE VESTRIS 183 
 
 Auguste Vestris, the son of Gaetan, who, according to his father, 
 "only refrained from floating in mid-air lest he should mortify his 
 comrades," made his debut on August 25, 1772, in the ballet of La 
 Cinquantaine, in which he achieved a brilliant success. We find him 
 still to the fore under Louis XVI. ; for thirty-six years he was premier 
 
 ATTITUDES AND DANCES EXECUTED BY DAUBERVAL AT THE OPERA 
 
 From a contemporary Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 danseur of the Opera, retaining the favour of the public until the end. 
 His popularity seemed as great as ever at the age of sixty-six, when he 
 had retired, and was a professor at the Conservatoire. In 1826, a perform- 
 ance of Vaul et Virginie was given at the Opera for his benefit. Vestris 
 took the part of the negro Domingo, and was much applauded. 
 
 "He died," says M. Bauer, "in 1842, and was therefore eighty-two 
 years old. These instances 0^ longevity are very frequent among dancers : 
 Vestris the first was seventy-nine years of age ; Guimard lived to be 
 
184 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 seventy-three ; La Carmargo died -at sixty, and Dauberval, Despreaux, and 
 Noverre all lived to a great age." 
 
 "On June 11, 1778," says M. Pierre Veber, "Mile. Guimard 
 and the younger Vestris danced in the new ballet Les Petits Riens, with 
 Dauberval and Mile. Agelin. The performance was a great success. The 
 only author mentioned was Noverre, the celebrated ballet-master. It was he 
 who had imagined the three scenes, the three ' little trifles,' which were in 
 fact the groundwork of his ballet. The first scene represented Love, 
 caught in a net, and put in a cage ; the second, a game of bhnd-man's 
 buff ; and in the third, which was the greatest success, Love led two 
 shepherdesses up to a third, disguised as a shepherd, who discovered the 
 trick by unveiling her bosom. ' Encore ! ' cried the audience. Mile. 
 Guimard, the younger Vestris, and Noverre were heartily applauded, but 
 not one ' Bravo ! ' was given to the composer of the music — who was no 
 other than the divine Mozart. 
 
 " Mozart, who, fifteen years before, had been acclaimed in Paris as an 
 infant prodigy and an inspired composer, was vegetating in the city in 
 poverty and obscurity. The success of Les Petiis Riens apparently made 
 little difference to him, for a ies/f days after the performance we find him 
 leaving Paris, and seeking employment as an organist to ensure his daily 
 bread." 
 
 At the commencement of the reign of Louis XVI., Mme. AUard was 
 still dividing the honours with the great master Dauberval, and dancing the 
 pas-de-six with him. 
 
 Mile. AUard was as charming as La Camargo, and to the grace of her 
 predecessor she added a fire, a vivacity, and a flexibility peculiar to herself 
 At one time she was an ideal Sylvia, timid and gentle ; at another, the 
 terrible Medea. Now she displayed the airy grace of the goddess of 
 flowers ; now the voluptuous charm of a sultana. 
 
 Dorat, in his poem on dancing, exclaims : 
 
 "Que n'ai-je le genie et le pinceau d'Apclle ! 
 Allard, a mes esprits, ce tableau me rappelle. 
 Jamais nymphe des bois n'eut tant d'agilite, 
 Toujours I'essaim du ris voltige a tes cotes. 
 Que tu melanges bien, o belle enchanteresse. 
 La force avec la grace et I'aisance et I'adressc." 
 
GRAND BALLETS i8^ 
 
 At the time when Dauberval succeeded Vestris at the Opera, and danced 
 the divertissement of Syhie with Mme. Allard, the theatre of the Porte 
 Saint-Martin had become the rival of the Academie de Danse. Grand 
 
 BAL CHAMPETRE 
 
 After a Picture by Lancret in the New Palace, Berlin 
 
 ballets had been given there, mounted with the utmost splendour. 
 Le Deserteur, La Fille mal Gar dee, Les Jeux d'Eglee, Jenny, and various 
 compositions of Dauberval's had a great success. 
 
 2 A 
 
1 86 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 At about the same time the brothers Gardel composed some of their 
 most masterly ballets. The elder, Maximilian, was born in Munich ; he 
 died from the effects of an accident in 1787, having been premier danseur 
 and maitre de ballet, besides attaining distinction as a violinist, a harpist, and 
 violoncellist. 
 
 His brother Pierre succeeded him in his functions, and wrote a number 
 
 DANCE OF SHEPHERDS 
 
 After a Picture by Lancret in the Berlin Museum 
 
 of ballets : 'Telemaque, Psyche, Le Jugement de Paris, La Dansomanie, 
 Alexandre chez Apelle, Paul et Virginie, La Suite de Venus, V Oracle, 
 Le Deserteur, Le Coq du Village, Le Retour de Zephyre, Austerlitz, &c., 
 which long retained a place in the repertory. 
 
 The ballet-pantomime in three acts, Psyche, was given for the first 
 time under the Constituent Assembly, on December 14, 1790, at the 
 Theatre des Arts, passing on a good deal later to the Academie de Danse. 
 It was performed nine hundred and twelve times. 
 
LA DANSOMANIE 
 
 187 
 
 La Dansomanie, a celebrated ballet-pantomime in two acts, was given 
 on the 20th Prairial, year VIII. of the Republic. It is said not to have 
 been one of Gardel's best works, and it is possible that the troubles of the 
 times somewhat affected his brilliant talents. 
 
 Indeed the author, in a sort of appeal to the public, wrote thus : 
 "Since March 5, 1793, I have been apparently sunk in idleness. I 
 have regretted it myself a thousand times. Many of my friends have 
 
 ALLEGORICAL DANCE, SYMBOLISING THE REVOLUTION 
 
 After Louvet 
 
 complained of it, some have accused me of a total loss of power ; I brought 
 my reason to bear on my despair, answered the complaints of my friends by 
 showing them the causes of my apparent idleness, and let the others say 
 and write what they liked. But at last, now that the time has arrived for 
 submitting one of my new productions to the public, I owe that public 
 the whole truth. I therefore take this opportunity to tell it. Is 
 this a ballet I am about to submit to you.^* I answer, 'No, it is a joke, a 
 regular farce, a mere trifle, claiming only to show you, under the mask of 
 
1 88 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 ■•f-. . >8F ■.(«*',' '* 
 
 gaiety, the graces and the divine talents, which have so often commanded 
 the admiration of the public," &c. 
 
 " For all those familiar with the Revolution," says Professor Desrat, " It 
 is easy to read between the lines, and to see that Gardel wrote his ballet of 
 La Dansomanie in a depressed state of mind, and intentionally avoided 
 recalling his earlier ballets." 
 And the professor adds : 
 
 " But this did not prevent the great success of La Datisomame, 
 which kept its place in the repertory for a considerable tinie. The subject 
 
 was playful and calculated 
 to please the more fastidious 
 tastes of the period. In the 
 divertissement of the first 
 act peasants, villagers and 
 Savoyard farmers filled the 
 stage ; peasants, dressed like 
 Turks, were the heroes in 
 the second act, and then 
 came Basques and Chinese. 
 The great dancers Milon, 
 Beaupre, Vestris, and Mme. 
 Gardel all figured in this 
 ballet, and Mile. Chameron took a minor part. It was in this ballet that 
 the Waltz was danced at the Opera for the first time. 
 
 The theatrical ballet lost its old splendour under the Revolution; it 
 was only associated with the fetes of the Republic in Its itinerant form, 
 which had been obsolete for centuries. We must admits however, that 
 these revivals were marked by a certain solemnity. Actors from the Opera 
 figured in the forefront of these ballets, dressed in classic costumes, and 
 supported by choirs from the Conservatoire (then designated the Institute 
 of Music), singing patriotic hymns and cantatas. 
 
 Gardel composed the ballet of Guillaume 'Tell, which was enthusias- 
 tically received by the Committee of Public Safety. 
 
 The fifty thousand francs necessary to mount it were voted, but twice 
 they disappeared from the cash-box and no one dared to trace them. A 
 
 THE CARMAGNOLE 
 
 From a Print of 1793 
 
LA MARSEILLAISE AT THE OPERA 
 
 189 
 
 prudent silence reigned, and the author took back his ballet without 
 protest. 
 
 Gardel conceived the idea of giving a spectacular representation of the 
 Marseillaise at the Opera, in some points recalling the Pyrrhic of the 
 Greeks.* 
 
 THE DANCING MANIA 
 
 After D^bucourt 
 
 The performance opened with a blast of trumpets, which was the signal 
 for the appearance of a crowd of warriors, women, and children. The 
 combatants prepared for battle with dances, and a sort of tableau vivant 
 was arranged after each couplet. The last strophe : 
 
 " Amour sacre de la patrie, 
 Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs : 
 Liberte, liberie cherie." 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 * Subsequently, towards the end of the Second Empire, and during the war of 1870- 
 1871, Mme. Bourdas, enveloped in the folds of the tricolour flag, declaimed the 
 Marseillaise with a vigour that invariably brought down the house. 
 
I go 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 was sung in muffled tones like a prayer. The actors on the stage and the 
 spectators in the hall fell on their knees before Liberty, represented by 
 
 Mile. Maillard. A religious silence 
 followed. Suddenly the trumpets 
 summoned the valiant defenders 
 of Liberty, the tocsin sounded, the 
 drummers beat the generale, the 
 cannon thundered, the actors sprang 
 up, brandishing their arms, crowds 
 rushed on, armed with hatchets 
 and pikes, and all, seized with 
 heroic frenzy, shouted the refrain : 
 
 " Aux armes, citoyens . . ." 
 
 LA SAUTEUSE 
 
 (Le bon genre) 
 
 The Festival of the Supreme 
 Being, decreed by the National 
 Convention, designed by David, 
 and conducted by Robespierre, 
 was the most important of the 
 itinerant ballets of that time. It 
 was a ceremony of a classic nature, 
 and not without grandeur, in spite 
 of a certain declamatory character. 
 
 On the morning of the 20th 
 Prairial, year II., all the doors and 
 
 windows in Paris were garlanded with flowers and boughs of oak. 
 joyous inhabitants, summoned by the drum, repaired to their Sections, 
 
 LA SAUTEUSE 
 
 {Le bon genre) 
 
 The 
 The 
 
THE FESTIVAL OF THE SUPREME BEING 
 
 igr 
 
 women and young girls, clad in white and crowned with vine-leaves, carried 
 roses in their hands. The Sections arrived in good order at the Jardin 
 National, where from a fountain rose a colossal statue, representing 
 Wisdom, who pointed heavenward with one hand and held a crown of 
 
 SIGNORA GIOVANNA BACCELLI 
 
 After Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. 
 
 stars in the other. There was dancing and singing under the ancient trees ; 
 a ray of joy shot across the gloom. The members of the Convention presently 
 took their places on a platform, and choirs of singers chanted a hymn to the 
 Supreme Being. The President delivered a speech, and, quitting the plat- 
 form, he set fire with a torch to an image of Atheism. 
 
192 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The members of the Convention, each bearing in his hand a bunch of 
 
 corn, flowers, or fruit, then proceeded to the mustering-place between two 
 
 parallel lines of the people who accompanied them, the men on one side, and 
 
 the women on the other. They surrounded a car, drawn by oxen with 
 
 gilded horns, on which was set up the statue of Liberty, seated under the 
 
 shadow of a tree, and surrounded with 
 
 sheaves of corn and agricultural tools. 
 
 Upon the steps were displayed the symbols 
 
 of trades : the printing-press, the hammer, 
 
 the anvil, &c.,* and a trophy of musical 
 
 instruments showed that a charming art 
 
 had not been forgotten. 
 
 Symbolic groups marched by the side of 
 
 the Representatives : Infancy, decked with 
 
 violets ; Adolescence, crowned with myrtle;' 
 
 Manhood, his brows bound with oak-leaves ; 
 
 and Old Age, whose white hair was decked 
 
 with vine and olive leaves. During the 
 
 march, the statue of Liberty was covered 
 
 with offerings and with flowers. 
 
 At the gathering ground a mountain, bearing the tree of Liberty on 
 
 its summit, represented the national altar. 
 
 " Pure souls and virtuous hearts," exclaims the author of the official 
 
 report, " a charming spectacle awaits you here ; it is here that liberty 
 
 accords you its sweetest delights." 
 
 " An immense mountain," says Castil-Blaze, " symbolised the national 
 
 altar ; upon Its summit rises the tree of liberty, the Representatives range 
 
 themselves under its protecting branches, fathers with their sons assemble 
 
 on the part of the mountain set aside for them ; mothers with their 
 
 daughters place themselves on the other side ; their fecundity and the 
 
 virtues of their husbands are the sole titles to a place there. A profound 
 
 silence reigns all round ; the touching strains of harmonious melody are 
 
 * " You who live in luxury and indolence," said the official report of this/ete, " you 
 whose existence is nothing but a weary sleep, perhaps you will dare cast a glance of scorn 
 upon these useful instruments. Away, away from us ! Your corrupt souls cannot delight 
 in the simple joys of nature." 
 
 THE DANCE 
 
THE FESTIVAL OF THE SUPREME BEING 
 
 193 
 
 heard : the fathers and their sons sing the first strophe ; they swear with 
 one accord that they will not lay down their arms until they have 
 annihilated the enemies of the Republic, and all the people take up the 
 finale. The daughters and mothers, their eyes fixed on the heavens, sing a 
 second strophe ; the daughters promise only to marry men who have served 
 
 VIEW OF THE TUILERIES GARDENS IN 1808 
 
 From Norblin's Gakrie des Viies de Paris 
 
 their country, the mothers rejoice in their fecundity. ' Our children,' they 
 say, ' after having purged the world of the tyrants who have coalesced against 
 us, will return to fulfil a cherished duty in closing the eyes of those who 
 brought them into the world/ The people echo these sublime sentiments, 
 inspired by the sacred lo^^e of virtue." 
 
 "A third and last strophe is sung by all present. General 
 emotion prevails upon the mountain : men, women, girls, old men, children, 
 
 2 B 
 
194 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 fill the air with their voices. Here, the mothers press the babes they are 
 nursing to their bosoms ; there, seizing the younger of their male children, 
 
 those who are not strong enough to 
 follow their fathers, and raising them 
 in their arms, they reverently present 
 them to the Author of Nature ; the 
 young girls cast heavenward the 
 flowers they have brought, their only 
 possessions at this tender age. At 
 the same instant the sons, fired with 
 military ardour, draw their swords, 
 place them in the hands of their old 
 
 FKENCH BALL DRESS OF THE YEAR XI 
 
 fathers, and swear to make them 
 
 victorious, to make Equality and 
 
 Liberty triumph over the oppression 
 
 of tyrants. Sharing the enthusiasm 
 
 of their sons, the delighted old men 
 
 embrace them, and give them their 
 
 paternal benediction. A formidable 
 
 discharge of artillery, the voice ot 
 
 national vengeance, inflames the 
 
 courage of our republicans, for it 
 
 announces that the day of glory has arrived. A manly, warlike song, 
 
 premonitory of victory, responds to the roaring of the cannon. All 
 
 FRENCH BALL DRESS OF THE YEAR XII 
 
THE VICTIM BALLS 
 
 19^ 
 
 Frenchmen express their feelings in a fraternal embrace, with one voice 
 they raise to the Divinity the universal cry, Vive la Republique. The 
 20th Prairial, year II., ought to be 
 noted in indelible letters among the 
 splendours of our history ; the name 
 of the Supreme Being echoed on the 
 same day, at the same hour, through- 
 out the length of France. Twenty- 
 five millions of people assembled at 
 the same time under the vault of 
 heaven, addressing to the Eternal 
 hymns and songs of joy." 
 
 FRENCH BALL DRESS OF THE DIRECTORY PERIOD 
 
 It might fairly be supposed that 
 the events of the Revolution dealt 
 the death-blow to dancing, strictly 
 so called. But, if we may credit 
 the author of Paris pendant la 
 Revolution, scarcely was the Terror 
 at an end when twenty-three theatres 
 and eighteen hundred dancing 
 saloons were open every evening in 
 Paris. 
 "Read," says M. Henry Fourment, "Mercier's description of the 
 Victim Balls. The women modelled their attire on that of Aspasia, with 
 
 FRENCH BALL DRESS OF THE DIRECTORY PERIOD 
 
196 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 bare arms, bare bosoms, sandalled feet, and hair bound in plaits round 
 their heads, for fashionable hairdressers dressed their customers' hair with 
 
 casts of classic busts before them. 
 
 " The chemise had been banished 
 for some time, and replaced by a 
 knitted silk vest which clung to the 
 figure. It was the mode to be 
 dressed a la sauvage. 
 
 "Will posterity believe," says 
 Mercier, "that people, whose rela- 
 tions had died on the scaffold, 
 inaugurated, not days of solemn 
 
 PARISIAN BALL DRESS OF THE YEAR XIII 
 
 general grief when, assembled in 
 mourning garb, they might bear wit- 
 ness to their sorrow at the cruel losses 
 so recently incurred, but days of 
 dancing, drinking, and feasting. For 
 admission to one of these banquets 
 and dances, it is necessary to show 
 a certificate of the loss of a father, 
 a mother, a husband, a wife, a 
 brother, or a sister under the knife 
 
 of the guillotine. The death of collaterals does not confer the right of 
 attending such z. fete. 
 
 FRENCH DALL DRESS OF THE DIRECTORY PERIOD 
 
BALLETS BY MILON 
 
 197 
 
 " Moreover, dancing is universal ; they dance at the Carmelites, between 
 the massacres ; they dance at the Jesuits' Seminary ; at the Convent of the 
 Carmelites du Marais ; at the seminary of Saint-Sulpice ; at the Filles de 
 Sainte-Marie ; they dance in three ruined churches of my Section, and 
 upon the stones of all the tombs which have not been, destroyed. 
 
 " They dance in every tavern on the Boulevards, in the Champs 
 Elysees, and along the quays. They dance at Ruggieri's, Lucquet's, 
 
 LA TR^NISE 
 
 (Le bon genre) 
 
 Mauduit's, Wenzel's, and Montausier's. There are balls for all classes. 
 Dancing, perhaps, is a means towards forgetfulness." 
 
 Under the Consulate we only hear of one ballet, in one act, Lucas ei 
 Laurette, given at the Opera on June 3, 1803, and danced by Goyon, 
 Vestris, and Mme. Gardel. It was by the composer Milon, who became ballet- 
 master from 1 8 13 to 18 15, and to whom we owe, in addition to Lucas et 
 Laurette, Le Retour d'Ulysse, Les Sauvages de la Mer du Sud, Pygmalion, 
 Hero et Leandre, Les Noces de Gamache, Clary, Les Fiances de Caserte, 
 
1 98 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 LEchange des Roses, La Promesse de Mariage, Nina, VEpreuve 
 Villageoise and he Carnaval de Venise. 
 
 Dancing under the Empire was certainly not very brilliant, as one can 
 easily understand. Nevertheless, M. Nuittier, the learned librarian of the 
 Opera, gives us some curious information concerning the dancers of that 
 period. 
 
 " In these days," he says, " when the functions of men-dancers are for 
 
 THE EVE OF THE BATTLE 
 
 After Raffet 
 
 the most part limited to supporting or lifting up the lady, it may perhaps 
 seem surprising that male dancers formerly enjoyed a popularity as great, ir 
 not greater, than that of women. Nevertheless it was so, not only under 
 the old regime, in the time of Vestris, but a period of military glory, when 
 manners were certainly not effeminate, in the early days of the Empire. 
 The dancer Duport was at the height of his success ; his salary equalled 
 that of the first singers ; to keep up his position, he paid 6000 francs for 
 rent ; his table cost him as much, and his carriage 2900. When he danced, 
 the usual guard was increased by five cavalry soldiers. His bust was cast in 
 bronze, and, not content with interpreting the works of others, he ventured 
 
a > 
 
200 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 to compose ballets himself. It would seem that this was not an official 
 venture, but that he wished to see whether his ballets would equal those of 
 his contemporaries. The result was not encouraging." 
 
 On the 20th Germinal, year XII., Napoleon took the trouble to write to 
 Cambaceres from Lyons that it was inconceivable to him why Duport had 
 
 been allowed to 
 compose ballets. 
 
 " This young 
 man has not been 
 in vogue a year. 
 When one has made 
 such a marked suc- 
 cess in a particular 
 line, it is a little 
 precipitate to in- 
 vade the speciality 
 of other men, who 
 have grown grey at 
 their work." 
 
 When we see 
 
 the sovereign in the 
 
 midst of the cares 
 
 of government so well acquainted with the success of a dancer, and 
 
 occupying himself seriously with a question of choregraphy, we can only 
 
 bow once more before the all-powerful master of the world. 
 
 Bonaparte, indeed, seems to have always taken an interest in the art 
 of dancing. In a letter to the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian 
 expedition, after enumerating all kinds of things necessary for the 
 expeditionary force, such as cannon, guns, provisions, &c., he mentions : 
 " A troupe of ballet-girls."* 
 
 On the occasion of the marriage of the Emperor Napoleon with the 
 Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, a ball took place in Vienna in the 
 saloons of the Imperial Redoubt. The guests, numbering six thousand. 
 
 THE FASHIONABLE MANIA 
 
 After Carle Vernet 
 
 Illustration, December 1894.. 
 
BALLETS UNDER THE FIRST EMPIRE 
 
 .201 
 
 entered in dominoes or in some seemly disguise, with or witliout a mask ; 
 they were allowed to appear in dress-coats, or in a Hungarian costume 
 without spurs. A magnificent temple was constructed in one room, in the 
 centre of which stood a genius, laying his left hand on the Arms of 
 France and Austria, and. crowning them with laurels. On the pediment, 
 two other genii held escutcheons surmounted by imperial crowns, with the 
 
 A HALL UNDER THE FIRST EMPIRE 
 
 After an Engraving by Bosio in the Bi-jliotheque Nationale 
 
 monograms of Napoleon and Marie-Louise. The Emperor, the Empress, 
 the Archduchess Marie-Louise, the Imperial Family and the French 
 Ambassador made their appearance at the beginning of the ball. 
 
 Among the ballets of the Empire we may mention Les Filets de 
 Vulcain, by Blache, given at the Opera on June 27, 1806. This ballet, 
 which had been alreadv performed at Lyons, where Blache was a professor 
 of dancing, was a great success. 
 
 La Laitiere Polonaise, by the same author, excited the greatest 
 enthusiasm. A dance of skaters introduced into this ballet added greatly 
 
 2 c 
 
202 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 to its success. La Porte Saint-Martin adopted this new idea, which 
 probably gave rise to the skaters' dance in Le PropKete. 
 
 Isidore Auguste Blache, one of his sons, composed the ballets of 
 PoUchineUe and of Joco for the celebrated dancer Mazurier. They were 
 given at La Porte Saint-Martin. The part of the monkey in the ballet of 
 Joco was eventually taken with so much suppleness and agility by the dancer 
 
 RALL AT THE COURT OF NAPOLEON I 
 
 After an Engraving by D. Zix in the Bibliotheqne Nalionale 
 
 Paul, that he was nicknamed Paul the Aerial, so lightly did he spring from 
 tree to tree. 
 
 A second son of Bl ache's was also a ballet-master at the Porte Saint- 
 Martin for three years. He then went to St. Petersburg, where he gave 
 Don Juan, Gustave Vasa, Les Grecs, Malakavel, and ^midis des Gaules 
 with great success. 
 
 Le Retour d'Ulysse was played for the first time on February 27, 1807. 
 Mile. Chevigny was a great success in the part of the Nurse, but this 
 performance was marred by a sad accident : Mile. Aubry fell from a 
 
BALLETS BY BLASIS 
 
 203 
 
 cloud,- on which she was seated, and injured her arm. She never recovered, 
 and never appeared on the stage again. 
 
 The ballet of Antoine et Cleofatre, with music by Kreutzer, performed 
 March 8, 1808, was a brilliant success for Mile. Chevigny, who took the part 
 of Octavia. 
 
 Desdetot, ofthe 
 Academic Royale, 
 ballet-master to the 
 Court of Russia, 
 composed the ana- 
 creontic ballet of 
 Zephyre et Flore, 
 which was per- 
 formed at St. Peters- 
 burg and Paris in 
 18 15. The two 
 .acts entailed a grand 
 exhibition of ballet- 
 girls. Beaupre took 
 the part of Pan, 
 and Albert that 
 of Zephyr. The 
 libretto was lively, 
 the mounting taste- 
 ful, and the success 
 of the ballet was 
 considerable. 
 
 Blasis, whose 
 ballets seem to 
 close the cycle of 
 
 grands ballets d' actions, was premier danseur to the King of England, and a 
 ballet-master as celebrated as Dauberval and Gardel. 
 
 His six principal ballets are fine compositions, and he further wrote an 
 excellent book on dancing. His Achille a Scyros, though it bears the same 
 ■lame as a ballet by Gardel, has an entirely diiFerent plot. Mokanna, ar 
 
 thf: dancing lesson 
 After Emile Adam 
 
204 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Oriental subject, is a ballet in four acts taken from Thomas Moore's 
 Veiled Prophet. The scene is laid in Persia, in the year 163 of the Hegira. 
 Vivaldi, a grand ballet in two acts, takes us to Venice towards the 
 middle of the sixteenth century. In Les Aventures Wocturnes, Blasis, 
 usually a choregrapher of a serious bent, obtained a great success in the 
 
 comic style. In-Zara, the 
 romantic element predomi- 
 nates, and, according to com- 
 petent critics, it is a first-rate 
 work. Finally, Alcide, or 
 L' Essai de la Jeunesse, was 
 written in the allegorical 
 style. 
 
 In year VII. of the Re- 
 public, a certain Mademoiselle 
 Taglioni appeared at the 
 Opera with some success. 
 Her name often figures in 
 the playbills from 1804 to 
 1806 ; she took part in La 
 Caravane, Le Connetable de 
 Clisson, and Les Noces de 
 Gamache. She was the aunt 
 of the celebrated Marie Tag- 
 lioni, who had such an extra- 
 ordinary success on the same 
 stage some twenty years later. Marie Taglioni was born at Stockholm of an 
 Italian father and a Swedish mother ; she made her debut at Vienna in 
 1822, in a ballet composed by M. Taglioni expressly for his daughter, and 
 called. Reception d'une jeune Nymphe a la Cour de 'Terpsichore. 
 
 In 1827 she made her debut in Paris in Le Sicilien, and appeared in 
 La Vestale, Mars et Venus, Fernand Cortes, Les Bayaderes, and Le Carnaval 
 de Venise. 
 
 Her talent, so instinct with simple grace and modesty, her lightness, the 
 suppleness of her attitudes, at once voluptuous and refined, made a 
 
 MARIE TAGLIONI 
 
 From a Lithograph in the BibUotheqiie Nationale 
 
MARIE TAGLIONI 
 
 20^ 
 
 sensation at once. She revealed a new form of dancing, a virginal and 
 diaphanous art, instinct with an originality all her own, in which the old 
 traditions and time-honoured rules of choregraphy were merged. After an 
 appearance of a few days only on our 
 boards, this charming mirage vanished 
 to shine in great triumph at Munich 
 and Stuttgart. 
 
 But she came back, and an enthu- 
 siastic reception awaited her. 
 
 In Les Bayaderes and, above all, in 
 La Sylpkide, her art attained the utmost 
 limits of spirituality. 
 
 And in the midst of these brilliant 
 successes, taking the hearts of the 
 people by storm, admitted to the inti- 
 mate friendship of the Queen of Wiir- 
 temburg, she remained sweet, simple, 
 and reserved. 
 
 In 1832, she married Comte Gilbert 
 des Voisins ; but this union was ot 
 
 brief duration, for almost on the morrow of the wedding she was forgotten 
 by her husband.* 
 
 In 1837, Marie Taglioni gave her farewell performance before her 
 departure for Russia. 
 
 MLLE. TAGLIONI AND : 
 
 * "Arsene Houssaye," says Henri, Bauer in V lllustratiov, "has described their last 
 interview at a dinner given twenty years afterwards, in 1852, by the Due de Morny, at 
 which Rachel and Taglioni were present. 
 
 " Comte Gilbert des Voisins arrived when they were already at table. His first words 
 were : ' Who is that she-professor on Morny's right .'' ' [She was very cultivated, and spoke 
 all the languages of Europe.] His interlocutor, by no means afraid of hurting his feelings, 
 replied, ' It is your wife.' Des Voisins considered, and at last remarked : ' After all, it is 
 quite possible.' 
 
 " Mile. Taglioni, pointing out her husband, asked Morny why he had invited her to 
 dine in such bad company. 
 
 "After dinner Gilbert des Voisin=, who feared nothing, not even his wife, had the 
 impertinence to ask to be introduced to Marie Taglioni. She entered into the joke, 
 saying: ' I fancy, monsieur, that I had the honour of being presented to you in 1832.' That 
 was the year of their marriage." 
 
206 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 We hear of her Jater on in London in great distress, giving lessons in 
 dancing and deportment. 
 
 " It was a sad sight," says M. Henri Bauer, " to see her, a white-haired 
 woman, escorting a bevy of English schoolgirls in Hyde Park in the 
 winter, at Brighton in the summer, or, accompanied by a little old Italian, 
 who played the kit for her, teaching dances and court curtseys to the 
 proud daughters of the gentry." 
 
 She died at Marseilles, very old and very poor. 
 
 INCROYAKLE DANCE 
 
 After a Print in the Bibliotheqne Nationale 
 
RETURNING FROM '1 HE VINTAGE 
 
 After a Picture by Delort 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Rustic and Tastoral 'Dances — Rounds — 'Bourrees — 'Bretonne Dances — Catalan "Bails — 
 The Farandole — Open-air Dances in Foreign Countries 
 
 E have seen how, in the age of dreams, the nymphs of the 
 fountains, treading the grass and flowers under their dew-be- 
 spangled feet, danced virginal rounds by moonlight. The 
 Graces, holding each other by the hand, swayed and circled in 
 chaste undulations, and it was thus that Terpsichore appeared to mortals, 
 leading her joyous band. We have seen the .maidens of Greece, inspired by 
 radiant fictions, dancing rhythmically under forest boughs, in honour of 
 sylvan divinities, and of returning spring. . . . 
 
 What remains to us of this divine dream, of the charming rites of a 
 vanished worship, save the Round } 
 
208 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The Round was the first expression of dancing, and now, as in the 
 
 remotest ages, children take each other by the hand and dance in circles, 
 
 to express delight, and even to celebrate the joys of days that are no 
 
 more. 
 
 " Nous n'irons plus au bois, 
 Les lauriers sont coupes." 
 
 A whole world divides the expression of joy which makes them clasp 
 
 hands, intertwine, and mingle 
 
 their movements by a common 
 
 ^ impulse, from the dances of 
 
 advanced civilisations. 
 
 The Round is the primi- 
 tive dance, the true rustic 
 dance. It existed even before 
 Syrinx, plaintive under the 
 burning lips of Pan, poured a 
 new intoxication into the souls 
 of dancers.* 
 
 There is something so 
 natural, so instinctive, in its 
 movements, that we shall find 
 it in all primitive and rustic 
 societies. 
 
 Thus, in early days, young 
 girls danced Rounds in the meadows of our ancient Celtic Limousin, 
 to celebrate " the coming of fair weather." Here, in this region, the 
 original rudeness of whose inhabitants had been tempered by the Gallo- 
 Romans, delight in the renewal of the earth entwined their fingers, and 
 gave a rhythm to their movements and attitudes. These Rounds 
 of theirs were the Maiades, or May Dances, of antique origin ; the 
 
 CrilLDHEN DANCING A KOUXD 
 
 After MouiUeron ((S50) 
 
 * Pan was accounted the inventor of rustic dances by the ancients. Syrinx was a 
 nymph of Arcadia, daughter of the river-god Ladon. Pursued by Pan, she fled to the banks 
 of the river and disappeared. In her place the god found only -a cluster of reeds, from 
 which he fashioned the Panpipes, or seven-tubed flute, which took the name of the 
 nymph. 
 
THE ROUND 
 
 209 
 
 J-, A 
 
 leafy beeches under which they took place were called the trees of the 
 Ma'iades. At Merlines, there is a piece of table-land which still bears the 
 name of the Coudert des Mdiades, and a short time ago the aged tree of 
 the Ma'iades still outspread its hoary branches in the forest of Chavanon. 
 The word came in time to be applied to all places where dancing could be 
 enjoyed ; such, for in- 
 stance, as the lonely 
 country inns, where 
 couples meet to dance on 
 fine Sundays. 
 
 The dancing -song 
 proper to these May 
 festivals was called the 
 Calenda Mdia, and the 
 Queen / of Spring, in 
 whose honour the dance 
 was performed, figures in 
 early Limousine poetry 
 under the pretty title of 
 Regina avrilloza. 
 
 The ancient Round 
 still lingered in those 
 late centuries, and the 
 Maiade of Limousin and 
 Poitou was, in fact, the 
 dance of Ariadne, the 
 dance engraved upon the 
 shield of Achilles by 
 
 Vulcan. The maidens of Greece still dance it, one of their number 
 leading, and holding in her hand a kerchief or a silken cord to denote 
 the windings of the labyrinth. 
 
 This dance, transmitted to us by the Romans, was performed by a long, 
 undulating chain of persons, whose movements were regulated sometimes by 
 songs, and sometimes by instrumental music. 
 
 Like the dance described by Homer, it was led by a singing choregus. 
 
 "■■^sM-M. i.St-5s4^£K-' 
 
 THE FIRST DANCING LESSON 
 
 After a Lithograph by Grenier 
 
 2D 
 
212 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Sometimes these verses are sung : 
 
 " Les lauriers sont au bois, 
 Qui les ira cueillir ? 
 J'entends le tambour qui bat, 
 Et I'amour qui m'appelle ; 
 Embrassez qui vous plaira, 
 Pour soulager vos peines, 
 Vos peines, vos peines." 
 
 " The person to whom these various objurgations are addressed," says 
 Jean Dutrech, "goes and kisses one of the other dancers, and returning 
 takes his or her place in the middle of the circle with the partner chosen. 
 The dancing and singing are then resumed. 
 
 " C'est la fille a Guillaume, 
 Et le fils a Gendremont, 
 Qui aiment le pain tendre (bis); 
 Entrez dans ce petit rond, 
 Tout rond. 
 
 " Mettez-vous a genoux, 
 Et jurez devant tous 
 D'etre fideles epoux, 
 Et puis embrassez vous 
 Sur Fair de tra la la la, 
 Sur Pair de tra de ridera, 
 Et Ion Ion la." 
 
 " When this Round is danced on the actual day of the wedding, the 
 game always begins with the newly wedded bride or bridegroom, and 
 continues till each dancer has had a turn." 
 
 In the Permenada, or Promenade, an indefinite number of dancers 
 join hands in a line, and sing, forming figures, and skipping, as they 
 advance towards a solitary dancer who confronts them, as in the childish 
 Round : C'est le chevalier du rot. 
 
 In all its variations, the Round is essentially a joyous dance. I have, 
 nevertheless, lighted upon one singular anecdote in its history. 
 
 A painter, very famous in his day, died at Harlan in 1574, at the age 
 of seventy-six. As he was very rich, and had no heir, he set aside a part 
 of his fortune in his will for the purpose of starting two young couples m 
 
DANCE OF SARDINIAN PEASANTS 
 
 213 
 
 life every _year in his native village. He made it a condition, however, that 
 on the wedding-day the happy pair and their guests should form a circle, 
 and dance to the music of violins and hautbois round his grave ! 
 
 In the course of my travels I once saw a very graceful Round danced by 
 peasants in Sardinia ; they 
 accompanied their dance by 
 a song, in the Sardinian 
 rhythm, the most extra- 
 ordinary kind of music 
 imaginable. It is hardly the 
 sound of the human voice, 
 but a kind of musical buz- 
 zing which swells, dies away, 
 and swells again. Some- 
 times a high note broke in, 
 pure and sonorous ; then 
 the bass resounded in its 
 turn. Now and again the 
 voices chanted in unison, 
 forming a sort of muffled 
 accompaniment to the 
 improvisations of the soloist. 
 This strange and original 
 .singing, which it is very 
 difficult to analyse, might 
 be compared to an Arab 
 
 cantilena, accompanied by a grave murmur of sacred chants. It was in the 
 village of Belvi, in Sardinia, on the slope of the great Gennagentu. 
 
 At the sound of this singular music cast on the evening breezes by 
 mountain musicians, young girls and men advanced to form a circle round 
 them. The maidens took hands and stood closely side by side ; the 
 young men did the same, the two groups joined at one end, and the dancers 
 circled, retired, and advanced in a slow cadence, regulated by the melody of 
 
 the singers. 
 
 Such is the Sardinian rhythm, and the Douro-douro dance. The music 
 
 THE VIGIL or ST. JOHN 
 
 After an Illustration for M. de Laborde's Songs, by Moreau 
 
214 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 is grave and beautiful, as is the dance, which is a kind of undulating 
 movement. 
 
 In Gascony, too, we find the Round associated with popular festivities 
 and weddings. 
 
 My friend M. KaufFmann, coming away from a wedding-mass in this 
 
 district one day, heard 
 some musicians strike 
 up a slow, gently 
 
 modulated chant, to 
 which all the party at 
 once responded. : 
 
 " The bridegroom," 
 he said, " took his 
 bride by the hand, the 
 various couples , fol- 
 lowed their example, 
 and all marched along, 
 accommodating their 
 steps to the air with 
 rhythmic movements 
 of much grace , and 
 elegance. Now re- 
 volving, now gliding 
 forward, in a gradual 
 crescendo, they broke 
 at last into a lively, 
 rapid dance, the un- 
 dulating movements of 
 which produced the most graceful attitudes, and the most unexpected effects, 
 recalling certain aspects of the Provencal Fandango. This dance is called 
 the Rondo. It continued till we reached the little rustic house, in the 
 courtyard of which, under the shade of green boughs borrowed from the 
 neighbouring forest, an excellent meal, suited to the well-known sobriety of 
 
 the guests, had been provided by M. B , to which we did not fail to do 
 
 ample justice." 
 
 LE TAIMUOUKIN 
 
 After Taunay 
 
THE BRETON RONDO 
 
 'I? 
 
 "The honest folks of the Landes, who are passionate lovers of dancing, 
 left the table to mingle joyously in their favourite Rondo. Towards 
 evening it became a formidable crescendo, a mad, headlong race, reckless, 
 and even terrible at last. Excited, not by drink, but by their much-loved 
 
 ' DANCE AT AN INN 
 
 From an engraving by Basan after A. de St. Aubtn 
 
 pastime, all the young couples, turning, twisting, jumping over obstacles, 
 climbing, leaping, escalading, running, only paused when the sounds of the 
 fife died away for lack of breath on the part of the exhausted musicians. 
 The great points to observe in the dancing of the Rondo are never to 
 unclasp hands, and to follow every movement of the leader blindly." 
 
 M. Georges Perrot, in his travels among the Southern Slavs, saw a 
 Romaika, whifch seems to be a variety of the Round. 
 
 "There are very few Eastern dances," he says, " in which the two sexes 
 
2l6 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 mingle, and even when this occurs, as in certain varieties of the Romaika, 
 it is only in a kind of Round, in v/hich all the men first join hands and 
 dance, and then all the vs^omen. They never dance in couples. Even in 
 the Romaika, only the leader of the Round dances ; the others form up and 
 march while the choregus leaps and bounds. Except in this exercise, which 
 recalls the Homeric choruses, and in which a whole village takes part, 
 dancing is merely a spectacle, as in our ballets." 
 
 DANCE OF I'EASANTS 
 
 M. Charles Yriarte gives an elaborate description of the national dance 
 of Dalmatia, the Kollo, a rustic dance, with certain characteristic features 
 which distinguish it from the ordinary Round. 
 
 " The word Kollo means a circle. It is a Round, formed by alternate 
 male and female couples, its peculiarity being that the man does not take 
 the hand of the woman next to him, but passes his arm under hers to clasp 
 the hand of her neighbour. The whole ring, thus intermingled, stamps on 
 the ground, singing a monotonous air, somewhat mournful, but not 
 unpleasing. One Sunday, at Gradisca, the banks of the Save for a distance 
 of about a league were covered with groups of women strangely adorned 
 with glass beads, huge crowns, artificial flowers, false pearls, and jewels of 
 curious design, the brilliant hues of which stood out against their richly 
 embroidered bodices. It was in honour of some local fete ; the women 
 
f£tE CHAMPfiTRE 
 
 After a Picture by Debucourt 
 
 2 E 
 
2l8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 danced together in groups, slowly, without change of place, giving a sort of 
 challenging expression to the undulations of their bodies." 
 
 According to M. Dora d'Istria, this Round is of a variable character, 
 agreeing with the age and temperament of the dancer. " Sometimes," he 
 says, " a young virgin performs it, exciting the spectator's admiration by 
 
 her modesty ; some- 
 times the wife of a 
 Bosnian troubles all 
 hearts by the signifi- 
 cance of her move- 
 ments." 
 
 M. Dora illustrates 
 the intense fascination 
 of the Kollo by the 
 following legend : 
 
 The Haidouk Ra- 
 do'itza, who had been 
 cast into a dungeon 
 of Lara, feigned death 
 so aptly, that Bekis 
 gave orders for his 
 funeral. But the 
 Aga's wife, doubting the reality of this sudden decease, advised that fire 
 should be kindled on the Haidouk's breast, to see if the " brigand " would 
 not move. Rado'itza's heroic soul was equal to this ordeal, and he never 
 stirred. The Turkish woman demanded a further test ; a serpent, warmed 
 in the sun, was laid in his bosom. The motionless Haidouk showed no 
 sign of fear. The Aga's wife then proposed that twenty nails should be 
 driven in under his finger and toe nails. Firm of purpose, he did not even 
 breathe a sigh. His tormentor then ordered a Kollo to be danced round 
 the prisoner, hoping that Hai'kouna would force a smile from the Haidouk. 
 Hai'kouna, fairest and tallest of the daughters of Lara, led the Round. Her 
 silken trousers rustled, the necklace round hei throat tinkled with every 
 step. Radoitza, unmoved by tortures, could not resist her spells ; he 
 looked at her and smiled. But the young Servian, at once proud of her 
 
 SERGEANT BELLEI'OINTE DANCES WITH CATIN 
 
 After Charlet 
 
THE ROUMANIAN HORA 
 
 2ig 
 
 triumph and touched by it, dropped her silken kerchief on Radoitza's 
 face, that her companions might not see him smile. This ordeal ended, 
 Rado'itza was thrown into the sea, but he, a practised swimmer, reached the 
 shore, returned by night to the house of Bekis Aga, struck off his head, 
 killed the " Turkish vixen " by driving the nails he had pulled from his 
 
 ATJ IMPROMPTU DANCE 
 
 After a Picture by DeyroUe 
 
 own hands and feet into hers, carried off Ha'ikouna, "heart of his breast," 
 took her away to Servia and married her in a white church. 
 
 In Roumania, an ancient Round known as the Hora is danced in 
 languishing cadence to the lingering notes of bagpipes. The youths 
 who dance it hold hands, advancing to the left in four or five steps, then 
 stamping on the ground, pausing, and repeating the measure. 
 
 " Gradually," says M. Lancelot, " the mandolin strikes in to enliven the 
 solemn strain, and seems desirous to hurry it, emitting two or three 
 sonorous notes, but nothing moves the player of the bagpipes ; he perseveres 
 
220 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 in his indolent rhythm. At last, a challenging phrase is thrice repeated ; the 
 dancers accompany it by stamping thrice on the ground, and looking back 
 at the girls grouped behind them. The latter hesitate ; they look at each 
 other, as if consulting together ; then they too join hands, and form a 
 second circle round the first. Another call, more imperious still, is 
 sounded ; they break from each other, and mingle in the round of young 
 men. 
 
 " At this moment, the old gipsy opens his keen little eyes, showing his 
 sharp white teeth in a sudden smile, and shaking out a shower of joyous, 
 hurried notes over the band, he expresses, by means of an agitated 
 harmony, the tender thrill that must be passing through all the clasped 
 hands. 
 
 " The Hora proper now begins. It lasts a long time, but retains 
 throughout the character of languor that characterised its commencement. 
 Its monotony is varied, however, by a pretty bit of pantomime. After 
 dancing round with arms extended, the men and their partners turn and 
 face each other in the middle of the circle they have been describing. 
 This circle they reduce by making a few steps forward ; then, when their 
 shoulders are almost touching, they bend their heads under their uplifted 
 arms, and look into each other's eyes. This figure loses something of its 
 effect from the frequency with which it is repeated ; and the cold placidity 
 with which the dancers alternately gaze at their right-hand and left-hand 
 neighbours is disappointing, and robs the pantomime of all its classic 
 aroma. 
 
 "Attempts have been made to identify the Hora with the Roman dance 
 depicted on so many bas-reliefs, and they may possibly have a common 
 origin ; but the slow, dragging measure of the Roumanians, that excludes 
 all expression of emotion, even to a smile, is far removed, indeed, from 
 the passionate animation with which we may credit the daughters of ancient 
 Rome, to judge by the frank gaiety and unrestrained mirth that distinguish 
 the noisy rounds of their Trasteverine descendants." 
 
 ... I was wandering one evening on the lande. The sun was setting, 
 and his dying rays still lingered on the distant mountains of Auvergne, 
 the rosy peaks of the Puy Mary and the Puy Violent. The sunlight 
 had faded from the plain, but twilight had not yet fallen ; the luminous 
 
THE BOURREE OF AUVERGNE 
 
 221 
 
 reflections from the sky touched the gorse and heather with pearly glints. 
 Here and there, in the distance through the oak-trees, the slumbering 
 pools shone with a motionless lustre. I strolled slowly back to the village. 
 Suddenly, the 
 sound of bag- 
 pipes, playing a 
 Bourree, rose 
 upon the soli- 
 t u d e . The 
 notes, nasal and 
 somewhat vul- 
 gar when I 
 listened to them 
 in the village 
 inn, took on a 
 strangely poig- 
 nant music here, 
 in the evening 
 peace of the 
 
 monotonous fields, encircled by the distant peaks of the Cantal. It was 
 neither joyful nor melancholy, but full of infinite sweetness. And the 
 music crept into the lande^ into the horizon, and seemed to tremble in the 
 mists that rose from the valleys. 
 
 Shepherds were dancing a Bourree to the pipes, before folding their 
 flocks : 
 
 "Jeou t'ay tant ccrcada, 
 Bouisson per bouisson, 
 A la fin t'ay trouvade, 
 Ame 'un gentil garjoun." 
 
 BOURREE OF AUVERGNAT PEASANTS 
 
 From a Lithograph in the Bihliotheque Natlonale 
 
 I felt more strong!) than ever that music and dancing, like everything 
 else, must be judged of in their native setting to be appreciated. 
 
 The Bourree of Auvergne is looked upon as a heavy dance, somewhat 
 coarse in character. The stamping of sabots or hob-nailed shoes is p. 
 characteristic accompaniment, marking every third beat of the measure. 
 
222 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 But when you light upon the dancers on a lovely summer evening in the 
 fields, how charming is the vision you bear away with you ! 
 
 The Bourree is a native of Auvergne. It is said to be derived from a 
 very ancient Branle. It is the popular dance throughout Cantal, Puy-de- 
 
 DANCERS IN THE BOIS DE VINCENNES 
 
 After an Engraving of the Time of the Consulate 
 
 Dome, Correze, Haute-Vienne, Creuse, a part of Dordogne, Lot, Aveyron, 
 Cher, Indre, Vienne, Charente, and Haute -Loire. 
 
