The Dance (by An Antiquary) Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 28.--Dancer. From a fresco in the Baths of Constantine, 4th century A.D.]

Perhaps the encouragement of the more brutal combats of the Coliseum did something to suppress the more delicate arts, but historians have told us, and it is common knowledge, what became of the great Empire, and the lyric with other arts were destroyed by licentious preferences.

CHAPTER IV.

THE "EARLY ENGLISH" AND "MEDIAEVAL" DANCE TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

The last ill.u.s.tration from the Baths of Constantine brought us into the Christian era, although that example was not of Christian sentiment or art. It is possible that the dance of Salome with its diabolical reward may have prejudiced the Apostolic era, for we find no example of dancing, as exhibiting joy, in Christian Art of that period. The dance before Herod is historical proof that the higher cla.s.ses of Hebrews danced for amus.e.m.e.nt.

As soon, however, as Christianity became enthroned, and a settled society, we read of religious dances as exhibiting joy, even in the churches. Tertullian tells us that they danced to the singing of hymns and canticles. These dances were solemn and graceful to the old tones; and continued, notwithstanding many prohibitions such as those of Pope Zacharias (a Syrian) in A.D. 744. The dancing at Easter in the Cathedral at Paris was prohibited by Archbishop Odo in the 12th century, but notwithstanding the antagonism of the Fathers, the dances were only partially suppressed.

They were common on religious festivals in Spain and Portugal up to the seventeenth century and in some localities continue even to our own time. When S. Charles Borromeo was canonized in 1610, the Portuguese, who had him as patron, made a procession of four chariots of dancers; one to Renown, another to the City of Milan, one to represent Portugal and a fourth to represent the Church. In Seville at certain periods, and in the Balearic Isles, they still dance in religious ceremonies.

We know that religious dancing has continually been performed as an accessory to prayer, and is still so used by the Mahommedans, the American Indians and the Bedos of India, who dance into an ecstasy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 29.--Gleemen's dance, 9th century. From Cleopatra, Cotton MS. C. viii., British Museum.]

It is probable that this sort of mania marked the dancing in Europe which was suppressed by Pope and Bishop. This _ch.o.r.eomania_ marked a Flemish sect in 1374 who danced in honour of St. John, and it was so furious that the disease called St. Vitus' dance takes its name from this performance.

Christmas carols were originally choric. The performers danced and sang in a circle.

The ill.u.s.tration (fig. 43) of a dance of angels and religious shows us that Fra Angelico thought the practice joyful; this dance is almost a counterpart of that amongst the Greeks (fig. 11). The other dance, by Sandro Botticelli (fig. 44), is taken from his celebrated "Nativity"

in the National Gallery. Although we have records of performances in churches, no ill.u.s.trations of an early date have come to the knowledge of the writer. [Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 30.--Dancing to horn and pipe.

From an Anglo-Saxon MS.]

That the original inhabitants of Britain danced--that the Picts, Danes, Saxons and Romans danced may be taken for granted, but there seems little doubt that our earliest ill.u.s.trations of dancing were of the Roman tradition. We find the att.i.tude, the instruments and the clapping of hands, all of the same undoubted cla.s.sic character.

Tacitus informs us that the Teutonic youths danced, with swords and spears, and Olaus Magnus that the Goths, &c., had military dances: still the military dances in English MSS. (figs. 31, 32) seem more like those of a Pyrrhic character, which Julius Caesar, the conqueror of England, introduced into Rome. The ill.u.s.tration (fig. 29) of what is probably a Saxon gleemen's dance shows us the kind of amus.e.m.e.nt they afforded and how they followed cla.s.sic usages.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 31.--Anglo-Saxon sword dance. From the MS.

Cleopatra, C. viii., British Museum.] The gleemen were reciters, singers and dancers; and the lower orders were tumblers, sleight-of-hand men and general entertainers. What may have been the origin of our hornpipe is ill.u.s.trated in fig. 30, where the figures dance to the sound of the horn in much the same att.i.tudes as in the modern hornpipe, with a curious resemblance to the position in some Muscovite dances.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 32.--Sword dance to bagpipes, 14th century. From 2 B vii., Royal MS., British Museum.]

The Norman minstrel, successor of the gleeman, used the double-pipe, the harp, the viol, trumpets, the horn and a small flat drum, and it is not unlikely that from Sicily and their South Italian possessions the Normans introduced cla.s.sic ideas.

Piers the Plowman used words of Norman extraction for them, as he speaks of their "Saylen and Saute."

The minstrel and harpist does not appear to have danced very much, but to have left this to the joculator, and dancing and tumbling and even acrobatic women and dancers appear to have become common before the time of Chaucer's "Tomblesteres."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 33.--Herodias tumbling. From a MS. end of 13th century (Addl. 18,719, f. 253b), British Museum.]