 According to an old proverb, the Auvergnats are the folks to dance ! - 
 
 Yes, say the Limousins : 
 
 but 
 
 " Per ben la dansar. 
 Viva lous ouvergnatz,' 
 
 " Per ben la chantar, 
 Vivas les limouzinas. 
 
 And, indeed, the women of the Limousin have a collection of Bourrees 
 no less varied than original. You will hear their songs on moors flushed 
 
rt FETE_CHAMPETRE 
 
 After a Picture in the Vernon Collection, by Thomas Stothard, R.A. 
 
224 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 with the purple of heather, in savage gorges where mountain torrents 
 churn among the rocks, under the mysterious shade of forest oaks, and, 
 like me, you will listen entranced. 
 
 The Bourree was introduced at the Court of the Valois by Marguerite 
 daughter of Catherine de' Medici. The success it obtained continued till 
 
 the close of Louis XIII. 's reign. It is a mi- 
 metic dance. The woman hovers round the 
 man as if to approach him ; he, retreating and 
 returning to flee again, snaps his fingers, 
 stamps his foot, and utters a sonorous cry, to 
 express his strength and joy. Bach, Handel, 
 Rameau, and other masters composed Bourrees, 
 the rhythm of which differed slightly from that 
 of the traditional Bourrees. Some of our 
 modern musicians have also treated the theme^ 
 among others M. Saint-Saens, in his Rhapsodie 
 d' Auvergne, M. Raoul Pugno, in the entr acte of 
 Petite Foucette, and M. Sylvio Lazzari, in his 
 charming orchestral suite. 
 
 The Catalan dances have no sort of affinity 
 with the Bourrees of Auvergne or Limousin. 
 They are, indeed, distinguished from all other 
 dances by special features. The Catalan Bails have a touch of the 
 sentiment that informed the antique Hormos, iti which virginal grace 
 joined hands with masculine vigour. In my childhood I often witnessed 
 the Bails of Roussillon, and I still retain charming recollections of these 
 dances. 
 
 At the first notes of a short flageolet, and a little drum, slung on the 
 performer's arm, which constitute the orchestra, the dancers come forward. 
 They wear a red cap hanging at the back of their heads, a short jacket 
 with metal buttons, a broad sash, the faxa, rolled round the waist, tight 
 breeches, and the thin shoes known as the aspardenya : the male dancer 
 begins by a prodigious leap, passing his right foot over his partner's head. 
 This feat, which demands great agility, is called the Camada redona. The 
 female dancer at once retreats, but presently runs back to her cavalier, who 
 
 NEAPOLITAN DANCERS 
 
 After Victor Maurin 
 
CATALAN BAILS 
 
 li 
 
 <> 
 
 retires in his turn. Then the couples change partners many times, first the 
 cavalier and then the lady. Finally, all the couples join in a Round, and 
 the women, placing their hands on the shoulders of their neighbours, spring 
 into the air above their heads. The latter support them, holding them up 
 under the arms, and they, bending their heads, kiss their respective cavaliers. 
 The brilliant costumes, the faces, flushed with 
 pleasure, make up a radiant picture in the 
 sunshine. 
 
 Sometimes the woman rushes up to her 
 partner, places her left hand in his right, and 
 with a sudden spring, stiffening her left arm 
 the while, she rests her right hand on his 
 shoulder. He at once lifts her up, and holds 
 her above his head, seated on his hand. Some- 
 times, instead of ^ seating her on his hand, he 
 catches her up, and holds her hanging across it. 
 
 The Neapolitan dance of Victor Maurin's 
 sketches seems to be identical with this Bail. 
 
 The Catalan dance struck Father Vaniere, a 
 Jesuit of Beziers, as so poetic, that he gave it a 
 place in his T'roedium rusticum. He describes it 
 as a harvest pastime. 
 
 " The beauty of these dances," says M. 
 Henry, who has made a study of the Catalan Bails, " consists in the 
 smoothness with which the female dancer retreats. There must be no 
 suspicion of jerkiness or jumping in her movements. She must slide on 
 tip-toe, without making any regular steps, her hands in her apron, her head 
 a little on one side, that she may see the retrograde course she has to 
 follow iii the Round. She circles languidly, though rapidly, round the 
 central space of the enclosure, with a movement full of grace." 
 
 At Santa Eulalia, in the Island of Ivi^a, I was present at a dance in 
 which the posturings of the female dancers, though quieter and more subdued, 
 recalled those of the Catalan women. The young giils revolved in a sort of 
 slow waltz. The young men whirled round energetically to the sound of 
 drum and flute, but the brilliantly dressed maidens, their eyes modestly 
 
 NEAPOLITAN DANCERS 
 
 After Victor Maurin 
 
 2 F 
 
226 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 downcast, moved with a sort of undulation, their elbows against their hips, 
 their hands slightly raised, like idols. 
 
 The male dancer, a coloured scarf rolled round his neck, a handkerchief 
 or a pair of enormous castanets {castagnolas') in his hand, sometimes in gala 
 dress, sometimes in a simple short jacket, throws himself about, stamps, 
 leaps into the air, and at intervals kicks out furiously on either side. 
 
 
 -J --^ l£^ 
 
 -♦ ^ 1) «.. -4'j «, ^ /J 
 
 
 ^1 ■»w.i 
 
 I'KASANT DANCE AT ANDORRF. 
 
 After G. Vuillier 
 
 The intention of this mimetic dance is clear enough. The young girl 
 sways and trembles, chaste and gentle. Her partner follows her, protects 
 her, drives off other wooers, and bounds into the air at last, in joyous token 
 of victory. 
 
 The Farandole, the old popular dance of Southern France, still survives 
 in Provence and in Roussillon, where I well remember seeing it danced at 
 village festivals in honour of the patron saint. The dancers stand in a long 
 line, holding each other by the hand. Sometimes handkerchiefs, the ends 
 of which are held by the dancers, add to the length of the human chain. 
 
THE FARANDOLE 
 
 227 
 
 'A 
 
 The dancers, winding rapidly under each other's arms, gyrate round a 
 single couple in a long spiral. The ancient Farandole has never lost favour 
 entirely, and Court ladies danced it occasionally in the eighteenth century. 
 It is still introduced in modern ball-rooms in the Cotillion, and as a wind- 
 up to the American Quadrille. 
 
 Barbantane is said to be the place where the Farandole was danced in 
 the greatest perfection. 
 To a native of Pro- 
 vence Li farandouldire de 
 Barbantano is the ne -plus 
 ultra of dancing. At 
 Manosque we may still 
 see the dancers of St. 
 Pancras performing old 
 steps to old airs played 
 by the tambourinaires, and 
 executing the Bravade. 
 This Bravade is a sort 
 of fantasia of the foot, 
 accompanied by loud cries 
 and the report of fire- 
 arms, all in honour of 
 the saint, who used to be 
 borne along in proces- 
 sion. The interdiction 
 of processions by the 
 authorities has put an end to the saint's annual progresses, but the dancers 
 
 still play their part. 
 
 The Contrapas is a purely Catalan dance, in which women rarely take 
 part. The dancers join hands and move round in a circle. It is, in fact, a 
 sort of Round, led by two principal performers, who give the time and the 
 step. They perform a few steps to one side, repeat them to the other, and 
 the whole band imitates their movements. This swaying motion would be 
 monotonous were it not diversified by a rapid battement with the heel 
 against the instep. In spite of this embellishment, the Contrapas is a 
 
 THE ^■OLTIGEUR 
 
 Arter H. Ee!lang6 
 
228 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 solemn dance. It is, in fact, a choregraphic curiosity, deprived of all charm 
 by the absence of the feminine element. 
 
 As we see, many districts of France have preserved their old distinctive 
 dances. Certain rustic dances, for instance, have persisted along the coast 
 of Brittany. 
 
 " At Pontivy, near Vannes," says Elise Voiart, " couples, ranged one 
 
 ^oy^',^^^ • 
 
 A COUNTRY BALL 
 
 From a Lithograph by Raffet 
 
 behind the other, move alternately from right to left, and from left to 
 right ^ the execution of these monotonous movements is called dancing ; 
 the performance is a sort of Branle. The number of performers is not 
 limited ; as many are admitted as the space will allow. The music of bag- 
 pipes and hautbois regulates these rude dances, the airs of which consist of 
 three bars, passing from grave to acute. In Upper Brittany, in the 
 neighbourhood of Nantes, there is more art in the dancing. The couples 
 dance with arms entwined ; that is to say, the woman's right hand is held m 
 the man's right hand, her left hand in his left, as in the AUemande ; the 
 
THE RICE DANCE 
 
 22g 
 
 dancers clap hands in time to the music, and then return to their places. 
 This performance. is repeated until the air comes to an end, or fatigue forces 
 the dancers to desist." 
 
 In certain foreign countries, the ancient rustic festivals of special 
 significance have been preserved. An example of this may be found in 
 
 DANCE OF GERMAN PEASANTS 
 
 Japan, where the Rice Festival is still celebrated. This dance consists of 
 some thirty figures, danced by men alone, in a costume composed of a 
 girdle of rice straw, a round hat of the same materia), pressed down over 
 their eyes, and a little cloak, the wide sleeves of which, floating out behind 
 them, simulate the wings of a huge moth. 
 
 Masquerades, accompanied by national dances, have always held a 
 prominent place among popular amusements. We may turn again to Japan 
 
2^0 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 for an example. The dance of the Lion of Korea Is of this class. It is 
 danced in the streets, and the approach of the performers is announced by 
 the discordant sounds of fifes, timbrels and drums. M. Aime Hubert 
 describes it thus : 
 
 " A troupe of four comedians enters from a side street. Three form 
 the orchestra, the third gives the performance. He is rolled in a very full 
 
 "^"'•^'^^ 
 
 ^ II 
 
 
 HARVESTERS 
 
 After a Picture by Leopold Robert 
 
 cloak. Striped or speckled, surmounted by an enormous lion's head of 
 fantastic design. This monster lengthens himself at his pleasure, and every 
 now and then suddenly towers a metre or two above the heads of his 
 companions. The children who follow utter shrieks, in which fear and 
 defiance mingle. One or two, more daring than the rest, venture to lift 
 the folds of the long cloak, and pinch the legs of the mysterious mounte- 
 bank. He, for his part, threatens them, turning his head towards them, 
 opening his jaws, and shaking the thick white paper mane that encircles his 
 scarlet face ; or begins to jump about to the music of his acolytes. He, 
 too, is armed with a drum ; but when he leaves off dancing he lays it aside. 
 

'■y- 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 and falling to the ground, he transforms himself into a quadruped, executes 
 a few grotesque gambols, and finally pulls off his disguise. The monster 
 has vanished, but the juggler remains." 
 
 The same writer describes the rustic festivities held in the suburbs of the 
 capital by the citizens. Strolling dancing-girls are invited to these fetes, 
 
 ^^^- 
 
 j\ FAMILY GATHERING IN DENMARK 
 
 After a PIctiire by Monies 
 
 whose specialities are pantomime, posturing, and character-figures. The 
 most graceful of their performances is the Fan Dance, a sort of panto- 
 mime. 
 
 " There are further," says M. Humbert, " certain national dances, 
 which are cultivated in town society, and which naturally find a place 
 among the diversions of these open-air entertainments. The ladies 
 generally dance alone. They form a quadrille, each dancer retaining her 
 original place, and confining her movements to swaying her hips, turning 
 or drooping her head, and stretching out her arms and hands, not without 
 grace and elegance, but with much monotony of action. 
 
^^n^iJ^d &y Qd/u^-ffro^ .J-ay^ 
 
 Zla^AJiJ2/u.. '^Jy/ze. o iluigc dJ^c/at 
 
THE BIRD DANCE 
 
 233 
 
 " The men never dance, except for the purpose of showing off some 
 choregraphic feat among intimate friends, generally when inspired by the 
 fumes of saki ; or when they take part in the Rounds, which are a 
 favourite termination to family banquets." 
 
 The Rice Dance is also a rational pastime in Madagascar. Here it is a 
 genuine pantomimic 
 performance, exe- 
 cuted by one man. 
 The dancer first 
 imitates the clear- 
 ing of the soil, the 
 wielding of the axe, 
 the felling of trees ; 
 then the burning 
 of the destroyed 
 forest ; he runs 
 about from side 
 to side, blowing 
 as if to fan the 
 fire, and, always 
 observant of time 
 and cadence, he mi- 
 mics the crackling 
 of the flame, the 
 snapping of the 
 branches. Then he 
 goes on to the 
 sowing of the seed, 
 and, after it is buried in the earth, to the invocation of the gods. 
 
 M. D^sird Charnay, to whom we owe the above details, gives a vivid 
 description of the Bird Dance of the Malagasies : 
 
 "Leaning forward with outstretched arms, like a sibyl of antiquity, 
 the dancer beats slowly on the ground with her naked feet. She throws out 
 her arms, draws them back, lets them sink to the ground, then stretches 
 them as far as possible above her head ; all in vain ; she is chained to earth, 
 
 2 G 
 
 ;■ , A DANCE OF BASHI-BAZOUKS 
 
 After G^r6me 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
234 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 and cannot fly. The music swells in a rapid crescendo, the voices become 
 louder, the clapping of the hands more vigorous, the dancer's movements 
 more hurried, the upper part of her body is almost motionless, while her 
 arms beat the air like wings that struggle helplessly to lift her into space. 
 She becomes impatient at last, a sort of rage possesses her. She runs 
 
 A GIPSY DAXCE 
 
 After Carl BOker 
 
 panting round the circle that encloses her, the ground re-echoes dully to the 
 beating of her feet ; she twists her arms, her hands, her fingers convulsively, 
 At last she pauses in despair, and we all applaud her." 
 
 The natives of the New Hebrides celebrate the banana harvest with 
 festive dances. " Persons of every age take part in these," says Dr. Hagen, 
 " from the infant whom the mother carries on her hip, to the toothless old 
 grandmother. The female dancers are tricked out in frippery of every hue. 
 They form a circle, from which each one comes forward in turn ; she 
 chants a couplet, to which her companions reply, advancing towards her, 
 and then retreating." 
 
DANCING A UNIVERSAL PASTIME 
 
 23? 
 
 Dancing, that mirror of human passions, has mingled its slow or rapid 
 measures with all the events of human life. We find it under the chilly 
 skies of the North, under the burning sun of the Equator, in the remotest 
 islands of the Pacific ; it is, in fact, a universal language. 
 
 In Denmark, fathers train their children to dance to the fiddle in rustic 
 inns ; Spanish parents look proudly on as their little ones make their first 
 
 r-jBta* »!<' 
 
 THE SHAWL DANCI:: 
 
 attempts to the music of the guitar, and are overjoyed to see signs of a 
 vocation in one of their dark-eyed girls. 
 
 The Bashi-Bazouks execute war-dances round their camp-fires ; 
 Tziganes and Gitanas gather crowds around them now, as in the IMiddle 
 Ages, when they wandered from town to town, bearing the voluptuous 
 charm of Oriental dances throughout Europe. 
 
 Dancing, however, is greatly modified by climate. In the northern and 
 temperate zones it is a pastime more or less popular ; in the south, it is a 
 passion. Thus the soul of each nation informs its dancing. In one 
 country, ferocity and delight in bloodshed find expression in frenzied 
 
236 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 measures ; in another, dancing is a diversion, reflecting the prevalent 
 gentleness of manners. The most barbarous races indulge in it ; among 
 certain savage tribes, it serves to ratify treaties or to declare war. The 
 Calumet Dance of the Iroquois, for instance, is said to have had all the 
 prestige of a national institution consecrated by law. 
 
 ''delightful WYOMING 
 
 From an Engraving by G. E. Hicks after E. Webb 
 
A DANCE AT SEGOVIA 
 
 After a Picture by Garcia Mencia 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Spanish Dances — Danzas and 'Bayles — The Fandango — The Bolero — The Seguidillas 
 Manchegas — The Jot a Ar agones a. — The Jaleo de Jerez — The Cachuca. 
 
 PANISH dancing is of great antiquity. It doubtless under- 
 went various Moorish modifications, and certain of its steps 
 are obviously of Arab origin. But everything goes to show 
 that in all its essentials it is heir to the traditions of the 
 Gaditanas — whom we have already mentioned — those famous dancing-girls 
 of Cadiz, who created such a furore in ancient Rome. 
 
 Obscurity envelops the history of the national dances of Spain during 
 the Middle Ages. In a study dealing with public amusements, the learned 
 Jovellanos suggests that the art of dancing took refuge in the Asturias 
 during the Arab invasion. We know that minstrels and troubadours 
 {juglares and trovadores) did not cease to compose baladas and danzas, and 
 
238 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 that the dance known as that of King Alonzo the Good belongs to the 
 twelfth century. 
 
 Among the earliest dances of the Peninsula were the Turdion, the 
 Gibadina, the Pie-de-gibao, the Madama Orleans, the Alemana, and the 
 Pavana. 
 
 Under Philip IV., theatrical dancing rose to an eminence hitherto 
 unattained in Spain. In the Court Theatre at Buen Retiro, certain Danzas 
 Habladas (spoken dances) were performed, in which allegorical and mytho- 
 logical subjects were developed with immense success — not, however, in a 
 manner wholly new, as something of the sort was already known in the 
 days of Cervantes. 
 
 Here, as at Versailles under Louis XIV., ballets were organised with 
 extraordinary magnificence of decoration and costume, members even of the 
 royal family taking part in the performances. Celebrated poets, such as 
 Quevedo and Luis de Benevente, composed several of these ballets, follow- 
 ing thus in the illustrious footsteps of their predecessors. Lope de Vega, 
 Mendoza, and Calderon, among whose works pieces of the same class are to 
 be found. Little by little these ballets d'acHon supplanted the national 
 dances on the stage, so that the Zarabanda and the Chacona were almost 
 extinct early in the eighteenth century. But then a new impetus was given 
 to choregraphy, and the Fandango, the Bolero, and the Seguidillas 
 appeared. 
 
 " What people so barbarous," cries the poet Tomas de Yriarte, " as 
 not to be stirred by the tunes of its national dances ! " All Spain, indeed, 
 thrills to the notes of the Fandango — pre-eminently the national air, and one 
 that accompanies a step so ardent and so graceful as to be " worthy of 
 performance at Paphos, or in the temple of Venus at Cnidus." 
 
 " Like an electric shock, the notes of the Fandango animate all hearts," 
 says another writer. " Men and women, young and old, acknowledge the 
 power of this air over the ears and soul of every Spaniard. The young 
 men spring to their places, rattling castanets, or imitating their sound by 
 snapping their fingers. The girls are remarkable for the willowy languor 
 and lightness of their movements, the voluptuousness of their attitudes — 
 beating the exactest time with tapping heels. Partners tease and entreat and 
 pursue each other by turns. Suddenly the music stops, and each dancer 
 
y^-t/Ue^/ by iKetT^-Hfva .'^Cayta 
 
 (J ' ^ 
 
THE FANDANGO 
 
 239 
 
 shows his skill by remaining absolutely motionless, bounding again into the 
 full life of the Fandango as the orchestra strikes up. The sound of the 
 guitar, the violin, the rapid tic-tac of heels {taconeos), the crack of fingers and 
 castanets, the supple swaying of the dancers, fill the spectators with ecstasy." 
 The measure whirls along in a rapid triple time. Spangles glitter ; the 
 
 THE 1-ANDANGO 
 
 After a Picture by Frances 
 
 sharp clank of ivory and ebony castanets beats out the cadence of strange, 
 throbbing, deafening notes— assonances unknown to music,' but curiously 
 characteristic, effective, and intoxicating. Amidst the rustle of silks, smiles 
 gleam over white teeth, dark eyes sparkle and droop, and flash up again in 
 flame. AH is flutter and glitter, grace and animation— quivering, sonorous, 
 passionate, seductive. Ole! ole ! Faces beam and eyes burn. Ole, ole ! 
 The Bolero intoxicates, the Fandango inflames. 
 
240 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Father Marti, Dean of the Chapter of AHcante, wrote as follows in 
 1 7 1 2 : " You know that dance of Cadiz, famous for centuries for its 
 voluptuous steps, and still performed in every house and suburb of the 
 city to the delight of all spectators ; not only is it in favour with negresses 
 
 THE FANDANGO 
 
 After a Picture by Kindler 
 
 and other low people, but also with ladies of the highest repute and 
 birth. 
 
 " The step Is danced by one or by several couples, who follow the 
 measure with the most pliant undulations of the body." 
 
 The Fandango has points of resemblance to the Seguidilla. 
 
 " A singular anecdote, the authenticity of which I do not guarantee," 
 writes Baron Charles Davillier, " is related by a seventeenth century author 
 in connection with this famous dance. It is said that its indecency so 
 scandalised the Vatican that its proscription was resolved upon, under pain 
 
THE BOLERO 
 
 241 
 
 of excommunication. A consistory having been convoked to try the 
 matter, sentence was about to be pronounced, when a cardinal interfered to 
 say that it was unjust to condemn even the guilty without a hearing : he 
 moved that the Fandango should appear before its judges. This being 
 agreed to as equitable, two Spanish 
 dancers, one of each sex, were 
 summoned. They danced before the 
 august assembly. Their grace and 
 vivacity soon drove the frowns from 
 the brows of the Fathers, whose 
 souls were stirred by lively emotion, 
 and a strange pleasure. One by one 
 their Eminences began to beat time 
 with hands and feet, till suddenly 
 their hall became a ball-room ; they 
 sprang up, dancing the steps, imi- 
 tating the gestures of the dancers. 
 After this trial, the Fandango was 
 fully pardoned and restored to 
 honour." 
 
 If the Fandango as danced by the 
 populace is too racy of animal life 
 and passion, it grows milder when 
 introduced into society. Moderated 
 by the laws of the -theatre, it gains in 
 grace, though it loses in vigour. 
 
 The light and lively Bolero, or Volero, is not an ancient dance. It 
 dates from the end of last century, and its invention is ascribed to Sebastian 
 Cerezo, a celebrated dancer of the time of Charles III. Experts, neverthe- 
 less, trace in it remnants of older dances—of the Chacona, for example, and 
 of the Zarabanda. It is a more dignified and modest dance than the Fan- 
 dango ; but it has, like the latter, certain affinities with the Seguidilla. 
 
 The Bolero, which is a dance for two persons, consists, says Blasis, of 
 five parts : 
 
 " The paseo, or promenade, which is introductory ; the differencia, in 
 
 2 H 
 
 A RUSTIC DANCE 
 After Esteban 
 
242 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 which the step is changed ; the traversia, or cross-over, in which places are 
 changed ; then the so-called finale ; followed, in conclusion, by the bien 
 parado, distinguished by graceful attitudes, and a combined pose of both the 
 dancers. The Bolero is generally in duple time, though some Boleros 
 are written in triple time. Its music is varied, and abounds in cadence's. 
 The tune or air may change, but the peculiar rhythm must be preserved. 
 
 
 THE YOUTHFUL DANCER 
 
 After a Picture by Cabral y Eejarano 
 
 as well as the time and the preludes, otherwise known as feintes -pauses 
 (feigned pauses). The Bolero step is low and gliding, battu or coupe, but 
 always well marked." 
 
 On the stage, the Bolero is performed by several parejas, or couples. 
 One of its most graceful posturas, or attitudes, is that called the dar la 
 vuelta, in which the dancers find themselves face to face after a half turn. 
 The woman's part in this dance is infinitely more expressive and im- 
 passioned than that of the man. " Ole ! ole ! the Bolero intoxicates ! " as 
 says a Spanish writer. 
 
 By Seguidillas are to be understood not only the national dances, 
 
SEGUIDILLAS 243 
 
 but. also certain popular stanzas by which they are accompanied. The 
 step of the Seguidilla of the present day had its origin in La Mancha 
 (hence the term Seguidillas manchegas), and it dates from the early part of 
 the eighteenth century ; but Seguidillas «f some sort^very different, 
 perhaps, from those we know — are extremely ancient. They are mentioned by 
 Cervantes in Don fixate, and also in the Vida y Hechos del Picaro Guzman 
 
 J\ BORN DANCER 
 
 Afler a Picture by Worms 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod Valador and Co. 
 
 de Alfarache, by Mateo Aleman, who lived in the latter part of the six- 
 teenth century. 
 
 "Our buildings and weapons of war," says Aleman, "are renewed from 
 day to day. . . . Chairs, cupboards, tables, lamps, candlesticks are also 
 changed. It is the same with our games and dances, our music and songs. 
 The Zarabanda has gone ; Seguidillas are in fashion ; which, in their turn, 
 will disappear to make room for newer dances." 
 
 Mariano Soriano Fuentes, one of the most popular composers in the 
 
244 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Peninsula, and the author of an excellent history of Spanish music, is of 
 opinion that the Seguidillas may be regarded as the oldest dances of Spain, 
 excepting only those dances called Bailes en Coro (Rounds), and the 
 Danza Prima, still in vogue in the Asturias. Seflor Fuentes eulogises the 
 Seguidilla as an ideal popular pastime, full of variety in its figures, graceful, 
 spirited, gay — yet not immodest, and comparing favourably in this respect 
 with the Andalusian dances. 
 
 But even in Andalusia, the penny fans [abanicos de calania) sold iii the 
 precincts of the bull-ring on festas, the tambourines, and the quaint yellow 
 carriages in the streets, are all decorated with pictures of Seguidillas — 
 very primitive pictures in glaring colours : 
 
 " No ha de f altar zanduvguera, 
 Puesta en j arras una dama 
 De las que la liga enseiian!' 
 
 " In which there is always a fine lady, with her arms a-kimbo, and not 
 ashamed of her garters." 
 
 The Andalusian Seguidillas have a rapid rhythm, and are accompanied 
 by verses {coplas de baile) which are usually gay and lively. 
 
 In La Mancha — whose inhabitants, lovers of music and dancing, are the 
 merriest folk in Spain — Seguidillas are improvised by popular poets to suit 
 every occasion. Whistled by muleteers, sung in taverns, echoing through 
 the torrid air of the plains, the coplas de Seguidillas are innumerable : 
 
 " Dans la Mane he les jeunes filles 
 Triomphent dans les seguidilles." 
 
 The coplas of La Mancha are famous. Many of them are ephemeral ; 
 others endure to enrich that patrimony of ancient song transmitted from 
 generation to generation, printed at Barcelona, or in the neighbourhood of 
 Seville or Madrid, and sold at bookstalls, or hawked by blind men through 
 the country-side. 
 
 Need it be said that the theme of these coplas is love — the longing and 
 the joy of the lover, or his jealousy, his anguish, his rage ^ The structure 
 of these verses is simplicity itself — a more or less regular couplet or two, 
 (the copla proper) and an estribillo, or refrain. 
 
SEGUIDILLAS 
 
 MS 
 
 Baron Davillier, in his Espagne, give's specimens of some popular 
 Seguidilks : 
 
 " Mi corazon volando 
 Se fu'e d tu pec ho ; 
 Le cor taste las alas. 
 
 A MINUET 
 
 After a Picture by D. Puebia 
 
 Y qued'o dentro. 
 For atrevido 
 Se quedara por siempre 
 En el metido.'' 
 
 " My heart flew to thy breast. Thou didst cut its wings, so that it 
 remained there. And now it has waxed daring, and will stay with thee 
 
 for evermore." 
 
 " Son tus ejos, hermosa, 
 Fi'eros arpones, 
 Qjie con mirar traspasan 
 Los corazones. 
 
246 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Miraste el mio, 
 T desde aquel instante 
 For ti dfliro." 
 
 " Thine eyes, O my beauty, are cruel spears, that pierce hearts with a 
 glance. Mine thou hast looked upon — and ever since, I have been mad." 
 
 Now it is a young girl who 
 
 sines : 
 
 " Aunque me ves que canto, 
 Tengo yo el alma 
 Como la tortolilla 
 Que llora y canta, 
 Cuando el consorte, 
 Herido de los celos, 
 Se escapa al monte." 
 
 " Lo, I sing ! but I sing 
 and weep like the turtle-dove, 
 whose mate, stricken of jealousy, 
 flies away towards the moun- 
 tain. 
 
 " These songs," continues 
 
 Davillier, " probably go back to 
 
 the seventeenth century, to the 
 
 days of Gongora. To us they 
 
 may appear very lackadaisical 
 
 and insipid ; yet, as compared with our own popular poetry — with our 
 
 street catches and our bon-bon mottoes —these Seguidillas are superior 
 
 both in taste and style." 
 
 During my own travels in the Balearic Islands, I halted in the little 
 town of Pollenza, near Cape Formentor. Here I noted down certain 
 malaguenas which seem to me to have something in common with the co^las 
 de Seguidillas. Lo7e is still the theme of these verses, which are tender and' 
 sometimes quaint : 
 
 " Una estrella se hn paraida 
 En el del y no parece ; 
 En tu cara se ha metido ; 
 Y en tu frente resplandece.'' 
 
 A SPANISH DANCER 
 
 After a Lithograph by Grenier 
 
SEGUIDILLAS 
 
 247 
 
 " A star is lost and appears not in the sky ; in thy face it has set 
 itself; on thy brow it shines." 
 
 " A un sabio le pregunte 
 De que mal me moriria 
 Y me diio ' Del querer ! ' 
 Serrana, que le tenia ! " 
 
 THE HAPPY FAMILY 
 
 After a Picture by Manue Yus 
 
 " ' What shall I die of ? ' I asked the wise man. He said, ' Of love ! ' 
 And I loved thee already, girl of the mounfains ! ' " 
 
 I heard these coplas de malaguenas everywhere. The wind bore them up 
 the mountain, the waves of the sea rocked them, they hung about the dusty 
 path of the muleteers, they echoed from the mysterious depths of twilit 
 f alios to the tinkling accompaniment of guitars. 
 
 Nearly every Spanish province has its special Seguidillas, similar in 
 character to those of La Mancha, but modified by the temperament of its 
 
248 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 inhabitants. In Andalusia these dances are called Siquiriyas. Elsewhere 
 such qualifying terms as Gitanas, Mollaras, Sevillanas, Aragonesas, Valen- 
 cianas, are used. Seguidillas Gallegas are peculiar to Galicia, Pasiegas 
 to Santander, Quipuzcoanas to the Basque Provinces. Few Spaniards are 
 unacquainted with the Seguidilla step. 
 
 ON STRIKE, MALAGA 
 
 After a Picture by Ferrandii 
 
 Baron Davillier describes one of these dances which he witnessed at 
 Albacete : 
 
 " One day at the fair of Albacete, one of the principal towns of 
 La Mancha, we saw Seguidillas Manchegas characteristically danced. The 
 dancers of the district met in a low-roofed room of the farador de la 
 diligencia (coaching-inn), the best hostelry of the place. The guitarist' 
 wore, instead of the usual gaudy short jacket {marselles), a thick lambskin 
 zamarra ; and had substituted for the classic sombrero of the Andalusians 
 a cap {montera) of wild-cat skin. He began in a minor key with some 
 
SEGUIDILLAS 
 
 249 
 
 rapid arpeggios ; and each dancer chose his partner, the various couples 
 facing each other some three or four paces apart. Presently, two or three 
 emphatic chords indicated to the singers that their turn had come, and they 
 sang the first verse of the copla ; meanwhile the dancers, toes pointed and 
 arms rounded, waited for their signal. The singers paused, and the 
 guitarist began the air of an old Seguidilla. At the fourth bar the castanets 
 
 A DANCE OF ARAGONESE PEASANT 
 
 After a Picture by Ruiz de Valdiera 
 
 struck in, the singers continued their copla, and all the dancers began 
 enthusiastically, turning, returning, following and fleeing from each other. 
 At the ninth bar, which indicates the finish of the first part, there was a 
 slight pause ; the dancers stood motionless and the guitar twanged on. 
 Then, with a change of step, the second part began, each dancer taking his 
 original place again. It was then we were able to judge of the most 
 interesting and graceful part of the dance — the bien parado — literally : well 
 stopped ! Hacer el Bien parado is a Castilian idiom indicating the 
 renunciation of a useless thing for a better. The bien parado in the 
 Seguidillas is the abrupt breaking off of one figure to make way for a new 
 
 2 I 
 
2^0 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 one. It is a very important point that the dancers should stand motionless, 
 and, as it were, petrified, in the position in which they are surprised by the 
 certain final notes of the air. Those who managed to do this gracefully 
 were applauded with repeated cries of ' 'Bien par ado ! bien far ado I .' 
 
 " Such are the classic lines upon which the dance is regulated, but how 
 shall we describe its effect upon the dancers t The ardent melody, at once 
 voluptuous and melancholy, the rapid clank of castanets, the melting 
 enthusiasm of the dancers, the suppliant looks and gestures of their 
 partners, the languorous grace and elegance of the impassioned move- 
 ments — all give to the picture an irresistible attraction, only to be appre- 
 ciated to the full by Spaniards. They alone have the -qualities necessary 
 for the performance of their national dance ; they alone have the special 
 fire that inspires its movements with passion and with life." 
 
 "The Seguidillas," says a Spanish author, " may be regarded as typical 
 of nearly all our national dances. Unless prejudiced in favour of foreign 
 fashions, every native praises the Seguidillas. A description of them gives 
 an approximate idea of the Bolero, of the Fandango, and of several other 
 popular steps ; but no mere description can adequately render the graceful 
 attitudes, the charming melodies, the movement and the expression, which 
 are the essence of this enchanting dance." 
 
 " La Jota en el Aragon 
 Con garbosa discrecion. . " 
 
 This popular couplet indicates at once the modesty and the vivacity 
 of the Jota Aragonesa — the national dance of Aragon — originating, as many 
 think, in the Passacaille, so popular with the Latin races in the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries. Be this as it may, the Jota is a thoroughly 
 Spanish dance, distinguished by its reticence from the dances of Andalusia. 
 Not only does it enliven popular merry-makings, it also gives splendour to 
 certain religious festivals. A Jota, called the Natividad del Senor (Nativity 
 of Our Lord) is danced in Aragon on Christmas Eve, accompanied by 
 songs. And, when the fete of Our Lady del Pilar is celebrated at 
 Saragossa, enthusiastic Jotas are sung and danced at all the cross-roads, 
 invoking the favour of the Virgin. 
 
 Like the Seguidillas of Andalusia, the Jota Aragonesa has its ancient 
 
THE JOTA 
 
 2^1 
 
 coplas, which have been handed down from generation to generation. The 
 Aragonese are proud of their national Jota — infinitely finer to them than any 
 other dance of Spain : 
 
 "Dicen que las Andaluzas 
 Las mas talentosas 
 son, 
 Mas en gracia las esceden 
 Las muchachas del 
 
 Vragon 
 
 Los que ensalzan la 
 cachucha 
 De Cadiz y de Jerez, 
 Cierto es que bailar no 
 vieron, 
 La Jota una sola vez." 
 
 '' The Andalusian 
 women are the more 
 accomplished, it is 
 said, but the girls of 
 Aragon are the more 
 graceful. Those who 
 boast of the Cachucha 
 of Cadiz and of Jerez 
 have surely never seen 
 the Jota danced." 
 
 At the town of Pollenza, in Majorca, the people of the inn where I 
 lodged organised a sort of fete, to which they invited the best local 
 dancers and musicians. A large hall, cleared of its furniture, and lined 
 along the walls with chairs, was turned "into a ball-room. On the appointed 
 evening, young men with guitars arrived, and girls dressed in their best, 
 and accompanied by their families. When all had taken their places, the 
 sides of the hall being occupied by spectators, who even overflowed into 
 the passages, two guitars and a violin executed a brilHant overture, founded 
 upon the popular airs of Majorca. Then quite a young boy and girl, 
 castanets in hand, danced a charming Jota to an accompaniment of guitars, 
 and of castanets, deafeningly and ceaselessly plied by girls who waited 
 
 A JOTA IN ARAGON 
 
 After a Picture by Manuel Yiis 
 
2^: 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 their turn to dance. The Majorcan Jota, while lacking the brio and 
 voluptuousness of the Jotas of the mainland, is charmingly primitive, 
 modest, and unaffected. 
 
 Other provinces besides Aragon have their Jotas ; Navarre and Catalonia, 
 for example. The Jota Valenciana closely resembles that of Aragon. The 
 Valencians have always loved dancing. History informs us that as early as 
 
 EL JALEO 
 
 After a Picture by Moreno 
 
 the seventh century, the entrance of the archbishops into Tarragona was 
 celebrated by dances. And in 1762, at the laying of the foundation-stone 
 of Lerida Cathedral, dancers were brought from Valencia to celebrate the 
 event. 
 
 Senor Soriano Fuentes gives rather a curious anecdote connected with 
 our subject : 
 
 " When, in the thirteenth century, Peter III. came to the throne or 
 Aragon, a revolt broke out ; the king, the better to overlook the rioters, 
 withdrew from the town, The rebels, to the number of some four 
 
EL JALEO 
 
 2^3 
 
 hundred, under the leadership of a barber called Gonzalo, descended one 
 day upon the royal camp, where they performed - coarse and defiant dances, 
 accompanied by insulting verses. Gonzalo even forced the king and queen 
 and 'court to take part in these buffooneries. His Majesty, destitute for 
 the moment of efficient troops, had to swallow the affront. But the tide 
 
 j\ RUSTIC DANCE 
 
 After a Picture by Perez Rubio 
 
 eventually turned, and Gonzalo was overpowered, and led before his 
 sovereign. 
 
 " ' O dancer, singer, and poet,' said the king, ' dost thou remember 
 a certain performance executed before me ? Little was I then able to 
 reply, but to-day shalt thou finish thy song — with an additional verse — on 
 the gallows ! ' And as he said, so was the thing done." 
 
 The dashing Jaleo de Jerez is generally performed on the spur of the 
 moment by some supple-waisted gipsy with castanets, to the accompaniment 
 of a guitar, and the notes of some old love-song. She rushes forward. 
 
2^4 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 bounding, leaping, darting here and there, wheeling giddily, fleeing and 
 returning. And connoisseurs applaud her noisily . . . Ole ! ole ! 
 
 Each province has its peculiaj dance, of which the inhabitants are 
 proud. The Galicians and Asturians vaunt their Muyneira and their 
 Danza Prima, the Andalusians their Bondina, the La Manchans their 
 Seguidillas, the Salamancans their Charro, the inhabitants of Valladolid 
 their Zorgono, the Murcians their Torras and Pavanas. 
 
 EL JALEO 
 
 After a Picture by John Sargent 
 
 Sooner would the true Spaniard see the Moors masters of Spain again 
 than give up his bull-fights and his dances : 
 
 " Antes volvieranse Moros 
 Toditos los Espaiioles, 
 Que renunciar a sus olcs 
 Y a sus corridas de toros.'' 
 
 The Gallegada, of Galicia — to be seen also in Madrid and other cities- — 
 is danced best in its native province : 
 
 " En Galicia Gallegada, 
 Perfetamente bailada." 
 
THE POLO 
 
 2^S 
 
 Besides this dance, the Galicians have (in common with the Asturians) 
 the Muyneira, generally performed to the music of the gaita, a sort of bag- 
 pipe, heard at every public and private ^7^. 
 
 The Danza Prima of Asturias dates back to the days of the Gothic 
 kings. It is a sort of Round, danced by young men and women, each of 
 whom sings a copla, the refrain of which is taken up by all the rest. 
 
 THE GALLIGADE 
 
 Af.er a Picture by Worms 
 By Permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
 In Old Castile, in Estremadura, and in Salamanca, the Habas Verdes is l- 
 very popular dance. It is accompanied by coplas and their refrain. 
 
 The name Polo, like Seguidillas, is applied both to a dance and to the 
 songs accompanying it. This dance is of Moorish origin. Baron Davillier 
 describes a performance of the Polo : 
 
 " The singer ran his eye over the girls present and, smiling on one of 
 them, he sang : 
 
256 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 " Vcn aca, chiquiya, 
 Que vamos a bailar un polo 
 Que se junde medio Seviya ! " 
 
 " ' Come hither, little one, and we'll dance a Polo that'll shake down 
 half Seville ! ' The girl so addressed was perhaps twenty years of age, 
 
 plump, robust, strapping. 
 
 .%J 
 
 ■^^^\ 
 
 and supple. Stepping 
 proudly forward, with 
 that easy swaying of the 
 hips which is called the 
 meneo, she stood in the 
 centre of the court await- 
 ing her cavalier. Then 
 castanets struck up, 
 accompanied by the gay 
 jingle of tambourines, 
 and the bystanders kept 
 time by tapping the flags 
 of the yard with their 
 heels or their sword- 
 canes, or by palmadas 
 — that is to say, by 
 slapping the backs of the fingers of the right hand twice in quick succes- 
 sion into the palm of the left hand, and then striking the two palms 
 together. 
 
 " The dancer, marvellously seconded by her partner, had little need of 
 these incitements : now she twisted this way, and now that, as if to escape 
 the pursuit of her cavalier ; again, she seemed to challenge him, lifting and 
 lowering to right and to left the flounced skirt of her calico dress, showing 
 a white starched petticoat, and a well-turned, nervous leg. 
 
 " The spectators grew more and more excited. Striking a tambourine, 
 some one cast it down at the girl's feet ; and she danced round it with 
 redoubled animation and agility. . . . But soon the breathless and exhausted 
 dancers had to sink upon a bench of the courtyard." 
 
 The name Cachucha — which distinguishes a Spanish national dance — is 
 
 SPANISH DA.\CEKS 
 
 Afttr an Etching by CiOya 
 
'^>z^lS:J {-1/ "If.^y^,^. 
 
 
THE CACHUCHA 
 
 2^7 
 
 also given to anything that is pretty, graceful and fragile — to a very light 
 boat or canoe, for example : 
 
 " Mi cachucha por la mar 
 A todos vientos camina, 
 Pero nunca va mejor 
 
 Qua cuando va de bolina. ' 
 
 FUNERAL DANCE 
 
 After G. DoTi 
 
 According to Blasis, " the Cachucha is danced by a single dancer of either 
 sex, in triple time. The movement is moderate at first ; but, little by 
 little, the dancer increases his speed, and the clatter of the castanets he holds 
 in his hand. The air is locked upon as a national one. The steps of the 
 Cachucha, like its music, are gay, graceful, and impassioned. The bust and 
 head play a great part in the expressive movements which characterise this 
 dance." 
 
 Among the dances of the present day in Spain is the Zapateado or 
 Guaracha — the latter being the name given to this dance when it is 
 performed on the stage. 
 
 2 K 
 
.^8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The Zorongo is a simple but rapid dance : the dancer darts backwards 
 and forwards, beating time with his hands. It very much resembles the 
 Tripoli Trapola, the main difference being that the latter terminates with 
 three half-turns. Both dances are original and charming, and the music 
 which accompanies them is extremely tuneful. 
 
 We must nat omit the Tascara from our summary of extant Spanish 
 
 THE FANDANGO 
 
 After a Picture by Worms 
 
 dances. It is of great antiquity in Spain, and has been popular in the 
 South of France ever since the Middle Ages. Baron Davillier says that it 
 is mentioned by Quevedo, and that Cervantes (in the Viage el Parnasso) 
 '■ describes the great belly and long neck of the fantastic monster from which 
 this dance derives its name. In 1837 it was a feature of the fetes given to 
 celebrate the promulgation of the famous Constitucion. The Tascara 
 ngured as a dragon ; it opened an enormous mouth, and men, concealed 
 inside, caused it to gnash its teeth noisily. On the back of the Tascara 
 
THE PA V ANA 
 
 2^9 
 
 was perched a sort of lay-figure, dressed up as a woman, and called by the 
 people — one hardly knows why — Ana Bolena." 
 
 A whole volume would not afford space for a complete study of ancient 
 Spanish dances. We will glance rapidly at the chief of them, mentioning 
 the Turdion— probably the old French Tordion, which we have already 
 
 -■^ 4 
 
 flk^^^^^^ 
 
 ,--„_._>* 
 
 TAVERN BALL IN SPAIN ^^ 
 
 After G. Dori 
 
 discussed — and the Gibadina, or Hunchback's Dance, of which we know 
 nothing but the name. 
 
 The famous Pavana, our sixteenth-century Pavane, came from Spain 
 into France. Catherine de Medicis and Marguerite de Navarre excelled 
 in it. 
 
 " To this day in Spain," writes Baron Davillier, " they speak of entrados 
 de pavana — the Pavana-like entry of a man who comes solemnly and 
 mysteriously to say something ridiculously unimportant. And again, fasos 
 de -pavana, is said of a personage whose walk is affectedly slow." 
 
 The Passa-calle was another very fashionable sixteenth-century dance. 
 
26o 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The name indicates literally something that passes or goes on in the street — 
 probably because in the first instance the Passa-calle was mostly danced in 
 the streets. It had the most passionate devotees in Spain, and enjoyed 
 much favour in France, whfre it was known as the Passacaille. 
 
 The Folias, too, was a very popular measure. The ferocious Pedro 1. of 
 Portugal delighted so greatly in this dance that he used to spend whole 
 
 »%' :-^ ^ 
 
 SE'ANISH DANCERS 
 
 After an Etching by Goya 
 
 nights in dancing it with his family, and the ievf other persons who risked 
 their safety in his vicinity. 
 
 According to Fernandez de Cordova, the Chacona was no other than 
 the ancient dance of the Gaditanas. The Ole Gaditano is also supposed to 
 be a heritage from them. 
 
 " One fete dav," says Baron Davillier, " we saw the Ole wonderfully 
 danced, in a suburb of Cadiz, by an extremely clever bailarina called, 
 from the slightness of her figure. La Nena.(Baby), rather a common name, 
 by the way, in Andalusia. 
 
 "An exquisite and peculiar suppleness of body and carriage is required 
 
A DANCER OF CADIZ 
 
 261 
 
 to dance the Oie well. This La Nena possessed in a high degree, being, 
 indeed, unrivalled in her backward curving and posing. It was something 
 marvellous to see her conclude a step of the most captivating animation by 
 bending backwards. Her willowy figure drooped with graceful languor, 
 her shoulders and arms sank till they almost touched the ground. She 
 remained thus for an instant or two, her neck extended, her head thrown back, 
 as if in ecstasy. Then suddenly, as if touched by electricity, she bounded 
 up again, shook her ivory castanets in cadence, and finished the dance with 
 as much energy as she had begun it." 
 
 A SPANISH DANCER, MADRID 
 
 After a Print in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
THE TARANTELLA AT NAl-LES 
 
 From a Photograph by Sommer and Son 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Modern greek 'Dances — The Italian Tarantella — Sane European T)ances — 'Baya'deres 
 and Mm'ees — Savage Dances 
 
 IXTY Greek women with their children took refuge on a height 
 when Ali Pacha of Janina put the villages of Suli to fire and 
 sword. These women watched the pitiless slaughter of their 
 husbands and brethren. Then, in despair, they threw their 
 children from the precipice into a torrent that roared at its foot, and, 
 taking each other's hands, danced a last distracted round. One by one 
 they left the dancing circle and flung themselves into the abyss. As victim 
 after victim disappeared, the circle narrowed, and resumed its funeral 
 measure. When the dance ceased, the clifF was deserted. There was 
 silence, broken only by the eternal roar of the torrent. Nothing stirred, 
 
MODERN GREEK DANCES 
 
 263 
 
 save the thin wreaths of smoke rising from the heaps of embers that had 
 once been villages. 
 
 Greece still guards the glorious memory of her ancient dances. This 
 sombre round, danced by Suliot women about to die, expressed their 
 despair, like the dances of their ancestors on the eve of battle. 
 
 For many centuries past dancing has been dissociated from religious 
 rites among the Greeks. It is only 
 in the mountain fastnesses of certain 
 semi-barbarous clans that the old 
 union still lingers, though scattered 
 vestiges of the ancient choregraphy 
 are to be found here and there in 
 the peninsula of Hellas. 
 
 The dance that Homer describes 
 as engraved upon the shield of 
 Achilles is still performed. Lightly 
 clad girls, dancing hand in hand, 
 follow a leader through windings 
 that represent the Cretan labyrinth, 
 and indicate the episode of Theseus 
 and Ariadne. The dancers move wi th 
 a slow, sweet rhythm through scenes 
 of surpassing loveliness. The 
 spectator dreams that he is watching 
 that round of Nymphs and Graces 
 described by Hesiod. 
 
 The Greeks have retained several other antique dances. The Arnout 
 Dance recalls that of the ancient Greeks, when they went to battle dancing 
 — as did also the Lusitanians, according to Diodorus Siculus. The Arnout 
 leader * animates his company by cracking a whip or shaking a staff, as he 
 rushes from one group to another, followed by dancers moving in cadence 
 with hands entwined. 
 
 The Ionian, a true Bacchic dance, still survives among the Greeks, 
 
 A PUBLIC DANCER 
 
 From an eighteenth Century Print 
 
 * Most Greek .dances are guided by a leader, who is probably a successor of the ancient 
 .choregus. 
 
264 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 especially at Smyrna in Asia Minor. The Agrismene, once a dance of the 
 festivals of Aphrodite, is not extinct. Young girls, when they have filled 
 their jars at the sacred wells of Callichorus, join hands and dance and sing. 
 To this day kilted Greeks, quiver on shoulder and bow in hand, perform 
 the ancient Pyrrhic Dance. The Klephts, or Brigands, follow their choregus 
 in a long chain, dancing and singing while he marks time by nodding his 
 head. 
 
 In modern Sparta, M. Henri Belle saw a performance of the Syrtos, a 
 grave, slow dance, evidently of ritual origin : 
 
 " The dancers, taking each other by the hand, turned monotonously in 
 a circle. But after the resinous wine began to circulate there was more 
 animation. A tall fellow danced a few steps, gravely and seriously, yet 
 lightly and gracefully. Then he began to rotate with wonderful speed> 
 sometimes almost crouching on the ground, sometimes straightening himself 
 with a leap, swaying to and fro, gesticulating with his arms, utterly without 
 method or grace, or the least concern for the movements of his companions. 
 Having at last become, as it were, the fugleman of the whole band, he 
 directed their movements with a handkerchief, supporting himself on the 
 shoulder of a companion. And so, silently and sedately, the dance went on 
 till fatigue forced the performers to desist. 
 
 "Northern Negropont," he writes in another part of his travels, "is 
 famous for its dances ; that executed by the natives of Mantoudi is 
 apparently a rhythmic pantomime of the hauling ashore of fishing-nets. 
 
 " In Chios the natives danced to a rather pretty Turkish air, something 
 like the music of the Farandole of Provence ; men and women hold each 
 other's hands, while a detached couple dance before the group." 
 
 But the dance seen by M. Belle at Megara was the most attractive 
 of all : 
 
 " The village women, gracefully and vividly dressed, were drawn up in 
 long files Of forty or fifty. Those of the first file gave their hands to 
 those of the third file over the shoulders of the second. In the same way, 
 the women of the second line joined hands with those of the fourth, over 
 the shoulders of the third — the whole forming an alternation and interlace- 
 ment not easily described, but very charming. This done, all moved 
 together, three quick steps forward and three back, singing a slow and 
 
THE TARANTELLA 
 
 26^ 
 
 measured chant, their gold embroideries glittering and" their silken vests 
 showing the varying colours of a sea under the setting sun. 
 
 " This is a very ancient dance, the learned tell us. It is distinguished 
 bv a virginal and graceful sobriety, by a pure elegance in marked 
 contrast with the libidinous undulations and contortions of the Moslem 
 harem dances. Mere brazen animalism has never become acclimatised 
 among the Hellenes,, 
 and though their 
 rhythmic dancing is 
 pursued to-day mainly 
 for pleasure and 
 healthful exercise, it 
 is easy to realise that 
 it was once a religious 
 symbol, or even a 
 ritual ceremony." 
 
 " The ancient May 
 dances still exist in 
 Greece," says M. 
 Fertiauit. " On May- 
 day in certain 
 
 villages, women and children assemble in honour ot Flora, visiting green 
 meadows, gathering flowers, covering themselves with blossoms from 
 head to foot. The most beautiful among them being chosen leader, they 
 dance and sing. One sings, ' Welcome, O Nymph, goddess of May ! ' 
 And the chorus echoes the refrain, ' Goddess of May ! ' " 
 
 Let us pass from the azure skies of Greece to those of Italy, where we 
 shall find the Tarantella, a dance that owes its name to the great spider, 
 whose bite was supposed to be cured only by dancing to the point of 
 exhaustion, both names being derived from Tarentum. This dance is 
 described with much vivacity and humour by M. M. Monnier : 
 
 " Back to Naples and quickly ! for in that Villa Reale I quitted so 
 abruptly I hear the tabour calling to arms — the tabour and the 
 castanets — that joyous tabour of long descent, as ancient, says Bidera, 
 as Cybele — but Bidera loves to make all things old ! Yet the tabour 
 
 2 L 
 
 THE TARANTELLA AT NAPLES 
 
 From an eighteenth Century Print 
 
266 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 is at least as old as are the frescoes of Herculaneum, where it is painted in 
 the hands of slim Bacchantes whose light fingers shake it. Follow the 
 sound : it is the Tarantella ! 
 
 " The dancers salute each other, dance timidly awhile, withdraw a 
 little, return, stretch out their arms, and whirl vehemently in a giddy circle. 
 Then partners turn their backs on each other, and go their several ways, as 
 in the scene between Gros-Rene and Marinette. 
 
 "'J'aime le bruit du tambourin. 
 Si j'etais fille de niarin, 
 
 Et toi pecheur, me disait-elle, 
 Toutes les nuits joyeusement, 
 Nous danserions, en nous aimant, 
 
 La tarentellc ! ' 
 
 " This is what one sees in royal Naples on the eve and day of 
 Piedigrotta." 
 
 Other dances are known to gondoliers and sailors in this land of 
 sunshine. The villagers, gardeners, and vintagers of the Roman Campagna 
 affect the antique rhythm of the Saltarello. Men twanging the guitar and 
 women shaking the tambourine vie with each other in agility. It is the 
 popular dance of country fetes. The heavy herdsmen of Calabria have a 
 rough dance called the Sheep Dance. The Italian upper classes prefer the 
 simple and graceful movements of the Montefiorina. Thus, in Italy, 
 dancing varies according to place and circumstances, yet everywhere reflects 
 the peculiarities of the people. 
 
 Let us now turn to the other extremity of Europe. According to 
 Fertiault, Russians tread on one spot almost without changing ground in 
 their popular dances. '-They turn and turn, on the flat of the foot, moving 
 their shoulders, and arms, and hips clumsily, to the sound of a long guitar 
 called the balaleica, supplemented by the singing, the shouts, and even the 
 whistling of the spectators." 
 
 But M. Fertiault knew nothing of the dance known as the Little 
 Russian, nor of the dancing songs and scenes of the Russian army. 
 
 " On fete days," says M. Gaston Scheffer, " in a barn or at a tavern 
 door, the guitarist, whom we find here as in Spain, plays a slow air. Some 
 
RUSSIAN PEASANTS DANCE 
 
 267 
 
 dancer, singing the while, then executes a step by himself. He thumps 
 the ground with his heels, at first slowly, then with increasing speed, but 
 with an air of gravity, his hands on his hips and his chest erect. This 
 done, he drinks a cup of scalding tea and begins again. But no longer 
 alone. A partner presents herself, and, without touching each other, the 
 two perform a pantomime, the motif of which is the eternal theme of 
 
 RETURNING AFTER THE VINTAGE, KOMAN CAMPAGNA 
 
 From an Etching by Piuelli 
 
 coquetry. The girl is coy and the lover pursues. To divert his attention 
 she throws down a flower ; he picks it up and strives to catch her. . • 
 This is the so-called Little Russian." 
 
 Soldiers sing and dance on the march and in camp. " It is only in the 
 Russian army that regimental choirs exist. At the head of each regiment 
 rides or walks a squad of the best singers, who while away the hours of 
 marching by popular songs that make the men forget their fatigue. A 
 soloist sings a verse, his comrades take up the chorus. During the long 
 
268 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 summer evenings, the soldiers dance in couples accompanied by these singers. 
 In Russia, as in other Slav countries, and in Greece, dancing and singing 
 are generally associated. Dancing songs are common to all the Russian 
 provinces. The measure is always rapid, sometimes of dizzy speed. 
 
 M. Dijon describes a quaint Russian dance. " Let us join," he says, 
 
 BAYAofeRE DANCING 
 
 After a picture by Weeks 
 
 " this circle of peasants, young and old. The men and maidens do not 
 commingle, but stand silently apart, like groups of dumb creatures. At 
 last the: piper begins. Then one of the dancers takes off his cap and waves 
 it, bowing towards a girl. She, if amicably inclined, unfolds her kerchief, 
 of which each takes a corner, and the couple begin to turn on the green, 
 but in absolute silence, unbroken by word or laughter. Resplendent in her 
 holiday bravery, and proud of her long tresses, the young girl dances 
 stolidly, not permitting her partner to touch so much as her fingers. The 
 
INDIAN DANCES 
 
 269 
 
 piper drones on monotonously for hours ; and the honours of dexterity in 
 
 this ' turning,' as the dance is called, are eventually awarded by the 
 
 spectators to her who 
 
 during the whole fete 
 
 nas most successfully 
 
 preserved a wooden 
 
 impassivity, unbroken 
 
 by a syllable or a 
 
 smile ! " 
 
 Upper class Rus- 
 sians dance the dances 
 of all nations, more 
 or less, but their fav- 
 ourite is the light and 
 graceful Cainaca, a 
 sort of swaying waltz. 
 
 We now turn from 
 Europe to the land 
 of the Brahmins, to 
 Bengal, and the banks 
 of the Ganges, that 
 mighty and sacred 
 river. Mirrored in 
 its waters, we see 
 magnificent palaces 
 and temples, shaded 
 by gigantic baobabs 
 and tamarind - trees, 
 half hidden by flowers. 
 This is Benares, the 
 
 A BAYADERE 
 
 After a Picture by Cot 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
 holy city of innumer- 
 able pagodas, whither 
 pious pilgrims and > : 
 
 priests and illuminati come to die, in the ecstatic hope that their souls 
 may, after many transmigrations, attain the blessed repose of Brahma. 
 
270 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Savage bulls and monstrous serpents, consecrated to the gods, wander in 
 the precincts of these temples, within the mysterious walls of which are 
 immured girls who never leave their prison — Devadassis and Bayaderes, 
 chosen for their beauty to dance before the idols. 
 
 The word Devadassi (meaning a slave of the god) is derived from deva, 
 a god, and dassi, a slave ; but a Devadassi is commonly called a Nautch, 
 that is to say, a dancer. As for the name Bayadere, it is used only by 
 Europeans, and is of Portuguese origin. 
 
 " Any Hindoo," says M. H. Fourment, " may devote his daughter, or 
 his daughteis, to the service of the deity ; but, in the case of the caste of 
 the Kaid Kolen (or weavers), it is obligatory thus to consecrate the fifth 
 daughter, or the youngest, should the family contain less than five girls. 
 These Devadassis are admitted to the temple in their ninth or tenth 
 year, when they are decorated, as a sign of their marriage to heaven, with a 
 jewel of gold (the taly) strung on a cord of a hundred and eight 
 strands — one for each of the hundred and eight faces of the god Roudza. 
 This string is stained with saffron in memory of Lakme, the goddess of 
 joy. The Devadassis dance thrice daily, at the hours of the poudja, in the 
 pagoda. Their dance is a prayer of love. Their ecstasy symbolises the 
 annihilation of the individual soul in that of universal deity. 
 
 "Their long-lashed black eyes are melting, languishing, and dreamy; 
 their skin is golden and transparent, like that of all the Hindoo women, but 
 what distinguishes them from women of every other race is their exquisitely 
 supple and voluptuous gait. The blossoms of a land which breathes forth 
 every sort of fragrance serve to bathe them in sweet scents, and balmy 
 breezes rock them as with mystic cadences and sacred chants. . . ." 
 
 The ancients deified Love ; the Bayaderes, living mementoes of 
 antiquity, are still its priestesses. They are the delight of Eastern nations. 
 No feast or festival is complete without them ; they adorn religious 
 pageants, and add to the luxury of royal entertainments. 
 
 When an Asiatic wishes to honour a guest, he shows him the 
 Bayaderes ; it is the necessary complement of his hospitality. They dance 
 to the music of the talan (a couple of discs, one of which is of polished 
 steel, the other of copper), the hautbois, the flute, and the drum, and 
 generally choose hideous or deformed musicians as foils to their beauty. 
 
BAYADERE DANCES 
 
 271 
 
 Their hair, anointed with aromatic oil, falls in a shower about their 
 hips ; among its jetty waves sparkle diamonds, precious stones, and gold 
 chains, interspersed with flower-petals and tufts of coloured silk. 
 
 Their dance, says Arago, is generally known as the Tchega, and has 
 certain affinities with the Spanish 
 Fandango. ^ 
 
 HofFner says, in his travels, 
 that the young veiled Devadassis 
 form groups before beginning to 
 dance. 
 
 " A double bagpipe, the 
 monotonous tourte, drones out 
 the prelude, the melancholy 
 notes of the hautbois and of a 
 flute without holes strike in, 
 reinforced by the steel and 
 copper discs, and drums. At a 
 signal from the ballet-master, 
 tney advance and unveil. With 
 infinite grace and exquisite art 
 they mingle, intertwine, and 
 glide apart in their expressive 
 dance. . The old dancing-women 
 who surround them sing and 
 clap their hands, while the in- 
 toxicating scent of flowers floats 
 on the warm air. . . ." 
 
 There are variations in the Asiatic Bayadere dances. Guillaume Lejean 
 was present at a dance at Srinagar, in Cashmere, where, he says, " I saw the 
 elite of the Bayaderes, from fifteen to twenty women, covered with gold and 
 jewels from head to heels. Their cold, plastic beauty harmonised admirably 
 with their dancing, which consisted of a succession of statuesque poses of a 
 purely antique character. They advanced in couples, gliding along the 
 ground, moving slowly and languidly, with studied art of a very correct 
 character. It was like a bas-relief on a Greek temple of the best period. 
 
 A TURKISH DANCING GIRL 
 
 After a Picture by Bertier 
 (Photographed by Braun and Co.) 
 
272 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 A sort of quivering motion of their naked feet caused a jingling of the 
 golden rings and bells with which their legs were laden, and this metallic, 
 cadenced sound at last produced a most curious effect upon the ear and the 
 nerves." 
 
 Let us now consult M. Alfred Grandidier. The dance of the Bayaderes 
 did not strike him as either seductive or impassioned. 
 
 " Their dance," he says, '■ is a sort of pantomime, generally accompanied 
 
 AN ARAB FESTIVAL 
 
 From a Photograph by Neurdein 
 
 by songs, chanted to a slow, monotonous rhythm. Three men, with a 
 drum and cymbals, accompany the movements of the dancer, while her 
 comrades, crouching on the ground, clap their hands and sing in chorus. 
 As a rule, only one dancer performs at a time ; stamping on the ground 
 with her bell-laden feet, she is content to turn round and round, with 
 undulations of her arms and body that are rather strange than harmonious. 
 The songs are generally simple recitative, which the singer interrupts at 
 
BAYADERE DANCES 
 
 ^7^ 
 
 intervals by piercing notes, which seem t3 rise into the air like the Jark 
 mounting skywards from his furrow. The European newly arrived in 
 India, who has often heard the Bayaderes described as irresistible 
 enchantresses, will assuredly feel astonishment and disappointment at the 
 sight of these dances and the sound of these songs, so different to those his 
 imagination had pictured on 
 the faith of travellers' tales. 
 
 " The Bayaderes' costume 
 is very rich'^ and extremely 
 modest, more so than that of 
 the women who are seen in the 
 streets. 
 
 " It must be admitted that 
 in hot countries, where mind 
 and body both demand calm 
 and tranquillity above all 
 things, nothing less suitable to 
 the enjoyment of life could 
 well be imagined than our 
 swift, intricate dances and 
 learned music. With us, 
 pleasure itself is a toil, 
 whereas the performances of 
 the Bayaderes cause no fatigue. 
 Plunged in a gentle drowsi- 
 ness, no lassitude of mind or 
 body supervenes, as the spec- 
 tator allows himself to be 
 
 lulled by these poetic tales of love, the eternal theme of all such 
 representations. I must confess that I felt a certain pleasure in them, 
 especially after having lived some time in the East. Under the influence of 
 my hookah, the pantomime and the chants of the Bayaderes appeared to me 
 as the visions of a dreamer, without arresting my attention in a fatiguing 
 manner." 
 
 We will quote Louis Rousselet, whose studies on the India of the Rajahs 
 
 2 M 
 
 A BAYADERE 
 
 After a Picture by Peralta 
 
274 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 made a great sensation, as our readers will remember ; he describes various 
 scenes of which he was a spectator. 
 
 "I seated myself," he writes, "on a luxurious divan, and was at once 
 surrounded by servants, offering me sherbet and fruit, or sprinkling me 
 with rose-water from large silver bottles. A few paces from me I saw the 
 pale-faced, large-eyed Bayaderes, covered with diamonds and costly tissues, 
 crouching on the ground by the musicians, awaiting the signal for their 
 dance. . . . 
 
 " Rising, they unfolded their scarves and shook out their pleated skirts, 
 jingling the little bells on their anklets, by which they mark the cadence. 
 After a preliminary chorus, accompanied by viols and tam-tams, they 
 formed a half-circle, and one of them advanced in front of us. Her 
 arms extended, her veil floating about her, she began to turn slowly round 
 and round, \vith a slight quivering of her body, which made her bells 
 tinkle. The soft and languorous music seemed to lull her ; her eyes were 
 half closed. Each dancer took her turn in a pas seal; one imitated a 
 serpent-charmer or a wrestler ; another, more impetuous,, twirled about 
 with great rapidity. A third, who wore a pretty pearl-embroidered cap, 
 followed the music with a coquettish movement of the body peculiar to 
 herself. They concluded with a lively round, accompanied by songs and 
 hand-clapping. 
 
 " In all this there was no trace of the obscenity, supposed to be 
 characteristic of the Bayaderes' dances. Their bearing, though it has a 
 touch of coquetry, is always modest, and their costume stricter than that of 
 other women. Nor must wc look for dancing from them in the ordinary 
 sense of the word. Postures, attitudes, and chants make up the official 
 Nautch Dance of the Hindoos. I say ' official,' because I did see, upon 
 occasion, dances of a very different character, to which strangers are rarely 
 admitted. These were regular ballets, somewhat like those of our own 
 operas, but, full of the ardent and voluptuous Eastern spirit. Under 
 ordinary circumstances the Nautch Dance is so serious and, indeed, so 
 unattractive, when the dancers are neither young nor pretty, that many 
 disappointed Europeans imagine they are assisting at some lugubrious 
 ceremonial rite." 
 
 After describing the Festival of Dassara at the Court of Baroda, and the 
 
BAYADERE DANCES 
 
 27? 
 
 curious licence accorded to the Hindoo Bayaderes during this celebration, 
 M. Rousselet tells us that in Rajputana the Bayaderes always enjoy special 
 privileges. 
 
 He was present one evening in the Armondjan Palace at the religious 
 dances of the Nauratri, performed by Nautch-girls. 
 
 " They were placed on the upper terrace of the Palace ; an immense 
 
 DANCE OF BAYADERES 
 
 From an Engraving by Poisson after Sornerat 
 
 carpet was spread upon the ground ; brasiers filled with resin flared in the 
 angles of the wall, struggling with gusty flashes against the brilliant star- 
 light. In the midst of a compact circle of women, who crowded the vast 
 platform, glittering with jewels and spangles, a dancing-girl moved 
 languidly to the sound of the ancient music of Indian worship. The 
 scene was truly beautiful and poetic. The uncertain light, glancing fitfully 
 upon the graceful crowd ; the starry vault above us ; the tufts of palm and 
 mm that waved at our feet, shaking out their intoxicating scents upon the 
 clear mountain air, that came to us laden with the keen odours of the 
 jungle ; the mysterious rhythm of the music — all combined to give a strange 
 charm to the evening." 
 
276 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 At the Court of the Begum of Bhopal he saw the most charming of all 
 the dances. 
 
 " After a dance of young men, cathacks, a dancing-girl made her 
 appearance. She was dressed In the costume of the women of the people, a 
 bodice and a very short sarri, and bore on her head a large wheel of osiers, 
 placed horizontally on the top of her skull. Round the wheel hung strings 
 at equal distances, each terminating In a running knot, kept open by means 
 of a glass bead. The dancer advanced to the spectators, carrying a basket 
 of eggs, which she handed to us that we might satisfy ourselves they were 
 real. 
 
 " The musicians struck up a monotonous staccato measure, and the dancer 
 began to whirl round with great rapidity. Seizing an egg, she slipped It 
 into one of the running knots, and, with a sudden jerk, threw It from her 
 In such a manner as to draw the knot tight. By means of the centrifugal 
 force produced by the swiftness of her rotations, the string flew out, 
 till the egg stood In a straight line with the corresponding ray of the 
 circumference. One after the other, the eggs were all thrown out on 
 the strings, until at last they formed a horizontal halo round the dancer's 
 head. Hereupon her movements became more and more rapid ; we could 
 scarcely distinguish her features. It was a critical moment ; the least false 
 step, the slightest pause, and the eggs would have been smashed one against 
 the other. How then was she to Interrupt her dance, how stop It ^ 
 There was but one way : to take out the eggs as she had put them In. 
 Though it hardly appears so, this last operation Is the more difficult of the 
 two. By a single movement of the utmost neatness and precision, the 
 dancer must catch the egg and draw It to her ; it will be readily understood 
 that if she were to put her hand into the circle unskilfully, and touch one 
 of the strings, the general harmony would be at once disturbed. At last 
 all the eggs were safely extricated, the dancer stopped abruptly, and 
 apparently not In the least giddy after her gyrations of some half-hour, 
 she walked firmly towards us and presented the eggs, which were 
 Immediately broken Into a dish to prove that there had been no 
 deception." 
 
 M. Emile Gulmet, a more recent traveller, thus describes his experience 
 of a Bayadere dance : 
 
BAYADERE DANCES 
 
 277 
 
 " The music begins. The melody, marked by loud percussions at 
 intervals, is plaintive, sad, languishing, but belongs to our own order of 
 harmony. There is nothing Chinese, nothing Arab, above all, nothing 
 Japanese about it. If Arab music has preserved the tonality of antiquity, 
 Indian music reveals the origin of modern European methods. 
 
 " There are three dancers, who dance in turn. The first has very 
 
 .-i -MOORIS -I DANCER 
 
 From a Photograph 
 
 regular features and wonderfully expressive eyes. Her dancing is more in 
 the nature of pantomime than of a succession of steps. She advances with 
 an expression of restrained passion, then retires, as if alarmed and 
 -humiliated by her involuntary confession. Her movements follow the 
 rhythm, her gestures emphasise her supposed sentiments with much grace 
 and energy. In her face and attitudes she seems to express in turn 
 sympathy, terror, joy, anger, recklessness, shame, self-abandonment, delight 
 ^nd humiliation, the intensest passion and the bitterest remorse, 
 
278 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 "How remote from this touching poetry are the sensual Almees of 
 Cairo or Algiers, or the cold Geishas of Kioto ! Even the ouled-ndils of 
 Biskra, who have preserved the traditions of antiquity in the oases of the 
 desert, give but a feeble reflex of this Brahmlnic epopee, at once burning 
 and delicate, expounded to us by glances and gestures. 
 
 " The dancer's costume is red and gold, her black bodice is covered' 
 with gold spangles. Her hair is very simply dressed, with a iz^ flowers 
 
 A DANCE IN THE HAREM 
 
 After a Picture by Richter 
 
 for ornament. She wears jewels in her nostrils, numerous bracelets and 
 anklets, and enormous toe-rings. 
 
 " The Bayadere who takes her place has a colder cast of countenance, 
 but she is much handsomer. Her head-dress of fragrant flowers, without 
 leaves or stalks, forms a sort of coronet, and falls down on the nape cf her 
 neck with the ends of her hair. She wears costly bracelets on the fleshy 
 part of her arms, and her feet are plated with rings and golden circlets. It 
 seems marvellous that she should be able to stand up and dance under th? 
 
o J 
 
 8| 
 
 Q a 
 
 El; 3 
 
28o A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 weight of all her sumptuous fetters. Her dance, though less expressive 
 than that we have just witnessed, is statelier and more elegant ; her very 
 coldness gives more distinction to her attitudes. 
 
 " As to the subject, it is still an amorous drama, a scene inspired by 
 the touching episodes of the Ramayana, or some other mythological 
 poem." 
 
 The Egyptian, Tunisian or Algerian Almees differ greatly from the 
 Bayaderes, for the very essence of their dances is obscenity. 
 
 The Egyptian Almees wear a long silken robe, covered with a pattern 
 and fastened about them with a sash ; a gauze veil is drawn across their 
 breasts. Like veritable Bacchantes, they give themselves up to suggestive 
 contortions, to the sound of castanets, tambourines or cymbals. 
 
 The ouled-ndils of Algeria, adorned like idols, laden with necklaces, are 
 famous for their Danse du Ventre. They may be seen nearly everywhere 
 throughout the country, but in greatest perfection at Ouargla, where 
 any one may witness their dances by the expenditure of a halfpenny for a 
 cup of coffee. 
 
 At the sound of the rhdita, a shrill-toned clarionet, the thar, or 
 tambourine, the dherhouka, a skin stretched over a pot from which the 
 bottom has been knocked out, and which emits a hollow resonance, the 
 thebel, a big drum, on which the performer strikes with a piece of bent 
 wood, the Almees advance. They wave their arms, loaded with jewels, 
 their silken sashes interwoven with gold, above their heads, and walk, 
 swaying their bellies, half naked, in a manner more alluring than decorous. 
 
 " Eastern dance," says Jules Lemaitre, " is essentially a solo and a 
 spectacle. ... It is eminently private and intimate in its character. 
 Within the narrow limits and the dim light of a Moorish room it may 
 interest an artist, a voluptuary, or a student of manners by the suppleness of 
 its movements, the harmony of its lines and contours." 
 
 At Tunis, Almees are to be found everywhere, even in the lowest dens. 
 Their .obscene dances are performed throughout the province, in cafes, at 
 private entertainments, and even at certain ceremonies. 
 
 I was once a guest at a Jev/ish wedding, and aiter the marriage had 
 been solemnised at the synagogue I followed the procession to the home of 
 the newly wedded pair. The festival was held in the patio. All around, 
 
A JEWISH WEDDING IN TUNIS 
 
 281 
 
 from ground-floor and first-floor windows, hung bunches of human fruit, 
 women gleaming with jewels ; an orchestra, composed of a harmonium, a 
 flute, a violin, and a long-necked mandolin, gave out a deafening music. 
 The music ceased for an instant ; a look of attention came into every 
 
 THE DANSE DU VENTRE 
 
 After a Picture by Dinet 
 
 face, as if something important, the nature of which was well known to all 
 present, were about to happen. 
 
 A little girl came forward, her eyes modestly downcast. She raised 
 them, and cast a languishing glance at the spectators. Then, half closing 
 her lids, she began to dance, to the monotonous accompaniment of voices 
 and orchestra, swaying her body to and fro in attitudes that contrasted 
 painfully with the solemn character of the preceding ceremony. Mean- 
 
 2N 
 
282 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 while women, lost in the obscure recesses of the rooms, gave utterance to 
 the you-you, the cry which emphasises this dance. 
 
 Much the same kind of dance obtains in savage Africa. Commandant 
 Colomieu relates that one evening at Metlili, during his journey across the 
 Algerian Sahara, he saw the negroes and negresses of the oasis perform one 
 of their ceremonial dances with great pomp. The instruments of the 
 
 AN ORIENTAL DANCE 
 
 After a Drawing by Decamps in the Louvre 
 
 orchestra were iron castanets, accompanying a kind of chant, to which the 
 dancers, male and female, twisted themselves about with contortions that 
 suggested a veritable infernal ballet. 
 
 The negresses, excited by the applause, gave themselves up to a 
 choregraphic onslaught, in which the boldest and most daring attitudes 
 alternated with postures of mincing grace and affectation. 
 
 Dancing is still a rite among all primitive races, just as it was under the 
 antique civilisations, and in our wanderings throughout the world we find 
 it associated with religious ceremonies, festivals, and even with funerals. 
 
PATAGONIAN DANCE 
 
 283 
 
 The religious sect of Aissaouas in Mussulman countries execute frenzied 
 dances, the performance of which I have often witnessed. It is a strange 
 spectacle to see the howling crowd, excited by the fumes of incense, 
 bending and throwing back their heads in cadence, their haggard eyes 
 rolling wildly, and the guethdia, the long tresses of hair on the summit of 
 their shaven crowns, flying round them, now falling on their shoulders, now 
 covering the napes of their necks. The movement of head and body 
 
 SHOAN DANCE 
 
 From a Photograph 
 
 becomes more and more emphatic, the boom of the tam-tams deepens, 
 until at last the Aissaouas, seized with delirium, crunch wood, iron and 
 glass between their teeth, scorch their flesh with red-hot coals, and swallow 
 live scorpions. 
 
 The Patagonian Indians of America hold a festival once a year in 
 honour of Vita Ouentrou, the god of good. On this occasion they grease 
 their hair, paint their faces with extreme care, and dress in the most 
 grotesque costumes ; but it is unlawful to laugh during the ceremonies. 
 The tribesmen form themselves in line, their faces to the east, their women 
 behind them. The dance then begins, the only change of position being 
 from right to left ; the women sing, accompanying themselves on a wooden 
 
284 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 drum, covered with a wild cat's skin of many colours. The men pirouette 
 on one foot, the opposite one to that on which the women balance them- 
 selves, and blow with all their might into hollow reeds. Suddenly, at a 
 signal from the Cacique, cries of alarm resound ; the men spring hastily to 
 horse, and breaking off their dance, follow each other in a fantastic 
 cavalcade. 
 
 The Mandans, one of the Indian tribes of the upper Missouri, perform 
 what is known as the Bison Dance at a certain religious festival which they 
 celebrate with fasting, prayer, sacrifices, and all the tokens of profound 
 devotion. Eight Mandans, wrapped in bison-hides, on which the horns 
 and the eyes are left, are the actors in this strange ballet. Naked but for 
 these skins, their bodies painted in bands of red, white and black, and 
 bearing on their shoulders a fagot of willow-branches, they imitate the 
 movements and appearance of the bison. Space forbids a more detailed 
 account of the religious festivals accompanied by dances, in which the 
 Indians mimic the fauna of their country, serpents, beavers, vultures, &c., 
 while the master of the ceremonies invokes the Great Spirit. 
 
 The Indians of the Amazon solemnise their great religious festivals with 
 the most curious processions and ceremonies. At Exaltacion de la Santa 
 Cruz, M. Franz Keller-Leuzinger saw a dozen macheteiros (sword-dancers) 
 in head-dresses made from the tail feathers of the araras and down from 
 the breast of the toucan, with stags' feet fastened to their ankles, and large 
 wooden swords in their hands. They marched under the leadership of their 
 chief, who brandished a huge silver cross, and were followed by the whole of 
 their tribe. They went from Calvary to Calvary, singing psalms and waving 
 censers. Before each cross these braves executed a sort of allegorical dance, 
 which evidently symbolised the submission of the Indians to the Church, 
 and their conversion to Christianity. This manifestation accomplished, the 
 macheteiro, bathed in sweat, approached the Calvary with many genuflexions, 
 and laid his wooden sword and fantastic aureole at the foot of the crucifix. 
 
 Descriptions of this kind abound in books of travel. In the Philippines 
 the Negritos dance a sort of Pyrrhic at marriage feasts. 
 
 The men form a circle, each one laying his left hand on the hip of the 
 one in front of him ; with their right hands they brandish bows and arrows 
 with a threatening air ; they move round slowly, with jerky steps, striking 
 
DANCES OF CENTRAL AMERICA 
 
 28^ 
 
 the left heel hard upon the ground. Three women occupy the centre of 
 the circle, chanting, or rather screaming, an air, which is restricted to a few 
 shrill, piercing notes. A yOung Negrito, who wears garters of wild boar 
 skin, strikes a drum at intervals, and rushes into the circle. He prowls 
 round the women, backwards and forwards, goes away and comes back again, 
 running about with the anxious and cunning look of the thief fascinated by 
 
 DANCE IN THE ISLAND OF ULIETEA OR WOLEA 
 
 From an Engraving by Bartolozzi after Cipriani for Cook's Voyages 
 
 the thought of his booty, but fearful of a surprise. It is the devil, or rather 
 Tagaloc, who fills his office among the Negritos. 
 
 In his journey through the Valley of Huarancalqui and the Pajonal 
 district, M. Paul Marcoy saw private dances performed in honour of the 
 birth of Christ. These quasi-devotions were practised before a shrine 
 representing the Nativity, El Nacimiento. 
 
 " A dozen women were seated in a semicircle round the nacimiento, 
 before which two candles, two bottles, and a glass were placed upon a little 
 table. In the vacant space between this table and the gallery a woman of 
 fifty and a young Cholo danced a national dance to a guitar accompaniment, 
 
286 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 pausing between each figure to curtsey to the shrine. Adjoining the room of 
 the nacimiento was a second, in which a crowd of dancers of both sexes 
 stamped about with tremendous energy. 
 
 "When any visitors arrived, a woman of the company, who seemed to 
 have constituted herself guardian of the nacimiento, rose, filled the glass on 
 the table with brandy, and offered it in turn to each of the newcomers, with 
 
 the usual formula : 
 ' (Xue le aprovecha 
 la orina del nino 
 Jesu.' 'Many 
 thanks,' replied 
 the person ad- 
 dressed, wiping 
 his or her lips, 
 and waiting his 
 or her turn to 
 dance. After a 
 i^sN steps executed 
 before the naci- 
 miento, and the 
 consumption of a 
 few more drams, 
 the dancer, now sufficiently warmed up, passed into the neighbouring 
 room, there to take part in those character-dances the Spaniards call 
 troche y moche.''' 
 
 The same traveller saw dances performed at funerals in Peru. 
 " Like the Scandinavian heroes," he says, " the Conibos pass after death 
 to a martial Paradise, the chief diversions of which are jousts and 
 tournaments. The Virgins of Walhalla are represented by Aibo-Muedi 
 (courtesans), who offer the Conibo warrior mountains of food and rivers of 
 drink. 
 
 " When the women have wrapped the corpse of a Conibo in his tari, 
 when they have placed his bow and arrows in his hand, smeared him with 
 rocou and genipa, and tied him up carefully, they chant a requiem dirge, the 
 chiringui, and perform dances," 
 
 DANCE IN OTAHEITE 
 
 From an Engraving by Heath after Webber 
 
DANCES OF AFRICAN TRIBES 
 
 287 
 
 ■During his journey to the Albert Nyanza, Batier was present by chance 
 at a funeral dance. 
 
 "One day," he says, "I heard the nogaras, or drums, beating, the 
 trumpets sounding. I mingled with the crowd, and soon found myself a 
 spectator of a funeral 
 dance. 
 
 " The performers wore 
 a curious costume. Their 
 helmets were adorned 
 with about a dozen large 
 ostrich feathers. Leopard- 
 skins and black and 
 white monkey-skins hung 
 from their shoulders. 
 Iron bells attached to a 
 leather girdle hung . 
 round their hips, which 
 they twisted about with 
 the most absurd contor- 
 tions; an antelope's horn, 
 slung round the neck, 
 was used to give utterance 
 to piercing sounds, a 
 cross between the cries of 
 the ass and the owl, 
 when their excitement 
 
 reached its highest pitch. Every one howled in chorus, and seven nogaras 
 of varying sizes formed the bass of this infernal chorus. 
 
 " The men, who had mustered in large numbers, executed a kind or 
 galop, brandishing their clubs and spears, and following their chieftain, who 
 danced backwards before them, in a column some five or six deep. The 
 women accompanied the dancers, but did not mingle with them. They 
 swayed slowly to and fro, uttering plaintive and discordant cries. At some 
 little distance came a long line of children and young girls, their heads and 
 necks smeared with red ochre and grease, wearing necklaces and girdles of 
 
 SANDWICH islander's DANCE 
 
 From an Engraving by Grignlon after Webber 
 
288 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 coloured beads, stamping out the measure with their feet, and clanking their 
 iron anklets in time to the beating of the nogaras. A woman ran in and 
 out among the dancers, sprinkling their heads with charcoal ashes which she 
 carried in a gourd. 
 
 " This ceremony was to continue for some weeks in honour of a 
 number of warriors who had lately fallen in battle." 
 
 MAHOMET S PARADISE 
 
 After an Engr iving by Jazit in the Blbliotheque Nationale 
 
A JJALL IN IHE CHAUSS^fe d'ANTIN 
 
 After a Lithograph, by Gayarui in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Contemporary 'Dances — The Waltz — The (^alop — The Tol^a — Cellarius, UAarkowski, 
 
 and Laborde — The Jardin (Mabille — Tritchard, Chicard, and 
 
 'Brididi — ^ueen Tomare. 
 
 |HE Waltz was in high favour in 1830. The Volte, first 
 danced by Henry III., was simply the False a trois temps. 
 The description of it given by Thoinot Arbeau in 1589 
 identifies it with the saltatio duorum in gyrum, to quote the 
 definition of the Waltz in Trevoux's dictionary. The worthy canon of 
 Langres not only reveals the analogy between Volte and Waltz, but shows 
 that the Volte was, in fact, the False a trois temps. 
 
 " The Waltz we took from the Germans again in 1795 had been a French 
 dance for four hundred years," says Castil-Blaze. It may Indeed be 
 looked upon as one of our most ancient dances. Provence was its 
 birthplace. It was fashionable throughout the whole of the sixteenth 
 
 2 o 
 
290 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 century, and was the delight of the Valois Court. It is certainly the most 
 graceful and seductive of all known dances. 
 
 " A technical examination of the Waltz would be out oi place in this 
 work. Desrat, in his Dictionnaire, describes the movements and gives the 
 history of this, as of all other dances. 
 
 It may be of interest, however, to recall Saint-Ibald's recommendations 
 to waltzers : 
 
 " En dehors tes pieds tourneras, 
 
 Et tes jambes egalement. 
 Haute toujours la t^te sera, 
 
 Et portee gracieusement. 
 Au bras droit ta dame enlaceras. 
 
 La conduisant solidement. 
 Ta main gauche legere auras, 
 
 Et ton bras gauche memement. 
 Toujours dans ton pas glisseras, 
 
 Tes deux pieds aussi souplement. 
 Joyeux et gai tu valseras, 
 
 Sans jamais sauter follement. 
 Trois pas egaux, rythmes, feras 
 
 En I'antique valse a trois temps. 
 Du pied gauche tu commenceras, 
 
 Et du droit suivras lentement. 
 En avant, en arriere, iras, 
 
 Et ta dame reciproquement. 
 De la mesure esclave seras, 
 
 Et ta valseuse egalement. 
 Ouand la valse tu finiras. 
 
 Dame remercieras poliment. 
 Au buffet tu I'ameneras, 
 
 Et du punch boiras seulement. 
 
 As to the Waltz, "incorrectly called the Valse a deux temps (two beats), 
 instead of a deux fas (two steps)," as Professor Desrat says, it is of 
 Russian origin. 
 
 " It should be called the ' two-step ' waltz," he adds, " because it 
 consists of two steps, danced to a bar of three beats, the time proper to all 
 waltzes." * 
 
 * "I can speak with authority of the introduction of the Fa/se a deux pas into France, 
 for it was first taught to my father under the following circumstances : in 1839 the 
 Baron de Nieuken, an attache at the Russian Legation, was taking dancing lessons 
 
^Jyev-LUX?iori^ . ^Jia Uj-'riM-e'j .^y iLi.iiueL 
 
THE GALOP 
 
 2qi 
 
 The Galop was another favourite diversion of Parisian society in 1830. 
 
 Hungary is said to have been the birthplace of the Galop. But this, 
 again, was an old dance often introduced after Voltes and Country Dances 
 as a variation on their slow and somewhat solemn steps. It was about 1 8 1 5 
 that the Galop began to be a recognised dance, as in former times. For a 
 
 .0*'-t'fr.„. 
 
 A SOCIETY BALL IN 1830 
 
 After an Engraving by Lecomte 
 
 long time the fifth figure of the French Quadrille went by the name of the 
 Saint-Simonienne, because it introduced the Galop. 
 
 from my father. These lessons were given after the fashion then usual, and comprised 
 all the rudimentary exercises, battements, plies, &c. One evening the Baron was going 
 to a grand ball given by the Comte de Mole, then Foreign Minister, and expected to 
 dance with some charming Russian ladies. He accordingly asked his teacher to practise 
 the steps with him. Great was my father's wrath at hearing him talk of a waltz with two 
 steps, for this seemed to him a manifest contradiction to the three beats of the accepted 
 Waltz measure. But he was soon appeased when he saw that his pupil made his cbass'e by 
 taking the first step to the first two beats, and the second step to the third'beat. My father 
 at once understood that the chasse was composed of one long slow step, and one short quick 
 one. Master and pupil waltzed together amicably, and M. de Nieuken's success was so 
 complete that from that night the aristocracy in a body forsook the Valse a trots temps for 
 that a deux pas." — (Desrat, Dictionnaire de la Danse.) 
 
292 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 During the reign of Louis Philippe, four grand balls were given at the 
 
 Tuileries in the winter, 
 and two smaller balls in 
 the Queen's apartments. 
 After the marriage of the 
 Due d'Orleans, one ball 
 was given in his apart- 
 ments during the season. 
 At the Queen's balls, the 
 guests were not expected 
 to wear full Court dress. ' 
 The men, with the excep- 
 tion of those who had to 
 appear in some special 
 uniform, wore blue coats, 
 and were free to indulge 
 individual fancies in the 
 embroideries on collars and : 
 facings. White kerseymere 
 
 THE WALTZ IN THE TYROL 
 
 After a Lithograph 
 
 trousers 
 stripes down the sides were worn with these coats, 
 always in full dress. At the small 
 dances given by the Queen, the 
 Due d'Orleans, or the Due de 
 Nemours, the gold-striped trousers 
 were replaced by white kerseymere 
 breeches and buckled shoes. 
 
 It was customary to give a 
 grand ball at the English Embassy 
 in honour of Queen Victoria's 
 birthday. 
 
 " The supper," says M. de 
 Beaumont, " was laid in the con- 
 servatory, and it was an understood 
 thing that Lady Granville's fair 
 
 with wide 
 The ladies 
 
 gold 
 were 
 
 THE END OF THE BALL 
 
 After a Lithograph by Pigal 
 
DEJEUNERS DANSANTS 293 
 
 guests should all appear in pink and white, the Queen's colours. All the 
 men wore " button-holes," made of a rose, and two or three sprays of 
 lily-of-the-valley ; the politician and the serious man displayed the pink 
 and white badge no less punctiliously than the greatest dandy of the 
 circle." 
 
 <^^.^> -^ 
 
 
 / 1/ 
 
 THE GAVOTTE 
 
 After a Print of the Restoration Period in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 
 It was at the Austrian Embassy that the famous dejeuners dansants were 
 inaugurated. ^ 
 
 " The guests arrived in broad daylight, about half-past two in the 
 afternoon. Each lady as she entered received a bouquet before passing into 
 the niagnificent rooms, the honours of which Countess Appony did so 
 gracefully. She was indeed a literal embodiment of the old aristocratic 
 social tradition. The Count, with the Golden Fleece hanging from his 
 neck, and the Order of St. Stephen on his breast, was a perfect type of the 
 great noble, affable, but full of dignity. Dancing began at once. There 
 was a positive craze for the Valse a deux temps. . . . All the couples 
 
294 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 followed in the wake of the two Rodolphes and Julio Appony. . . . The 
 Dukes d'Ossuna, de Valen^ay, and de Dino ; Counts Esterhazy, Zichy, 
 de Morny, de Ch^teauvillars, de Jumillac, de la Tour-du-Pin, and Guillaume 
 de KnifF were supported by all the great financial luminaries, the Roths- 
 childs, Hopes, Barings, and Thorns. The women represented the supreme 
 elegance of Paris ; among them were Miles. Fitzwilliam, de Terzzi, 
 
 PARISIAN DANCERS 
 
 After a Print of the Restoration Period 
 
 de Stackelberg, de Chanterac, de Ganay, de Nicola'i, de Virieu, Lady 
 Canterbury, the Duchess of Sutherland, the Princesse de la Tremouille, the 
 Marquise de Contades, the Duchesses d'Istrie, d'Otrante, de Plaisance, 
 Mmes. de Vernant, de Magnoncourt, d'Haussonville. ... At about five 
 o'clock, there was a pause in the dancing, and the company descended the 
 flight of steps leading to the gardens. There, under the shade of the trees 
 and among the shrubberies, were set charmingly appointed little tables, at 
 which the guests seated themselves haphazard, or in select little parties, and 
 
THE POLKA 
 
 299 
 
 prolonged the delightful emotions of Waltz and Galop in conversations 
 animated by champagne. ..." 
 
 Towards 1 844, \}rs. furore for waltzing began to show signs of abatement. 
 It had long reigned supreme in society, the Galop being no longer danced, 
 save in the carnival balls. The introduction of the Polka brought about an 
 extraordinary revolution in dancing. It created a veritable mania among 
 
 PARISIAN DANCERS 
 
 After a Print of the Restoration Period 
 
 the middle and the lower classes, a terpsichorean epidemic which no one 
 escaped. All did not die of it, but all alike took the disease. Society 
 resisted for a time ; hitherto it had given the tone to fashion, and it was 
 not inclined to follow a movement. But the fame of this dance became so 
 widespread, and its popularity so immense, that at last a duchess opened the 
 doors of her reception-rooms to admit it, and thereupon the Polka reigned 
 supreme in the high places of the earth.* 
 
 * "The first time it was formally introduced into society was at a ball given by 
 M. G . . ., the Lucullus of our age. The smartest gentlemen riders and a host of pretty 
 
2g6 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The Polka came from Bohemia. It appeared first at Vienna, and 
 
 afterwards with brilliant 
 success at Baden. It was 
 introduced into Paris by 
 Cellarius, the famous 
 dancing - master, among 
 whose pupils were Hun- 
 garians, Poles and Wal- 
 lachians, who played their 
 national dances on the 
 piano for the others to 
 dance. Cellarius' school at 
 the end of the courtyard, 
 at No. 41 Rue Vivienne, 
 became the sanctuary of 
 the new dance, which owed 
 something of its success to 
 the gold spurs which were 
 looked upon as indispens- 
 able for a brilliant polkaist 
 of the male gender. The 
 young professor became the man of the hour. Dancing took place every 
 Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday evening, from eight to eleven, 
 
 THE WALTZ 
 
 After Gavarni 
 
 women were present at this solemnity, at which M. Cellarius and M. Eugene Coralli were 
 to meet face to face and polka to polka. All the votaries of the Polka were on the tiptoe 
 of expectation. Chledowski himself had composed the music for the occasion. Cellarius 
 appeared, with carefully dressed hair and glossy beard, triumphing in advance ; he was 
 surrounded by four or five experts carefully chosen from among his best pupils. A certain 
 anxiety was nevertheless visible in the master's face ; every now and then he sprang nimbly 
 upon the platform where the musicians were installed, and made them play over the new 
 composition, the third polka that had been written. Then he returned in haste to his 
 disciples, passing along the ranks, haranguing them in brief, decisive phrases, animating them 
 both by words and gestures. The great Germanicus could have done no more, pace Tacitus. 
 