That this tumbling and dancing was common in the thirteenth century is shown by the ill.u.s.tration from the sculpture at Rouen Cathedral (fig.

34), the ill.u.s.trations from a MS. in the British Museum (fig. 33) of Herodias tumbling and of a design in gla.s.s in Lincoln, and other instances at Ely; Idsworth Church, Hants; Ponce, France, and elsewhere. It is suggested that the camp followers of the Crusaders brought back certain dances and amongst these some of an acrobatic nature, and many that were reprehensible, which brought down the anger of the Clergy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34.--A tumbler, as caryatid. Rouen Cathedral, 13th century.]

In the fourteenth century, from a celebrated MS. (2 B. vii.) in the British Museum and other cognate sources we get a fair insight of the amus.e.m.e.nt afforded by these dancers and joculators. In the ill.u.s.tration (fig. 35) we get A and C tumblers, male and female; D, a woman and bear dance; and E, a dance of fools to the organ and bagpipe. It will be observed that they have bells on their caps, and it must have required much skill and practice to sound their various toned bells to the music as they danced. This dance of fools may have suggested or became eventually merged into the "Morris Dance" (fig.

50) of which some account with other ill.u.s.trations of "Comic Dances"

will be given hereafter. The man dancing and playing the pipes with a woman on his shoulder (fig. 36), the stilt dancer with a curious instrument (C), and the woman jumping through a hoop, give us other ill.u.s.trations of fourteenth century amus.e.m.e.nts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 35.--14th century dancers. A and C are tumblers; B, tumbling and balancing to the tambour; D, a woman dancing around a whipped bear; E, jesters dancing.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 36.--A, man dancing and playing pipes, carrying a woman; B, jumping through a hoop; C, a stilt dance. 14th century.]

CHAPTER V.

SOCIETY DANCING FROM THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 37.--Italian dance. From an engraving, end of 15th century, attributed to Baccio Baldini.]

Concerning the dance as a means of social intercourse, it does not appear to have been formulated as an accomplishment until late in the thirteenth century, and at a later date was cultivated as a means of teaching what we call deportment, until it became almost a necessity with the cla.s.ses, as is shown by the literature of that period. The various social dances, such as the Volte, the Jig and the Galliard, although in early periods, not so numerous, required a certain training and agility. These, however, soon became complicated with many social and local variations, the characteristics of which are a study in themselves. The dances (figs. 37 and 38) in a field of sports, from an Italian engraving of the fifteenth century, show us nothing new; indeed, with different costumes it is very like what we have from Egypt (fig. 3), only a different phase of the action, and the att.i.tude of this old dance is repeated even to our own time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 38.--Italian dancing, the end of the 15th century.]

In the Chamber dance by Martin Zasinger (fig. 39), of the fifteenth century, no figures are in action, but we see an arrangement of the guests and musicians, from which it is evident that the Chamber dance as a social function had progressed and that the "Bal pare," etc., was here in embryo.

The flute and viol are evidently opening the function and the trumpets and other portions of the orchestra on the other side waiting to come in.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 39.--Chamber dance, 15th century. From a drawing by Martin Zasinger.]

The stately out-door function, in a pleasure garden, from the "Roman de la Rose" (fig. 40) ill.u.s.trates but one portion of the feature of a dance, another of which is described in Chaucer's translation:

"They threw y fere Ther mouthes so that through their play It seemed as they kyste alway."

Fancy dress and comic dances have handed down the same characteristics almost to our own time. The Wildeman costume dance (fig. 41) is interesting in many respects, it not only shows us the dance, but the costume and general method of the Chamber.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 40.--Dancing in a "pleasure garden," end of the 15th century. French, from the "Roman de la Rose," in the British Museum.]

The fifteenth century comic dancers in a _fete champetre_ (fig. 42) and those of the seventeenth century by Callot (fig. 52) are good examples of this entertainment--in the background of the latter a minuet seems to be in progress. The Morris dance (fig. 50) shows us the development that had taken place since the fourteenth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 41.--Fancy dress dance of Wildemen of the 15th century. From MS. 4379 Harl, British Museum.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 42.--Comic dance to pipe and tabor, end of 15th century. From pen drawing in the Mediaeval House Book in the Castle of Wolfegg, by the Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 43.--A dance of Angels and Saints at the entrance to Heaven. Fra Angelico.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 44.--Dancing angels. From a "Nativity" by Sandro Botticelli _circa_ 1500 A.D.] [Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 45.--Albert Durer, 1514 A.D.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 46.--Albert Durer.]