 "While the master was thus engaged, Eugene Coralli, Lucien Petipa, and two or three 
 other accomplished Labordians of the opposition preserved a scornful silence and a redoubt- 
 able calm. 
 
 "At last the orchestra gave the signal of battle. The spectators made way respectfully, 
 Cellarius led out one of his sisters, dressed in pure white like a vestal virgin, and started in 
 full career, followed by his faithful cohort. 
 
CELLARIUS 
 
 297 
 
 under his auspices, and during the winter he gave a nocturnal fete every 
 Wednesday. He further gave balls every year, to which ladies were admitted 
 
 A GKOUP OF PARlSfAN DANCERS 
 
 From a Print of the Restoration Period 
 
 on the sole condition that they should appear in very elegant toilettes. He 
 afterwards carried out what may be described as a social coup d'etat by 
 
 " It was like Achilles rushing under the walls of Troy to defy Hector, and avenge the 
 death of Patroclus ; but 
 
 'O rage ! O desespoir ! O fortune ennemie, ^ 
 
 N'avait-il tant polke que pour cctte infamie ! ' 
 
 "Oh, agony! No one could dance to the new tune ; they required the old routine 
 with which they had sucked the milk of Mother Polka ! The performers stopped and 
 gazed at each other in astonishment. The master in vain endeavoured to revive their 
 courage in this extremity. 'At least give us enemies we can cope with ! ' they exclaimed. 
 These words were an inspiration for the master. Rushing to the orchestra, he threw down 
 the traditional score before them, and the complaisant .musicians once more struck up the 
 old wearisome tune, the most wearisome ever written, perhaps, with the exception of the 
 Holero di Tiona Lola iMontez. As the familiar strains feJl on their ears, the Cellarians took 
 
 2 P 
 
298 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Inaugurating artists' balls, to which admission could only be obtained by 
 
 means of a ■ letter of 
 invitation, signed in most 
 cases by some famous 
 opera-dancer. 
 
 For the struggle had 
 become deadly ; rival 
 professors had arisen, 
 Markowski andLaborde. 
 The latter disputed the 
 honour of having intro- 
 duced the Polka into 
 France with him. 
 
 Did the King dance 
 the Polka ? An irreve- 
 rent couplet of the day 
 declares that he did : 
 
 " C'est le grand Louis 
 Philippe 
 Qui s'est fichu par terre, 
 En dansant la polka 
 Avec la reine Victoria." 
 
 THE GALOP 
 
 After Gavarni 
 
 Books, feuilletons, novels, poems, plays, music, all dealt with the 
 Polka. There was even a Polka Almanack, published in 1845, and the 
 
 courage ; they advanced with great spirit, bringing their heels up among their coat-tails in 
 the most daring fashion, and remained masters of the field. 
 
 " But their triumph was not of long duration. The crowd presently parted to make 
 way for their terrible rivals, whose very first steps ensured the discomfiture of the Cellanans. 
 The whole cohort dispersed, and the unhappy chief, his eyes darting flames, his heart full of 
 fury, withdrew to swallow the afiront as best he might. 
 
 " Such was this memorable day, the events of which are so suggestive of a mock heroic 
 poem that our very prose has been aflected. Thenceforth an unquenchable hatred, direr 
 than that of Capulets and Montagues, reigned between the rival schools. Immediately 
 after their defeat the Cellarians are said to have assembled in the little Pink Boudoir and, 
 before the statue of tbe Hermaphrqdite, to have vowed an enmity to their foes, which might 
 very well have found expression in something more than words." — i^La Polka enseignee sans 
 Mah,e.) 
 
THE POLKA 299 
 
 dance was made a pretext for political satire, the diva polka being thus 
 apostrophised ; 
 
 "Danse de liberie, d'amour, de poesie, 
 Que viens-tu done chercher, 6 polka, parmi nous ? . 
 
 The Country Dance, it was said, suits the sanguine, the Galop the 
 bilious, the Waltz the lymphatic, the Polka the nervous and passionate. 
 
 A_GROUP OF PARISIAN DANCERS 
 
 After a Print of the Restoration Period 
 
 An amusing little treatise of the time contains the following 
 reflections : 
 
 " The entry of the Polka into Paris took place without pomp of any 
 sort, without any public rejoicings, without the ghost of a sergent-de- 
 ville. 
 
 " No miracles heralded its advent, no dogs barked as at the birth of 
 Csesar, no chimneys were blown down as at the death of Macbeth." 
 
 The rivalry between Laborde and Cellarius became more and more 
 acute ; the brilliant star of Markowski appeared on the horizon ; the 
 newspapers engaged in fierce polemics concerning these professors. 
 
300 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 ■'■m 
 
 According to Delvau, Mme. de Girardin and Eugene Vitu took the 
 trouble to discuss this Polish Cancan. 
 
 " The Labordian," said one of the two, " turns his foot inwards, 
 which gives the true foreign stamp to his step ; he raises his heel 
 but very slightly behind him, and rests much more on the point of 
 the foot, which gives greater elegance as well as greater lightness to his 
 dancing. 
 
 " The Cellarian, on the other hand, twirls round with great delight, 
 , stamps with alarming 
 
 vigour, and lifts his heels 
 as if he intended to put 
 them into the tail-pockets 
 of his coat ; we purposely 
 exaggerate the Cellarian 
 faults a little the better to 
 show their absurdity. All 
 this would be well enough 
 it the Polka were simply 
 a stage-dance ; then, the 
 more choregraphic prob 
 lems, Cyclopean strides, 
 and tours-de-force it could 
 introduce, the better. But, 
 as the Polka is destined to 
 be danced in ball-rooms, I 
 cannot see why, instead of retaining its national simplicity and original 
 grace, we should rack our brains to transform it into a kind of convulsion, 
 no less dangerous to the joints ot the performer, than to the sensitive 
 parts of the spectator." 
 
 Meanwhile the Polka, its invasion of the capital completed, slipped 
 through the city barriers, and took possession of the provinces. 
 
 We are told that the Northern districts, with the exception of Rouen 
 and Verdun, remained fairly calm, but from Orleans downwards and 
 throughout the South, a frenzy of enthusiasm reigned. Every town was 
 attacked by Polkamania. Lyons, Marseilles, and Toulon were the most 
 
 ALWAYS ASK MAMMA TO DANCE 
 
 After a Lithograph by H. Bellang^ 
 
MARKOWSKI 
 
 301 
 
 impassioned ; at Bordeaux the Polka was danced in the theatres, the 
 streets, and even in the shops, &c. 
 
 JULLIEN S CELEBRATED POLKAS 
 
 But, as I have said, the star of Markowski had risen in the choregraphic 
 firmament. The professor introduced certain Polish dances. Cellarius' 
 
302 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Polka began to wane. It shone with a last furtive splendour tor a time, 
 like a flame on the point of expiring, and then the general enthusiasm died 
 out completely. 
 
 Markowski's origin was shrouded in mystery. It had its legend, too. 
 At his birth his father dreamt that he saw gnomes dancing round a cradle. 
 
 WLLE. BUSE AND M. C0R'^1-:T 
 
 From a Print of the Restoration Pcrinr^ 
 
 All that was known about him when he started a dancine-class in the Rue 
 Saint-Lazare was, that he had arrived from Poland at the aae of eighteen, 
 very poor, and had gone about giving lessons in schools, his pocket-fiddle 
 under his arm. 
 
 In 1848, after many vicissitudes, he opened a dancing-school at the 
 Hotel de Normandie, which suddenly had a great success. I'he aristocracy 
 and society generally thronged to his rooms. He very soon made a 
 fortune, which soon melted away in his hands. It was at this stage of his 
 
MARKOWSKI 
 
 303 
 
 career that, as director of the Enghien balls, he gave a brilliant fete, which 
 was long remembered, in the establishment he managed. 
 
 
 # ^v 
 
 A BALL IN 1830 
 
 From a Print of the Period 
 
 The entertainment in" question was a pantomime of Robert the Devil, 
 performed by the light of Bengal fire. The effect was extraordinary, the 
 crowd immense, so much so 
 that certain journalists, who had 
 been unable to get in, mounted 
 a poplar-tree in order to give 
 an account of the spectacle. 
 The receipts amounted to 
 37,000 francs. 
 
 Markowski afterwards 
 created the magnificent El 
 Dorado of the Rue Duphot, and 
 lived in great luxury, but his 
 career was full of ups and 
 downs, of lights and shadows. . 
 Shortly afterwards, his effects 
 were seized, and his furniture 
 and carriages sold by auction. 
 
 From 1 851 to 1857 he was 
 sunk in the deepest -poverty, 
 and he who had known wealth, 
 
 who had been seen in the Bois daily with a carriage and servants in livery, 
 was neglected and forsaken. 
 
 A LESSON FROM CELLARIUS 
 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
304 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 He lodged in a cold and wretched garret, and slept on a heap of 
 shavings ; no landlord would let him a flat, for he had nothing to 
 offer as security for his rent ; he was insolvent. And each time he 
 appeared on the stage he was virulently attacked in the press. One evening 
 he danced at a charity ball at Ranelagh, poorer himself than those for 
 
 whom the fete was 
 given, for he had eaten 
 nothing since the day 
 before. Returning to 
 his miserable den, 
 some four kilometres 
 distant, through the 
 darkness, shivering 
 under an icy wind, 
 the soles of his boots 
 came off as he waded 
 through the mud. 
 Poor Markowski 
 thought it lucky that 
 this accident had not 
 befallen him at Rane- 
 lagh in the middle of 
 his brilliant perform- 
 ance. 
 
 And it was during 
 this time uf loneliness 
 
 A RALL IN 1830 
 
 After a Lithograph of the Period 
 
 and poverty that he 
 composed his finest dances. Shivering with fever on his pallet, and racked 
 with the cough he never lost after the memorable night at Ranelagh, he 
 created the Schottische, the Sicilienne, the Friska, the Lisbonienne, and, 
 above all, the Mazurka, the success of which was nearly equal to that of the 
 Polka. 
 
 Markowski at last found his capitalist, M. Covary, who placed all his 
 fortune, three thousand francs, at his disposal for the decoration and 
 arrangement of the saloons of the Rue Buffault, a place of entertainment 
 
MARKOWSKI 
 
 30? 
 
 organised for the demi-monde and Bohemia, but where the flower of the 
 aristocracy and of the arts was often to be encountered. Markowski, 
 with three thousand francs in hand for the preparation of his rooms, 
 promptly spent sixty thousand. His creditors — numerous enough in all 
 conscience ! — were alarmed, and began to dun him. One fine day a 
 policeman arrived to carry him off to Clichy. Markowski fled through 
 
 THE MARY STUART QUADRILLE 
 
 After a Lithograph by Eugene Lamy 
 
 his dwelling, the policeman after him, and, the better to escape, made for a 
 dark narrow staircase leading to the ofiices. The policeman stumbled, and 
 rolled to the bottom of the staircase. He declared in court that he had 
 been enticed into an ambush, and an inquiry was held, which proved the 
 professor's innocence. 
 
 Throughout all his misfortunes the kindliness of this, man, who had 
 suflxred so bitterly, and whose friends had deserted him in adversity, 
 remained unchanged. His warmth of heart is attested by innumerable 
 
 traits. 
 
 2 Q 
 
3o6 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Markowski's public consisted in a great measure of foreigners, English- 
 men, Wallachians, &c., with a few artists and men of letters. Among the 
 writers occasionally to be seen in his rooms were Villemessant, Gustave 
 Claudin, Roger de Beauvoir, Murger, Lambert Thiboust, &c. 
 
 Markowski gave his farewell entertainment in the Rue Buffault in 1863. 
 
 The hall had been requisi- 
 tioned in view of the exten- 
 sion of the Rue de Lafayette. 
 Markowski's star had set. 
 
 Catherine de' Medici 
 created Cours-la-Reine, be- 
 tween the road to Versailles 
 along the Seine, and certain 
 waste lands. In 1660 Louis 
 XIV. transformed those 
 waste-lands into the Champs 
 Elysees, and laid out a vast 
 quincunx on Lenotre's plans, 
 which crossed the high road 
 to Saint-Germain. Between 
 the Versailles and Saint-Germain roads a shady avenue was planted, to which 
 the name of Allee des Veuves was given. 
 
 J •,: By a curious irony of fate it was here that the Bal Mabille was established 
 about 1840, to become in time the rendezvous of fashionable women and 
 dandies. 
 
 At first it was nothing but a little rustic dancing-room, frequented by 
 ladies' maids and lackeys from the Faubourg Saint-Honore. It was lighted 
 by oil-lamps, and the visitors danced to the music of a clarionet. 
 
 This upper-servants' ball-room, which was only open in the summer 
 months, was managed by Mabille the elder. He was a dancing -master, who 
 also held dances at the Hotel d'Aligre, Rue Saint-Honore, which had a 
 certain vogue. Mabille's son transformed the establishment, replacing the 
 smoky lamps by gas, introducing a lively orchestra, suppressing the ticket- 
 collectors, who took payment for each Quadrille before it began, and closing 
 the establishment on Mondays, the popular day, to open it on Saturdays. 
 
 THE QUADRILLE 
 
 After a Lithograph by Henri Monnier 
 
MABILLE 
 
 307 
 
 AH the feminine public of the Quartier des Martyrs and the Chaussee 
 d'Antin flocked to it, and the footmen and ladies' maids disappeared. 
 
 The Bal Mabille had become fashionable. 
 
 Everybody knows Mabille ; the memory of its merry balls has not yet 
 
 THE WALTZ 
 
 After a Lithograph by J. David 
 
 died out ; it remains a legend of careless gaiety, full of the songs and 
 laughter of its whilom poets, its ephemeral kings and queens : 
 
 " Pomare, Maria, 
 Mogador et Clara, 
 A mes yeux ench antes 
 Apparaissez, chastes divinites ! 
 C'est samedi dans le jardin Mabille ; 
 Vous vous livrez a de joyeux ebats. 
 C'est la qu'on trouve une gaite tranquille, 
 Et des vertus qui ne se donnent pas." 
 
 Such was its popularity that Charles de Boigne devoted an article to it 
 
3o8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 in the serious Constitutionnel, glorifying the kings of the ball, Chicard, 
 Pritchard and Brididi. 
 
 The following passage occurs in a little book of the period : 
 
 " In the steppes of Russia, in the green and trackless prairies of America, on the heights 
 of Chimborazo, or by the waters of the Amoor, in the lands ot the dawn and the sunset, in 
 
 strange unknown regions, let 
 
 FAITHFUL A5 A POLE ! 
 
 After a Lithograph by Rafifet (1833) 
 
 but some being with a human 
 face and voice pronounce this 
 word, ' Mabille ! ' and he will 
 perhaps see a Laplander or a 
 Yankee, a Ked Indian, a 
 Chinese, or a Caracan spring 
 to his feet and dance a few 
 steps of a pas seul ; the whole 
 world knows something of the 
 spot. 
 
 " This corner of Parisian 
 soil, where the flowers die, 
 poisoned by the emanations of 
 gas-jets, where no blossom is 
 born, where the air fades all it 
 fans, where the turf is yellow 
 and the foliage blue, has greater 
 fascinations for misguided man 
 than the perfumed gardens of 
 Asia, where roses bloom perennially, than the snowy peaks, whose pure air gives new life to 
 the exhausted, than fertile meadows, than dense forests. . . . He is drawn to it from every 
 quarter of the globe, a smile on his lips if he be rich and disdainful, a pang at heart if he be 
 poor; but, in either case, he comes. 
 
 "There the prince elbows the hairdresser, the ambassador the cook ; there you and I 
 jostle somebodies and nobodies, and worse than nobodies. ... So that, later in life, when 
 we are advocates or notaries in France, generals in Bolivia, princes in Brazil, consuls in 
 America, merchants in China, or free lances at large, we shiver when we read the word 
 ' Mabille ' on the newspaper in which some old boots are wrapped, recalling those nights 
 of noise and fever." 
 
 Pritchard, one of the kings of Mabille, an inimitable dancer, was 
 eccentricity incarnate, enigma made man. He was a muscular fellow of 
 about five feet six, taciturn and sepulchral, always dressed in black, which 
 gave an added comicality to his extravagant dancing. Once he spoke, once 
 only, relapsing into a silence as of the tomb. It was at the Opera Ball, 
 when he was expelled by the police for an over-suggestive dance. He 
 opened his lips to claim damages ! 
 
THE DANCER PRITCHARD 
 
 309 
 
 Some said he was a doctor, some that he was an apothecary or a writing- 
 master, others that he was a Protestant minister, and others again that he 
 was an undertaker's coachman. As a fact, no one was able to clear up the 
 mystery that hung about the saturnine Pritchard. ' 
 
 " Take Pritchard by any end you please," said E. de Champeaux, " run 
 your eye over his Briarean arms from the shoulder to the tips of his dirty 
 nails, take the carelessly knotted 
 cravat from oiF his neck, ex- 
 plore the depths of a mouth 
 defended by two formidable 
 rows of false teeth, follow the 
 irregular lines of his bony 
 profile, look into the wide 
 nostrils of his enormous nose, 
 peep under the glasses of his 
 spectacles, and try to seize in 
 their passage one of those 
 sardonic gleams that flash 
 beneath his heavy eyebrows ; 
 examine even the soles of his 
 boots, which it is his habit to 
 raise to the level of his vis-a- 
 vis' face in the Quadrille, and 
 you will know no more of him 
 than before. ChampoUion may 
 decipher hieroglyphs, but he 
 could not tell us who is this 
 man whose manners resemble 
 
 no one's, whose dancing is his own, who never speaks to a living soul, whom 
 every one wishes to see, and who seems to be wrapped up in himself, to smile 
 at his mental asides, and to enjoy his triumphs without betraying a trace of 
 emotion. Further, in spite of the name that has been given him, and which 
 does not seem to displease him at all, there is reason to believe him a very 
 good fellow ; his kind heart reveals itself constantly, for he is the providence 
 of the two or three ugly girls who take it into their heads to appear 
 
 EIGOLETTO 
 
 After a Lithograph by Adolphe 
 
310 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 occasionally at Mabille, as if to give shade to the picture ; no one dreams 
 of asking them to dance ; but Pritchard appears ; he circles for some time 
 round the ugliest among them, like a vulture about to seize his prey : 
 finally, having singled out the smallest and plainest of the lot, he advances 
 with a little conquering air, and utters his formula in the tone peculiar to 
 
 himself : ' Will you dance ? ' 
 The lady does not keep him 
 long expectant, he hooks his 
 partner on to his arm, as 
 Mere Michel hooTcs her bas- 
 ket, and leads her rapidly 
 from one Quadrille to 
 another, until he finds space 
 enough to give himself up to 
 all the delirium of a pedes- 
 trian improvisation, a series 
 of gymnastics which have 
 something in common both 
 with the dances of the lowan 
 Indians and the Bourree of 
 Saint Flour." 
 
 Chicard, another famous 
 Mabille dancer, was the very 
 antithesis of Pritchard. His 
 rubicund, open face was always 
 beaming with smiles. He danced in a very unceremonious fashion, displaying 
 a portly paunchy his coat-tails flying, his hat at the back of his head. He was 
 the type of the good fellow, the jovial boon companion, shouting to Pilodo 
 from the middle of the room in stentorian tones : " Mais allons, done, 
 r amour ! " and following up his speech with sonorous peals of laughter. He 
 was a child of Romanticism, a creature of plumes, red waistcoats, and high- 
 sounding phrases. It was he who always gave the signal for the most 
 delirious waltzes at the Opera Balls. It was he who invented the Cancan. 
 
 Brididi, like Pritchard, was a king at Mabille. He was the best dancer 
 of all, the most elegant, the most graceful, the most indefatigable. It is 
 
 BALL OF THE SONS OF WARS 
 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
QUEEN POMARE 
 
 311 
 
 supposed that Eugene Sue, who had so much reason to love Mabille, had 
 Brididi in his mind when he created the poetic character of Rodolphe. 
 
 " Indeed," says E. de Champeaux, " if all the current rumours are to be 
 believed, Brididi is nothing less than a sovereign prince, who has come to 
 Pans on purpose to analyse the Polka, and form an opinion upon the 
 Mazurka, and high kicking in 
 general ! " 
 
 After the kings, we turn to 
 the queens. The most famous 
 of these was the so-called Queen 
 Pomare, whose real name was 
 Elise Sergent. She belonged 
 to a family employed at the 
 Olympic Circus. She started 
 in life as a circus-rider, it 
 seems, but that was not her 
 vocation. 
 
 "One evening in May, 
 1844," says Delvau, in his 
 Cy there s Parisiennes, " a young 
 woman, whose beauty and cos- 
 tume had both a strange, exotic 
 cast, appeared in one of the 
 Quadrilles at Mabille. She had 
 
 abundant black hair, the olive complexion of the Creole, a white dress, less 
 decolletee than those affected by honest women, tasteful beads and bracelets. 
 She began to dance the Polka, then the fashionable novelty, with a supple- 
 ness, a grace, and a fire that at once attracted a crowd of admirers, as the 
 light attracts the moths. It was evident that she was entirely untaught, 
 and that she was improvising the attitudes and steps of the supposed Polka 
 she was dancing ; but it was this very ignorance, combined with her dazzling 
 beauty, which made her so original, and ensured her fame. That evening 
 she was greeted with thunders of applause from voices, hands, feet and 
 chairs, everything that could express enthusiasm ; the feminine glories of 
 the place paled before her ; a rival star had risen. 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL GUARDS* BALL 
 
 After rt Lithograph by Vernier 
 
312 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 " Whence did she come, this stranger, who was thus acclaimed ? No 
 
 one knows, no one ever knew. 
 ' Her mother was a princess, 
 her father a Roman prince,' 
 said those who want no 
 credentials from a beautiful 
 woman. 
 
 " The new-comer, who pre- 
 sented herself at Mabille that 
 evening under the modest name 
 of Elise Sergent, left it with 
 the title of Queen Pomare. 
 . . . Thus do we improvise 
 royalties in our pleasant land 
 of France." 
 
 This name made her for- 
 tune, her reputation became 
 
 MONTESQUIEU. A LIVELY POLKA 
 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
 European : 
 
 " Mais toujours, chose etrange, au milieu de la joie, 
 Elle garde un sinistre aspect d'oiseau de proie, 
 Elle mele au plaisir un funebre flambeau, 
 Aux suaves parfums un odeur de tombeau." 
 
 The charming poet, Theodore de Bauville, addressed these verses to 
 
 her : 
 
 " Elssler, Taglioni, Carlotta, sceurs divines. 
 ^ * * * 
 
 O reines du ballet, toutes les trois si belles, 
 
 Qu'un Homere ebloui fera nymphes un jour, 
 Ce n'est plus vous la danse : allons, coupez vos ailes, 
 Eteignez vos regards ; ce n'est plus vous I'aniour. 
 
 " C'est notre Pomare dont la danse fantasque, 
 Avec ses tordions frissonnants et penches, 
 Aiguillonne a present comme un tambour de basque, 
 Les rapides lutteurs a sa robe attaches." 
 
QUEEN POMARE' 313 
 
 The ambition which devoured her cast a shadow on her brow. It was 
 her ruin. She made her debut at the Palais-Royal, where she danced the 
 Polka, and was outrageously hissed. For a time after this she lived 
 obscurely in Paris, and this queen of a day died poor and forsaken in a 
 house of the Rue d' Amsterdam. 
 
 ' W^ Hllrr , 
 
 iL^^Q^\ 
 
 THE ^LITE OF MABILLE AT NOISY-LE-SEC 
 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
 2 R 
 
RAKELAGH, PARIS 
 
 After a Lilhograph of 1840 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 'Public 'Balls— Ranekgh— The Chaumiere—The Sceaux 'Ball— The Trado — The 
 T)elta — The Chateau-Rouge — The lie d^ dniour — L'Ortie and Les Acacias 
 — The Mars — The Victoire — The Bourdon — The Bal des Chiens — The 
 [M.ontesquieu — The 'Valentino — The Jar din d''Hiver — The Lac Saint-Fargeau — 
 The Grand Saint-[M.artin and the Tiescente de la Courtille — The Closerie des 
 Lilas — Bullier 
 
 E have seen the dances of the nobility, dances of decorative 
 steps and statuesque attitudes rather than of movement, dis- 
 appear one by one during the latter half of the eighteenth 
 century. But the Revolution popularised and thus com- 
 pletely metamorphosed dancing. The proud Minuet and the chilly Country 
 Dance were replaced by the graceful and charming Waltz, soon to be 
 followed by eccentric dances such as the dishevelled Cancan. Hitherto the 
 
DANCING PLACES IN PARIS 
 
 31? 
 
 only dancing, save that of the Court and the theatre, had been the jigging 
 and stamping of the country tavern, the leafy arcade, the village green, 
 where noble and burgher appeared but rarely. In certain rustic fetes (such 
 as the Flemish Kermess, immortalised by Teniers) a tradition of the 
 Bacchanalia seemed to survive. 
 
 About 1793, certain speculators, shrewdly appreciative of new chore- 
 
 LA RUSSE, OK THE ALLIES, AT TIVOLI 
 
 graphic tendencies, conceived the idea of providing Paris with public 
 gardens. Successively there sprang into existence the Jardin Boutin (the 
 old Tivoli),* the Champs Elysees, the Ely see Bourbon, Marboeuf, the Pare 
 
 * "This occupied a great space iX. the foot of the Rue de Clichy, on the present site 
 of the Rue de Londres and the Passage Tivoli. Here all that 'fun of the fair' which is 
 even to this day the delight of the patrons of the Kermess, was to be haid in abundance. 
 Hither resorted the gilded youth of the Directory with their cadenettes, or long plaited love- 
 locks. Here Madame Tallien led her train of Incroyables and Merveilkux. Which of us 
 has not heard some ancestral relative dilate upon the joys of this earthly paradise, and 
 especially upon the emotions inspired in our grandmothers by the then novel delights of 
 the (Montagnes russes." — {Paris qui dame.) 
 
 "All the boudoirs of Flora are open, and the vast and beautiful Tivoli invites an 
 eager crowd of Parisian sweethearts to the shades of its groves. Long has this delightful place 
 been a favourite haunt of the- most charming society. Trumpets and fireworks announce 
 the prelude of the fete. Already the merriment has begun— under the trees, on. the green 
 
316 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Monceaux, the Hameau de Chantilly, Frascati, the Jardin d'Isis, the Salon 
 de Mars, the Salon de Flore, and many others. 
 
 So numerous were they that a song of the day ran as follows : 
 
 "A Paphos on s'ennuie, 
 On deserte Monceau, 
 Le Jardin d'Idalie, 
 
 Voit s'enfuir ses oiseaux ; 
 
 
 ft^Sf,^ 
 
 S^^-i^ 
 
 / 
 
 A GROUP OF WAI.TZEES 
 
 From a Print of the Restoration Period 
 
 De la foule abusecj 
 J'ai vu les curieux, 
 
 Bailler dans I'Elysee 
 
 Comme des bienheureux." 
 
 lawn, beside the brook, in the paths of the great flower-garden. Some linger under the 
 lindens to applaud Oliver and his tricks, the magician and his oracles, the big elephant and 
 his driver, the parroquet and her old master. Nimble and volatile youth tosses the shuttle- 
 cock, or flies through the air on the see-saw, the wooden horse, and the merry-go-round. 
 
 "But the signal is given ; the orchestra is ready ; it strikes up a dance beloved of the 
 fair ; and shrubbery and grove, and all else are deserted. Hands join and hearts beat ; 
 happy pairs set to each other and are off. Pleasure animates the lady and love the gallant, 
 and the Graces inspire attitude and step. The Waltz quickens, becomes more 
 absorbing. . . . And overhead young Saqui walks the air on his tight-rope, and Ruggieri, 
 the dexterous pyrotechnist, illuminates all with his marvels." — (Anonymous author, quoted 
 by Alfred Delvau in his Cytheres Parisiennes.) 
 
RANELAGH IN PARIS 
 
 317 
 
 The Ranelagh was among the first pubhc balls of the close of the 
 eighteenth century. A gatekeeper of the Bois de Boulogne, doubtless aware 
 of the success of a similar 
 entertainment in London, 
 opened a public dancing- 
 place on the lawns of Passy 
 in 1774, and gave it the 
 ■name of Ranelagh. The 
 Controller of Lakes and 
 Forests was strongly opposed 
 to the opening of the estab- 
 lishment. It caused a great 
 commotion in high places, 
 and Parliament annulled the 
 concession made to the gate- 
 keeper by the Prince de 
 Soubise, governor of La 
 Muette. But Marie-Antoin- 
 ette was on the side of the 
 dancers, and the licence was 
 finally ratified. 
 
 Ranelagh was aristocratic 
 and fashionable. Madame 
 
 Recamier and Madame Tallien (" Our Lady of Thermidor ") paraded 
 there, clothed in "the Athenian fashion," that is to say, in gowns of 
 gauze slit down the sides from hip to ankle, so as to show a good deal 
 of the person, and two gold rings encircling the thighs. 
 
 " D'un tissu trop clair, trop leger, 
 
 Ces belles Grecques sont vetues ; 
 Un souffle peut le deranger, 
 
 Et nous les montrer toutes nues. 
 Aux yeux, souvent, un voile adroit 
 
 Promet une beaute divine ; 
 Rarement la forme qu'on voit, 
 
 Vaut celle que Ton devine." 
 
 Ranelagh was closed during the Revolution, and did not reopen till 
 
 THE PKADO. A SOLEMN MOMENT 
 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
3i8 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 1796. It renewed its earlier successes, but declined again in 18 14, only, 
 however, to attain unequalled prosperity under the Restoration, under 
 Louis Philippe, under the Second Republic, and under the Second Empire. 
 In 1849, *^^ manager celebrated the seventy-fourth anniversary of its 
 opening by a grand evening fete for its frequenters. He also gave a great 
 annual ball for the benefit of the poor of Passy. This was preceded by a 
 concert, in which appeared distinguished artists such as M. and Madame 
 Lefebure-Wely. 
 
 Being a good way from the centre of Paris, Ranelagh was available only 
 to such dancers as were rich enough to keep on hire a carriage. - All this 
 was changed by the opening of the railway to Auteuil. Then a new public 
 poured in — tradespeople, grisettes, clerks, students — and society turned 
 its back on the place ; its palmy days were over. Nicholas II. alighted at 
 Ranelagh station when he visited Paris in 1896. 
 
 A little book, very rare nowadays, describes how, about 1788, an 
 Englishman called Tinkson raised certain thatched sheds near the Observa- 
 tory, where he organised a ball. The originality of this rustic creation 
 drew the crowd. At a later date Tinkson, now in partnership with a 
 neighbouring restaurant-keeper, replaced these sheds by a large and 
 ostentatious hall — the Grande Chaumiere. 
 
 Tinkson, denounced in 1793 to the revolutionary tribunal as a suspect, 
 was forced to flee the country. The fate of his partner is unknown ; but 
 eventually we find the great-granddaughter of this restaurant-keeper married 
 to the famous Lahire, who won for the Chaumiere the great popularity it 
 enjoyed so long. The management of M. Lahire dates from 1840. 
 
 " A three-headed dog," says our brochure, " kept watch at the gates of hell ; a monster 
 of seven heads forbade approach to the Golden Fleece ; but the Chaumiere possesses in 
 PJre Lahire a guardian who, without being dog or dragon, has much in common with 
 these famous classical warders. Pere Lahire has an eagle's eye, in itself worth all the eyes 
 of Argus. At his post when the ball begins, majestic of stature, an imposing presence, he 
 nips every tendency to disorder in the bud. Would you steal a kiss in the ' first figure,' 
 would you be skittish in the 'set to partners,' would you 'galop' like a lunatic? 
 Beware, Lahire ! His voice thunders. You must restrain your ardour : quick of foot as of 
 eye, he will kick you out in a trice. He is wine-merchant as well as proprietor of the 
 Chaumiere. Bacchus and Terpsichore join hands: this double business has brought him a 
 large fortune and a notable portliness. 
 
THE CHAUMIERE 
 
 319 
 
 " He loves peace and order ; he reigns without pomp, and even with a certain grace of 
 voice and gesture, which inspires respect and goodwill." 
 
 The Chauniiere 
 
 Gavarni, the great artist and humorist, has said 
 is a big garden, where young 
 folks go of a Sunday to 
 enjoy sacred music after 
 vespers. You hear your 
 music as you stroll through 
 bower and thicket, or be- 
 tween flower-beds, or on 
 green grass among daisies 
 and wild roses, with some 
 fair piece of frivolity leaning 
 against your shoulder. Under 
 starry gas-jets this sacred 
 music will presently excite 
 the wild Cancan, that is 
 continually setting the 
 authorities and the dancers 
 at odds." 
 
 Our little book tells us more of this Cancan, which it calls the French 
 Cachucha ; 
 
 THE chaumiI:re. a sentimental quadrille 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
 " The invasion of France by the Castilian Cachucha will prove a no less momentous 
 historical fact than the first importation of the potato. . . . Some day folks will say : A 
 Duke of Orleans succeeded to the throne during the reign of the Cachucha. I am not 
 here to chronicle Petitpa or Mabille, nor any of those ballet-dancers who follow mechani- 
 cally geometrical figures chalked on a stage ; nor am I here to eulogise the Taglionis, the 
 Fanny Elsslers, the Grisis, who obey cast-iron regulations, who permit themselves no 
 pirouette, no gesture, no step, which is not measured and calculated beforehand : I 
 celebrate the free and buoyant student, who follows his own inspiration, and the grisette 
 whose unstudied movements speak frankly of pleasure and love. 
 
 "As the music strikes up, the student falls academically into position — left foot forward, 
 head on one side, back curved, right arm round his partner. She, her left hand on his 
 shoulder, clings to him like an amaranth to a palm-tree. With the right hand she pulls 
 forward a fold of her dress, while her scarf, drawn tightly round her figure, defines its 
 contours with provocative exactness. 
 
 "They are off! It is a helter-skelter of bewildering dash, of electrifying enthusiasm. 
 
320 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 One dancer leans languidly over, straightening himself again with vivacity ; another races 
 the length of the ball-room, stamping with pleasure. This girl darts by as if inviting a fall, 
 winding up with a saucy, coquettish skip ; that other passes and repasses languidly, as if 
 melancholy and exhausted ; but a cunning bound now and then, and a febrile quiver, 
 testify to the keenness of her sensations and the voluptuousness of her movements. They 
 mingle, cross, part, meet again, with a swiftness and fire that must have been felt to be 
 described. 
 
 " Plutarch defined the dancing of his time as a silent assembly, a speaking picture ; 
 what then shall we call the Cancan ? It is a total dislocation of the human body, by which 
 the soul expresses an extreme energy of sensation. The French Cachucha is a super- 
 human language, not of this world, learnt assuredly from angels or from demons." 
 
 How many elderly magistrates, notaries, ministers even — for there have 
 been so many ! — who have retired to the safe obscurity of the provinces, 
 still remember the stupendous nights of the Chaumiere ! The memory of 
 that joyous Bohemian time haunts them like a dream ; it warms them more 
 than the sunshine that plays about their white hair. They have all been 
 there, those makers and administrators of the law, barristers, physicians, 
 surgeons ! That bizarre haunt has been frequented by the elect and by the 
 outcast ; it has seen both the future and the past. 
 
 The Sceaux Ball was opened in 1795, under the chestnuts of the park 
 that had sheltered the castle of the Duchesse du Maine. Generations have 
 danced under those venerable trees. Muscadins, Incroyables, Merveilleux, 
 men and women of the Directory, of the Empire, of the Restoration, have 
 vied with each other there in the extravagance of their costumes. Towards 
 the end of the Second Empire, this ball, its splendour finally eclipsed, had 
 become the haunt of the grocer and the market-gardener. 
 
 The Prado, one of the most fashionable of pleasure resorts early in the 
 century, had once re-echoed to sacred songs. It occupied the site of the 
 church of Saint Barthelemy, a royal parish. A theatre replaced the church, 
 a masonic lodge succeeded the theatre, and a dancing-room the masonic 
 temple. 
 
 Dating from 1810, the Prado dancing-saloon prospered for about fifty 
 years, and then made way for the long robe, that is to say, for the Tribunal 
 de Commence. 
 
 The Prado was hidden away in one of the most picturesque corners of 
 old Paris, in the malodorous Passage de Flore, between the Marche aux 
 
THE HERMITAGE 321 
 
 Fleurs and the site, of the pillory, near the Conciergerie and Notre Dame, 
 
 and the Morgue— among convicts and judges, death and flowers ! One got 
 
 to the Prado by following a long covered passage, terminating in a wide 
 
 stone staircase that led to the halL This hall was divided into two separate 
 
 parts, the Rotonde and the 
 
 Grand Salon. The rotunda 
 
 was reserved for students 
 
 and grisettes; in the great 
 
 saloon were to be seen, 
 
 every Monday and Thursday, 
 
 the choregraphic celebrities 
 
 of the time — Clara Fontaine, 
 
 Mogador, Louise la Baloch- 
 
 euse, -Rose Pompon, Mala- 
 
 koff, Jeanne la Juive, &c. — 
 
 who performed eccentric 
 
 dances to the music of an 
 
 orchestra conducted by 
 
 Pilodo. 
 
 Who now remembers the 
 
 Delta, popular from 18 15 
 till the Restoration ? And 
 many others, the very names 
 
 of which are forgotten. Lugete Veneres Cupidinesque ! The Hermitage 
 dancing saloon, founded in 1815, an old bal de barriere, the delight of clerks 
 and grisettes until 1862, is already a memory of the past. "The garden," 
 says Delvau, " with its trees, that gave such a cheerful air to the Boulevard 
 des Martyrs, had shady nooks in which to drink the traditional March beer 
 and munch the famous crumbly three-cornered puiF. The orchestra was not 
 numerous, but big enough for the frequenters of the place, who were not 
 exacting. Male and female, they came there to frolic ; and frolic they did, 
 with merry hearts and legs, to the sound of a fiddle, a clarionet, and perhaps 
 a cornet a piston. Later on, not to be behind the times, the orchestra was 
 reinforced by a few other wind and string instruments, which did no 
 harm. 
 
 KANELAGH. AN ARISTOCRATIC POLKA 
 
 Afler a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
 2S 
 
222 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 " Having shone under the Restoration, under Louis Philippe, under the 
 Republic, and under the Empire, with varying fortunes and a changing 
 public, the Hermitage disappeared in 1862. Its trees -were cut down, its 
 groves delivered over to the spoiler, its orchestra demolished ; solid six- 
 storeyed houses, like those of 
 the Rue de Rivoli, arose where 
 the garden had been. 
 
 " ' La-bas, la-bas, tout au bout de la 
 
 terre, 
 II existail dans la rue Cliguan- 
 
 court 
 Un gai chateau ou s'amusaicnt 
 
 nos peres. 
 Ah ! mes amis, regrettons-le 
 
 toujours.' " 
 
 The Chateau-Rouge occupied 
 the site of a former residence of 
 the beautiful Gabrielle d'Estrees, 
 on the summit of the Butte 
 Clignancourt. In 18 14 its 
 orchestra was silenced by 
 artillery and musketry ; it 
 became the headquarters of 
 King Joseph, Napoleon's brother, when he was President of the Council of 
 Defence. From one of its upper windows, the Brigade-major of the 
 National Guard and Director of the Depot of Fortification of Paris studied 
 the movements of the besieging Allies. When, after some time, its balls 
 again re-opened, they were continued till 1848, the date of the first reform 
 banquet. The establishment disappeared upon the opening up of the 
 Boulevard Ornano. 
 
 About 1830, the Chateau-Rouge was in its glory. Every Saturday, 
 fireworks illuminated the gloomy Butte, and the neighbouring citizens with 
 their families enjoyed the gratuitous show — from the outside. And three 
 times a week, fashionable Paris climbed the hill to amuse itself. 
 
 THE CHAUMlfeKE 
 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
LES ACACIAS 
 
 323 
 
 Many another dancing saloon prospered between 1830 and 1850. 
 There was the He 
 d' Amour : 
 
 " L'lle d' Amour 
 Est un amour d'lle, 
 L'lle d'Amour, 
 C'est un chouette sejour. 
 Flaneurs du faubourg, 
 Flaneurs de la ville,, 
 Venez a l'lle d'Amour, 
 C'est un chouette sejour ! " 
 
 So ran a song of the 
 day. To the He went 
 dandies in BoHvar hats 
 and SouvarofF boots, to 
 meet elegant ladies in 
 spencers, their powdered 
 hair brushed back and tied 
 in bobs on the napes of 
 their neck, a Venfant, or 
 crowned perhaps by the 
 
 high poke-bonnet and plumes of the chapeau a la girafe. The lie 
 d'Amour was installed beyond the old barrier of Belleville, near the Rue 
 Rigolo, in an odd-looking house since displaced by the town-hall of 
 Belleville. 
 
 The ball variously named the Astic, the Acacias, or the Reine-Blanche 
 was frequented, between 1830 and 1850, by some great artists and their 
 models. Meissonier, Daubigny, Daumier, Cham, Staal, and Bertall were 
 often seen here. Another habituee of the place was the beautiful Jewess 
 who sat for Fame in Paul Delaroche's fresco. Fame distributing Crowns, 
 which decorates the hemicycle of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. At this time 
 each public ball (and Delvau counts sixty-three) had its special features and 
 its special public. 
 
 At the Mars, and at the Victoire, near the Military School, soldiers 
 
 RANELAGH 
 
 After a Lithograph by Vernier 
 
324 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 danced disorderly Cancans with partners of a non-vestal type. The 
 Bourdon, installed in a tavern called the Elysee des Arts, had, prior to 
 1848, a short popularity with the artistic frequenters of the Astic. Later, 
 it was the resort of the youth of the Faubourg Saint- Antoine, and of Jews. 
 The Bal des Chiens was a Cythera of the populace which flourished about 
 
 1840 in the Rue St. Honore. 
 This is how Gerard de Nerval 
 describes it : 
 
 " The old hand exclaims, ' Are 
 you coming in ? it's a lively 
 place ! ' And so indeed it is ! 
 The house, which is approached 
 by a long alley, is like an antique 
 gymnasium. Here youth finds all 
 , - that is needed to develop its muscles 
 
 — and its wits : on the ground- 
 floor a cafe and billiard-room, on 
 the first floor our ball-room, on 
 the second a fencing and boxing 
 saloon, on the third a daguerreo- 
 type studio. 
 
 " But at night there is no 
 question of the gloves or of 
 portraits. A deafening brass 
 band, led by M. Hesse, nicknamed Decati, draws us irresistibly towards 
 the ball-room. We fight our way through hawkers of biscuits and 
 cakes to a sort of vestibule, where are tables at which we are privileged 
 to demand a glass of something in exchange for our twenty-five centime 
 tickets. 
 
 " And now we perceive pillars among which flit merry parties of dancers. 
 And we must not smoke, for smoking is forbidden save in the vestibule. 
 So we throw away our cigars, which are promptly picked up by young men 
 less fortunate than we. Yet things might be worse : there are certain 
 deficiencies of costume no doubt ! — but then this is what they call in Vienna 
 an undress ball. Let us not be too proud : the women here are as good 
 
 MLLE. NOBLET 
 
 After a Lithograph of 1S30 
 
DANCING SALOONS OF THE POPULACE 
 
 ?2? 
 
 as lots of others ; and, as to the men, we may parody Alfred de Musset in 
 Les TDerviches Turcs, and say of them : 
 
 " ' Ne les derange pas, ils t'appelleraient chien : 
 Ne les insulte pas, car ils te valent bien." 
 
 " Good society is dull compared with this. The large hall is painted 
 yellow. Respectable visi- 
 tors lean against the 
 pillars, under the 'No 
 smoking ' placards, and 
 only expose their chests 
 to the elbows, their toes 
 to the tramplings of 
 waltzers and galopists. 
 When dancing intermits 
 there is a rush to the 
 tables. About eleven 
 o'clock, the work - girls 
 go home, making way 
 for women from the 
 theatres, the music-halls, 
 and such like. The 
 orchestra strikes up with 
 renewed vigour for this 
 new audience, and does 
 not give over till mid- 
 night." 
 
 We have seen a dancing-hall replace a church ; we may now note 
 the Montesquieu dancing-rooms transformed into a restaurant, a Bouillon 
 Duval, the first of its kind, in 1854. This hall was one of the largest and 
 finest in Paris, but frequented only by the dregs of the populace. 
 
 The Valentino was somewhat better ordered, but nothing to boast of ; 
 it prospered exceedingly during the concerts and masquerades got up by 
 Musard. 
 
 " The Barthelemy," says Delvau, " was known originally as the Ball of 
 
 MLLE. BIGOTTINI 
 
 After a Lithograph of 1830 
 
326 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 ' 1 
 
 &•«; 
 
 the Turnip-fields. It was probably so called because its promoter had 
 chosen for the dancing of the youth of the Temple quarter a waste, sandy, 
 uncultivated bit of ground where nothing would grow but weeds or turnips. 
 Here, in a rickety wooden shed, waltzing went on as merrily in fine 
 weather as on a polished floor ; but ■ when it rained, the roof leaked, and 
 
 there was mud underfoot, 
 and the provident dancer 
 protected his partner's 
 dress with an umbrella. 
 It was a very primitive 
 afi^air — just the thing for 
 its patrons. 
 
 " Despite, or because 
 of its imperfections, it was 
 much resorted to by the 
 grisettes of the Boulevard 
 du Temple and the quar- 
 ters adjacent. New build- 
 ings, however, including 
 the barracks, ousted the 
 old dancing - shed ; the 
 owner of which, not to 
 be too far away from his 
 patrons, built a hall more 
 adapted to modern needs 
 in the Rue du Chateau d'Eau : thus the Salle Barthelemy succeeded the 
 Champs des Navets. 
 
 " The new establishment tried hard for a while to be at once a ball- 
 room, a concert-hall, a theatre, and an opera-house, but at last made up its 
 mind to be merely a dancing-saloon — pretty well frequented on Sundays, 
 Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Its winter balls have a special vogue 
 with certain classes of masqueraders : here are to be seen not only fierrots 
 and Pierrettes as at other balls, but also titi5,chicards, and even balochards — 
 three types almost as extinct elsewhere as the mastodon and the mega- 
 losaurus. 
 
 ■ k^ 
 
 =»'%& 
 
 
 THE CHAUMIERE 
 
 After a Lithograph by Cujas 
 
THE CHATEAU DES FLEURS 
 
 327 
 
 " You, who have only a hearsay knowledge of the eccentricities of your 
 father's time, and who have not seen -achicard of 1838 except in Gavarni's 
 sketches, go to a Barthelemy masquerade. There you will meet this modern 
 harlequin who has gone so far afield for his costume : his gauntlets belong 
 to Jean de Paris, his 
 breeches to the reign 
 of Louis XIII., his 
 waistcoat to Le Sage's 
 Turcaret, his epaulettes 
 to the National Guard, 
 his helmet to antiquity. 
 There, too, you will 
 find the balochard with 
 his blue smock-frock, 
 his red heavy- cavalry 
 trousers, and his grey 
 felt hat." 
 
 In 1856 there died 
 at Batignolles a man 
 who had enjoyed a 
 fleeting success — Victor 
 Bohan. To his in- 
 genious initiative we 
 owe the Winter Gar- 
 den. Fond of flowers, 
 and especially of the 
 
 dahlia, it occurred to him to build a great glass conservatory, duly 
 heated, in which exotic flowers should bloom despite of snow or storm 
 outside. He carried out his idea, but no permanent success attended 
 the concerts and masquerades of his fairy palace. His Castle of Flowers 
 had a prosperity almost as ephemeral as the bloom of its roses, and this 
 notwithstanding that Cellarius appeared here (during the Exhibition of 
 1855) with his troupe of dancing -girls, that Musard shook the glass 
 roof with an orchestra a hundred and twenty strong, that Olivier 
 Metra conducted, and the brothers Lionnet and Darcier appeared for 
 
 A DANCING LESSON 
 
 After a Lithograph by Bouchot 
 
328 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 the first time at a concert. But this will suffice to keep its memory 
 green. 
 
 The Bal du Vieux Chene was long-lived ; doubtless its name was lucky. 
 Its roses could not wither, for no rose bloomed in the shadow of the Old 
 Oak. A special society exercised its muscles here nightly, in the stagnant 
 
 and nauseating atmosphere of 
 the back-room of a wine-shop 
 of the Rue MoufFetard. 
 
 "The frequenters of the 
 Vieux Chene," says Delvau, 
 the great authority on popular 
 dancing-saloons, " are of that 
 truly sinister Parisian breed 
 which shoots up from the 
 paving-stones and the gutter 
 • — the breed that Victor Hugo 
 has personified, and striven to 
 idealise, in Gavroche. Here 
 swarm Gavroches, Montpar- 
 nasses, and Claquesous, with 
 their Eponines and Fantines — 
 blackguards of fourteen and 
 trulls of twelve — boys who 
 have never known childhood 
 and girls who have never known innocence — every one of them on the 
 straight road to transportation or the House of Correction, food for 
 Cayenne and Saint-Lazare, The Faubourg Saint-Marceau does not set 
 itself up to furnish Paris with Joans of Arc or winners of the Montyon 
 prize, with models of conduct, or angels of virtue ! " 
 
 It was not safe to enter in a coat. The blouse was the thing, and the 
 characteristic black silk cap. Nor was this enough. The famous casquette 
 had to be worn just right, flattened to a nicety, not tilted too much back- 
 wards, or forwards, or to one side. Then, too, the visitor had to make up 
 his face a little, to aff^ect a horny hand and dirty nails, to be master of the 
 catchwords of his company. If, in spite of all this, he betrayed himself, it 
 
 A MixutT 
 After a Lithograph by Gavarni 
 
LA DESCENTE DE LA COURTILLE 
 
 329 
 
 behoved him to. make himself scarce as quickly as possible, for there was an 
 open clasp-knife in every pocket. 
 
 We turn now to the Lac Saint-Fargeau. On the plateau of Belleville, on 
 the site of a former Pare Saint-Fargeau, an old carpenter, the father of 
 fourteen lusty sons, .owned a : workshop and a piece of ground. In the 
 midst of his territory was a 
 limpid lake, fed by an in- 
 visible spring. The depth 
 was unknown, no sounding 
 had reached to the bottom. 
 According to popular tra- 
 dition, a woman, given over 
 to a hopeless passion, had 
 wept so abundantly here that 
 her tears had filled a yawning 
 chasm, into which she finally 
 threw herself. About 1850, 
 the carpenter's shop was 
 turned into a dancing-saloon, 
 which took its name from 
 the lake. The owner con- 
 structed merry-go-rounds and 
 a switch-back railway, and an 
 artificial island. The clerks, 
 
 mechanics, and market-gardeners or the neighbourhood rowed on the lake, 
 mounted the wooden horses, or danced frantically in the saloon. 
 
 Not far off was the hamlet of La Courtille — an ill-famed place. 
 Visitors, it was said, were mufdered there nightly, while those who escaped 
 with life were robbed. There was much exaggeration in all this. Probably 
 the workmen of the neighbourhood discouraged the attentions of well- 
 dressed strangers to the workwomen of La Courtille rather roughly. 
 
 It was from the dancing-saloon and tavern called the Grand Saint- Mar tin, 
 situated on the slope below the Lac Saint-Fargeau, that a famous carnival 
 procession, called the Descente de la Courtille, set out every year for Paris. 
 
 The Grand Saint-Martin belonged at that time to Desnoyez, one of 
 
 2T 
 
 THE CARNIVAL 
 
 After a Lithograph by Gavarni 
 
330 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 the celebrities of Paris. Around his establishment stood seven others of 
 various sorts, each of which contributed its quota of revellers to the pro- 
 cession. Of these seven, the most important was the Salle Favie, now used 
 for public meetings of a more decorous kind. The Grand Saint-Martin 
 faced the Salle Favie ; it was kept open night and day from Shrove Sunday 
 
 
 THE RUSSIAN MAZURKA. FIRST FIGURE 
 
 After a Lithograph by Gut^rard 
 
 till Ash Wednesday. During the Descente, which began at six on Ash 
 Wednesday morning, every window commanding the Rue de Paris was let at 
 a fabulous price. 
 
 It was the custom for masquers from all the public balls of Paris to 
 spend the last night of the Carnival at La Courtille, winding up by a 
 banquet of oysters and white wine at the Favie and the Grand Saint-Martin. 
 After the orgy, began the famous Descents, one of the most curious sights of 
 eccentric Paris, recalling the ancient Bacchanalia. 
 
 Lord Seymour, nicknamed Milord f Jrsouille (Lord Blackguard), 
 
LA DESCENTE DE LA COURTILLE 
 
 331 
 
 and a rake if ever there was one, always attended this procession. 
 Standing up in a carriage, he used to scatter gold pieces right and left, done 
 up in paper like sugar-plums. When the procession made its usual halt at 
 the well-known restaurant Les Vendanges de Bourgogne, this God of the 
 Orgy, as Louis Bloch calls him, was to be found at an upper window. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN MAZURKA. SECOND FIGURE 
 
 After a Lithograph by Gu^rard 
 
 ladling red-hot guineas down upon the crowd. It was his delight to 
 hear the screams and maledictions of the women and starveling children 
 who flung themselves on this infernal manna, and were trodden under- 
 foot and wounded by the mob. It is impossible to describe certain 
 further excesses, which would revolt the reader ; they eventually forced the 
 authorities to suppress this survival of a barbarous age. 
 
 But long ere this was done, the proprietors of the two principal 
 establishments from which issued this stormy torrent of mud and tinsel 
 must have made large fortunes. It is related of Desnoyez that he had no 
 
332 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 time to count his takings at the Grand Saint-Martin. The money as it 
 came in was dropped into a funnel on the counter, terminating over a cask in 
 the cellar. When this funnel became choked, Desnoyez knew that his cask 
 was full. Then he went down and replaced it by another, leaving Madame 
 Desnoyez with a salad bowl into which, during the interval, each customer 
 paid his reckoning as he passed. The provisioning of this house was on a 
 correspondingly extensive scale. Five hundred hogsheads of wine stood 
 at one time in the cellar. Living oxen were bought for meat, every- 
 thing was made on the premises. Thirty-two wedding-parties were counted 
 in one day, all feasting at once in the Grand Saint-Martin. Desnoyez had 
 a brother who fell in Egypt, at the Battle of the Pyramids ; his name is 
 engraved on the Arc de Triomphe. " When a hero like Desnoyez falls," 
 cried Kleber, " what must we do ? We must avenge him ! " 
 
 The Pre Catalan, opened in 1856, was short-lived, despite its Spanish 
 dances, its . children's balls, its marionettes, its kiosks, and its aquariums. 
 It was admirably managed, and charmingly situated in the Bois de Boulogne, 
 but too far from the centre of Paris. 
 
 Contemporary with the Pre Catalan was the Folies-Robert, a ball with 
 distinctive and well-marked features. It consisted of a large saloon, 
 regular in shape, and surrounded from floor to ceiling by Oriental or 
 Italian galleries. At the end of this was an unroofed hall, where dancing 
 went on in summer. The galleried hall was capable of holding some 1 800 
 to 2000 guests, and here various foreign national dances, taught by the 
 manager to his pupils, were nightly performed with extraordinary energy. 
 The names of these dances were set forth on placards, displayed in pro- 
 minent parts of the building — the Fricassee, the Roberka, the Polichinelle, 
 the Gavotte, the Mariniere, the Russe, the Ecossaise, the Valse, the Polka, 
 the Redowa, the Schottische, the Mazurka, the Varsoviana, the Hongroise, 
 the Sicilienne, and various Oriental dances. 
 
 A whirlpool of dancers, and an incessant stream of dazzled visitors, 
 moved under the chandeliers of this imposing hall. Olivier Metra con- 
 ducted its orchestra for some time, and his waltz, Le Tour du (Monde^ was 
 first performed here. 
 
 About this time, that is to say in 1859, the Casino Cadet was 
 founded on the site of the mansion successively occupied by Marshal 
 
THE CASINO CADET 
 
 333 
 
 Clause! and by the Danish Minister. Arban conducted its orchestra, and 
 crowds were drawn to the place by the feminine celebrities whose resort it 
 was. Here were to be seen Rigolboche, Rosalba, Alice la Proven^ale, 
 
 THE' BARREL ORGAN 
 
 After G. Dor6 
 
 Finette, Nini Belles Dents — in short, all the satellites of Markowski and 
 Mabille. Along the walls of- the Promenade hung full-length portraits of 
 Jenny Colas, Madame- de St-aelj',- Ma;rie Dorval, the Duchesse d'Abrantes, 
 Rachel, Madame de Girardifi,: Fanny Elssler, Madame de Genlis, Jenny 
 Vertpre, Madame CampanV Madenidiselle Mars, Madame Recamier, 
 
334 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Malibran, Mademoiselle Georges, Mademoiselle Duchesnois, and Madame 
 Boulanger. 
 
 "This Promenade," says Delvau, " is frequented by the higher hetairi 
 of Paris — by courtesans of every grade and variety. It is their Bourse : 
 they do business here." 
 
 The Casino Cadet had a branch establishment — the Casino dAsnieres — 
 
 established in a charm- 
 ing country house, in 
 a park of fine old full 
 trees. 
 
 "The midnight 
 departure for home of 
 all these dancers," con- 
 tinues Delvau, " is a 
 curious sight. Three 
 or four times a week, 
 at the same hour, they 
 crowd the Rue Cadet 
 and the adjacent streets, 
 and swarm into the 
 little railway - station, 
 imitating the cries of every zoological genus — the yelping of foxes, the 
 cheeping of chickens, the lowing of cattle," &c. 
 
 We will only mention the Bal du Grand Turc ; it was frequented 
 chiefly by Alsatians. It used to be in the Boulevard Barbes, and was a 
 merry place, despite the black clothes of the men, and the big bows of black 
 ribbon on their partners' heads. 
 
 The Bal de I'Elysee-Montmartre disappeared in 1894, after a career of 
 half a century. It was much patronised in its day, especially by artists and 
 literary people. La Goulue and Grille d'Egout were stars here. It is 
 mentioned in the Assommoir, for the great Zola did not overlook Bohemian 
 balls in his portraiture of the shady side of Parisian life. 
 
 " We remarked in this establishment," says M. Louis Bloch, " a fair- 
 haired girl of barely eighteen, emaciated and pale as death ; La Palotte 
 (Pale-Face) they called her. Apparently too weak to stand alone, she 
 
 MABILLE 
 
 From a Lithograph in the Conse-matohc de la Danse Modcrne 
 
DANCING SALOONS OF THE POPULACE 3^^ 
 
 leaned on the arm of a young man, while the music of a stormy orchestra, 
 
 with an ear-splitting cornet a piston, shook the room. Suddenly, at a sign 
 
 from her companion, this corpse-like girl flung herself among the dancers. 
 
 She danced madly, indefatigably, with all the ardour of an enthusiastic 
 
 debutante, with a chance 
 
 cavalier whom she 
 
 picked up. Then she 
 
 drank five glasses ot 
 
 chartreuse. After the 
 
 next dance — for she 
 
 danced every one, and 
 
 each with a new partner 
 
 — she drank a bowl of 
 
 mulled wine. And soon 
 
 after that, a glass of 
 
 American punch. All 
 
 this was quietly and 
 
 unobtrusively watched 
 
 from a corner by her 
 
 ' friend,' the young man 
 
 who had sent her to 
 
 dance : his piercing dark eyes seemed to magnetise the girl. At last La 
 
 Palotte took her departure with an elderly man, whereupon the ' friend ' 
 
 rose and followed the two." 
 
 The opening of the Moulin Rouge caused the Elysee-Montmartre to be 
 deserted. 
 
 But the public balls of the past are too many to mention ; we can 
 speak here only of the most remarkable. There was a second Reine 
 Blanche, installed, with grim originality, at the gate of the Montmartre 
 cemetery ; and there was the Boule Noire, a regular tavern ball in the 
 Rue des Martyrs. The Boule Noire was respectable only on Saturdays, 
 when the small shopkeepers of the neighbourhood resorted to it. As to the 
 Bal de la Cave, we will let Delvau describe it : 
 
 " The door opens and a descent yawns before us, dark as the pit. 
 Taking our courage in both hands in default of a banister, we stumble 
 
 GRISETTES AND A STUDENT 
 
 From a Lithograph in the Conservatoire de la Danse Moderne 
 
336 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 down a black and slippery stair. At the bottom we encounter strange 
 sounds and a still stranger odour. The sounds are those of a melancholy 
 fife and a strident violin, dominated by the sinister drone of a double-bass. 
 The odour is due to the smoke of a solitary oil-lamp and the foetid 
 emanations of a crowded cellar. You are at the ball — which takes place 
 every Sunday and Monday from six in the evening till eleven. 
 
 " There is no conversation : dancing is done silently, like a task. And 
 
 they who dance are not 
 men and women but 
 shadows — shadows with 
 only the crowns of their 
 heads touched by the 
 light of the solitary lamp 
 that swings from the 
 ceiling. When these 
 shadows weary of their 
 silent Cordax — when their 
 task is done — they seat 
 themselves round the 
 cellar on a divan of 
 empty kegs and drink brandy. Do not be too much horrified ; the brandy- 
 drinkers are the inhabitants of the quarter, and the quarter is a proletarian 
 one ; they leave you your barley-water, leave them their vitriol : rag-pickers 
 are not squeamish. ... It is like a canvas by Van Ostade." 
 
 We must not forget the Bal du Mont-Blanc, the mustering-place of 
 ladies' maids and cooks ; the Rosiere in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, which 
 was not frequented by Nanterre's maidens, and Waux Hall, where the 
 famous Pilodo flourished his bow ; but we must pass on to the Closerie 
 des Lilas, now known as the Bal Bullier. 
 
 This spot did not always harbour the Cancan. Here, in former days, 
 austere Carthusian friars meditated in their lonely gardens. The Revolution 
 scattered them ; and the sacred ground trodden by their noiseless sandals 
 was transformed into a resort of pleasure — the Closerie des Lilas. Yet no 
 avenging bolt has fallen from on high ; the site bought for forty thousand 
 francs fifty years ago is said to be worth one million four hundred thousand 
 now. 
 
 THE LATIN QUARTER AT THE CLOSERIE DES LILAS 
 
 After a Lithograph by Gavarni 
 
BULLIER 
 
 337 
 
 The old Closerie des Lilas was frequented by the student-loving grisettes, 
 immortalised by Beranger. When Beranger was living close by in the Rue 
 d'Enfer, he strolled out aimlessly one night and entered the Closerie. 
 Somebody recognised him ; his name ran round the room. There was a 
 rush ; there were cries of enthusiasm ; the old man was surrounded and 
 almost suffocated by embraces and flowers. " Jeanne la Belle," says Delvau, 
 " pressed her bouquet 
 upon him. He accepted 
 it with emotion. Then 
 Delphine begged to be 
 allowed to press her 
 young lips on the 
 wrinkled brow, where 
 the laurels should have 
 been. Stupefied by this 
 frenzy of admiration, 
 the astounded poet 
 
 KECREATIONS. SALARY, 300,000 FRANCS 
 
 submitted to every- 
 thing. ' I shall die 
 
 happy now that I have kissed Beranger ! ' exclaimed Delphine ; whereupon 
 all her companions, jealous of this distinction, imitated her example with 
 such zeal as almost to smother the kindly old man who had loved them 
 so well. Many of their sins must have been forgiven them that night, in 
 virtue of the sincere and passionate enthusiasm they lavished on their dear 
 poet, whom they sent home half dead ! For the time being they were all 
 grisettes again, and made good resolutions — eheu fugaces ! " 
 
 The grisette has disappeared, the student's mate is dead ; she has been 
 succeeded by the woman of the Quartier Latin. She used to be content 
 with a modest cap and a modest name. To-day she wears a fine hat with 
 feathers and calls herself Georgette or Bebe, or Yvonne Vadrouille, for 
 the highest professional celebrities of the Chahut and the Grand Ecart, 
 such as Grille d'Egout, Rayon d'Or, La Goulue, and La Mome Fromage, 
 rarely appear at BuUier ; and the distinction of this ball is that its 
 dancing is not professional. The real public dances here, and gets good 
 sport for its money — sport which is, perhaps, not very elegant nor very 
 
 2 u 
 
338 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 " correct," but which is at least youthful and animated, without being 
 indecent. 
 
 Those who dance at Bullier are grouped in different categories, 
 according to the measure of their skill. They begin in the " kitchen," 
 they pass on to the "ante-room," from that to the " drawing-room," and 
 thence to the " Prefecture " — where there are no more worlds to conquer. 
 Ah ! how many memories the very name of Bullier recalls to those who 
 have spent their twentieth year in Paris ! 
 
 UANCE OF THE " HAUTE ECOLE " 
 
 After Daumier 
 
FANCY BALL AT THE OI'ERA HOUSE 
 
 After Eugene Lami 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 IModern Dancing — From the Second Empire to the present Time — Society 'Balls — The 
 Revival of Old Dances in France and in Foreign Countries 
 
 OR some years only two dances were danced in private ball- 
 rooms, viz., the Quadrille and the Valse. Under the latter 
 name we include all round dances, whether they are called 
 Polka, Berline, Pas de Quatre, &c., for in all these, the dancer 
 " voltes " or turns ; in short, he waltzes. 
 
 The Quadrille was already danced towards the end of the eighteenth 
 century, under the name of the Country Dance — Contredanse. There were a 
 considerable number of Contredanses, for at this period every dancing 
 master arranged new ones for himself Every little event served as a 
 pretext for a new arrangement. But the invention in 1859 of the Imperial 
 Quadrille by the ephemeral academic society of dancing-masters in Paris 
 was the final creation. The fire of inspiration has since died out. 
 
 To tell the truth, the Quadrille seems daily to lose in popularity. The 
 
340 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 fascinating American Quadrille, which had so much success at first, is now 
 more neglected than our national one. The same may be said of the 
 Galop, which at one time was intoxicating, and with Musard at the Opera 
 masked balls, even " infernal." It was danced, gesticulated, yelled, by four 
 thousand dancers, accompanied by the report of firearms, the wild ringing 
 of bells, and the breaking of chairs. 
 
 These times are long past : in society there is less dancing, and all 
 gaiety has vanished from public balls, and even from the balls at the Opera. 
 It has often been remarked recently : but it was thirty years ago that the 
 De Goncourts pronounced the funeral oration of these brilliant fetes. Their 
 exclamation to the dancers is well known. " For heaven's sake, pretend to 
 be enjoying yourselves ! " (" Mais, saperlotte ! ayez au moins Fair de vous 
 amuser !") 
 
 The false nose disappeared : as part of the old-world humour, it had 
 had its day. Towards the end of Louis Philippe's reign, two millions 
 of false noses were manufactured in a year ; two hundred and fifty thousand 
 were sold in Paris, and the remainder were for the provinces and for 
 exportation. It was even said that M. Guizot once thought of putting up 
 the monopoly of false noses to auction ! Nowadays, poets, wits and 
 draughtsmen have ceased to concern themselves with the Opera Balls ; 
 Gavarni has had no successor. 
 
 From the early days of the Second Empire, the decay of the Opera Balls 
 was very apparent. 
 
 They took place, however, every Saturday during the Carnival, and 
 they were very brilliant, as compared with those of our own day. Gentle- 
 men appeared at them in black coats, instead of being dressed as Polish 
 lancers or fishermen, as in the time of Loiiis Philippe. But the 
 masqueraders (who were fairly numerous) were dressed in the most 
 picturesque fashion, and gave themselves up to the dance in the maddest 
 and most riotous spirit. These were the days of Clodoche, the great, the 
 hilarious Clodoche, a name adapted from his true one, Clodomir 
 Ricart. 
 
 He made his first appearances in 1859 at the Casino Cadet, at the 
 Chateau des Fleurs, the Casino of Asnieres, and the Opera Ball. He 
 attracted some attention at first by the originality of his dancing, but his 
 
CLODOCHE 
 
 341 
 
 invention of the famous Quadrille des Clodoches was a triumph. There 
 were four dancers : himself (Clodoche), Flageolet, la Cornete and la 
 Normandie. The two last were dressed as women, while Flageolet and 
 himself retained their masculine garments. The names of their dances became 
 famous : Les Pompiers de Nanterre, les 
 Gendarmes de Landerneau, les Gommeux, 
 &c. &c. : the wildest stories got about. 
 It was said that the members of this 
 troupe were undertaker's mutes. 
 
 Clodoche had the honour of dancing 
 at the Jockey Club, and was even ad- 
 mitted among the members sometimes, 
 when he received the compliments 
 showered on him with great respect. 
 
 The Emperor, who had often heard 
 of Clodoche, wished to see him, and he 
 was presented at the Tuileries. The 
 same evening there was a ball at the 
 Opera ; the Emperor was present in a 
 box, wrapped in a double domino, in 
 order to preserve the strictest incognito. 
 Clodoche knew of the Emperor's pre- 
 sence, and his dancing was more delirious 
 than ever. Before he left, the Emperor 
 called him to the ante-room, and gave him a sealed letter containing four 
 
 hundred francs. 
 
 In the autumn of his life, after having whirled and eddied like the 
 leaves, he disappeared like them. He retired to Chennevieres, to an 
 eccentric chalet painted black, under some poplars, where he kept an inn. 
 The mirth-provoking dancer, a fine old man,- spent his last days here philo- 
 sophically amusing himself by making quaint furniture, for he had not 
 forgotten his old calling of cabinet-maker. He was surrounded by trophies 
 of his triumphs, crowns of gold and silver, drawings and photographs of 
 the famous Quadrille. Over the door was the simple sign : " Au vieux 
 Clodoche." 
 
 THE MINUET 
 
 After a Statue by Laporte-Elaizy 
 
342 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The public fetes of the Second Empire diiFered very little from their 
 forerunners. They had neither a specially civil nor a specially military 
 character, and were simply popular rejoicings, quite devoid of originality. 
 A curious custom must, however, be mentioned. It was the fashion 
 for the dandies and all the gilded youth of the day to invade the Morel 
 ball at midnight of August 15, and turn out every one there. The men 
 
 A BALL AT THE TUILEKIES, THE IMPERIAL QUADKILLE 
 
 After a Drawing by Janet, published in Le Monde lUnstre 
 
 were dressed in stable-jackets, with caps on their heads, the women in calico 
 dresses and linen caps — hence the name of the hal de bonnets blancs. They 
 all behaved like the dregs of the people : fought, drank the commonest 
 wine, and used the vilest language. 
 
 Society in the Second Empire was never so gay as during the period 
 between the Exhibition and the "Terrible Year." The winter of 1868 
 was distinguished above all by its brilliant gaieties ; there were continual 
 soirees, balls, receptions. Costume balls, which seemed to be reserved to 
 Government circles, became a great attraction, and many of them were 
 exceptionally splendid. The Duchesse de Bisaccia arranged one to represent 
 
BALLS OF THE SECOND EMPIRE 
 
 34? 
 
 a village wedding, which roused enormous enthusiasm. The beautiful Madame 
 de Beaumont appeared as the bride ; Madame de Montgomery as a canteen- 
 keeper, in the primrose uniform of the hussars of the First Republic ; 
 Madame de GalifFet wore a magnificent Renaissance costume. The cream of 
 
 CARNIVAL BALL AT THE OPEKA HOUSE 
 
 After a Drawing by G. Dor6, published in Le Monde llhlsirc 
 
 Parisian society met at this ball. It was unique of its kind, vying with the 
 great costume balls given by the Marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat, the naval 
 minister. The Comtesse de Montgomery organised a burlesque ball the 
 same winter, in which a Quadrille was danced by market-porters {forts de 
 la halle), with their partners in the dress of the Marche des Innocents, a 
 revival of J3ne of the best ballets of the old Opera. This was a great 
 success. 
 
 The Comte de Mauguy says that at this ball a commissionnaire and a 
 
344 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 mysterious gamekeeper puzzled all the guests. "But the most striking 
 character, and the one who attracted most attention, was a pastry-cQok 
 (unless I am mistaken, the Marquis de GaliiFet), who sat on the staircase 
 leading to the second storey, addressing lively sallies to all the guests with 
 a freedom of language often very embarrassing." 
 
 The season of 1869 had neither the gaiety nor the spirit of the preced- 
 ing year. There was one splendid entertainment, however, at the Austrian 
 Embassy. The Princesse de Metternich, in a black domino, and Madame 
 de Pourtales as an Almee, carried off the honours of the evening. 
 
 The same year there was a magnificent ball at the Hotel de Ville in 
 honour of Prince and Princess Frederick Charles of Prussia, who were 
 staying in Paris. On January 18, 1870, the Prefect of the Seine and 
 Madame Henri Chevreau gave a beautiful fete, at which every one of 
 distinction in politics, diplomacy, or letters, and all the leading repre- 
 sentatives of the army and the law, were present. The Archduke Albert 
 of Austria and the Archduchess were present for an hour, and went away 
 dazzled. What gloomy morrows were to follow on this fete ! 
 
 An old dancing-room, the Assommoir du Temple, which deserves men- 
 tioning, disappeared in 1870. It was founded in 1846. It was a large 
 room, lighted from the top, divided into three parallel aisles by stone 
 pillars. Billiards were played in the galleries over the two sides. A thick 
 layer of straw covered the floor, which was generally strewn with sleepers. 
 
 " On va par ribambelles, 
 
 Deposant les mann'quins, 
 Boir' des polichinelles, 
 Manger des arlequins." 
 
 "Every week," says Adolphe Racot, "the human dunghill of the 
 Assommoir Was raked aside, and a ball was given, at which the rag-pickers 
 were the most vigorous dancers." 
 
 In 1870 the General Committee of the National Guard took possession 
 of the Assommoir, and it was there that the Commune of Paris was pro- 
 claimed, and all the revolutionary measures decided on which laid Paris 
 waste from September 4 to the terrible days of May. 
 
 The great chief of orchestral dance music during the eighteen years of 
 the Empire, the successor of Musard, was Strauss, the man of the famous 
 
STRAUSS AND THE EMPRESS EUGENIE 
 
 34^ 
 
 cravat, who only laid down his baton at the advent of the Republic. He 
 came to England in 1873, in spite of his great age, to follow the Emperor's 
 coffin to the grave. 
 
 " I remember," says Parisis, " a pathetic incident at the official reception 
 after the funeral. When the Empress caught sight of the old impresario, 
 the brilliant spectacle of all the past ^etes at which he had presided 
 
 COMING AWAY FROM THE FANCY BALL 
 
 After a Picture by Madrazo 
 
 suddenly rose before her. She clasped her hands together piteously, her 
 eyes filled with tears, and sobs rose in her throat. Strauss said to me as we 
 retired, ' I am not like any ordinary person to the Empress, my life and 
 hers have been intimately connected, and from her earliest years my name 
 has been associated with all her happiest memories. I called the first Polka 
 I ever composed the Eugenie Polka, and dedicated it to Mademoiselle de 
 Montijo in 1846. The Polka was in its infancy, as it were, and was not 
 then danced in official drawing-rooms ; it was first introduced to the 
 Spanish Court by the Empress, where she danced it with M. de- Gourpon, 
 the son of the rich stockbroker, and a famous Cotillron-leader at the 
 Tuileries. Later I saw her in Paris, first in that aristocratic drawing-room 
 
 2 X 
 
346 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 where everything artistic was welcomed with so much hospitality, then in 
 that gorgeous saloon, where the woman took precedence of the sovereign, 
 and where her irresistible grace and charm tempered the stiffness of Court 
 ceremonial. Is it not natural that on seeing me again the contrast between 
 those happy days and her present situation should call forth an outburst 
 of grief?" 
 
 And while he spoke the old refrain came back to me with an inde- 
 scribable melancholy : 
 
 " As-tu vu, 
 La cravate du pere Strauss ? " 
 
 In former times balls were generally given between Christmas and the 
 Carnival. Now the dancing season begins after society returns from Nice, 
 and closes when it leaves for the seaside ; it lasts, that is to say, from the 
 Carnival to the Grand Prix. 
 
 During the last few years society has inclined very much to those 
 costume fetes I mentioned as taking place under the Empire, where each 
 guest vied with his neighbour in ingenuity and invention. The fur and 
 feathers ball, and. the animal ball, given by the Princesse de Sagan, are not 
 yet forgotten. The Princess revived Versailles in 1881, and Trianon in 
 1 8 84. The following year she illustrated Lafontaine's fables. The Quadrille 
 of Hornets and Bees was a repetition of one under the Empire, carried out 
 by Madame Tascher de la Pagerie. It was the triumph of the evening. 
 
 Baron Seilliere, in the costume of M. de Buffon, presided over the 
 fete. The ladies appeared as crickets, swans, swallows, owls, cats, parrots, 
 grasshoppers, butterflies, bats, scarlet ibises, serpents, and even as tigresses. 
 The men were made up as ravens, crabs, cocks, eagles, owls, herons, basset 
 hounds, ducks, turkeys, giraffes, monkeys, &c. The Princess appeared as 
 a peacock, and her costume was magnificent. Her blue satin petticoat was 
 covered with gold and silver Venetian point, fastened at the sides with 
 peacock's feathers, also in gold and silver. The bodice was the body of 
 the bird, and the tail, spread out like a fan, formed an aureole round the 
 shoulders. The Medici coiffure was crowned by a diamond diadem, on 
 the top of which quivered the peacock's aigrette. The bird's beak was 
 placed over her forehead. 
 
PARISIAN FANCY BALLS 
 
 347 
 
 The electric light shed a strange violet glow over this charming, fan- 
 tastic assembly. 
 
 Madame la Comtesse de la Martiniere had previously given a " Swallow " 
 ball m 1883. The great room, transformed for the occasion into a Japanese 
 
 THE MINUET 
 
 A'ter a Picture by GarriJo 
 
 garden, shimmered with the plumage of humming-birds, cardinals, bengalis, 
 love-birds, thrushes, sparrows, nightingales and tits. The graceful origin- 
 ality of a ballet of swallows was much admired. 
 
 The same year the Society of Retired Officers gave a costume ball at the 
 Continental Hotel, in which all the military uniforms worn from the middle 
 ages to the middle of the nineteenth century figured. It was a curious 
 
348 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 sight to see archers, reiters, and musketeers elbowing the soldiers of the 
 First Empire and the Restoration. 
 
 In some foreign countries costume balls are immensely popular. During 
 
 THE PAVANE 
 
 After a Picture by Garrido 
 
 the Carnival at Vienna, the various corporations meet at dances, and it is a 
 point of honour with the dancers to hit upon original ideas. 
 
 The most extraordinary of all these balls was the i>al des gueux, or riif-rafF 
 ball, organised in 1883. Every one went in rags, with torn clothes, the 
 dress-coat being severely banished. The riff-raff ball attracted seven 
 thousand people in rags ; a sombre gaiety indeed prevailed among these 
 grimy faces, purposely bedaubed to appear like the faces of beggars> 
 
THE CARNIVAL AT BINCHE 
 
 349 
 
 thieves, assassins, rag-pickers, pickpockets. One might have imagined 
 oneself in some annexe to the galleys. 
 
 THE FARANDOLE 
 
 After a Picture by Garrido 
 
 In Belgium, all the gaiety of the old Carnival seems to have centred in 
 the little town of Binche. There we may still see Gilles with two humps, in 
 
3^0 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 their variegated costumes, hats, turned up and decorated with feathers, and 
 waistbands hung with bells. They patrol the streets in bands of thirty 
 or forty at a time, each one accompanied by a man selling oranges, jumping 
 and dancing to the tune of a band which goes before them. All the local 
 societies receive them, as indeed does the burgomaster at the Hotel de 
 Ville, offering them the best wine. 
 
 Writing of curious balls, I must not forget one given beyond the seas 
 by the Mormons of Salt Lake City. The dominant element .was European — 
 English, Scotch, Irish, Scandinavian, and German. Before proceedings 
 began. Brother Brown appeared, invoking the blessing of God on the 
 choregraphic exercises of the Latter-day Saints. Then, the ball commenced 
 solemnly to the music of an organ, assisted by two violins. A number of 
 Minuets, Quadrilles, Cotillions were danced, and even a Waltz — the last 
 generally prohibited as dangerous. As midnight struck. Brother Brown 
 reappeared, and closed the ball with a prayer. 
 
 Along with eccentric or original balls, Parisian society has organised 
 many charming entertainments in the most exquisite taste. 
 
 The Japanese charity ///£", given at the Hotel de la Rochefoucauld, was 
 admirable. It consisted of a dramatic representation, a ball, and a series 
 of Japanese amusements. When the Japanese Ambassador arrived, he 
 exclaimed with a movement of surprise : " I feel as if I were back in my 
 own country ! " 
 
 The walls were entirely covered with fine matting, on which were hung 
 kakemonos painted on silk or rice paper, representing fierce warriors, or 
 smiling ladies with delicate eyebrows, dressed in blue or pink silk. Dragon- 
 flies flitted about among strange flowering shrubs. Certain rooms were 
 veritable ethnographical museums, where noble ladies sat upon mats, in 
 white dresses flowered with wistaria or lotus, or where poets wrote, 
 surrounded by flying birds. Next came a pagoda with its golden door, 
 where idols slumbered, squatting on the ground, between rare vases and 
 the mystic lotus. Under the moonlike beams of the electric light an 
 astonished crowd wandered through the fairy sanctuaries of Buddhism 
 under hot-house palms, and canopies of leaves and flowers, towards the 
 theatre, where the sound of a gong announced the drawing up of the 
 curtain. The young Comte de la Rochefoucauld was dressed as the Japanese 
 
PARISIAN FANCY BALLS 
 
 3^' 
 
 Prince Imperial, in dark blue satin, embroidered with arabesques and birds. 
 Madame de Munkacsy appeared as a Japanese, wearing long pins in her 
 hair with diamond heads, and a dress of white crape trimmed with a coloured 
 border. Other ladies had Court dresses of satin or crepe de Chine, wreaths 
 of lotus flowers, royal stuffs with heraldic ornaments. It was like fairy- 
 
 A PARISIAN BALL 
 
 After a Picture by Bridginan 
 {Photographed by Braun and Co.) 
 
 land. The men wore trousers of various colours, emerald, bright blue, 
 violet, red — harmonising with the bold and delicate tints about them. 
 
 Mention might also be made of the balls given by the Princesse de Leon, 
 the Comtesse de Montigny, General de Charette, the Vicomtesse de Gilly, 
 the Marquise de Castellane, the Comtesse Branika, Madame de Heredia, 
 and Madame de Pourtales. Amongst others, the fete which M. Gaillard 
 gave his friends in his beautiful chateau in the Place Malesherbes was a true 
 fairy pageant, for a repetition of which many of those present have sighed 
 in vain. 
 
 We have seen that the Quadrille, at one time so popular, has almost 
 
3^2 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 disappeared from our ball-rooms. On the other hand, the old Court dances 
 seem to be coming back into favour, bringing with them traditions of the 
 grace and elegance of the last century. The Minuet and the Pavane have 
 made their appearance again in great houses during the last few years. 
 
 Our dramatic authors have often revived the Pavane in their pieces. It 
 is danced in La Jeunesse du Rot Henri, and in the ballets of Patrie 
 and Egmont. The balls in aid of the Hospitalite de Nuit have always been 
 marked by their beauty and originality. They have resuscitated the elegant 
 
 A COTILLION 
 After a Water-Colour Drawing by H. Tenre^ 
 
 refinements of the eighteenth century. Thus, In 1880, one of the Woodland 
 Balls was reproduced, those balls which drew all Paris in 1745, when the 
 Dauphin was married to Marie Therese of Spain. On that occasion, to 
 avoid the immense crowding of the populace at the marriage fetes, the 
 sheriffs arranged open-air balls in different places. One of the prettiest 
 was on the Place des Conquetes (now the Place Vendome), and it was 
 this bal de hois which the Hospitalite de Nuit revived. The copy was a 
 faithful one, and, to make the illusion more complete, Mesdemoiselles 
 Reichemberg, Baretta, Broisat, Bartet, Martin, Tholer, Durand, and 
 Feyghine, of the Comedie Fran^aise, appeared as Court ladies of the 
 time of Louis XV. Pages walked about the rooms, and Scotch guards, in 
 the white livery of the House of France, were ranged all down the stair- 
 
REVIVAL OF OLD COURT DANCES 
 
 353 
 
 case. It was an exact reproduction of the engravings of Moreau the 
 younger. 
 
 At the Palace of Fontainebleau, a sixteenth century costume ball was 
 given for a charity in the Henri II. Gallery and in the Salle des Gardes. 
 It seemed to the spectator as if he had strayed into some fete of the 
 Renaissance. The Pavane and the Volte, the graceful dances of the Valois 
 Court, were revived. 
 
 THE MODERN COTILLION 
 
 After a Picture by H. Tenri 
 (Photographed by Braun and Co.) 
 
 As prescribed by the good canon of Langres, in his Orchesograhie, the 
 Pavane was accompanied by a song on the ancient model (see p. 97) of 
 which we give the first couplet : 
 
 " Belle, qui tieiis ma vie 
 
 Captive en tes doux yeux, 
 Qui m'as I'ame ravie 
 
 D'un souris gracieux, 
 Viens t6t me secourir, 
 Ou me faudra mourir ! 
 
 1. The air, which is more solemn than cheerful, was transcribed by 
 
 2 Y 
 
3^4 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Wekerlin in his Echos du temps passe, from the text of the Orcheso- 
 graphie. 
 
 These attempts dehghted the great world, and inspired them with the 
 idea of dancing the old dances in their ball-rooms. The Marquise de 
 Castellane, and M. Gustave Droz, each gave brilliant /(?/^j, where powdered 
 ladies and gentlemen in knee-breeches danced the Menuet de la Cour, and 
 the Pas des Archers. Then the Cotillion admitted the Salut de la Cour. 
 The graceful Minuet found favour with the Vicomtesse de Gilly, Madame 
 de St. Aignan and the Comtesse d'Enval. The Minuets of the great 
 masters were heard again, the works of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and the 
 masterpiece of such compositions, the Menuet d'Exaudet. Also Gavottes, 
 which were the rage under the Directory, Gliick's slow Gavottes in Armide 
 and Orphee, Gretry's in Cephale et Procris and Panurge. 
 
 Elsewhere, at Madame de Marinval's house amongst others, the soirees 
 of Louis XV". were repeated ; couples danced the Minuet or Gavotte to 
 Leon Guyot's orchestra, and the Cotillion ended with the Indian March. 
 At the Comtesse de Montbazon's, and at the Comtesse de Villiers', ladies in 
 hoops and paniers danced the Minuet under an immense triumphal arch of 
 flowers. 
 
 At other houses, attempts were made to substitute the Branle for the 
 Cotillion. The Branles of Brittany and Poitou were studied, the Branles of 
 the Washerwomen, of the Wooden Shoes, Horses, the Torch, Mustard. 
 At an entertainment given at a sumptuous house in the Rue Sainte- 
 Apolline, where all the ladies were in Louis XV. costume, the Cotillion 
 was concluded by a procession in sedan-chairs. The house, in the purest 
 Louis XV. style, with its carved woodwork and correct ceilings, was a 
 marvellous setting for this revival of the last century. 
 
 Elsewhere, a costume ball reproduced a famous /e/^ given by MM. de 
 Duras and de la Ferte, during the Carnival of 1783. At the Comtesse de 
 Courval's, there was a medley of all periods : the hostess wore a gorgeous 
 Henri 11. costume, the guests were magicians, Pierettes, Incroyables ; some 
 w'ore the costumes of Jacquet's pictures. The Minuet was danced by twenty 
 ladies as Watteau shepherdesses, reproducing an episode in the bal du May. 
 The men wore the village dress of the end of Louis XV. 's reign, pale green 
 breeches and lilac coats. 
 
REVIVAL OF OLD COURT DANCES 
 
 3^? 
 
 The old Saraband was next revived in a house in the Rue de Lisbonne ; 
 and an attempt was made to Parisianise the Festa de las Flores, so dear to 
 the Spanish South Americans. 
 
 Thus, one after the other, the old dances reappear : they form 
 
 A CHILDREN S BALL 
 
 After Boutet de Monvel 
 
 picturesque artistic interludes in modern entertainments, £o that nowadays a 
 ball is hardly complete without one. Nothing can be more effective than 
 superbly dressed couples dancing a Courante, a Gaillarde, or a Passe-pied ! 
 
 This last dance, one of the most graceful of all, is often performed by 
 dancers in modern dress ; but in that case the gentlemen wear coloured 
 coats and knee-breeches, and the ladies, white dresses. 
 
3^6 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 As in the days when the Branle was danced all round the great baronial 
 hall, so now there is a beautiful dance in which each couple follows the 
 other all round the room, stepping in time, and carrying a lighted torch or 
 candle. 
 
 The Sword Dance is sometimes performed after a Gaillarde. The 
 gentlemen stand facing each other, draw their swords, then raise them, 
 inclining them a little till the points touch. The ladies then walk under the 
 blades. 
 
 At the Comtesse des AUains', young girls danced old Caroles on the 
 grass. These are Rounds accompanied by songs. They were danced after 
 the ancient fashion by ladies alone, and in the costume of the twelfth 
 century : a quaint idea, giving variety to the pretty bals blancs which are 
 now so popular in society. 
 
 The same taste for reviving ancient dances is found in foreign countries. 
 In aristocratic houses in Russia, the old Horovod is danced. The Horovod 
 was even arranged as a French Quadrille at St. Petersburg, by the ballet- 
 master Bogdanoff. 
 
 In Germany, the Fackeltanz or Torch Dance is still danced. It is of 
 very great antiquity. It was performed at the marriage of the Princess 
 Margaret, sister of William II., with Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse. 
 The Figaro gives a description of ihe scene : 
 
 " After dinner, which began at six o'clock in the Hall of the Knights, 
 the Court and the guests met in the White Saloon, the largest room in the 
 castle, which will hold two thousand persons. The Emperor, the Empress, 
 and all the princes and princesses of both families ranged themselves on a 
 platform at one end of the room, while Count von Eulenburg, the Grand 
 Marshal of the Court, and numerous chamberlains in brilliant uniforms, 
 gathered round them." 
 
 " The view of the room, and of the gallery reserved for several hundred 
 favoured spectators, was magnificent. The marble columns, the statues of 
 the twelve Electors of Brandenburg, the pictures and decorations of the 
 room, formed a fitting frame for the brilliant assemblage. 
 
 " Towards nine o'clock the Emperor gave orders to the Marshal to 
 begin the Torch Dance. Count von Eulenburg, his marshal's baton in 
 his hand, placed himself in the middle of the room, Behind him, two 
 
THE TORCH DANCE AT BERLIN 
 
 3^7 
 
 and two, in order of seniority, stood the twelve following ministers : 
 M. Bosse (Worship and Education) and M. Thielen (Railways), M. von 
 Heyden (Agriculture) and M. von Kaltenborn (War), M. Miguel 
 (Finance) and Baron von Berlepsch (Interior), M. Schelling (Justice) and 
 M. von Wedel (Imperial Household), M. Achenbach and M. Delbruck, ex- 
 ministers ; M. Boetticher and Count von Eulenburg, Vice-President and 
 President of the Ministry 
 
 rfi-'iv 
 
 THE CARNIVAL 
 
 After a Lithograph by Coindre 
 
 of Prussia. 
 
 "The Chancellor, 
 Count von Caprivi, the 
 Minister of Marine, and 
 the other ministers of the 
 Empire, took no part in 
 the ceremony, which was 
 exclusively Prussian. 
 They were present, how- 
 ever, their splendid uni- 
 forms adding to the lustre 
 of the scene. Twelve 
 
 youthful pages, pretty and dainty as the pages of opera, entered slowly by 
 a side door under the direction of the chamberlains. They carried torch- 
 holders in wrought silver, containing thick white wax candles, which they 
 handed to the twelve ministers. The Marshal raised his l>d(0K, the 
 orchestra from the gallery opposite the Emperor slowly began a tuneful 
 Polonaise. The bride and bridegroom placed themselves after the twelve 
 ministers, who made the tour of the room ; the chamberlains closed the 
 cortege, which stopped before the Emperor. The bride made a slight 
 curtsey, the Emperor rose and offered her his arm, the cortege again passed 
 in procession round the room. On returning, the bridegroom invited the 
 Empress, and made the tour with her. Then the twelve pages approached, 
 took the torches again, and replaced the ministers. The dance continued. 
 
 " This time the young bridegroom invited the Landgravine of Hesse, 
 and the Duchess of Connaught. The bride also made the tour with 
 two princes. And so on in order, until all the princes had marched round 
 with the bride, and all the princesses with the bridegroom. The ceremony 
 
3^8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 might have become monotonous, but for the infinite variety and richness ot 
 the costumes and uniforms, and the liveliness of the music. The twelve 
 pages were quite delicious, and marched with all the enthusiasm of youth. 
 They were very much admired. Their success was complele. 
 
 "At ten o'clock, the dance came to an end. The torch-bearers stopped 
 for the last time before the Emperor, who rose. The imperial couple, with 
 
 A rUBLIC BALL 
 
 After a Picture by Jean Beraud 
 
 all the princes and princesses, placed themselves behind the pages to conduct 
 the bride and bridegroom to their apartments. In the great ante-room, the 
 twelve pages ranged themselves at the door of the bridal chamber. The 
 Emperor, the Empress, the princes and princesses, formed in two lines, 
 leaving a passage for the young couple, who disappeared through the 
 door. 
 
 "The Court then returned to the White Saloon, where the chief brides- 
 maid distributed bits of the bride's garter among the company. Of these 
 there were several basketsful — little bows of red and white silk, with the 
 bride's initials in gold and silver." 
 
 We may just mention, in passing, certain dancing devices, rather curious 
 
THE INCOHERENT BALL 
 
 3^9 
 
 than delightful. The Americans have inaugurated dancing-cars on their 
 railways, to beguile the tedium of the long journey between San Francisco 
 and New York. As the train rushes along, a ball is in full swing in a 
 gaily decorated and brilliantly lighted car. The women wear exquisite 
 dresses, which they don in dressing-rooms set apart for the purpose. 
 
 The Incoherent Ball was a Parisian invention. Placards forbade the 
 
 CEILING UECOKATION AT HIONTIi CAKLO 
 
 After Clairin 
 
 company to bore or be bored, and warned those who transgressed that they 
 would be fined. Incoherence reigned supreme. Metra, the leader of the 
 orchestra, appeared in a white blouse, with all the paraphernalia of a suburban 
 Adonis. A whirlpool of wild, fantastic, gruesome maskers swirled and 
 eddied round him. Everything' that a delirious fancy could conceive was 
 represented at this strange ball, from bearded nurses, clowns. Punches, pre- 
 historic firemen, grotesque policemen, and astounding Englishmen, to 
 General Bonaparte in his famous grey coat and cocked hat, escorted by a 
 band of bizarre Invalides. 
 
 Of the official balls at the Elysee and the H6tel de Ville we will say 
 
360 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 nothing. The picturesque element has no place in these functions. 
 Grumblers complain of the overcrowding, and of the somewhat slipshod 
 etiquette that prevails. Is it true, as an acrimonious contemporary declares, 
 that a democracy has neither the right nor the faculty to demand certificates 
 of distinction from its guests ? 
 
 But such considerations lie outside our province. We gladly leave them 
 to others. 
 
SKETCH OF BALLET DANCERS 
 
 r After Renouard 
 
 CHAPTER Xlir 
 
 e/ 'Brief Survey of the 'Ballets of this Century — [Modern Theatrical 'Dancing — The 
 Operatic Corps de Ballet — The Serpentine T)ance — The Tuhlic 
 Balls of To-day. 
 
 E have seen the birth of the ballet, and have followed it from its 
 infancy to its adolescence at Rome under the influence of 
 Pylades and Bathyllus. In France, during the Middle Ages, 
 ballet-dancing was included among the pastimes known as 
 masques or mumming, and did not partake in any way of the character 
 of the present ballet till the time of Catherine de' Medici. From the 
 seventeenth century it became the rage at Court, and began to have 
 recourse to mechanical contrivances. 
 
 From that time forward wonderful scenic efl^ects were produced. The 
 music became more coherent, and harmonised better with the plot. Still, 
 
 2 z 
 
362 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 there was no real pantomime-ballet, or dancing-ballet, as we understand 
 it ; the poetry and the music were far more important than the actual 
 dancing. The French ballet did not develop its peculiar ingenuity, grace, 
 and distinction till some time later, when masks and padded skirts were 
 abolished. 
 
 Under the sway of Rossini and^ Meyerbeer, the music of the ballet, while 
 losing nothing of its rhythmic character, became more expressive and poetic. 
 
 In the space at our disposal it would not be possible to enumerate all 
 the new ballets, or to dilate on every scenic innovation. It will be enough 
 to mention the most important creations, and to point out the principal 
 " stars " whose brilliant performances have given distinction to the stage. 
 
 " It is only in France," says Theodore de Banville, " that the real classic 
 school exists, where severity and correctness do not exclude originality, 
 where grace and rhythm are valued, and where one is always conscious that 
 every step is equivalent to an image in a poem. . . ." 
 
 In 1 84 1, Carlotta Grisi, then a new "star," distinguished herself in the 
 superb ballet La Teri, and in Giselle ou les Willis, for which Theophile 
 Gautier wrote the libretto, and Adolphe Adam the music ; Coralli arranged 
 the dances. 
 
 A good many of our readers will probably remember Saint-Leon, the 
 distinguished and popular ballet-master. Originally an eminent violinist, 
 it was out of love for the fairy-like Cerito, whom he married, that he first 
 gave himself up to the enthusiastic study of dancing. La Cerito bewitched 
 the public with her exquisite dancing, while Saint-Leon delighted them with 
 his skill upon the violin, and the dignity and distinction of his compositions. 
 Fanny Elssler, the famous German dancer, was her contemporary and 
 rival. 
 
 The great success at the beginning of the Empire was Adam's Corsaire, 
 with Its dramatic mounting, in which Mazllller exercised his double 
 talent as choregrapher and composer. Les Elfes, and Auber's Marco Spada, 
 followed, in which Mazlllier executed a series of amazingly complicated 
 movements, and in which Laure Fonta and Rosati outvied each other in 
 skill and grace. 
 
 In Theophile Gautier's ballet Sakuniala,the dancer Lina, who had just made 
 her first appearance in Le Trouvere, and who subsequently became Madame 
 
LEONTINE BEAUGRAND 
 
 363 
 
 Merante, proved herself a formidable rival of La Ferraris. She figured 
 in the ballet, Le Tapillon, by Emma Livry. Finally, however, this ill-fated 
 dancer caught fire at a rehearsal of La Muette, and died of her injuries after 
 the most fearful and prolonged agony. 
 
 In i860, Leontine Beaugrand, after having graduated in all the classes 
 of the Opera, made her first 
 appearance in the trio of the 
 third act of Guillaume Tell, and 
 at once became famous. " Before 
 long," wrote Gustave Bertrand, 
 "the public will learn to love 
 this strange profile — so like a 
 frightened bird's — and criticism 
 will have to reckon with this 
 aspiring talent." She had not 
 as yet put forth all her strength. 
 It was not until she appeared in 
 the part of Coppelia that she 
 wholly revealed what was in her, 
 and that the full extent of her 
 grace and poetic feeling was un- 
 folded to the public. 
 
 " Her movements," said Paul 
 de St. Victor, "might inspire a 
 
 designer of fine and dainty ornament. All she does is exquisite, minute 
 and delicate as a piece of fine lace-work." 
 
 About 1865, new stars arose in the theatrical firmament. I refer to 
 Mesdames Fioretti and Fiocre, both brilliantly successful public favourites. 
 
 At the end of the following year M. Charles Nuitter — now librarian of 
 the Opera — ^composed the charming ballet La Source, arranged by Saint- Leon, 
 and set to music by Delibes and Minkous. Salvioni appeared in it and 
 received a perfect ovation. " She is," says Paul de St. Victor, " the typical 
 Italian dancer, strong and daring as an Amazon, shaking out her steps like 
 a flight of arrows. She excels above all in suggestive steps, and in those 
 intrepid attitudes that recall the vehemence of Florentine painting." 
 
 FANNY ELSSLER IN THE BALLET OF " LA CHATTE 
 M^TAMOEf HOS^E EN FEMME " 
 
364 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 M. Nuitter composed the ballet Coppelia, for which Leo Delibes wrote 
 the music, but its success was cut short by the war of 1870. On 
 October 16, the reproduction of this fascinating ballet was announced. 
 The title-role was created by the youthful Bozacchi, a delicate little creature 
 of sixteen, who died very soon afterwards. La Beaugrand played the part 
 with extraordinary success. " She is the successor of Carlotta Grisi ! " 
 
 
 THE LITTLE QUADRILLE CLASS 
 
 After Renouard 
 
 exclaimed Theophile Gautier. After the dark days of 1870, we find 
 M. Nuitter composing the ballet Gretna Green, which Merante, Saint-Leon's 
 successor, arranged for him. But the theatre in the Rue Lepelletier suddenly 
 caught fire, and its successful run came to an abrupt end. We hear of no 
 new ballets till January 5, 1 875, at the production of an opera by M. Garnier. 
 M. Nuitter was again the composer. This operatic revival was a magnificent 
 performance, but it had not the future that was anticipated. For a long 
 time both theatrical and social dancing seemed unable to shake off the 
 
<i'.!,ifs^,.^^.Jiil 
 
 '%^^Ul^uVarm^„r,. g^^) 
 
 .^-after- ,-0. JiiGture ^by tJ". O . USe-rCier^ 
 
 orf^ 
 
 cuhe 
 
THE BALLET OF LE FANDANGO 
 
 36^ 
 
 depressing influences of the " Terrible Year." From time to time only, a 
 ballet flashed across the theatrical gloom like a trail of vivid light. In 1876, 
 Leo Delibes wrote the exquisite ballet Sylvia for Mile. Sangalli. In 
 1877,- the ballet Le Fandango, arranged by Merante, was given at the 
 Opera House on a scale of great magnificence ; the music, by Gaston 
 Salvayre, illustrated 
 
 ^:a^*<f^'<r%w^?;w59^5*.-?^?^/5r^§ 
 
 a libretto by Meilhac 
 
 and Halevy . The 
 
 reigning queen was still 
 
 Leontine Beaugrand, but 
 
 she was supported by 
 
 the dancers of the first 
 
 quadrille, Sangalli, the 
 
 beautiful Fatou, Mile. 
 
 Piron of the superb 
 
 legs, Mile. Monchalin, 
 
 who, even at seventeen, 
 
 was not only, recognised 
 
 as one of the first 
 
 dancers of the day, but 
 
 was enchantingly, de- 
 
 liciously pretty. The 
 
 corps de ballet, as a 
 
 band of gipsies, was 
 
 led by the fair and 
 
 serious Mile. Subra, 
 
 then little more than a 
 
 child. The premier danseur, Vasquez, was also much applauded. In 
 
 1882, Le Fandango was again put on the stage. Mile. Subra replacing 
 
 La Beaugrand, who had retired somewhat early. Mile. Subra is still 
 
 one of the great stars, one of the goddesses of French dancing. She 
 
 recalls Fanny Elssler and I>a Beaugrand, whom she succeeded. Under 
 
 the management of M. Vaucorbeil, M. Philippe Gille and M. Arnold 
 
 Mortier composed the ballet La Farandole, with music by Dubois, a 
 
 veritable triumph for Merante. .Rosita Mauri was bewitching in a pink 
 
 BALLET DANCERS 
 
 After Carrier-Belleuse 
 
366 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 satin gown, embroidered with flowers, while Mile. Invernizzi appeared in all 
 
 the seduction of her insidious grace. 
 
 In 1879, M. Philippe Gille and M. Arnold Mortier gave us the ballet 
 
 Teddo, for which Metra 
 wrote the brilliant score, 
 and Merante arranged 
 the dances. 
 
 In the course of the 
 same year, on the re- 
 production of the ballet, 
 the sparkling and whim- 
 sical Rosita Mauri, just 
 back from Italy, was 
 chosen for the principal 
 part. Among those 
 who led the furore of 
 applause with which she 
 was greeted were the 
 Prince of Wales, M. de 
 Metternich, and M. de 
 Massa. What a pro- 
 digious advance the dark 
 Rosita of the Songe du 
 Vizir had made ! What 
 
 a triumphant progress has been hers throughout the capitals of Europe! 
 
 But henceforward our Opera was to take possession of her, for the 
 
 Parisians adored her. 
 
 In 1880, the Opera had given a brilliant performance of the ballet 
 
 Sylvia, by Jules Barbier, Merante, and Leo Delibes, with Rita Sangalli, 
 
 Sanlaville, Diane Montaubuz, and the graceful Marquet in the principal 
 parts. 
 
 We come now to more recent masterpieces, which will certainly leave 
 their traces in the history of dancing, though they are not all of French 
 creation, and do not all belong to the Opera. 
 
 In 1882, under M. Vaucorbeil's management, our leading theatre gave 
 
 THE DUNCE 
 
 After Carrier-Belleuse 
 
THE BALLET OF NAMOUNA 
 
 367 
 
 the Grand Ballet of Namouna, the clever libretto of which was written by 
 M. Nuitter, and the charming music by Lalo. 
 
 Petipas' dance was intoxicating. Rita Sangalli fascinated the audience 
 in the part of Namouna, and Mile. Subra was simply astounding. Merante 
 played the part of Ottavio with much grace. Pluque distinguished himself 
 
 THE DANCING-SCHOOL 
 
 After Palmaroli 
 By permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. 
 
 as a gorgeous pirate. The dresses were superb. Sangalli, as a Moldavian, 
 was in pure white, spangled with gold, with a glittering veil and apron 
 embroidered in silver, and fringed with pink silk. Invernizzi wore a Greek 
 dalmatic of green velvet, enriched with gold. 
 
 In 1883, the Eden Theatre opened with Manzotti's ballet Excelsior. 
 The mounting was superb, and, in spite of mediocre orchestration, it was 
 received with enthusiasm, thanks to the talent of Mile. Lany, from La Scala. 
 
368 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Manzotti, encouraged by this success, produced a new ballet in the 
 Italian style in 1884. The plot, borrowed from a Scandinavian legend of 
 the year 640, takes us to the enchanted region of Thule. The success of 
 
 Sieba was as great 
 as that of Excelsior. 
 La Zucchi created a 
 new dance, brilliant 
 and impassioned, and 
 drew all Paris to see 
 her. 
 
 Of Widor's Kor- 
 rigane, Messager's 
 Deux "Pigeons, of La 
 Maladetta, and of 
 VEtoile, there is 
 little left to say. 
 We can but reiterate 
 the praises heaped 
 on the authors and 
 their brilliant inter- 
 preters. 
 
 Grand ballets 
 with intricate plots 
 are no longer in 
 favour with the 
 management at the 
 Opera. Neverthe- 
 less, all the masters 
 of our time have scored music for our charming dancers. Wagner alone, 
 after an unsuccessful attempt in Rienzi, seems to have abandoned ballet 
 music. For the performance of 'Tannhduser in Paris he wrote an interlude 
 in the Venusburg scene, but this beautiful composition is not, properly 
 speaking, ballet-music. 
 
 Here is some information I owe to the kindness of M. Nuitter, the 
 clever choregraphist and librarian at the Opera, on the subject of the shaping 
 
 A DANCER 
 
 After Degas 
 
THE COMPOSITION OF BALLETS 
 
 369 
 
 of a ballet. The librettist, he said, first writes his book of the ballet. This 
 book, describes the action, but contains no indications of a purely choregraphic 
 nature. The choregraphist studies the story. He considers the scenes, 
 which, as they are to be explained by the limited language of pantomime, 
 are marked by a necessary simplicity. He then composes the steps to be 
 
 A DANCING LESSON 
 
 After Renouard 
 
 danced. In former times this was all done before the musician composed 
 a single note of music. It was the choregraphist who explained to him 
 in detail what he required. He asked twenty bars of a quick movement, 
 sixteen of a slow ; here a valse tune, there a gavotte. 
 
 But this custom has been gradually modified. Composers now write as 
 they please for the dancers, as well as for the merely pantomimic scenes, and 
 it is for the ballet-master to do the best he can with the ideas furnished to 
 him ; a task at once more, difficult, and giving less scope to the choregraphist, 
 than the older system. 
 
370 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Once this double work is finished, the ballet-master calls together the 
 stafF which is to interpret it. The ballet-master indicates every gesture, and 
 dances every step, at the same time giving to each its proper designation, 
 after which the dancers reproduce what has been shown them. All this, 
 however, is learnt much more quickly than one would imagine, and is 
 
 THE DANCING LESSON 
 
 After Renouard 
 
 stamped upon the memory very rapidly. At the end of some years, a 
 dancer, hearing the different scores, remembers to the smallest detail the 
 steps she has danced. M. Hansen, the ballet-master at the Opera, had the 
 kindness to let me see a rehearsal of the ballet in the Meister singer, and I 
 was surprised at the facility with which the dancers remember the variations 
 of step and attitude, and grasp the meaning of the master directing them. 
 Spectators of a ballet, we have all wondered at the birdlike movements of 
 graceful women, sinuous, young, and impassioned, swathed in gold-spangled 
 gauzes, lighter than wings. In our excitement these entrancing beings 
 
TRAINING OF BALLET DANCERS 
 
 371 
 
 seemed like embodied visions. But how distant the dream is from the 
 reality I only knew when the doors of the classes at the Opera were opened 
 to me by MM. Bertrand and Gailhard, and I was made free of the wings. 
 I arrived at the Opera for the first time one morning about nine o'clock, 
 
 SKETCH OF BALLET DANCERS 
 
 After Renouard 
 
 and walking up and down, I waited for the pleasant guide to whose care 
 
 M Hansen, the ballet-master, had confided me. 
 
 Some little girls arrived, with their baskets on their arms. These were 
 
 ■the youngest pupils-future stars, perhaps-who have to be m class 
 every day at nine o'clock in summer, at ten o'clock in winter. A few 
 minutes later I found them dressed for their work, that is to say, m tights, 
 with little calico knickerbockers and short gauze skirts, taking their places 
 in a class directed by Mile. Bernay, formerly a very popular premere danseuse. 
 When their mistress clapped her hands, they formed in line before the radmg 
 fastened to the wall and running round the room. Then the lesson began 
 
372 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 to the chords of a violin. And while these little things were occupied with 
 their first five positions, &c., I thought of their teacher, Mile. Berthe 
 1(1 rfy. What she had written about her early training recurred tome, and 
 
 I realised that these 
 children before me 
 would have to un- 
 dergo an initiation as 
 severe as hers. 
 
 What she says is 
 this : 
 
 "I was sev^en years 
 old, and my mother 
 used to wake me to 
 go to work, winter 
 and summer alike, at 
 half-past seven, and 
 as at this time the 
 lessons were held in 
 the Rue Richer 
 (where they keep the 
 scenery), I had to 
 leave our lodgings at 
 Belleville, near the 
 Buttes-Chaumont, at 
 an hour that would 
 enable me to be 
 dressed and in class 
 by nine o'clock. It goes without saying that an omnibus was beyond 
 my small means. I had to make the journey on foot, and what a 
 journey the reader can easily imagine ! The morning lesson lasted 
 from nine o'clock to half-past ten. After this I changed my dress 
 and returned home for my small luncheon at twelve o'clock. Not that 
 I always got off after my lesson. I did not regain my native heights 
 so early every day. There were days, frequent enough, on which I 
 had to attend rehearsals at the Opera, where young pupils like myself 
 
 I^H 
 
 p^piTO:: 
 
 Hra 
 
 w% 
 
 ^^IHh^^^^' * 
 
 ' ** , V- 
 
 ^^^^^BS^Hfei^^ V 
 
 ■«*^' . ] 
 
 iip 
 
 
 
 '^^jmk 
 
 
 kffl 
 
 m 
 
 ^■^^K ''IHk ^m^^^^^H 
 
 LA ZUCCHI 
 
 After Clairin 
 
TRAINING OF BALLET DANCERS 
 
 ?73 
 
 were employed to ' walk on.' On those days I lunched in the Rue 
 Richer, with my mother, off the frugal meal that we brought with us in a 
 basket (that basket I have never forgotten), after which we went to the 
 rehearsal at the Rue Drouot, which lasted until two o'clock. Then I 
 was at last free to 
 make the journey back 
 again to Belleville. But 
 on the evenings when 
 I had to ' walk on ' at 
 the theatre, we came 
 down once again for a 
 'call' at the Rue Drouot 
 at eight. In short, I 
 had to start at seven 
 o'clock, and often the 
 piece lasted until mid- 
 night. On these oc- 
 casions my poor mother 
 literally dragged me 
 along on her arm, and 
 we would arrive at our 
 lodgings worn out, at 
 one o'clock, to find 
 my father waiting up 
 for us. After a brief 
 sleep I had to start olF 
 again next morning for 
 the class in the Rue 
 Drouot. But I earned 
 
 a franc for the rehearsal, and a franc for ' walking on ' in the evening." 
 From her we learn what were the salaries of a dancer of the first rank 
 during more than ten years of her career. In 1869 she was engaged by 
 M. Perrin in the second quadrille at 600 francs a year. After passing an 
 examination, this was raised to 700 francs. Under the management of 
 M. Halanzier her salary was fixed at 900 francs. Three years afterwards, 
 
 A BALLET DANXER 
 
 After Bertier 
 
374 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 being in the first quadrille, she drew iioo francs, and as leader of the 
 corps de ballet, 1200 francs. Eight years later her salary was successively 
 1500, 1800, 4000 and 6000 francs. Under the Vaucorbeil management it 
 reached 6800 francs, but only to drop under that of Ritt and Gailhard to 
 5000 and 3000 francs. And this after twenty-six years of work ! . . . 
 
 MLLE. Theodore's dancing-class 
 After Laurent Desrousseaux 
 
 Meanwhile, however, the lesson was going on, and after a series of 
 movements in the first five positions, the class passed on to different poses 
 and postures, the nomenclature of which is only to be understood after a 
 lengthy initiation. To become a good dancer, however well endowed a 
 pupil may be, five years' preparatory study is indispensable. Every day for 
 an hour and a half they all take lessons. Many even come before the time, 
 to prepare themselves by taking a turn at the wooden railing. 
 
 In her interesting study on La T>anse au fhedtre. Mile. Berthe Bernay 
 
TRAINING OF BALLET DANCERS 
 
 m 
 
 asks the reason of the discredit that so often falls on the dancer and her 
 profession. 
 
 " Even if some deserve it," she adds, " we should bear in mind the 
 fatigues, privations and 
 sufferings to which they 
 have been exposed 
 almost from their earliest 
 childhood. We should 
 take into account their 
 exposure to temptations, 
 their inadequate remun- 
 eration, the life not only 
 of continual self-denial, 
 but almost of indigence. 
 . . .Reader, be -lenient 
 to the woman, always to 
 a certain extent inter- 
 esting and meritorious, 
 who gives up her youth, 
 her health, her life, to 
 the art of dancing. 
 Think kindly of her . . . 
 for she has worked hard, 
 and suffered much to 
 earn your applause, or 
 even your criticisms." 
 
 We have seen how, 
 in the eighteenth 
 century, 'choregraphers 
 conceived the idea of 
 
 representing dancing by illustrative signs and characters. This com- 
 phcated method has since been abandoned, and the teaching of steps is 
 now effected in quite another way. The professor indicates them with his 
 hands, counting the beats of the time aloud. The pupils copy him, learning 
 by mimicry, and then execute with their legs the movements that their 
 
 BLIND-MAN S BUFF 
 
 After Carrier-Belleuse 
 
376 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 hands have demonstrated ; a method that reminds one a little of the 
 language used in teaching the deaf and dumb. 
 
 After having watched the preliminary studies, I had a glance at the 
 higher classes of the quadrille, and of the ballet-girls, in which they learn 
 
 the intricate exercises 
 which prepare them for 
 variations and impro- 
 visations on the stage. 
 I was also allowed to see 
 the boys' class, under 
 the control of M. Stilb. 
 I then came to the 
 finishi^ng classes, to 
 which M. Vasquez wel- 
 comed me with, an 
 exquisite courtesy. 
 Seated at his side, I 
 watched several lessons 
 given to premieres dans- 
 euses, and even to the 
 " stars." Amonof the 
 students were Miles. 
 Zambelli, Piodi, Otto- 
 Hni, Lobstein, Chabot, 
 Torri, and many others, 
 whose grace and bril- 
 liancy I had often 
 admired on the stage. 
 M. Vasquez Is an exceptional teacher, with true artistic insight. "One 
 should be able," he said to me, " to fix a dancer at any moment, however 
 fugitive and aerial her pose, and if she obeys the true principles of move- 
 ment, her body, her arms, and her legs will all combine in a graceful and 
 harmonious whole." 
 
 He attaches great importance to expression, requiring soul, spontaneity, 
 and suppleness in every attitude. The dancer must rise lightly on her toes, 
 
 A POSTER 
 By Chiret 
 
SKETCHES OF BALLET DANCERS 
 
 After Renouard 
 
 3B 
 
378 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 bound in one step from the ground, and skim over the surface of the stage 
 as if about to take flight into the air. I admired the perseverance with 
 which even the " stars " went through their exercises, for MlJes. Subra and 
 
 Rosita Mauri came each 
 day to the bars, working 
 hard to preserve their 
 elasticity. 
 
 A few years ago, the 
 ballet was the greatest 
 of delights to the play- 
 goer. To-day it holds 
 a very subordinate 
 position. The ballet 
 seems no longer in 
 request, and its place in 
 our principal theatre is 
 becoming more and 
 more restricted. Never- 
 theless, the classic school 
 of French dancing still 
 retains its traditions for 
 brilliancy, grace and 
 dignity at the Opera. 
 Elsewhere it has had to 
 make way for the sin- 
 gular, but sometimes 
 charming dances introduced by artistes such as the Barrison sisters, the 
 Martyns, Mile. Eglantine, and many others. We shall not easily forget 
 one of them, the Serpentine Dance, undulating and luminous, full of 
 weird grace and originality, a veritable revelation ! By means of a 
 novel contrivance, the gauzy iridescent draperies in which Loie Fuller 
 swathes herself are waved about her, now to form huge wings, now to 
 surge in great clouds of gold, blue, or crimson, under the coloured 
 rays of the electric light. And in the flood of this dazzling or pallid light 
 the form of the dancer suddenly became incandescent, or moved slowly and 
 
LOIE FULLER 
 
 379 
 
 spectrally in the diaphanous and ever-changing coloration cast upon it. 
 The spectator never v^earied of watching the transformations of these 
 tissues of living light, which showed in successive visions the dreamy 
 dancer, moving languidly in a chaos of figured draperies — in a rainbow of 
 brilliant colours, or a sea of vivid flames. And after having roused us to a 
 pitch of enthusiasm by this luminous choregraphy, she appeared triumphant 
 
 Troupe de 
 
 M"-^ECLANTINE 
 
 /^h EgTantine "_ ' - Cleopatre 
 >^-^ . Jan<&.Ayj:H ■ ^ Gazelle 
 
 
 in the pantomime-ballet Salome, reproducing the gloomy episode of the 
 death of John the Baptist. The stage of the Folies-Bergeres, where Lo'ie 
 Fuller performed this weird and graceful Serpentine Dance, is famous for 
 its ballets ; as, for example, Phryne, with its brilliant and marvellous costumes. 
 As for public balls, the old balls, so merry in days gone by, the 
 majority have disappeared, and those that remain have sadly degenerated. 
 At the Moulin de la Galette a new school has been inaugurated, the 
 school of eccentric dancing, the chief features of which are the " realistic " 
 quadrille and the grand ec'art, which have figured in the programmes of the 
 Jardin de Paris, the Moulin Rouge, and other places. I confess that the 
 
380 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 risky gymnastics and painful distortions of Miles. Grille d'Egout, La Goulue, 
 Nini Patte-en-l'air, and Rayon d'Or, not only have no attraction for me, 
 but seem to me absolutely unpleasant. I am probably too old-fashioned to 
 understand them. I confess also that the present Bullier makes me regret 
 what I have heard of the frank and wholesome gaiety of the students' balls 
 of former days. And I dream of rustic dances amid the balm of new- 
 mown hay, the natural expression of enjoyment after the toil of summer 
 days. 
 
 miESBERGERE 
 
 en 
 
 BALUT-PAinMIME 
 
 en Trois Tableaux 
 
THE ROYAL BIRTHDAY BALL AT ST. JAMES's PALACE ; BIRTHDAY OF GEORGE III., JUNE 4, 1782 
 
 After Thomas Stothard, R.A. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Earl;^ History of 'Dancing in (jreat 'Britain — Anglo-Saxon 'Dancing — Doorman Dances 
 — (Middle Jges-^Dances of Rights-Templars and Templars — Dancing under 
 Tudor Sovereigns — James I. and Court (Masques — Charles I. and Court 
 (Masques — -The Commonwealth — Dancing under Charles II.— Old (May-day 
 Dances — Dancing in the Days of ^een Anne — 'Bath — 'Beau (Njish as (Master 
 of the Ceremonies — His Successors — (Masquerades at (Madame Comely' s, Carlisle 
 House — The 'Pantheon — 'S^nelagh and IJauxhall gardens — Jlmack's Club and 
 Subscription Balls — Famous .Dancing- masters and Coryphees of the Eighteenth 
 Century — The 'Oestris Family — Stage-dancing — Opera Dancers at the King's 
 Theatre — Her (Majesty'' s, from IJestris le (^rand to Kate Vaughan 
 
 r has been the custom of strangers, who have not taken the 
 trouble to inform themselves on the subject, to assume that 
 
 the inhabitants of the United Kingdom ranked low amongst 
 dancing nations, while admitting that the tastes of the people 
 inclined them to favour dances which are rapid, lively, and spirited ; such, 
 for example, as Hornpipes, Country Dances, Irish Jigs, Highland Flings, 
 Reels, and Strathspeys, severally characterised as national dances. 
 
382 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Like the hardy races of antiquity, the early inhabitants of these islands, 
 for the most part warriors, delighted in dances of a warlike character. 
 
 Goths, Gauls, Danes, Picts and Scots, hardy Norsemen, and the warrior 
 nations with whom the ancient inhabitants were brought into contact, had 
 the same passion for these saltatory exercises. The Roman conquest added 
 to the passion for gymnastic dancing, by bringing in its train the Pyrrhic 
 martial dance, the great dance of war, daily practised. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons were undoubtedly lovers of dancing, the nation dis- 
 porting itself with characteristic spirit on holidays and merry-makings. It 
 is demonstrated from the graphic evidence which is procurable, that the old 
 forms of gymnastic dancing were still in favour ; hopping, leaping, tumbling, 
 and somersaulting are all described as popular feats, and we may gather that 
 the " gleemen," like the Norman jongleurs, were professional " tumblers," 
 dancing on their hands no less readily than on their feet, vaulting, throw- 
 ing somersaults, flip-flaps, and in general performing those gymnastic 
 tricks associated with proficient acrobats. We see in the pictures female 
 jongleures performing similar feats of tumbling and dancing. Hoppesteres was 
 a name given to feminine performers expert in this branch. The mimi, or 
 minstrels, who travelled the country in bands, were also dancers, performing 
 Jigs and Flings to the accompaniment of the musical instruments they carried, 
 dancing Hornpipes amongst eggs without breaking them, and Reels amidst 
 knives and daggers. 
 
 The Normans improved English domestic dancing by adding to the 
 stock of Rounds, common to the people, the variety of steps and figures 
 found in the Contredanse, supposed to have been introduced here by William 
 the Conqueror. Primitive dances were expanding, and professional dancing 
 borrowed hints from distant lands. The first Crusaders brought back in 
 their train dissolute Eastern practices ; they not only introduced suggestive 
 dances from the East, but kept their troops of dancing-girls. 
 
 The mention of the Carole, originally a singing dance, opens up the 
 extensive subject of Christmas dances, carols in their surviving form. Yule- 
 tide festivities, plays, pageants, disguisings, masques, mummers, mysteries, 
 masquerading revels, " Christmas Princes," " Lords of Misrule," Masters 
 of Revels, Courts of Father Christmas, with the Rondes, Brawls, Galliards, 
 Courantes, Jigges, Flings, and the whirl of merry dances, singing measures. 
 
DANCING UNDER THE TUDORS 383 
 
 choral exercises, &c., they brought in their train, as contributory mirth to 
 the festive season. 
 
 In the Middle Ages, out-oft-door dances of the peasant order were 
 common. The Roundel consisted in any number of people joining hands, 
 and, to the music of the roundelay, performing such evolutions as were then 
 in favour, or dancing in one long procession, headed by a couple, whose 
 turns and sauts, leapings and twistings, the train endeavoured to imitate. 
 
 In the reign of Edward III. the Morris Dance was in favour, derived 
 from th.^ Morisco; the parti-coloured masquers had bells attached to their 
 quaint masquing habits, and held drawn swords in their hands. This was 
 a figure-dance of agility. 
 
 In the days when Knights rode through Knightrlder Street, to hold their 
 "jousts," or tournaments, at Smithfield, " antic-dances, masquerades, jigs, 
 sarabands, quarter-staff dances," and a " chair-dance," were performed at 
 the old Elephant Ground in Smithfield. 
 
 Dancing was from early times considered an important part of a gentle 
 education. The Inns of Court, among other practices, were zealous about 
 their dancing observances ; the holding of revels had been duly provided 
 for, and kept within convenient bounds by an Act passed in the reign of 
 Henry VI. — (Dugdale, Orig. Jurid.) 
 
 These exercises of dancing were thought very necessary, " and much 
 conducing to the making of gentlemen more fit for their books at other 
 times," and " under barristers " were put out of commons for not partici- 
 pating in the dancings, with a threat of fines and disbarment for contumacy. 
 
 Under the Tudor sovereigns dancing flourished mightily, and the land 
 seemed more like the " Merrie England " of the chroniclers. Henry VIII. 
 was an all-accomplished prince as regards those portions of a gentle 
 education, music and dancing ; he composed the music and danced to his 
 own melodies. The jousts, masques, and pageants given in the earlier part 
 of his reign, culminating in the extravagant splendours of the Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold, are sufficiently well known ; Shakespeare has immortalised the 
 " disguisings " and " surprise visit " to Wolsey's palace. These were the 
 days of Kissing Dances, the kiss probably contributing to their popularity. 
 So Henry VIII, is made to say: "Sweetheart, I were unmannerly to 
 take you out and not to kiss you." 
 
384 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 In Edward VI. 's reign fanatics commenced the Reformation crusade 
 against the licentiousness of dancing, and inoffensive maypoles were cut 
 down. 
 
 The reign of Queen Elizabeth was a dancing era, and the Queen herself 
 set the fashion. Are not the great officers of State rumoured to have 
 danced into their grave offices .-' There was, among other sprightly instances, 
 " Sir Christopher Hatton, who wore the green satton," dancing the Pavane 
 to such dignified perfection thaf he tripped his way to the woolsack. 
 Elizabeth prided herself upon her own skill, and ambassadors were asked to 
 solve the delicate point whether her Majesty's dancing surpassed that of 
 sister princesses, such as Mary Queen of Scots, that rival devotee of the 
 dance. Stately measures, such as the Pavane, were a necessity, though it is 
 related of a princess that she performed the lively movement of a Courante, 
 the nimble Courant, wearing an embroidered train three yards in length, of 
 course borne by a gentleman train-bearer, whose agility was deserving of 
 equal admiration. 
 
 Majestic measures were adapted to the requirements of the performers, 
 decked in all the dignity of brave apparel ; high head-dresses with towers of 
 hair ; coifs overloaded with jewels, with osprey, and other plumes, to which 
 brisk movements would have brought destruction ; rigid and elongated 
 stomachers ; starched ruffs of several stories ; buckramed sleeves and skirts ; 
 hoops both high and inflexible ; extravagant trains and stiff shoes, also 
 stiffer with jewels, and with very high heels ; all adornments necessitating 
 dance-measures suitable to the constrained and stately deportment of the 
 wearers ; hence the favour in which was held the "grave Pavane," other- 
 wise admirably designed to harmonise with stately surroundings, evidently 
 the precursor of the equally courtly Minuet. The Pavane and Paduane, pre- 
 sumably the same, are supposed to have been in favour in Padua ; the more 
 popular acceptation was that the name is derived from pavo, a peacock, for 
 a more " peacocky " measure it is difficult to imagine. Lord Burleigh, and 
 the wisest of their time, joined in the " deportment " movements. Sir John 
 Hawkins, in his History of Music, has summed up the specialities of the 
 Pavane : " It is a grave and majestic dance. The method of dancing it 
 anciently was by gentlemen dressed with caps and swords ; by those of the 
 long robe in their gowns ; by the peers in their mantles ; and by ladies in 
 
BRAWLS AND MASQUES 38^ 
 
 gowns with long trains, the motion whereof, in dancing, resembled that of 
 a peacock." Her Majesty kept a Master of the Revels, whose office it was 
 to superintend the dances. There was the Undumpisher, according to 
 Daniel, christened from " Dump," the name of a dance. This official may 
 have been a Court buffoon. Besides the chivalric Pavane, there was the 
 Pazzamezzo, the Cinque-pace alluded to by Shakespeare ; Courantes, 
 Galliards (both lively dances), Trenchmores, Brawls, Jigs, Fancies, and La 
 Volta, another Court favourite. The latter, as its name implies, of 
 springing character ; the cavalier turning his partner in several rounds, 
 and then assisting the lady to make a high spring, or cabriole, perhaps 
 similar to cutting an entrechat. 
 
 The Brawls led by Sir Christopher Hatton were of an agile nature, 
 derived from both the French Branles, and the Italian ; another phase of 
 the Ronde. This, like the generality of peasant measures, vivacious and 
 saltatory, was popular at wedding feasts. There is an old song, 1569, in 
 which some of the features of the Brawl are described : 
 
 " Good fellowes must go learne to daunce, 
 
 The brydeal is full near a : 
 There is a brail come out of France, 
 
 The first ye harde this yeare a, 
 But I must leape and thou must hoppe. 
 
 And we must turn all three a ; 
 The fourth must bounce it like a toppe. 
 
 And so we shall agree a. 
 1 pray the minstrell make no stop, 
 
 For we will merry be a." 
 
 One of the earliest dance tunes, St. Leger Round, was wedded to a 
 circular Country Dance known as Sellenger's Round. This was in favour in 
 Elizabeth's reign, with Rogero (suggestive of Sir Roger), The Hay, and 
 John, come Kiss Me now. The Beginning of the World, we are told 
 (Chappell's Old English Popular Music) was another title for Sellenger's 
 Round. The description of this dance is given in Playford's Dancing 
 Master. 
 
 The history of dancing in the reign of James I. chiefly refers to the 
 costly Masques and emblematic pageants, such as were devised by Ben 
 Jonson ; many of these were on a lavish scale, full of " rare conceits " and 
 
 3c 
 
386 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 high-flown panegyrics upon the prince and his belongings. The story of 
 these divertissements, too lengthy for this place, is interesting, as they all 
 introduced dancing in various forms. Sometimes, as in the case of a 
 Masque offered to a royal visitor and brother-in-law to the King, the 
 personage in whose honour the revel was designed happened to be over- 
 come by previous potations ; the goddesses represented in the Masque 
 staggered on in similar state and speechless ; the chief performers were put 
 to bed in hopeless conditions ; and Majesty remained prostrate. 
 
 King James I., as has been mentioned, was a lover of dancing. Young 
 Henry, Prince of Wales, excelled in these exercises, and " Steenie," the 
 royal favourite, delighted to exhibit his fine figure, rich attire, and graceful 
 agility in the dance. Prince Charles, too, was an accomplished dancer, and 
 was sent dancing through the Courts of Europe with the elegant Villiers, 
 Duke of Buckingham, as his travelling tutor. 
 
 Courtly magnificence under Charles I., with his consort, daughter of 
 Henri Quatre, aspired still higher. The King's love of art raised the Masques 
 to their greatest glories ; Buckingham encouraged these costly entertain- 
 ments, at which he assisted. There was Ben Jonson to devise the pageant, 
 generally founded on fables and myths, to furnish the lyrics and heroic 
 speeches ; Lawes composed the music ; and the great architect, Inigo 
 Jones, furnished the mise-en-scene, invented the "machineries" (which were 
 very elaborate), and was responsible for the costumes, chariots, vehicles- and 
 accessories in general. Prodigious sums were lavished on these spectacles, 
 which were brought to artistic perfection under Charles I. Members of the 
 Court and professional classes devoted themselves to learning new measures, 
 to furnish forth what would now be the ballet, and a general dance of the 
 company brought these amusements to an appropriate finish. The 
 expensive nature of these Masques can be gathered from the sum (^21,000) 
 alleged to have been expended upon one presented at Whitehall by the Inns 
 of Court in 1633. 
 
 Offence to the decorous was given by the dancing of ballets drawn from 
 heathen mythology, and the Sarabands, Courantes, Galliardes, and livelier 
 measures at Court, where French fashions held the ascendency ; Queen 
 Henrietta Maria enjoying the traditional gaiety of her race, and being 
 surrounded by favourite attendants and courtiers of her own faith and 
 
DANCING AT CHARLES II. 'S COURT 387 
 
 nation. These degenerate amusements evoked the protest of the godly, and 
 helped to precipitate the civil troubles of the reign ; hence the frivolous era 
 was replaced by a stern reign of puritanical propriety, and dancing fell with 
 courtly and similar levities. 
 
 It has been mentioned that there are Jigs christened after each successive 
 sovereign from Charles II. to Queen Anne. On the same authority (Grove's 
 Dictionary^, there is a Jig called Old Noll's Jig, possibly in derision ; for, 
 though the Protector delighted in music, it is perhaps over far-fetched to 
 picture Oliver Cromwell, footing a Jig. 
 
 The Commonwealth looked askance at fripperies, and dancing came 
 under the ban. With the Restoration an era of gaiety set in, the people 
 seemed to wish to compensate themselves for the oppressive parliamentary 
 reign of enforced sobriety by rushing to the other extreme ; and " Merrie 
 England " was revived with enthusiastic zeal, which, on occasions, was 
 carried to excess.. All the old Mayday revels were restored, and Maypoles 
 flourished abundantly ; there were dances on all occasions ; the playhouses 
 were reopened, and dancing, with ballets, after the manner of Louis XIV. 's 
 favourite diversions, were introduced ; actors and actresses were expected to 
 excel in performing Jigs, and favourites were calle.d back at the close of the 
 pieces, when the audiences called upon them for a dance, with which invita- 
 tion it was considered good taste to comply. 
 
 Dances were the order at Court,, and, judging from King, courtiers, and 
 female favourites thereat, pretty lively proceedings must have been the 
 order of the nights. We have space but for a passing glimpse of the school 
 of dancing prevailing under the easy, roysterous, pleasure-loving auspices 
 of Charles II. In the company of Secretary Pepys (1662) we are taken to 
 a ball at Whitehall, shortly after the Restoration. The King and other lords 
 and ladies danced the Brantle or Branle, a dance of several persons, holding 
 hands, and leading one another by turns. Then Majesty led a lady a single 
 Courante ; then the other lords did likewise, This was the steadier portion 
 of the dancing ; for the Country Dances which followed were boisterous ; the 
 King leading the first, which he called for ; characteristically naming the 
 old English measure. Cuckolds all Awry. This, as the title implies, was a 
 frolic, with plenty of wild swinging to set the dancers awry ; the company 
 joining hands in a circle, and doing their best endeavour to shake each other 
 
^88 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 as violently as possible. The steps, changing with the time, consisted of three 
 pas and pied-joints, the time being given to four strokes of the bow, 
 vigorously carried out. After the liberal courtly allowance of wine, and the 
 difficulty of keeping on their legs, this must have been a merry romp, for 
 considering the loose habits then prevailing, the dancers must have pretty 
 nearly shaken each other out of their clothes, already sufficiently decoUetee. 
 This eventuality may account for the Merry Monarch's preference for 
 Cuckolds all Awry. 
 
 The spirit of dancing seemed to inspire the people of England in an 
 extra degree on the advent of May-day, and no better refutation could have 
 been offered those prejudiced critics — who have held the theory that dancing 
 was foreign to the English character — than the dancing observances 
 zealously kept up in the times when our country was " Merrie England," 
 and the merry month of May was ushered in with joyous dances. 
 
 An admirable picture of May-day revels in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, with all the accessories of tall Maypole, an arbour of greenery 
 reared for the Lady of the May, mummers, dancing on the green. Queen 
 of the May, morris-dancers, hobby-horses, a dragon, &c., was painted by 
 C. R. Leslie, R.A. An engraving after this happy representation of old 
 English customs is here reproduced. 
 
 Maypoles were a favourite institution both in town and country ; in fact, 
 they were provided out of the common funds. The morris-dancers, already 
 mentioned as in high favour under the Plantagenet sovereigns, formed 
 another accessory of May-day revels ; the Lord and Lady of the May 
 were identified with Robin Hood and Maid Marian, their attendant 
 courtiers and followers with Little John, Friar Tuck, and the sylvan train 
 of Sherwood Forest ; with these were the antics of zanies and hobby- 
 horses ; with a reference to the champion legend of St. George and the 
 Dragon, the " strange beast from other lands," as represented in Leslie's 
 animated picture of May-day festivities. Pipe and tabor furnished the 
 measures, the bagpipes were also popular, witness Browne's Pastorals : 
 
 "I have seen the Lady of the May 
 Set in an arbour (on a holiday) 
 Built by the Maypole, where the jocund swains 
 Dance with the maidens to the bagpipe strains," 
 
pi 
 
 N -^ 
 
 O il 
 
 z * 
 
 o ti 
 
 E ^ 
 
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390 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 A great Maypole was set up in Cornhill; the Maypole in the Strand was 
 134 feet high. Says Pope : 
 
 " Amid the area wide they took their stand, 
 Where the tall Maypole once o'erlooked the Strand." 
 
 The standing Maypole was an institution. The last of its race left in 
 London, according to Hone's recollection, was near Kennington Green, and 
 was mostly frequented by milkmaids : 
 
 Misson, in his Observations on his Travels in England, has set down : 
 "All the pretty young country girls that serve the town with milk, borrow 
 abundance of silver plate to make a pyramid, which they adorn with ribbons 
 and flowers, and carry on their heads instead of a pail. They are often 
 accompanied by their fellow-milkmaids and players on the bagpipe or 
 fiddle." 
 
 The bright shining milk-pails were garlanded too ; Pepys records meeting, 
 on his way to Westminster, May i, 1667, "many milkmaids with their 
 garlands upon their pails, and dancing with a fiddler before them." 
 
 Occasionally the model of a cow with gilt horns, begarlanded with oak 
 leaves, bunches of flowers, rosettes, bows, and streamers of ribbon, took the 
 place of the plate ; which latter, as one can fancy, was less readily forth- 
 coming. Tankards, salvers, bowls, porringers, cups, &c., were arranged in 
 trophies of plate of pyramidal form, all bound together with gay ribbons and 
 festooned with floral garlands ; naturally, when these trophies were burden- 
 some, they could not be carried on the heads of the dancers, but were 
 • mounted on a wooden horse and borne by stout porters ; as were the 
 garlands of greenery and flowers when of inconvenient dimensions. The 
 custom was to stop before customers' doors and dance a Galliard ; for this 
 performance a donation was expected. 
 
 In Scotland there were May-dew dancers at Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, 
 where : 
 
 " Strathspeys and reels 
 Put'life and metal in their heels." 
 
 This festival commenced with a great gathering at daybreak ; before 
 five o'clock in the morning the entire hill became a moving mass of folk of 
 
BATH UNDER BEAU NASH 391 
 
 all clans, arrayed in all the colours of the rainbow. At the summit a kilted 
 company were whirling round a Maypole. 
 
 In Ireland May-day observances were equally popular. At Finglass, 
 near Dublin, the antique Maypole dancing long continued to be kept up in 
 the old style. A high pole was decorated with garlands, and visitors came 
 in, from different parts of the country, to dance round it, to the accompani- 
 ment of whatever music the occasion had conducted there. The best 
 dancers, male and female, were " chaired " as king and queen, and, when 
 the Maypole festivities were wound up, carried to some adjacent inn, where 
 after a feast, with libations of whisky-punch, the proceedings were continued 
 with a dance indoors. 
 
 The art of dancing, as practised by the fair sex in the palmy days of 
 good Queen Anne, had indeed arrived at a point of graceful perfection 
 difficult to associate with the amusements of the time. We may accept 
 the evidence of Sir Richard Steele, as set down In the Tatler, wherein is 
 described, under his assumed character of Mr. Isaac BIckerstaiF, a spirited 
 contest for the pas between two charming young ladies, who had elected to 
 submit their respective claims for pre-eminence to the decision of the 'Tatler. 
 Both the rival charmers being pupils of Mr. Isaac, a famous dancing-master 
 of the period, a Frenchman and a Roman Catholic. 
 
 The allusions to Monsieur Isaac, the proficiency of his system of training, 
 and the all-conquering " rigadoon step," was followed up, a iz^ papers later 
 on, by a playful essay in the 'Tatler, also by Steele, wherein the eccentricities 
 of a professor of dancing, who happened to be his neighbour, formed the 
 text of Mr. BIckerstaff's pleasant lucubration. 
 
 Apart from London, the normal metropolis of everything modish — the 
 aristocratic centre of polite company, genteel assemblies, and. Incidentally, 
 of select and stately dancing, during the eighteenth century — was Bath, the 
 seat of Beau Nash's Court. 
 
 Curiously enough, the despotic ruler and the place seemed designed for 
 one another. Nash had already enjoyed some experience, before, In gentle 
 Anna's reign, he became famous, along with the city of which, for half a 
 century, he was practically king. He had matriculated at Oxford, had 
 figured in the army as an ensign, dressing the martial character, says Goldsmith, 
 " to the very edge of his finances"; but finding the duties and restrictions 
 
392 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 enforced by the military profession irksome, he reverted to the law, and 
 entered as a student of the Inner Temple in 1693. Here he so distin- 
 guished himself by his taste in dress and lavish display, leading an extrava- 
 gant life without visible resources, that the Beau's most intimate friends 
 suspected him of being a knight of the road. Loving display, his fine 
 manners and airy gaiety pointed Nash out as the proper person to super- 
 intend the masque and pageant the students of the Middle Temple exhibited 
 before William III. in 1695. So skilfully did Nash comport himself in the 
 office of Master of the Revels that the King proposed to knight him, an 
 honour subsequently offered by Queen Anne, who had revived the reputa- 
 tion of Bath by repairing thither for the waters in 1703 : fashion had 
 followed the Court, and Beau Nash followed the fashion in 1705, when the 
 fame of the gambling drew him there. In those primitive days dancing was 
 conducted on the bowling-green, or in a booth, according to the season ; 
 there was no Assembly, no codes of etiquette, nor rules regulating the niceties 
 of dress. Nash found " the Bath " still in its primeval provinciality, and, 
 as a person of agreeable ingenuity, with marked organising capability, he 
 readily enlisted the favour of the visitors and the corporation, obtained 
 subscriptions for music, kept a band of six performers, improved the booth 
 into an Assembly Room, raised the Pump Room to dignified standing under 
 the care of an officer called " the pumper," posted up the code of rules 
 which he had drawn up for the reformation of manners, and inaugurated a 
 new and polite order of things. 
 
 The company elected Nash Master of the Ceremonies, and it must be 
 acknowledged that the new monarch of the assemblies showed astonishing 
 gifts for his office. A handsome Assembly House was built under Nash's 
 direction, the number of musicians increased, their pay doubled, and the 
 reign of social propriety began. Says the Gentleman s Magazine (for 1762, 
 the year the Beau died), in an article probably written by Goldsmith, Nash's 
 biographer : " Nash, in administering his government, found it absolutely 
 necessary to enact such laws as would execute themselves ; he, therefore, 
 very artfully contrived to make a kind of penalty the consequence of the 
 breach of them by the manner of drawing them up, as appears from the 
 rules, which he wrote with his own hand, and caused to be put up in the 
 Pump Room." 
 
BALLS UNDER BEAU NASH 
 
 393 
 
 Nash directed that the balls should begin at six and end at eleven ; this he 
 was able to effect by his authority over the music. He opened each ball by 
 taking out two persons of the highest distinction present to dance a Minuet ; 
 when the Minuet was ended, the lady returned to her seat, and Nash brought 
 the gentleman a new partner ; this ceremony was observed with every 
 succeeding couple, every gentleman being obliged to dance with two ladies. 
 
 
 THE COMFORTS OF BATH 
 
 After Thomas Rowlandson 
 
 The Minuet-dancing generally lasted about two hours, and when this was 
 over, the Country Dances began ; ladies of quality, according to their rank, 
 standing up first. An hour later on, generally about nine o'clock, a short 
 interval was allowed for rest, and for the gentlemen to help their partners to 
 tea. When this was over, the dancing continued till eleven, and, as soon as 
 the clock had struck, Nash came into the room and ordered the music to 
 stop by holding up his finger. The dances were, of course, discontinued, and, 
 some time being allowed for the company to grow cool, the ladies were 
 handed to their chairs, nor were those who walked in any danger of being 
 insulted by the chairmen. 
 
 3° 
 
394 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Thus Nash at last arrived at absolute monarchy, and this period of 
 empire represented the palmy days of Bath. 
 
 In the interval between the days of Beau Nash, and the publication of 
 Anstey's New Bath Guide, that vivacious picture of Georgian manners 
 and customs (before the appearance of Bunbury's Long Minuet as Danced 
 at Bath, and Rowlandson's Comforts of Bath), two regents had followed 
 the Beau, and yet another two were contending for the sweets of office. 
 The contest for the Mastership of Ceremonies waxed so fierce that in 
 1769 the subscribers were fain to beseech both candidates to withdraw, and 
 be contented to forego the sway of empire in consideration of an annual ball 
 or two, as a gratuity to soothe their retirement. 
 
 Captain Wade, nephew of the celebrated General Wade, was then 
 distinguished by the appointment, and, at a special ball, this son of Mars, 
 very handsomely attired as Master of the Ceremonies, was presented with a 
 glittering badge of office. Captain Wade shortly retired, and another 
 Arbiter succeeded to the medallion of the old Rooms. Meanwhile, the 
 balls of the New Assembly were swayed by that elegant and refined 
 personage, William Dawson, IVLC, who had his special train of admirers, 
 and was made as resplendent in regalia as his rival at the Old Rooms. 
 
 Great reputations — to say nothing of profits — have been achieved by 
 those who aspired to lead the popular amusements, especially when the 
 nature of the entertainments were of a lively or frisky order. The name of 
 Madame Cornely, the contriver of those dancing Festinos which gained an 
 equivocal celebrity in the eighteenth century, is an instance of the notoriety 
 which was easily made in this walk of trading on the love of pleasure, 
 characterising the frivolous portion of mankind. 
 
 Every one of fashion had heard of Madame Cornely, and all those who 
 loved gaiety, and disregarded expense in procuring it, had revelled in the 
 " violent delights " this enterprising entrepreneuse and providore had cun- 
 ningly spread to attract the gay world to her vivacious entertainments. 
 
 It was known that she was connected with the Opera, and that she had 
 commenced a career, which subsequently made a considerable noise in the 
 fashionable world, as a singer under the name of " the Pompeiati." 
 
 Taking the great Heidegger's successful administration as " Master of 
 the Revels " as her exemplary model, she soon contrived to preside over the 
 
MADAME CORNELY'S MASQUERADES 
 
 39? 
 
 diversions of the ton as the Heidegger of her day. Her taste and invention 
 in pleasures 'and decorations became proverbial. Carlisle House, in Soho 
 Square, fell into her hands, and was shortly transformed into a veritable 
 bower of bliss. The place was promptly enlarged, subscription-balls and 
 assemblies were established ; those rationally sober-minded relaxations 
 usually associated with similar entertainments were surpassed by the lengths 
 
 THE MIDNIGHT MASQUERADE AT THE PANTHEON 
 
 After Thomas Rowlandson 
 
 to which amusements were carried under Madame's giddy auspices, as the 
 High-Priestess of modish innovations. She went on building, made her 
 house a fairy palace, where balls and masquerades the most dazzling were 
 the order of the night ; masquerades which drew all the gilded youth, and 
 a large proportion of the elders too. At first the world was scandalised, 
 but both righteous and ungodly were drawn to Carlisle House. Every 
 one who was any one went there, and the papers were filled with lengthy 
 descriptions of the humours of the Carlisle House masquerades ; the names 
 and ingenious pleasantries of the high-born masquers, and the fashion- 
 able celebrities there congregating, whose titles, characters, and diverting 
 proceedings were duly chronicled in full. 
 
396 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 In those days masqued balls were the fashionable diversions of the best 
 company, and they were really amusing ; it was customary for the masquers 
 to sustain the characters they had assumed ; wit and invention were con- 
 spicuously displayed in keeping up their parts ; the loveliest women of the 
 Court, and the Phrynes who outrivalled them in splendour and profusion, 
 disported themselves in the most brilliant and ingenious costumes. Royal 
 personages were prominent visitors among the performers, and the peerage 
 was largely represented. Queens of society and stage-queens alike found a 
 congenial theatre for their graces, while the blooming younger generation, 
 and the reigning beauties whose fascinations were the topic of the time, 
 were there seen to the best advantage. We know that these symposia were 
 popular amongst men of note besides the frivolous, for were not Garrick, 
 and Sir Joshua Reynolds, Oliver Goldsmith, and Dr. Johnson's protege, 
 Boswell, with men of taste and fashion like Horace Walpole, frequently 
 seen at Madame Cornely's, at Ranelagh, and at Vauxhall .'' 
 
 Of all the palatial structures reared for the accommodation of the d-ancing 
 world, the Pantheon, in Oxford Street, bore off the palm. This " wonder 
 of the time" was erected in 177 1, during the fashionable craze for public 
 balls and masquerades, when the coteries, clubs, assemblies, and general 
 resorts of the beau-monde were most in vogue. It was a rival of Madame 
 Cornely's Carlisle House on a more refined and magnificent scale ; more- 
 over, it was intended to keep the Pantheon entertainments within 
 respectable limits, and the first notion was to exclude all but the most select 
 and reputable company from its gorgeous halls. 
 
 This noble monument of architectural genius was reared by James 
 Wyatt, R.A. ; and on all accounts was acknowledged to surpass every 
 building of its kind. 
 
 The opening of this stately palace of pleasure was fixed for January 22, 
 1772, and was marked by an incident which survives in story, and has been 
 frequently treated pictorially. The high-toned exclusiveness characteristic 
 of Almack's was the aim of the managers ; all ladies of light reputation were 
 to be excluded, and to a committee of lady-patronesses of the highest rank 
 in society was confided the exercise of these invidious responsibilities. The 
 rumours of this proposed exclusiveness gave great offence, when many fair 
 celebrities of the fashionable and theatrical worlds were notorious for tender 
 
THE PANTHEON 
 
 397 
 
 fliFtations, and their connections with gallant virtuosi in the ranks of the 
 nobility and gentry, whose admiration for the arts extended to the artistes. 
 Not only were the all-fascinating demi-mondaines, the Kitty Fishers, Nelly 
 O'Briens, Polly Kennedys, Nancy Parsons, and recruits of the too-famous frail 
 sisterhood to be excluded ; it was noised abroad that those irresistible actresses, 
 whose fame on the stage was outrivalled by the publicity of their amours. 
 
 THE QUEEN OF THE SWOKDS 
 
 After a Picture by W. Q. Orchardson, R.A. 
 
 were to be debarred the magic halls. It was known that two famous 
 daughters of Thalia had secured tickets from their admirers, and, despite 
 prudish overseers, intended to present themselves — pretty Sophia Baddeley, 
 then under a singing engagement at Ranelagh,and the winsome Mrs. Abington, 
 the accepted Queen of Comedy. The jeunesse doree had vowed that, 
 whoever was excluded from the Pantheon, their favourite Sophia Baddeley 
 should gain admittance on the memorable opening-night. Twenty gentlemen 
 met at Almack's, and bound themselves to escort her, and stand by her 
 chair. When she arrived, and was set down at the portico (which escaped 
 the destructive fire in 1792, and is still standing in Oxford Street, sole 
 
398 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 remaining relic of Wyatt's first Pantheon), the escort had swelled to fifty 
 gentlemen of the first rank. As Mrs. Baddeley attempted to enter, the posse 
 of constables provided for the emergency crossed their staves, barring the 
 passage, and civilly but resolutely explained, their orders were to exclude 
 stage-players. Instructions had been given to convey the prohibition in the 
 least offensive manner, although, had Mrs. Baddeley's profession been unex- 
 ceptionable, her equivocal reputation would have been a fatal stumbling-block. 
 The gallant escort of champion knights unsheathed their glittering weapons, 
 and, at the sword's-point, sharply drove back the constables; then making an 
 arch with their chivalrous blades, formed an avenue adown which Mrs. 
 Baddeley passed proudly into the presence of all the high personages 
 assembled in the brilliantly illuminated Rotunda ; thus entering triumphant 
 to the fear and consternation of the obstructive managers, who found their 
 stronghold carried by a coup de main, and the enemy in possession, before 
 they were aware of their defeat. " But," writes Leslie, " the difficulty was 
 not at end. The outraged gentlemen refused to sheathe their swords or to 
 allow the music to proceed till the managers came forward and humbly 
 apologised to Mrs. Baddeley and her escort." That lady's comrade and 
 biographer, Mrs. Steele, also present, asserts that, when the managers had 
 apologised, the Duchess of Argyle and the Duchess of Ancaster stepped 
 forward and expressed the pleasure it gave them to receive such an ornament 
 to their assembly as Mrs. Baddeley. A messenger was in readiness to inform 
 Mrs. Abington, more timorously awaiting the denouement of this adventure, 
 and discreetly attending without, in readiness to receive the signal that Mrs. 
 Baddeley's charge at the head of her guards had been successful. She now 
 made her entree, and, from that eventful night, the difficult feat of attempting 
 to draw the line between the nice gradations in frailty were practically 
 relinquished, as regarded the management of the Pantheon. 
 
 An advertisement, by way of warning to the discomfited purists, appeared 
 in the paper, that " as it was not convenient for ladies always to carry the 
 certificates of their marriages about them, the subscribers were resolved, in 
 opposition to the managers, to protect the ladies to whom they gave their 
 tickets." Even the stern moralist Dr. Johnson was, with his friends of the 
 Literary Club, found attending the Pantheon. The admission was half- 
 a-guinea. Boswell ventured to suggest there was not half-a-guinea's worth 
 
THE PANTHEON 399 
 
 of pleasure in seeing the place. Johnson replied : " But, sir, there is half-a- 
 guinea's worth of inferiority to other people in not having seen it," 
 Boswell : " I doubt whether there are many happy people here." Johnson : 
 " Yes, sir, there are many happy people here ; there are many people who 
 are watching hundreds, and who think hundreds are watching them." 
 
 Reynolds and Goldsmith were there, in character, too, at a masquerade 
 
 MASQUERADE AT THE PANTHEON, OXFORD STREET, l8og 
 
 After Rowlandson and Pugin 
 
 shortly after the opening. There Were nearly two thousand visitors 
 present ; the suite of fourteen rooms one blaze of light and decorations, the 
 wines and supper in keeping with the rank of the better part of the company. 
 On this particular occasion, we are told that several of the ladies who chose 
 to adopt male dominoes and disguises "appeared as masculine as many of 
 the delicate Macaroni things we see everywhere— the ' Billy Whiffles ' of the 
 present age." Among the most distinguished of these "very pretty 
 fellows " were the Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Melbourne, and Mrs. Damer. 
 
400 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 There, too, were Reynolds' Devonshire friends, the Horneck family, 
 probably under the escort of Sir Joshua and Goldsmith ; the poet's Jessamy 
 Bride and Little Comedy, a charming group ; the two beautiful youthful 
 sisters, and their smart young brother — ^Goldsmith's " captain in lace," as 
 French dancers, all dressed in Watteau habits of the same cut and fashion ; 
 looking, says the Magazine chronicler, notwithstanding the sex of one of 
 the trio, like a group of the three Graces. The ball took place on the eve 
 of old Mayday, and there was, appropriately to the season, a group dressed 
 as the bearers and attendants of the " Milkmaids' May-day Garlands," and 
 as the company trooped to their chairs and coaches in the May-day dawn, 
 the veritable May-day milkmaids were already stirring in the streets. 
 
 By one of a succession of truly deplorable casualties, the King's Theatre 
 was destroyed by fire in 1789 ; the year following Drury Lane Theatre 
 was found to be unsafe for want of needful repairs, and the prospects of 
 the imported troupe of operatic artistes, with no field for their per- 
 formances, were, early in 1791, of the most forlorn order. Rowlandson 
 produced two or three graphic versions, setting forth the state of the case. 
 One is entitled Chaos is come again, and shows the Opera House crumbling 
 into decay, and in its fall bringing down the performers among the ruins, 
 with the quotation : 
 
 " Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast, 
 To soften bricks and bend the Icnotted oak." 
 
 Rowlandson playfully pictured the reduced state of the poor homeless 
 dancers, with Didelot, Vestris, Theodore, and others, accompanied by the 
 musicians of the Opera band, driven, all dishevelled, their already scanty 
 costumes worn to tatters, to take refuge on the streets, appealing to the 
 passers-by for assistance ; with a model of the King's Theatre, inscribed, 
 " Pray remember the poor dancers," carried, as shipwrecked sailors bore about 
 a model of their lost ship, to enlist the sympathy of the charitable. 
 
 A placard announces : " A Dance, called The Battle of the Brickbats ; to 
 conclude with a Grand Crush by all the Performers." 
 
 This appeal on behalf of the distressed dancers was entitled : The 
 Trospect before us. No. i . Humanely inscribed to all those Trofessors of Music 
 and Dancing whom the cap may fit. At this trying juncture, the 
 
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 3E 
 
402 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 managers of the Pantheon came to the rescue, and Wyatt carried out altera- 
 tions which converted the grand saloon of the Pantheon into a handsome 
 and spacious theatre, to which the Opera troupe was transferred pending the 
 reconstruction of Drury Lane and the completion of the new Opera House, 
 Haymarket. The improved state of affairs, with the ballet installed more 
 splendidly than ever, is pictorially set down by Rowlandson in a version 
 here reproduced, entitled : The Prospect before us. No. i. Respectfully 
 dedicated to those Singers, Dancers, and Musical Professors who are fortu- 
 nately engaged with the -proprietor of the King s Theatre at the Pantheon." 
 This appeared January, 1791. Rowlandson's drawing presents a coup a' ceil 
 of the theatre just erected, as viewed from the stage, the Royal box in the 
 centre, tenanted by Majesty, and the entire house filled with the quaUty. 
 On the boards are represented M. Didelot and Mile. Theodore, principal 
 dancers in the ballet of Amphion and Thalia, O'Reilly presiding over the 
 orchestra. The opera first produced was Armida. The opening season 
 was vastly successful. The unlucky ballet-dancers, however, as it seemed, 
 were doomed to misfortune ; still worse, the Pantheon was involved. The 
 story is brief: "January 14, 1792. This morning, between one and two 
 o'clock, the painters'-room in one of the new buildings, which have been 
 added to the Pantheon to enlarge it sufficiently for the performance of 
 operas, was discovered to be on fire. Before any engines were brought to 
 the spot, the fire had got to such a height that all attempts to save the 
 building were in vain. The fire kept burning with great fury for about ten 
 hours, by which time the roof and part of the walls having fallen in, it was 
 so much subdued that all fears for the safety of the surrounding houses 
 were quieted." 
 
 Another Pantheon, on similar lines, was reared on the site of its 
 predecessor ; and similar entertainments opened its early career. A picture 
 of the interior, with a masquerade in full swing, was published at the time ; 
 the architecture by Pugin, and the figures by Rowlandson. 
 
 After various changes of fortune — from a ball-room to a bazaar, and a 
 picture gallery — the later Pantheon still stands, the headquarters of Messrs. 
 W. & A. Gilbey, the well-known wine merchants. Once filled with all the 
 choicest spirits of the past, its present fortunes are still associated with 
 convivial usages. 
 
RANELAGH 
 
 403 
 
 At Ranelagh, in the days of its meridian glories, the nobility delighted 
 to take their pleasures ; Royal Dukes and Blue Ribbons figured at its balls 
 and ridotios; it was also famous for Aquatic Fetes, which attracted in crowds 
 the pleasure-loving section of the Metropolis. Here, too. Masquerades 
 were evidently in high favour. There is a picture of one held here in 1759, 
 the masquers disporting themselves in the rustic walks, rowing on the canal, 
 
 RANELAGH 
 
 A View of the Rotunda and Gardens, with a repressntation ol the Juhilee Masquerade Ball 
 Given to celebrate the Birthday of George, Prince of Wales (Geo. III.), 1759 
 
 and crowding the quaint Chinese buildings reared in the middle of the lake. 
 •This version is by Canaletto, as is the view of the interior of the vast 
 Rotunda, erected as a ball-room. By the same artist is a general view of 
 the gardens surrounding the Rotunda, with the masquerade represented, 
 given to celebrate the Jubilee Birthday Ball, there held May 24, 1759, in 
 honour of George, Prince of Wales, who succeeded to the throne the 
 following year as George III. This version is reproduced ; it has a further 
 interest, as representing the general features of a masquerade in the middle 
 of the eighteenth century ; showing the characteristic disguises and costumes 
 then in popular favour ; while a frequent incident of these bals costumes, a 
 chosen train of dancers, disporting themselves round a maypole hung with 
 Streamers, is illustrated in one of the principal groups. 
 
404 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 : There is an elegant " Regatta Ball Ticket, Ranelagh, 1775," ^"d another 
 for the " Subscription Masquerade, June 14, 1776 "; both are designed by 
 G. B. Cipriani, R.A., and engraved by F. Bartolozzi. 
 
 I Vauxhall Gardens enjoyed a prolonged spell of popularity. Frederick,, 
 Prince of Wales (father of George III.) honoured Vauxhall with so large a 
 share of his patronage, that the management was solicitous to commemorate 
 this favourable circumstance. The Gothic orchestra, erected in the grove, 
 
 had its dome surmounted with a plume of the 
 Prince of Wales' feathers, and, fronting the 
 orchestra, was a large pavilion of the com- 
 posite order, specially built for the accom- 
 modation of his Royal Highness. Canaletto 
 painted a series of pictures of Vauxhall 
 Gardens, which were engraved in 1753. 
 
 The original Vauxhall was made glorious 
 by the enterprise of Mr. Jonathan Tyers, 
 who purchased the place in 1730, and opened 
 it with an attractive entertainment, which 
 he called a Ridotto al Fresco. We have 
 reproduced the ticket of admission issued 
 VOUCHER FOR VAUXHALL JUBILEE, X786 f^j. ^j^g "Vauxhall Jubilce," May 1786; a 
 
 further interest is lent to this particular voucher by the fact that it bears 
 the autograph of Jonathan Tyers. As Leslie has pointed out, the Vauxhall 
 of Jonathan Tyers was a vastly different affair to the place familiar some 
 forty years back, then nearing its end. "Its decoration had employed the 
 brushes of Hogarth and Hayman, the scenic art of Lambert and De Louther- 
 bourg, and the chisel of Roubiliac. In its orchestra, Mrs. Billington did not 
 disdain to sing, nor Arne to conduct. The most brilliant beauties and 
 leaders oi ton were not too proud to eat cold chicken and drink rack punch 
 and Frontiniac in its supper-boxes " j princes and peers, and " all that was 
 modish and gay " of both sexes, had, by their attendance, lent a high-bred- 
 air of quality to the balls and ridotto^,- which, in the summer season, turned 
 Vauxhall Gardens into a scene of delight. 
 
 Almack's presented a contrast to most assemblies from the strictly- 
 exclusive order of its management. Of all th? charged circles, Almack'§ 
 
 m^: y^CfV 
 
ALMACK'S 
 
 40? 
 
 continued the most difficult of access. It has been seen that at the various 
 resorts whereat fashionable society at intervals elected to disport itself for 
 the amusement of dancing, the company signally failed in retaining its aris- 
 tocratic exclusive- 
 ness ; duchesses and 
 demireps, sooner or 
 later, contested the 
 palm for rival attrac- 
 tions, while demi- 
 monda ines were rigor- 
 ously excluded from 
 Almack's through- 
 out its career. 
 The touchstone of 
 high - bred fashion 
 in its brilliant days, 
 Almack's kept its 
 traditions unsullied ; 
 while people were 
 ready to intrigue — 
 or even to fight — 
 for admission, the 
 privilege of penetra- 
 ting within the once- 
 fabled portals was 
 jealously guarded by 
 
 an array of lady-patronesses, imperium in imperio, for the entree to Almack's 
 was considered a passport to the highest society of the metropolis. It was 
 useless to ^ contend against the fates, and, although the husbands of these 
 despotic patronesses were challenged by disappointed applicants, who 
 resented their exclusion as a personal insult, the rigorously exclusive 
 legislature remained unmoved. It .is related that a captain in the Guards, 
 to whom Lady Jersey had declined sending a ticket, sent a challenge to 
 Lord Jersey, requesting he would name his second, &c. " Lord Jersey 
 replied in a very dignified manner, saying that if all persons who did not 
 
 VAUXHALL GARDENS; 1809 
 
 After Rowlandson and Pugin 
 
4o6 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 receive tickets from his wife were to call him to account for want of 
 courtesy on her part, he should have to make up his mind to become a 
 target for young officers, and he therefore declined the honour of the 
 proposed meeting." 
 
 When the gay doings at " White's " and " Boodle's " were attracting the 
 attentions of the jeunesse doree, and monopolising the male society, and the 
 dashing ladies who led k hon ton aspired to emulate the modish amusements 
 of their lords, the beaux and belles found, in the person of the enterprising 
 Almack, a coadjutor, caterer, and chamberlain who, in astutely administer- 
 ing to the tastes of his generation for extravagance and the all-prevailing 
 excitement of gambling, had discovered a ready road to fortune, pro- 
 fiting by the reckless profusion of that beau monde of which he thus 
 became the convenient satellite. 
 
 " Almack's Club," the original of " Brooks'," was established in Pall 
 Mall in 1 764. While the spendthrift Macaronis of the day were gaily ruining 
 their fortunes under Almack's auspices at this luxurious symposium, the 
 founder was causing to be erected the handsome Assembly Rooms in King 
 Street, St. James's-^later managed by Willis, another famous club proprietor 
 (also founder of the " Thatched House " in St. James's Street), and hence 
 the elegant premises erected by Almack became subsequently familiar as 
 " WilUs's Rooms." 
 
 Almack's opened February 20, 1765, with a ball. It is recorded the 
 walls and ceilings were still damp, and the Duke of Cumberland inaugurated 
 the festivity. 
 
 To Almack's, as a centre, came the various aristocratic coteries then 
 flourishing, and King Street became their accepted headquarters. " The 
 Ladies' Club," according to Walpole. " all goddesses," transferred their 
 august patronage to Almack's, bringing favour and fortune in their train. 
 The subscription was ten guineas ; for this was provided a weekly ball and 
 supper, the season lasting twelve weeks. Mrs. Boscawen informed Mrs. 
 Delany concerning "this Institution of lords and ladies, who first met at a 
 tavern, and subsequently, to satisfy Lady Pembroke's scruples, migrated to 
 Almack's." 
 
 " The ladies nominate and choose the gentlemen, and vice versa, so that 
 po lady can exclude a lady, or gentleman a gentleman," 
 
ALMACK'S 
 
 407 
 
 Blackballing, from the first, attested its exclusive pretensions. The Ladies 
 Rochford, Harrington, and Holderness met this fate, as did the Duchess of 
 Bedford, though subsequently admitted. The ladies retorted by black- 
 balling Lord March and Brook Boothby. 
 
 It appears that the lady-patronesses allowed concerts and balls to be given 
 at Almack's for the benefit of celebrated professors of dancing, vocalists, and 
 musicians, and that Bartolozzi engraved their benefit tickets ; of this order 
 v^as the card of subscription to " M. Fierville's 
 Ball, Almack's," here reproduced. Many choice 
 examples, referring to benefit performances given 
 at Almack's, are still in existence. 
 
 "When Willis held the post of chamberlain 
 at the beginning of the century, Almack's 
 continued the quintessence of aristocratic exclu- 
 siveness. If the numbers of young captains who 
 were ready to make targets of the lordly 
 husbands of the lady-patronesses were over- 
 whelming, the coterie more jealously guarded the 
 portals. " Of the three hundred officers of the 
 
 Foot Guards, then as now famous for their ' select set,' no more than half- 
 a-dozen were honoured with vouchers of admission to this temple of the 
 beau monde ; the gates were defended by autocratic arbiters, whose smiles or 
 frowns consigned men and women to happiness or despair." 
 
 As Captain Gronow wrote in "the sixties": "At the present time, one 
 can hardly conceive the importance which was attached to gaining admission 
 to Almack's, the seventh heaven of the fashionable world." Lady Jersey, 
 at the head of the lady-patronesses, is described as a theatrical tragedy 
 queen, reigning over these reunions " into whose sanctum sons of commerce 
 never come." 
 
 The lady-patronesses, leaders of fashionable bon ton in 18 14, were 
 Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper, Sefton, Willoughby de Eresby, 
 Countess Lieven, and Princess Esterhazy. 
 
 The government was a pure despotism. On Gronow's authority, " the 
 fair ladies, who ruled supreme over this little dancing and gossiping world, 
 issued a solemn proclamation that no gentleman should appear at the 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION-BALL TICKET 
 
 M. Fierville's Ball, Almack's 
 
4o8 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 assemblies without being dressed in knee-breeches," a white cravat and a 
 chapeau bras were also de rigueur ; and another rule enacted that no visitor 
 was admitted after half-past eleven o'clock at night. According to the 
 anecdotes, " the great captain who had never been beaten in the field " was 
 on two occasions ingloriously routed at Willis's. The Duke of Wellington 
 
 Marquis of Worcester 
 
 Lady Jersey 
 
 Clanronald Macdonald 
 
 Lady Worcester 
 
 THE FIRST QUADRILLE AT ALRIACK S 
 
 Reproduced from Gronow's "Reminiscences" 
 
 presenting himself a few minutes after this hour was, by the invincible 
 WilHs, sent down again. On another occasion, the Duke was about 
 to ascend the staircase of the ball-room dressed in black trousers, when the 
 vigilant Mr. Willis, the guardian Cerberus of the portals, stepped forward : 
 " Your Grace cannot be admitted in trousers " ; whereon the Duke, who had 
 a great respect for orders and regulations, quietly walked away. 
 
 The quintessence of aristocracy was present, and it is said three-fourths 
 of the nobility knocked in vain at the portals of Almack's. 
 
 In 1 8 14 the programme was made up of Contredanses, with Scotch 
 Reels and Jigs, said to owe their introduction to the Duchess of Gordon, 
 who, in the zenith of her youth and beauty, imported these national dances 
 from Scotland into London. The year 1 8 1 5 established a marked innova- 
 tion. Lady Jersey introduced the Quadrille from Paris, where it was the 
 
iNTRODtJCTION OF THE QUADRILLE 
 
 409 
 
 mode, and its popular reception at Almack's at once conferred upon Quadrille 
 dancing the cachet of fashionable approval. The occasion of its first 
 introduction has been described. Lady Jersey, Lady Harriet Butler, Lady 
 Susan Ryder, and Miss Montgomery, with Count St. Aldegonde, Mr. 
 Montgomery, Mr. Harley, and Mr. Montague made up the first set seen in 
 
 Geor^'e Brummell Count St. Antonio 
 
 Duchess of Rutland Princess Esterhazy 
 
 BALL AT almack's, 1815 
 
 Reproduced from Gronow's "Reminiscences" 
 
 Sir G. Warrender 
 
 Count St. Aldegonde 
 
 London. As the Hon. Mrs. Armytage has pointed out, "The figures 
 were intricate ; the steps, positively essential to their correct interpretation, 
 were manifold ; and it was quite as necessary to master the difficulties of 
 fas de basque, chassez-croisez, with the regulation balance and foussette, 
 as it had been in the past century to grapple with the minute etiquette 
 of the Menuet de la Cour or Gavotte." In those days every step was 
 marked with nice precision; walking through Quadrilles was a latter-day 
 degeneracy. 
 
 The German Waltz, we are told, was at first coldly regarded, but, after 
 
 3F 
 
4io 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 the Emperor Alexander, wearing his tight-fitting uniform and numerous 
 gorgeous decorations, had, at Almack's, exhibited his skill in twirling round 
 
 the Countess Lieven, 
 the opponents of 
 waltzing surrendered 
 at discretion. Among 
 those who are men- 
 tioned as accomplished 
 performers in the 
 mazy Viennese Waltz, 
 were Lord Palmerston 
 and Countess Lieven, 
 Princess Esterhazy 
 and Baron de Neu- 
 mann, who were 
 constantly partners. 
 
 In a picture of 
 the ball-room with 
 portraits of the most 
 conspicuous habitues 
 (" Illustrations of 
 Almack's "), the 
 leading personages 
 are the Duchess of 
 Somerset and her daughters in the place of honour, Lord Liverpool, 
 Duke of Devonshire, Lord Worcester, the Ladies Sefton, Lord Petersham, 
 Lord Fife, Duke of Brunswick, Lord Alvanley, Lord Sefton, and others, 
 among the gay throng of frequenters. Fashions, however, changed ; Almack's 
 became obsolete, society preferred to entertain at home, ball-giving houses 
 and hostesses increased ; the Subscription-balls, after ninety years of 
 popularity, ceased to be patronised, and Willis's as "Almack's" faded our 
 with "the light of other days!" By a turn of the wheel, as "Willis's 
 Restaurant," the high-tide of fashion has flowed back in our day, curiously 
 enough, largely under the auspices of White's Club. Thus history repeats 
 itself ! 
 
 PORTRAIT OF MISS HORTON AS ARIEL 
 
 After E. T. Parris 
 
VESTRIS IN LONDON 
 
 411 
 
 ^1 
 
 Jansen, the famous Mahre de Ballet Allemand, was represented April 6, 
 1782, in a skit by James 
 Gillray, entitled, The 
 German Dancing Master. 
 The name and fame of 
 the practitioner, who is 
 represented as an eccen- 
 tric figure performing 
 on his " kit," thus sur- 
 vives in the caricaturist's 
 playfully satirical pro- 
 duction. 
 
 The portrait of the 
 German dancing-master, 
 famous in his day, was 
 followed by that of 
 another maitre de danse, 
 whose reputation is not 
 yet forgotten — M. 
 Vestris, dieu de la danse. 
 This quasi-historical 
 personage, who made a 
 great figure in his own 
 times, also formed the 
 subject of Gillray's 
 satirical pictorial shafts. 
 
 The artist has given to one of his caricatures the significant title, 
 Regardez-moi, singularly appropriate to the Terpsichorean genius, who 
 always imagined himself the focus of the eyes of Europe. 
 
 In this satire upon Gaetan Vestris, "Vestris I"" or "Vestris le Grand," 
 as he entitled himself, the maitre de danse is giving a lesson to that 
 huge personage Lord Cholmondeley, travestied as a great goose. 
 
 Auguste Vestris occupied the place filled by his father, familiarly 
 known as " old iron legs," and he, too, the second illustrious member 
 gf the house of Vestris, begot another famous successor in the Terpsichorean 
 
 A DANCER 
 
 From a Lithograph by Edward Morton after A. E. Chalon, R.A. 
 
412 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 I* 
 
 art ; his name de- 
 scended to Madame 
 Vestris, the beautiful 
 grand-daughter of F. 
 Bartolozzi, who had 
 engraved portraits of 
 the grand maitres de 
 danse in the days of 
 their vast reputation. 
 George Dance — 
 who seems to have 
 recognised an omen 
 in his name, and has 
 given portraits of 
 dancing worthies — 
 made a picture of 
 Vestris Dancing the 
 Goosestep (engraved by 
 F. Bartolozzi in 1781). 
 We have seen the great 
 master, Regardez-moi, 
 represented instructing a nobleman transmogrified into a goose ; there was 
 evidently some association which may explain these allusions. 
 
 The taste for " operatical " and fantastic dancing under George III.'s 
 reign seemed to run away with society. There were the endless " midnight 
 masquerades" at the Pantheon, at Madame Cornely's, Carlisle House, at 
 the Clubs, the " S^avoir-Vivre," " Sans-souci," " S^avolr-faire," "The Pic 
 Nic Society," " The New Club," Soho, " Almack's," and many others 
 alternately frequented by persons of distinction ; there were " Ranelagh," 
 " Vauxhall," and similar pleasure-gardens, equally attractive to the beau- 
 monde. It will be seen that at these high-toned resorts the licence of dress 
 and manners ran to surprising lengths, the costumes there displayed approxi- 
 mating to the primitive simplicity of our first parents. 
 
 In spite of the reprobations of the Church, the rage for dancing still 
 grew, while, under the Vestris family, the ballet increased in favour, and 
 
 :\1LLE. LUCILF, GRAHN IN THE BALLET OK EOLINE OR LA DRYADE 
 
 After S. M. Joy 
 

THE BALLET IN LONDON 
 
 413 
 
 it commenced a career of brilliant success which reached its highest point, 
 after the advent of Mile. Parisot. 
 
 One of the most fascinating dancers of her generation was the Signora 
 Giovanna Baccelli, a great favourite of Reynolds' friend and patron, the 
 Duke of Dorset. She was painted by Sir Joshua as a Bacchante in 1782-3, 
 and is favourably mentioned as an admirable dancer by Horace Walpole, an 
 excellent judge of such matters. La Baccelli was also a friend of Gains- 
 borough's, who painted two portraits of this winsome syren. The picture 
 of the graceful lady (reproduced p. 191), is esteemed one of his most 
 charming works. 
 
 During Lord Fife's connection with the King's Theatre, the ballet 
 became of the first importance ; the prince and the highest personages 
 exhibited a strong personal interest in its success. It is related that 
 when Ebers went over to Paris in 1821 to strengthen the ballet company 
 at the King's Theatre, the negotiations for the engagement of operatic 
 stars were made 
 through the British 
 ambassador, who held 
 conferences for this 
 purpose with the Baron 
 de la Ferte, Intendant 
 of the Theatre-Royal 
 in Paris. 
 
 The palmy days of 
 the ballet in England 
 are reckoned to have 
 extended to the first 
 half of this century ; 
 between the " twen- 
 ties" and the "fifties" 
 there was a royal 
 revenue spent on the 
 maintenance of this 
 then fashionable at- 
 
 CARLOTTA GRISI IN THE BALLET OF LA PEJil 
 
 traction, and there w^s After j. Brandar4 
 
4M 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 a host of talent engaged : 
 Carlotta Grisi, whose portrait 
 is reproduced from a drawing 
 by J. Brandard, as figuring in 
 the Ballet of the Peri, 1844 ; 
 Mile. Taglioni, one of the most 
 famihar names in the annals of 
 the ballet, who turned the heads 
 of an entire generation ; Fanny 
 Elssler, who, at Her Majesty's 
 Theatre, was famous in La 
 Sylphide. Mile. Cerito performed 
 the same year in a popular ballet, 
 Le Lac des Fees, invented by 
 A. Guerra, whose portrait, per- 
 forming a pas de deux, with the 
 charming Cerito, was drawn 
 in 1840 by Philip Barnard (see 
 p. 446). 
 
 Miss P. Horton was a 
 
 bewitching sylphlike person as 
 
 Ariel. Her portrait was painted In this spirituel part by E. T. Parris. 
 
 Miss P. Horton became familiar to later generations as the popular 
 
 favourite, Mrs. German Reed. 
 
 Another famous ballerina of Her Majesty's Theatre (1845), whose 
 portrait was drawn by A. E. Chalon, R.A. was Mile. Lucile Grahn, 
 who in 1 845 was delighting her audiences as Eoline, ou la ■ Dryade, in 
 which character she was painted by S. M. Joy. " Mile. Carolina Rosati 
 was winning admiration in the ballet of Corali in 1847. Nor in this 
 connection must Amelie Faucet be forgotten. Her portrait was drawn in 
 1850 by A. E. Chalon, R.A., as otie of "The Three Graces," the sister 
 Graces being appropriately Miles. Taglioni and Carlotta Grisi. This was a 
 celebrated trio of artistes of the very first eminence. 
 
 "Is the art lost.? Genius," suggested the late Sir Augustus Harris, 
 ' ■ ■\yas alone required to revive the glories of the ballet, and the revelatiori of 
 
 MISS TOPSY SINDEN 
 
 From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company 
 
KATE VAUGHAN AND HER SUCCESSORS 
 
 ■" "'■'■"'"i""'m'Mvn^ ■."«?ff^?f f J 
 
 MISS MAliliL LUVii 
 
 From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company 
 
 draperies plays a part quite as important 
 as the actual steps. She has been suc- 
 ceeded by a host of clever disciples 
 and imitators, among whom may 
 be mentioned the well-known favour- 
 ites, Miss Sylvia Gray, Miss Letty 
 Lind, Miss Alice Lethbridge, Miss 
 St. Cyr, Miss Mabel Love, and Miss 
 Topsy Sinden. 
 
 that gift in the dancing of 
 Miss Kate Vaughan had made 
 the nearest approach to elevating 
 the standard of the modern art 
 in our own day." 
 
 This graceful artiste may be 
 said to have inaugurated the 
 reign of the now all -popular 
 skirt-dance, in which the manipula- 
 tion of voluminous gossamer 
 
 KATE VAUGHAN 
 
 After a Photograph by Messrs, Downey 
 
ST. JAMEb S. A BALL AT ALMACK S 
 
 By W. Heath 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 The Jig — Irish Jigs — The Hornpipe — 'Dancing in Scotland — Under Mary, ^leen oj 
 Scots — The %eformation — Scotch %e^els — Highland Flings — The G hi Hie Galium — 
 The Strathspey — English Gauntry T)ances — The Gotillion of the Eighteenth 
 Gentury — The iModern '■'■ Gotillon" — Quadrilles — The First Set, or Tarisian 
 S)uadrille — The Lancers — The Galedonians — The Tolka — The Waltz — The 
 Minuet — Gourt Halls — State Halls. 
 
 O doubt the lively Jig dates back to time immemorial ; it is a 
 dance measure which must have seized the imaginations of 
 peoples of all nations ; the Jig, Giga, Gigue, or German Qeige, 
 was in fact cosmopolitan. One of the earliest dance tunes 
 of which any evidence survives dates back to 1300, and is assumed to 
 have been a Jig ; a dance in the past no less popular in England than 
 in Scotland and in Ireland, where it must be regarded as the national 
 dance. Shakespeare has mentioned several dances of his time ; for 
 instance, the Galliard, as danced at masques ; the Cinque pas {Cinqua pace 
 or Cinque Pass) and the Jigge. In Much Ado about Nothing there is 
 Beatrice's ingenious description of matrimony : " Wooing, wedding, and 
 repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace : the first suit is 
 hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical ; the wedding, 
 mannerly-modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry ; and then comes 
 repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster 
 
THE JIG 
 
 417 
 
 tiUhe sink into his grave." At the Tudor Court, Jigs, Courantes, Galliards, 
 and Brawls represented the livelier dances ; it is fair to infer that Jigs 
 continued in favour even in Court circles, for there are Jigs christened after 
 successive sove- 
 reigns from 
 Charles II. to 
 Queen Anne. We 
 fi'id Jigs figuring 
 in the entertain- 
 ments of masques 
 and revels, the 
 particular preroga- 
 tives of the Inns of 
 Court, where the 
 sedentary habits 
 of study were 
 agreeably lightened 
 by a corresponding 
 attention to salta- 
 tory movements, 
 and the gentlemen 
 learned in the law 
 were no less ac- 
 complished dancers. 
 In the preface to 
 Playford's Dancing 
 Master, the writer 
 pointedly com- 
 
 INSIDE OF THE RED BULL PLAYHOUSE. 1672 
 
 mends " the sweet 
 
 and airy activity of the gentlemen of the Inns of Court, which has 
 crowned their grand solemnities with admiration to all spectators." 
 Again, we find (Grove's Dictionary) Jigs christened after the Inner Temple, 
 the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn. 
 
 There was a comprehensive character about the Jig ; people could merrily 
 foot it, play it on some musical instrument, and sing a country round at the 
 
 3G 
 
41 8 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 same time. Barclay, in his Eclogues, makes his shepherd boast of his 
 
 skill 
 
 " I can dance the Raye, I can both pipe and sing, 
 If I were mery, I can both hurle and fling." 
 
 In Shakespeare's time the term " Jig " applied equally to a sprightly dance 
 
 and a merry verse. 
 At the playhouse the 
 dancing of Jigs was 
 expected from the 
 performers. In early 
 days, a dancing and 
 singing Jig was the 
 regulation wind-up of 
 the piece ; often a sort 
 of impromptu, or what 
 passed as such, a jing- 
 ling rhyming tag sung 
 by the clown ; and 
 audiences were accus- 
 tomed to call for a 
 Jig as a pleasant 
 termination to the 
 show. 
 
 We give, as an 
 example of the 
 " Drolls " popular in 
 the time of Charles II., 
 the contemporary 
 version of the performers at the Red Bull Playhouse, Clerkenwell, 1672, 
 where one of the actors, handsomely dressed in the gallant fashion of the 
 time, is executing a Jig to the sound of his own fiddle, as the " French 
 Dancing-Master. 
 
 It is to Ireland we must go for the Jig in all its vivacious activity ; the 
 Irish race possessing a natural taste for both music and dancing, the 
 national Jig has a marvellous influence over the Irish temperament, As 
 
 IRISH JIG 
 
 After Adam Buck 
 
iftisH Jigs 
 
 419 
 
 Miss Owenson, in her Patriotic Sketches of Ireland, has illustrated, no alien 
 dance could in any way replace their own lively Jigs. The outdoor 
 peasant gatherings, whereat the performers seem untiring in their ardour 
 for the Jig, are thus described : 
 
 " The piper is always seated on the ground, with a hole dug near him. 
 
 A ST. GILES S BALL. DUSTY BOB AND BLACK SALL 
 
 After W. Heath 
 
 Here revel they, who come the knowing rig ; 
 
 From toils of beggary and featly wiles 
 Assembled are the scam^sman, trull, and prig 
 
 Within thy sanctimonious pale, St. Giles ! 
 
 Here St. Cecilia's art asserts her power, 
 Waking the diapason of their clacks ; 
 
 The dance and song cajole the fleeting hour. 
 And love's profuse libations flow in 7nax. 
 
 into which the contributions of the assembly are dropped. At the end of 
 every Jig the piper is paid by the young man who dances it, and who 
 endeavours to enhance the value of the gift by first bestowing it on his fair 
 partner. Though a penny a Jig is esteemed very good pay, yet the 
 gallantry or ostentation of the contributor, anxious at once to appear 
 generous in the eyes of his mistress, and to outstep the liberality of his 
 rivals, sometimes trebles the sum which the piper usually receives." 
 
 It has been stated that, so strong a hold has dancing upon the lively 
 Irish temperament, few gatherings take place in Ireland without this 
 accompaniment. At the numerous fairs, groups of youths will always be 
 met withj merrily footing it to the " breakdown," with many stirring 
 whoops and much flourishing of blackthorn shillelaghs. 
 
 An Irish "wake" takes prominence among these characteristic functions, 
 
420 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 where competition runs high in skearing dirges, in whisky-drinking, and 
 the prolongation of active Jigs ; the measure of respect for the lamented 
 deceased being testified by the individual energy of the mourners and their 
 ardour to exert themselves in honour of the departed. 
 
 Conspicuous among those dances which claim a distinctly native origin, 
 
 f-Mj.'.' /™ 
 
 ,1,71.' ~„ tfin a^ -j, 
 
 Thomaz Rowlandson. 
 
 THE LAST JIG, OR ADIEU TO OLD ENGLAND 
 
 With a jorum of diddle, 
 
 A lass and a fiddle. 
 
 Ne'er shall care in the heart of a tar be found. 
 
 And, while upon the hollow deck. 
 To the sprightly jig our feet shall bound, 
 Take each his charmer round the neck. 
 And kiss in time to the merry sound. 
 
 the Hornpipe has been described as belonging -par excellence to our clime 
 and race. It is consistent with our national characteristics as a maritime 
 nation, that a native dance should be a sailors' dance. Hornpipes and Jigs 
 are old favourites in the service, and by no section of the community are 
 they danced with more sprightly springiness, joyous activity, or keener 
 enjoyment. As an argument for the health-promoting properties of dancing, 
 the Hornpipe must be accepted as a practical instance to the point. Captain 
 Cook, for example, proved that dancing was most useful in keeping his 
 sailors in good health on- their voyages. When the weather was calm, and 
 there was consequently little employment for the sailors, he made them 
 dance, the Hornpipe for preference, to the music of the fiddle ; and to the 
 
DANCING Under mary queen of scots 421 
 
 healthful exertion of this exercise the great circumnavigator attributed the 
 freedom from illness on board his ship. 
 
 Doubtless the Hornpipe, in some form, is of antique origin, and may have 
 suggested itself to other nations, or have existed in past ages, as is con- 
 jectured with much plausibility. It was evidently equally popular in Scot- 
 land, where it was a fashionable measure in the eighteenth century, danced 
 to the tune called Flowers of Edinburgh. 
 
 Beyond the national dances which ever exert the greatest influence over 
 the minds and spirits of the 
 people, the history of dancing in 
 Scotland naturally coincides with 
 the circumstances of the country, 
 and especially illustrates the in- 
 fluence of their French connections 
 over the Scots, from the period 
 when the Scots Guards, as in the 
 days of Louis XL, played a 
 conspicuous part in the joint 
 histories; moreover, the Scotch, 
 as a nation of lovers of dancing, 
 readily learned everything 
 that there was to be acquired 
 
 from their French relations, when the two Courts, as in the regency of 
 Mary of Guise and the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, were thus intimately 
 associated. The thoughtless Mary continued her dancing diversions in the 
 face of tragedies, as when, on the news of the Protestant massacre at Vassy 
 reaching Edinburgh, the volatile queen kept up the ball at Holyrood, whereon 
 the righteous uprose in wrath, and bold John Knox publicly denounced the 
 lightsome, and, from his pulpit, clarion-voiced, condemned frivolous Queen 
 and courtiers, " dancing, like the Philistines for the pleasure taken in the 
 destruction of God's people." Merry Scotland became for the time a grim, 
 earnest place, when the tide of Reformation burst as a torrent, and swept 
 away even innocent amusements; "promiscuous dancing," as a violation of 
 all moral and spiritual laws, was declared contrary to religion, and sup- 
 pressed, with imprisonment as the penalty. 
 
 THE FLOWING CAN 
 
42: 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 Legislative enactments failed signally to eradicate a passion which was 
 indigenous to the people, and the stringency of these measures was 
 gradually relaxed. King James was a lover of dancing, and in his Book of 
 Sports included dancing as a lawful recreation. Spite of princes and 
 presbyters, the struggle long continued between the flesh and the spirit ; the 
 Calvinists esteemed dancing a sin ; while the Scottish natural aptitude for 
 
 dancing was un- 
 conquerable. A 
 century later the 
 national passion 
 was making way ; 
 in the fashionable 
 world dancing 
 assemblies grew 
 
 into favour. lAt 
 Edinburgh danc- 
 ing-masters came 
 to the front ; the 
 Town Council of 
 Glasgow, forgetting 
 its repressive zeal 
 as regards penal- 
 ties inflicted upon 
 pipers and dancers, 
 appointed a salaried 
 dancing - master 
 to " familiarise the 
 inhabitants with the art." Dancing was elsewhere regarded as " a very 
 necessary article of education," and an essential part of manners, good- 
 breeding, and gentlemanly training. Bagpipe competitions and Highland 
 Fling dancing became features at the national gatherings and on holidays. 
 Reels continued the favourites, and had the graver signification of religious 
 exercise at wakes and weddings, when sacred hymn tunes were used for 
 these measures. We all remember Wilkie's picture, even more familiar 
 through the engravings, of a Scotch Wedding. The Penny Wedding 
 
 THE DANCE 
 
 From an Engraving by F. Bartolozzi after a Drawing by Henry Bunbury 
 
SCOTCH POPULAR DANCES 
 
 423 
 
 refers to the custom of the company severally contributing small sums 
 towards the cost of the festivity, the balance to provide a small fund 
 towards starting the young couple in life, an observance still kept up 
 amongst the fishing population. 
 
 At funerals similar customs prevailed, and these usages still continue 
 In distant regions. 
 After a death, the 
 company met at 
 these "Late Wakes," 
 and dancing was kept 
 up all night. 
 
 At fairs, after the 
 business was con- 
 cluded, those attending 
 gave themselves over, 
 with extra exhilara- 
 tion, to the national 
 pastime. A favourite 
 measure, in which the 
 contest for superior 
 agility had ample 
 scope, was named "fhe 
 Salmon T)ance ; the 
 dancers, emulating 
 the vigorous leaps of 
 the fish, had unusual 
 opportunities for the 
 exhibition of activity, 
 strength of limb, 
 
 and lightness of spring. Vigour in an unusual degree characterises all 
 the antique measures of Scotland ; in their Morris Dances of the fifteenth 
 century, the masquers, by the agile movements of their bodies, produced 
 tunes from the 252 bells attached to their parti-coloured silken tunics, to 
 their ankles and their wrists, actively turning, frisking, leaping and shaking 
 their bells in cadence, while royalty disdained not to look on. and even 
 
 CALEDONIAN REEL 
 
 After Adam Buck 
 
424 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 to disport itself in the revels. There were at Court stately Pavanes 
 and gleesome Courantes, Branles, Rondes and many imported dances 
 " counterfeiting France," due to the close family connection between the 
 reigning houses of the respective countries ; but to the spirit of the nation 
 these were but passing fashions, and base excrescences, held in little favour 
 by the masses, as false to the healthy traditions of Scotland. The bard 
 has voiced the national sentiment : 
 
 " Nae cotillon brent new frae France, 
 But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels 
 Put life and mettle in their heels." 
 
 Highland Flings, like the J\darquis of Huntly s Fling, and Reels like 
 the Reel of Tulloch, or Tullochgorum, are complicated evolutions, of 
 a classical and studied order ; necessitating as " essentials," according to 
 the directions of dancing professors, natural aptitude, united to activity, 
 agility of finished description, and a keenly appreciative ear for niceties of 
 time and metrical proportion. 
 
 The Reel is presumably of Celtic origin ; it is the Danish no Jess thati 
 the Scottish national dance. The Sword Dance, common to warlike nations, 
 is the survival of the military dances of the Greeks and Romans in honour 
 of the god of war. 
 
 The warlike dance, with its terror- striking accompaniments, has long 
 been practised by Highlanders under the name of Killie-Kallum or Ghillie 
 CuUum. 
 
 The interesting feature, both of this Pyrrhic leaping dance and of its 
 cousin, the Ghillie Galium (the Dirk Dance), was an imposing warlike 
 ballet, vigorously illustrating the evolutions of attack and defence, a more 
 dramatic exhibition than the modern feat of gracefully flinging and reeling 
 over and around a brace of claymores crossed on the ground, without 
 touching or displacing them. 
 
 Loud exclamations, warlike howls, waving of arms, and cracking of 
 fingers, are characteristic accompaniments by which the dancer stimulates 
 his own exertions, to the fierce skirling of pipes. 
 
 The Strathspey is another variety of the Reel, christened from the 
 place of its adoption, the valley of the Spey. The rhythm is slower and mor? 
 
THE COUNTRY DANCE 
 
 42? 
 
 grandiose even than that of the Reel, alternating with quick motions, which 
 demand spirited execution. The affinity with the Ossi^nic heroic metre is 
 marked in its measure so distinctively that Burns, whose authority on music 
 and poetry is unquestionable, compared the stately metres of heroic poetry 
 to the old Strathspeys. 
 
 The Country Dance — so called — perhaps a corruption of the French 
 
 AN. ELECTION BALL 
 
 After George Cruikshank 
 
 equivalent, Contredanse, owes its popularity to the circumstance that 
 it was designed on the principle of taking in as many couples as the 
 space would accommodate. As in the Sir Roger de Coverley, at the 
 commencement, the gentlemen took up their positions on one side, the 
 ladies ranged in a line opposite. In its figures the dancers are constantly 
 changing places, leading one another back and forward, up and down, 
 parting and uniting again. There were numerous and varied figures 
 which gave an interest to this dance, the several figures being designated 
 by descriptive names. The music was sometimes in |-time and sometimes 
 in I -time ; the step smooth, and rather easy and gliding than springy. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith loved dancing, and had himself merrily set peasants 
 
 3« 
 
426 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 of all the nationalities figuring and curveting away to the lively strains 
 of his flute, on his travels as a philosophic vagabond. According to 
 Goldsmith's testimony, " The Country Dance " belied its name. Far 
 from being the dance of the peasant, it was presumably an adaptation 
 of the Gallic Contredanse, and was aff^ected by the quality more exclusively, 
 while its set figures were scholastic mysteries to the romping and robust 
 
 THE AL FRESCO DANCE ON THE GREEN IN FRONT OF THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD S COTTAGE 
 
 After Thomas Rowlandson 
 
 rustic practitioners, who revelled in the boisterous hilarity and activity of 
 the Jig and the Roundabout. We reproduce Rowlandson's drawing 
 of the al fresco dance given by his landlord on the grass plot in front of 
 the Vicar of Wakefield's cottage, in honour of his neighbours and his 
 fashionable female friends from town. 
 
 The Contredanse was probably as antique as any measure which 
 embraced set figures in its constitution, and, with an admixture of pre- 
 concerted and statelier movements, admitted a corresponding indulgence 
 in lively jigging, which, as in Sir Roger de Coverley, easily grew into a 
 hearty romp. There was setting to partners, turning partners, changing 
 partners, with a merry-go-round promenade, similar to the Flirtation Figure, 
 
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 ^^Sj 
 
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 ^y^.-^^..,^ 
 
 /?^4 .^ 
 
 ^"'' „ "?<- 
 
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 '!- , _^ 
 
 
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 ■(.. ' ' ;;"■ 
 
 ^S^ ^-- 
 
 ,<I-*rT. 
 
 -~ "'I 
 
 '-""■i--^ 
 
 ,-:^ 
 
 f^,=*. 
 
 o ^ 
 
428 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The Contredanse is said to be derived from an early authority : it was 
 by William the Conqueror introduced from Normandy into our isles ; it 
 was generally danced all over the Continent, as well as in the United 
 Kingdom, and was very popular in the days of Queen Elizabeth and her 
 successors. It is related that the Contredanse was revived in fashion in 
 
 Yv COTILLION, 1792 
 
 From an Engraving by Isaac Cruikshank, after John Nixon 
 
 France by its re-introduction, in 1745, in the fifth act of an opera-ballet 
 by Rameau, and so charmed the Parisians that, from the stage, it was 
 re-imported into the salons and re-instated in favour. It seems to have 
 retained its popularity in England unbroken, and, with the more courtly 
 Minuets and Gavottes, formed the programme of fashionable assembUes, 
 when stately dances declined, filling in the century anterior to the intro- 
 duction of modern dances. We find it constantly represented as the popular 
 dance par excellence ; for, unlike the exclusive etiquette of the Minuet, it 
 enabled every couple in the room to join its evolutions. 
 
 The antiquated Cotillion differed somevs'hat from the modern innovation 
 
THE COTILLION 
 
 similarly christened. The "Cotillon" proper, as its name implies, was a 
 favourite in France ; it really derives its title from the short skirt worn by 
 the ladies who danced it. Probably, in contradistinction to the full-dress 
 toilettes distinctive of the Minuet, the original title was drawn from the 
 simple costume of the peasants ; at first a duet dance, it became one of the 
 many lively Rondes, accompanied by the song : 
 
 " Ma comm^re, quand je danse, 
 Mon cotillon va-t-il bien ? " 
 
 In their eighteenth- century Cotillions the lady dancers accordingly 
 appeared in 
 short skirts, 
 with their over- 
 dresses pictur- 
 esquely looped 
 up, as may' be 
 observed in all 
 the diversified 
 pictures' of this 
 popular Round. 
 In its ancient 
 form it probably 
 may be grouped 
 - with the old 
 French Branles, 
 
 no less in request at the English Court as the Brawls, led by the sprightly 
 Sir Christopher Hatton. 
 
 Frequent references to the Cotillions danced at public entertainments in 
 the eighteenth century, and attesting their popularity, are found in the 
 journals and magazines of the time ; their vogue extended from country 
 assemblies, such as those here represented, to Court balls. 
 
 In the pictures of the al fresco entertainments given by George, Prince 
 of Wales, at his gorgeous palace, Carlton House, in the grounds were 
 represented guests of the highest fashion, who partook of this diversion, 
 ^s Prince Regent, the magnificent host gave a public breakfast to i\y:, 
 
 QUADRILLES. PRACTISING FOR FEAR OF ACCIDENTS 
 
 After Robert Cruikshank 
 
430 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 I. DOS A DOS. ACCIDENTS IN QUADRILLE DANXING 
 
 After G. Cruikshank 
 
 hundred guests ; four bands were playing on his ample lawns, whereon nine 
 marquees were erected. After the repast the company danced on the lawn, 
 
 the Prince leading 
 the first dance with 
 Lady Waldegrave as 
 his partner. We are 
 informed, "All 
 frequently changed 
 partners, and grouped 
 into Cotillions, all 
 being over by six 
 o'clock." 
 
 The Cotillion, as 
 known to this gene- 
 ration, with its fan- 
 ciful interpellations 
 and costly gifts, is a 
 very different affair. The famous ball given by the Guards Brigade to 
 the Prince and Princess of Wales (June 26, 1863), in the vast buildings 
 erected for the 
 second International 
 Exhibition (1862) in 
 Cromwell Road, will 
 be remembered as 
 having introduced 
 one of the most 
 noticeable Cotillions 
 on record ; this 
 commenced at two 
 o'clock in the morn- 
 ing and lasted till five. 
 The earlier Cotil- 
 lions consisted of 
 
 easy figures, with such accessories as cushion, mirror, handkerchief and 
 ghair, all ready to hand ; the leader needed to be fertile of brain, as well 
 
 VIS-A-VIS, ACCIDENTS IN QUADRILLE DANCING 
 
 After G. Cruikshank 
 
QUADRILLES AND LANCERS 
 
 431 
 
 3. LES GRACES. 
 
 INCONVENIENCES IN QUADRILLE DANCING 
 
 After G. Ciuikshank 
 
 as nimble of foot, in devising the most suitable figures. It is in the 
 
 individual organising of the figures and ingenious suggestions — the fun 
 
 and frolic thrown into 
 
 their execution — that 
 
 the success of the 
 
 Cotillion depends. 
 Curiously enough, 
 
 the 'name Quadrille 
 
 was that designating 
 
 a game at cards played 
 
 by four persons, a 
 
 game with its Spadille, 
 
 Manille, Basto, and 
 
 Punto, and with a 
 
 series of terms and 
 
 laws more involved 
 
 than the most 
 
 complicated set of Quadrilles. It is sjid the dance was in some remote 
 
 unexplained fashion evolved from the game. Our old friends the 
 
 Contredanse and its 
 relatives the Cotil- 
 lions, as danced in 
 English assemblies 
 during the eighteenth 
 century, gradually 
 merged into the 
 Quadrille, a family 
 likeness running 
 through the group. 
 As has been seen, 
 the "First Set" came 
 over from Paris, 
 direct to Almack's, 
 
 and was introduced by its sponsors as the "Parisian Quadrille." _ 
 
 A similar interest surrounds the advent of The Lancers, brought into 
 
 4. MOULINEX. ELEGANCIES OF QUADRILLE DANCING 
 
 After G. Cruikshank 
 
432 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 fashionable vogue in 1850. Madame Sacre first imparted the mysteries of 
 this graceful set, at her classes in the Hanover Square Rooms. A select set 
 of four couples, perhaps unconsciously emulating Lady Jersey's example in 
 1 8 15, as regards the "Parisian Quadrille," mastered the elaborate figures as 
 they then were ; Lady Georgina Lygon, Lady Jane Fielding, Mile. Olga de 
 
 4' y^^^ ^c^j ' 
 
 3iytr Z?c"/)f yiKf 
 
 Spanish Bolero 
 
 French Quadrille 
 
 German Waltz 
 
 Le Menuet 
 
 LA BELLE ASSEMBL^E ; OR, SKETCHES OF CHAKACTERISTIC DANCING 
 
 After G. Cruikshank 
 
 Lechner (daughter of Baroness Brunnow, wife of the Russian Ambassador 
 to England), and Miss Berkeley, with four enterprising gentlemen, are reported 
 to have delighted society by introducing the novelty of The Lancers in 
 a London ball-room. It was danced at the Turkish Embassy, at Bath House, 
 and at Lady Caroline Townley's, by the expert four couples. The Lancers 
 soon became popular ; the due observance of the original steps and figures 
 was relaxed, and the style was changed to a more frisky measure. The periodi- 
 cals of the time (1850) enlarged on " the etiquette of dancing The Lancers." 
 The Caledonian Quadrille, even more animated than The Lancers, 
 comes nearer to perpetual motion, leaving little time unoccupied in " the 
 
THE POLKA IN ENGLAND 
 
 433 
 
 mazy whirl." Really a pretty and spirited set, this^ Quadrille seems to 
 have sunk out of recognition. "Squares" are seemingly doomed, and 
 but for the famous Caledonian Ball, an annual institution of " gathering 
 for the clans " (formerly held at Willis's Rooms ; transferred thence to 
 the New Club, Covent Garden; and later to the Whitehall Room, 
 
 Ballet Italienne 
 
 Irish Jig 
 
 Scotch Reel 
 
 Country Dance 
 
 Dancing Master 
 
 LA BELLE ASSEMBLES ; OR, SKETCHES OF CHARACTERISTIC DANCING 
 
 After G. Cruikshank 
 
 Hotel, Metropole), the pleasant "Caledonians" would be rarely heard 
 of ; their lively figures are already becoming subjects of ancient traditional 
 lore. 
 
 Among dances which have enjoyed, for a season, the first vogue must be 
 mentioned our old and now somewhat worn friend the Polka, which fifty years 
 ago turned the heads of the world, and set crowned heads, grave statesmen, 
 and great novelists practising its evolutions, unconscious of the absurdity of 
 such social trifling. Assumedly introduced to the fashionable world in " the 
 forties," it must have existed, as regards its measure, from early times 
 
 3 I 
 
434 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 among dancing people, like the Bohemians — with their Schottische and 
 Volta — the nationality responsible for popularising the Polka's mazes. 
 
 The peculiar half-step, fulka, which gave its name to the revival was 
 found as a happy revelation, being practised by a Bohemian peasant-girl, 
 as alleged, discovered dancing it to her own music ; song, time, and steps, 
 either extemporised or borrowed from tradition. By a happy coincidence, 
 on the spot was Josef Neruda, observing the dancer, and noting down the 
 melody and steps. The people of Elbeleinitz were delighted with the 
 dance, and it was spontaneously christened in its cradle Pulka ; it reached 
 Prague in 1835, ^"'^ ^^^ warmly received at Vienna ; a dancing-master of 
 Prague introduced the Polka, danced in the picturesque Sclavonic costumes, 
 on the stage of the Paris Odeon in 1840, and M. Cellarius carried le 
 veritable Polka into the Parisian salons, when Paris had an allrpervading 
 epidemic of Polka, difficult to realise in less enthusiastic times. 
 
 'The Times wrote : " Our private letters state that politics are now for 
 the moment suspended in public regard by the new and all-absorbing pursuit, 
 the polka .... which embraces in its qualities the intimacy of the waltz 
 with the vivacity of the Irish jig." In 1844, the Polka was invading our 
 shores ; Cellarius and other masters came over to London expressly to teach 
 pupils. 
 
 Soon afterwards, The Times reported " the first Drawing-room Polka as 
 danced at Almack's, and at the balls of the nobility and gentry of this country." 
 Then the Polka was described with illustrations and details of five figures, 
 with the recommendation that those who aspired to shine should dance the 
 whole. " There is no stamping of heels or toes, or kicking of legs in sharp 
 angles forward. This may do very well at the threshold of a Bohemian 
 auberge, but is inadmissible in the salons of London or Paris." In the 
 stage versions there was an amount of emphatic stamping and high-kicking. 
 The comic papers made capital out of the mania, which for a time turned 
 all society polking, from the Palace to the Casino. 
 
 The papers were full of the Polka, to the exclusion of more Important 
 themes. Artists and humorists turned the craze to account, pages were 
 devoted to representations of grotesque experiences of would-be learners. 
 Punch made capital out of the absurdities perpetrated. Leech drew many 
 skits on the subject, and for a year at least it maintained the popular 
 
THE WALTZ IN ENGLAND 
 
 43? 
 
 interest. A parody on Byron's Maid of Athens, ere we part, appeared in 
 Punch in 1844, under the title oi Pretty Polk. 
 
 The Pas d"" Allemande survives as a dancing phrase, expressing a move- 
 ment where the " gentlemen turn their partners under their arms." Before 
 the introduction of the Valse, as now accepted, the " poetry of motion " 
 
 THE WALTZ, lSo6. FKOM " THE SOKKOWS OF WERTHER 
 
 After Thomas Rowlandson 
 
 (it is related the Waltz only reached our ball-rooms in 18 12), there is 
 evidence that a German Waltzer, as it was called, was familiar in this 
 country; it was known as the Waltz Allemande, and as numerous con- 
 temporary pictures illustrate, « arm-movements " were perhaps more essential 
 than the steps. There is a picture of an Allemande (see p. 132) executed 
 by C. Brandoin, 1772, and a similar work by Collett about the same date ; 
 the figures are represented turning to a sprightly step, the lady and 
 gentleman alternately turning under their uplifted right arms; this is well 
 illustrated in the drawing of later date, 1806, furnished by Rowlandson for 
 the, at that time, all-popular Sorrows of Werther, 
 
436 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 We reproduce a caricature by Gillray, dated 1 800, entitled Waltzer au 
 Mouchoir, a burlesque upon the dance at that time coming into more 
 prominent notice in this country; it illustrates an ingenious expedient 
 towards surmounting the difficulty of spanning a waist too ample for the 
 stretch of mere arms. This skit also goes to prove that the Waltzer 
 
 was familiar long before 
 the alleged date of its 
 adoption in England. 
 
 A more antique Al- 
 lemande was Introduced 
 from mediaeval Germany, 
 reaching this country late 
 In Elizabeth's reign. 
 Here it was christened 
 Almain, and Alleman on 
 the Peninsula; In France 
 it went under the name 
 of Allemande franfaise. 
 
 Though In high re- 
 quest, from the court to 
 the cabaret, in every 
 capital of Europe, there 
 was a prudish opposition 
 to the introduction of 
 the Waltz, and Its 
 naturalisation, in our own country. As described in our references to 
 Almack's, the "mazy Waltz" was imported there under the highest auspices; 
 it was reserved for an Imperial guest to convince select society that the Waltz 
 was fit for decent company, its opponents persisting in assertions to the 
 contrary. The bolder spirits at Almack's followed In the steps of the 
 magnificent Autocrat of All the Russlas, the wives of the foreign 
 ambassadors at the Court of St. James's being the most accomplished of its 
 then exponents. The Countess de Eleven and Princess Esterhazy were 
 recognised as the foremost waltzers of the day, and, true to the traditions 
 of foreign policy. Lord Palmerston was no less expert. 
 
 WALTZER AU MOUCHOIR, 1800 
 
 By James Gillray 
 
BIRTHDAY BALLS 
 
 437 
 
 There was a running fire, kept up by satirists and aggressive moralists, 
 against the "insidious Waltz," and the suggestive caricatures launched 
 against " this imp of Germany brought up in France," as its detractors 
 averred, pictured the sentiments of the ultra-purist section of the com- 
 munity, who had persuaded themselves that the introduction of the Waltz 
 into England was a conclusive step on the national downward path. 
 In spite of detraction, the Waltz has 
 surely become the dance par excellence. 
 Performed with due grace, and inspired 
 by the emotions drawn from those beautiful 
 melodies of which the Waltz enjoys the 
 pre-eminent monopoly, this dance is likely 
 to retain its foremost place. 
 
 The stately Minuet was seen to the 
 best advantage at the Royal birthday 
 balls, the bravest spectacles of the Georgian 
 year, held at St. James's Palace. The 
 dancing on these brilliant anniversaries was 
 of the most select order : the King and 
 Queen sat in State as spectators ; the 
 princes, according to precedence, severally 
 ■ opening the ball with one of the 
 
 princesses, each couple alternately, the Prince of Wales leading off with 
 the Princess Royal. Stothard has left pictures of these graceful courtly 
 scenes ; there is an effective version by Daniel Dodd of ^ueen Charlotte's 
 Birthnight Ball., and we have reproduced Stothard's picture of George Ill's 
 Birthday Ball, 1782. The costumes worn on these occasions were of the 
 costliest description ; competition ran high to secure the most elaborate 
 dresses; they were ordered months beforehand, and cost hundreds of 
 pounds ; the male wearers ran a race of sumptuous emulation with their 
 fair partners in wealth of embroidery. Engravings of the dresses worn 
 by the principal personages appeared in the magazines. In the pictures 
 referred to, the Prince of Wales is shown performing the opening Minuet 
 with the eldest princess. There are columns of descriptions of these great 
 SQcial events in contemporary journals, 
 
 TOKCH_ DANCE. DUKE OF VORK'S WEDDING 
 
438 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 The marriage of the Duke of York (George III.'s second and favourite 
 son) with the Princess Royal of Prussia was a dazzling event, on which 
 great hopes were raised. The wedding took place in Berlin, September 29, 
 1 79 1, with great splendour ; the old courtly usages of the Continent were 
 revived, and the Torch Dance, popular in France, Russia, and Germany, 
 
 formed one of the 
 interesting incidents. 
 As will be seen in 
 the contemporary 
 engraving of this 
 picturesque inter- 
 lude, tall wax- 
 candles had taken 
 the place of flaming 
 brands ; the actual 
 dance was similar to 
 the Allemande, and, 
 in old days, it was 
 the fun on the part 
 of the performers 
 to blow out their 
 neighbours' tapers while striving to protect their own. The Taper or 
 Torch Dance became a special feature at weddings, and the tapers carried 
 by the nobles were parti-coloured. As in the Instance illustrated, the happy 
 couple, holding their waxen torches, walked the dignified measure of the 
 Polonaise (as at the opening of Court balls In Imperial Russia), followed by 
 princes, guests, ministers, and high officers, according to rank, promenading 
 the circuit of the apartment. The princess bowed before the King and 
 invited him to dance, then she danced with the princes ; and the bridegroom 
 went through a similar etiquette with the Queen and princesses, as at the 
 Royal dance of torches held at Berlin In 1821. 
 
 A similar Torch Polonaise was given at the Court of Russia on the 
 occasion of the Duke of Edinburgh's marriage with the daughter of the 
 Czar. 
 
 Much might be told of incidents which have occurred at Court balls 
 
 TheT^KK-JHINDBrr "'»"''iVH».¥9"J'*«'«sijfc^ 
 
 DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK 
 
 After James Gillray 
 
COURT DANCING UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA 439 
 
 during the reign of George III., and the story of his successor, as Prince of 
 Wales, Regent, and King, is enlivened by diversified accounts of balls, given 
 at Carlton Palace, of gay dances, masquerades, and hah costumees at his 
 Marine Palace, Brighton, and subsequently at the v/himsical Pavilion, 
 which seemed specially designed for the holding of ridottos, after the fashion 
 of Ranelagh and Vauxhall, the architectural eccentricities of which the 
 Brighton Pavilion 
 seemed to emulate, 
 together with not a 
 kw of the distin- 
 guishing gaieties of 
 the company there 
 assembled. 
 
 Nor must we 
 linger over the 
 sprightly doings of 
 the Court of George 
 IV., with the re- 
 splendent balls 
 given at his palaces 
 whenPrince Regent 
 and King. 
 
 The gracious young Princess Victoria, with her cousins. Prince George 
 of Cambridge and his sister the Princess Augusta, were particularly graceful 
 dancers, as was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, afterwards Prince Consort. 
 From 1838, two of the State Apartments of Buckingham Palace, the Throne 
 and Ball Rooms respectively, were set apart for dancing ; the fine picture 
 gallery connected the two rooms, in each of which was an orchestra. Her 
 Majesty and the Court entered the ball-room before ten o'clock, the Queen 
 chose a partner, and opened the ball with the first Quadrille. Later in the 
 evening her Majesty moved to the second room, sometimes leading a 
 Country Dance in the small hours. After her Majesty's marriage in 1 840, 
 the Polka was introduced as an addition to the programme, and nearly 
 twenty years later the Lancers was added to the State Balls. 
 
 Of foremost interest in the annals of dancing are the three historical 
 
 Princess Charlotte 
 
 Duke of Devonshire 
 
 THE DEVONSHIRE MINUET 
 
440 
 
 A HISTORY OF DANCING 
 
 bah costumees — the Plantagenet Ball, 1 842 ; the George II. Ball (1740-50), in 
 1845 ; and the Charles II. Ball, inaugurated by her Majesty ; largely, it is 
 said, by way of encouraging native industries, and with the praiseworthy 
 motive of giving employment, in times of grave commercial depression, to 
 a vast number of deserving workpeople. 
 
 Social dancing in England in these later days of her Majesty's reign 
 has followed much the same line of development as that described in the 
 history of modern French dancing, while, like many of their French 
 counterparts, the " Mabilles " of London, such, for instance, as the once 
 famous Argyle Rooms, have disappeared after a period of inglorious 
 decadence. 
 
 TICKET FOR A BALL AT THE NEW CLUB, SOHO 
 
" LE GRAND ROND " 
 
 From a Lithograph in the Conservatoire de la Danse Moderne 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abington, Mrs., Queen of Comedy, 397 
 ^schylus dances in his own plays, 9 
 Aix Festival revived, 57 
 Alexander, Emperor, waltzing at Almack's, 
 
 410 
 Allard, Mme., 184 
 Allemande, 131 
 Almack's, 404 
 
 Almees, Egyptian, Tunisian, Algerian, z8o 
 Alphiton Ekchuton, Dance of the Spilt 
 
 Meal, 29 
 Anglo-Saxons, lovers of dancing, 382 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, entertainments of. 
 
 Apis, dances in honour of, 2 
 Aristides dances at banquet, 7 
 Aristodemus, a celebrated dancer, 9 
 Aristophanes dances in his own plays, 9 
 Arnout Dance, 263 
 Assommoir du Temple, 344 
 Athenian festivals, dancing at, 5 
 
 Baccelli, Giovanna, 413 
 
 Bacchanalia, 36 
 
 Baddeley, Sophia, entering Pantheon, 397 
 
 Balearic Isles, dancing at religious festivals. 
 
 Ballet composers, 167 
 
 Ballet danced by ladies of Queen Elizabeth's 
 
 Court, 71 
 Ballet dancers, training of, 371 
 Ballet des Ardents, 64 
 Ballet du Carrousel, 112 
 Ballet of Circe, 73, •](> 
 Ballet of Cupid and Bacchus, 1 1 5 
 Ballet of Hercules in Love, 1 1 5 
 Ballet of the Gouty, 87 
 Ballet of the Prosperity of the Arms of 
 
 France, 88, iii 
 Ballets, composition of, 369 
 Ballets in England, 413 
 Ballets of the Papacy, 81 
 Ballets under First Empire, 201 
 
 3K 
 
442 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ballon, dancing of, 117 
 
 Balls of Second Empire, 34.2 
 
 Balls under Beau Nash, 394 
 
 Barrison Sisters, 378 
 
 Basse Danse, 93, 99 
 
 Bayadire Dances, 270 
 
 Beau Nash, rule at Bath, 391 
 
 Beauchamp, inventor of choregraphic 
 
 writing, 119 
 Beaugrand, Leontine, 363, 365 
 Beaupre, in La Dansomanie, 188 
 Belle qui tiens ma vie. Pavane (music), 
 
 97 
 Bergonzio di Botta's ballet, 65 
 Bernay, Mile. Berthe, 372 
 Bird Dance .of Malagasies, 233 
 Birth and Power of Venus, ballet, 112 
 Bison Dance of the Mandans, 284 
 Blache, ballets by, 201 
 Blasis, ballets by, 203 
 Bocane invented by Jacques Cordier, 105 
 Bohan, Victor, idea of winter garden, 327 
 Bolero, 241 
 
 Bonaparte, interested in dancing, 200 
 Bourbon, Cardinal de, ballet, 79 ; masque, 
 
 74 
 Bourree of Auvergnc, 221 
 Bozacchi (French dancer), 364 
 Branles, 100, 354, 424 
 Brawls, 382, 385 
 Brididi (Mabille dancer), 310 
 Bucolic Dance, 24 
 Bullier (Closerie des Lilas), 336 
 
 Cachucha, 256 
 
 " Caledonians," 433 
 
 Calumet, dance of Iroquois, 236 
 
 Camargo, Mile., accounts of her dancing, 
 
 142 
 Cancan, 310, 313, 319 
 Carole, origin of the, 61, 382 
 Caryatis, created by Castor and Pollux, 8, 
 
 14 
 
 Casino Cadet, 332 
 
 Castanets, use of, 45 
 
 Catalan Bails, 224 
 
 Catherine de' Medici's ballets, 72 
 
 Cellarius, dancing-school in Paris, 296 
 
 Cerito, Mile., in Le Lac des Fees, 414 
 
 Chacone, 128 
 
 Charitesia, 14 
 
 Chartres, Due de, dancing Minuet and 
 
 Saraband, 122 
 Chateau des Fleurs, 327 
 Chateau-Rouge, 322 
 Chaumiere, 319 
 Cheironomia, 20 
 
 Chevigny, Mile., success in ballets, 202 
 Chicard (Mabille dancer), 310 
 Childebert proscribed religious dances, 58 
 Christmas Dances, 382 
 Cicero reproaches Gabinus for dancing, 42 
 Clodoche (Clodomir Ricart), 340 
 Closerie des Lilas. See Bullier 
 Cnossia, 14 
 
 Contrapas, Catalan dance, 227 
 Contredanse, or Country Dance, 152, 425 
 Coppelia, ballet, 364 
 Cordax (comic dance), 23 
 Cornely, Mme., masquerades, 395, 412 
 Corpus Christi procession, 51, 55 
 Cotillion, 81, 354, 428 
 Council of Trent, ballet danced at, 81 
 Courante, 93, 126, 355, 382, 385, 417, 
 
 424 
 Court Ball on Duke of Burgundy's marriage, 
 
 120 
 Court Ballets, 90 
 Court Dances, revival of old, 353 
 Crane Dance, 26 
 Cybele teaches mortals to dance, 7 
 
 Dance of Adonis, 26 
 Dance of Flowers, 24 
 Dance of St. John, 60 
 Dances of African tribes, 287 
 Dances of Central America, 285 
 Dancing at Charles IL's Court, 387 
 Dancing in churches and cemeteries, 49 
 Dancing indulgences, 58 
 Dancing-places in Paris, 315 
 Dancing saloons of the populace, 325 
 Danse Baladine, 93 
 Dantzic, origin of, 59 
 
INDEX 
 
 443 
 
 Daubcrval, compositions of, 185 
 
 Dejeuners dansants, 293 
 
 Dervishes instituted by Mahomet, 49 
 
 Descente de la Courtille, 329 
 
 Desdetot, ballet of Zephyre et Flore, 203 
 
 Didelot in The Trospect before us, 402 
 
 Dipl^ (vocal dance), 22 
 
 Domitian expelled Senators for dancing, 43 
 
 Duport, dancing and composing ballets, 
 
 198 
 Dupre, "god of dancing," 119 
 
 Egi-antine, Mile., 3)8 
 
 Elephant dancing, 77 
 
 Els Cosiers, 51 
 
 Elssler, Fanny, 414 
 
 Elysee-Montmartre, 334 
 
 Emmeleia, 11, 12 
 
 Empress Eugenie, 345 
 
 Endymatia, 1 1, 13 
 
 Epilenios (dance of the winepress), 29 
 
 Equestrian ballets, 77, 78 
 
 Excelsior, ballet, 367 
 
 Fandango, 238 
 
 Farandole of Southern France, 226 
 
 Faucet, Amelie, 414 
 
 Festival of the Supreme Being, 190 
 
 Fiocre, Mme., 363 
 
 Fioretti, Mme., 363 
 
 Folias, 260 
 
 Folies-Robert, 332 
 
 France, dancing in (Middle Ages), 62 
 
 France, religious dances in, 60 
 
 French ballet, 362 
 
 Fuller, Loie (Serpentine Dance), 379 
 
 Funeral Dances, 16 
 
 Gaditanians, 44 
 
 Gaillarde (Romanesque), 93, 95, 355, 382, 
 
 385,417 
 Galop, 291 
 
 Game of Piquet, ballet, 118 
 Gardel, Maximilian and Pierre, ballets, 186, 
 
 188, 189 
 Gavarni, 319, 340 
 
 Gavotte, 128, 152 
 
 Gavotte du Ballet du Roi (music), 135 
 
 Gavotte under Louis XVI., 176 
 
 Goyon, dancer, 197 
 
 Grahn, Lucile, 414 
 
 Grand Ballet d'Action, 154 
 
 Grand Ballet du Roi, 112 
 
 Greek and Roman mimetic dances, 24 
 
 Greek sacred dances, 1 1 
 
 Gretna Green, ballet, 364 
 
 Grille d'^gout (French dancer), 380 
 
 Grisi, Carlotta, 362, 414 
 
 Guimard, Madeleine, 171 
 
 Gymnopaedia, 11, 13 
 
 Hebrew religious dances, 4 
 
 Helen dances at festival of Diana, 7 
 
 Hermitage, dancing saloon, 321 
 
 Highland Flings, 424 
 
 Hippogynes, 26 
 
 Hora, Roumanian Round, 219 
 
 Horatii, ballet, 157 
 
 Hormos, 15, 34 
 
 Hornpipe, 382, 420 
 
 Horovod, 356 
 
 Horton, P. (Mrs. German Reed), 414 
 
 Hygra (dance for women), 29 
 
 Hylas playing CEdipus, 41 
 
 Hymen or Hymenaios, 29 
 
 Hyporchema (Hypcrchemc), 11, 13, 21 
 
 Iambic Dance, 14 
 Impatience, ballet, 117 
 Incoherent Ball, 359 
 Indian dances, 269 
 Irish Jigs, 418 
 
 Jaleo de Jerez, 253 
 Jansen, German dancing-master, 411 
 Jersey, Lady, introduces Quadrille, 408 
 Jigs named after sovereigns, 382, 387, 416, 
 
 417 
 Jota Aragonesa, 250 
 Jotas, 252 
 Jumpers of New England, 50 
 
444 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Karpaia (pantomimic) Dance, 19 
 Kollo, Dalmatian rustic dance, 216 
 Komastike, zo 
 Krinon, 22 
 
 La Dansomanie, ballet-pantomime, 187 
 
 La Farandole, ballet, 365 
 
 La Goulue (French dancer), 38'o 
 
 La Laitiere Polonaise, ballet, 201 
 
 La Romanesca (music), 103 
 
 La Source, ballet, 363 
 
 La Volta, 385 
 
 La Zucchi, dancer, 368 
 
 Laberius forced to dance, 43 
 
 Laborde and Cellarius, rivalry between, 
 
 299 
 
 Lady-patronesses of Almack's, 407 
 
 Lahire at the Chaumiere, 318 
 
 Lancerr, 43 I 
 
 Lany, comedy-dancer, 168, 367 
 
 Le Basque, opera-dancer, 119 
 
 Le Carnaval. Sarabande (music), 129 
 
 Le Fandango, ballet, 365 
 
 Les Acacias, 323 
 
 Les Filets de Vulcain, ballet, 201 
 
 Lion Dance, 20 
 
 Little Russian, dance, 266 
 
 Lou Gue, strolling ballet by King Rene, 
 
 55 
 Louis XIV. in ballets, 109 
 Louis XV., escapade of, 146 
 Ludiones, 33 
 
 Lulli composes Minuets, 131 
 Lupercalia, 36 
 
 Mabille, pere et fils, 306 
 Manzotti, ballet in Italian style, 368 
 Marguerite de Valois, dancing of, 71, 102, 
 
 107 
 Marie Antoinette at Opera Ball, 180 
 Markowski, 299, 304 
 Marseillaise at Opera, 189 
 Martyns, dancers, 378 
 Mary Queen of Scots, skill in dancing, 384, 
 
 421 
 Masquerades at Carlisle House, 395 
 Masques, 63, 385, 386 
 Mass of the Mozarabes, 70 
 
 Mauri, Mile. Rosita, 378 
 
 May-day revels, 388 
 
 Mazilller, dancer, 362 
 
 Mazurka created by Markowski, 304 
 
 Medijeval dancing by women, 60 
 
 Memphitic (martial) Dance, 17, 19 
 
 Menestrier on dancing, 47 
 
 Merante, Mme. (Lina), 362 
 
 Milon, ballets by, 197 
 
 Milon in La Dansomanie, 188 
 
 Minerva dancing Pyrrhic Dance, 17 
 
 Minuet, 131, 148, 352, 354, 393, 437 
 
 Mnasion, theatrical dancing, 21 
 
 Modern Greek dances, 263 
 
 Mormons' Ball, 350 
 
 Morphasmos, 23 
 
 Morris Dance, 383 
 
 Moulin de la Galette, 379 
 
 Moulin Rouge, 335 
 
 Mountain Ballet, 87 
 
 Namouna (grand ballet), 367 
 
 New Hebrides, dancing in, 234 
 
 Nini Patte-en-l'air (French dancer), 380 
 
 Niobe (grand ballet), 22 
 
 Notation for dancing, 166 
 
 Noverre, Ballets, 164 
 
 Noverre revolutionises dancing, 154 
 
 Odo, Bishop of Paris, proscribed dancing 
 
 in churches, 58 
 Ole danced by La Nena, 260 
 Orphic Dances, 16 
 
 Pantheon, rival of Carlisle House, 396, 
 
 402, 412 
 Pantomimic ballets, 71 
 Parabenai Tettara, 22 
 Parisian Fancy Balls, 346 
 Parisot, Mile., 413 
 Passa-calle (Passacaille), 134, 259 
 Passe-pied, 355 
 
 Passe-pied en Rondeau (music), 162 
 Patagonian Dance, 283 
 Pavane, 105, 124, 259, 352, 385, 424 
 Pazzamezzo (Cinque-pace), 385 
 
INDEX 
 
 44? 
 
 Pdcour, opera-dancer, 119 
 
 Pela, Dance of Galicia, 50 
 
 Petipa's dancing, 367 
 
 Plato, opinion of dancing, 48 
 
 Podismos, 20 
 
 Polka, 296, 299, 433 
 
 Polo, of Moorish origin, 255 
 
 -Portugal, ballet in honour of St. Ignatius 
 
 Loyola, 82 
 Prado, dancing saloon, 320 
 Pre Catalan, 332 
 
 Prevost, Mile., performing Passepied, 142 
 Pritchard (Mabille dancer), 308 
 Ptolemaeus dances in public, 9 
 Pyladeios named after Pylades, 23 
 Pylades and Bathyllus invent mimetic 
 
 drama, 36 
 Pylades, theatrical dancing of, 21 
 Pyrrhic (martial) Dance, 10, 17, 382 
 
 Quadrille, 339, 408, 431, 433 
 Queen Elizabeth, skill in dancing, 384 
 Queen Pomare (Eiise Sergent), 311 
 Queen Victoria, Court Balls under, 439 
 
 Ranelagh in Paris, 317 
 ■Ranelagh, Masquerades at, 403 
 Rayon d'Or (French dancer), 380 
 Reels, 424 
 
 Riario, Cardinal, composing ballets, 70 
 Rice Dance (Japan), 229 
 Rice Dance in Madagascar, 233 
 Rosati, Carolina, in Corali, 414 
 Round, account of, 2c8 
 Round in Gascony, 214 
 Round of Sardinian Peasants, 213 
 Royal Academy of Dancing founded, 110 
 Royal Birthday Balls, 437 
 
 Sacre, Mme., teaching Lancers, 432 
 
 St. Basil on dancing, 49 
 
 St. Carlo Borromeo, strolling ballet, 54 
 
 St. Ignatius Loyola, ballet in honour of, 
 
 82 
 St. Leger Round, tune for Sellenger's Round, 
 
 385 
 
 Saint-Leon, ballet-master, 362 
 
 Salle, Mile., expressive dancing of, 141 
 
 Salome dances before Herod, 39 
 
 Sangalli, Rita, 367 
 
 Saraband, lz8, 355 
 
 Schottische created by Markowski, 304, 
 
 43+ 
 Scotch popular dances, 422 
 
 Seguidillas, 242 
 
 Seguidillas Manchegas, 248 
 
 Seises of Seville, 5 1 
 
 Sevigne, Mme. de, dancing Passepied, 
 
 134 
 Sikinnis (Satyric dance), 27 
 Sieba, ballet, 368 
 Socrates dances with Apasia, 7 
 Sophocles dances after Salamis, 9 
 Sorcerers' Masquerade, 86 
 Spain, religious dances in, 50 
 Spanish dances, 238, 254 
 Strauss and the Empress Eugenie, 345 
 Strolling ballets, 53 
 Subra, Mile., 365, 367, 378 
 Sword Dance, 356 
 Sylvia, ballet, 160^, 366 
 Syrtos, 264 
 
 Taglioni, Marie, 204, 414 
 
 Tarantella, 265 
 
 Tascara, 258 
 
 The Muses, ballet, 116 
 
 The Prospect before us (print), 400 
 
 Theodore, Mile., in The Prospect before us, 
 
 402 
 Thermagistris, 21 
 Torch Dance, 438 ; (Fackeltanz) at Berlin, 
 
 356 
 Tordion, 94 
 Tricotets, 85 
 Triumph of Love, ballet, 117 
 
 Vasquez, teacher of dancing, 365, 376 
 Vaughan, Kate, and her successors, 415 
 Vauxhall Gardens, 404 
 Vestris, Auguste, 169, 183, 411 
 Vestris, Gaetan, pupil and successor of 
 Dupre, 167, 411 
 
446 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Vestris, Mmc, 412 
 Victim Balls, 195 
 Vieux Ch^ne, Bal du, 328 
 Visitors at Pantheon, 398 
 Volte, 99, 289 
 
 Waltz, 188, 289 ; in England, 435 
 Waltzers, famous, 410, 436 
 
 Watteau, work inspired by theatre, 140 
 Wellington, Duke oF, 408 
 Woodland Balls, 352 
 
 XiPHiSMOs (sword dance), 21 
 
 Yeddo, ballet, 366 
 
 ZoRONGO (Spanish dance), 258 
 
 MLLE. CERITO AND SIGNOR GUERRA IN THE BALLET OF " LE LAC DES F^ES " 
 
 Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson fef Co. 
 Lontlon ^ Edinburgh