Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/836

Rh 800 DANCE scarcely be solely an outburst of grief. In Dahomey the blacksmiths, carpenters, hunters, braves, and bards, with their various tools and instruments, join in a dramatic dance. We may add here a form of dance which is almost precisely equivalent to the spoken incantation. It is used by the professional devil-dancer of the wild Veddahs for the cure of diseases. An offering of eatables is put on a tripod of sticks, and the dancer, decorated with green leaves, goes into a paroxysm of dancing, in the midst of which he receives the required information. This, how ever, rather belongs to the subject of religious dances. It is impossible here to enumerate either the names or the forms of the sacred dances which formed so prominent a part of the worship of antiquity. A mystic philosophy found in them a resemblance to the courses of the stars. This Pythagorean idea was expanded by Sir John Davies, in his epic poem Orchestra, published in 1596. They were probably adapted to many purposes, to thanks giving, praise, supplication, and humiliation. It is only one striking illustration of this wide-spread practice, that there was at Rome a very ancient order of priests especially named Salii, who struck their shields and sang assamenta as they danced. The practice re-appeared in the early church, special provision being made for dancing in the choir. Scaliger, who astonished Charles V. by his dancing powers, says the bishops were called Prcesules, because they led the dance on feast days. According to some of the fathers, the angels are always dancing, and the glorious company of apostles is really a chorus of dancers. Dancing, however, fell into discredit with the feast of the Agapce. St Augus tine says, &quot; Melius est fodere quam saltare;&quot; and the practice was generally prohibited for some time. No church or sect has raged so fiercely against the cardinal sin of dancing as the Albigenses of Languedoc and the Waldenses, who agreed in calling it the deviFs procession. After the middle of the 18th century, there were still traces of religious dancing in the cathedrals of Spain, Portugal, and Roussillon, -especially in the Mussarabian Mass of Toledo. An account of the numerous secular dances, public and private, of Greece and Rome will be found in the classical histories, and in Mr Weaver s Essay towards a History of Dancing, London, 1712, which, however, must be revised by more recent authorities. The Pyrrhic (derived from the MempMtic) in all its local varieties, the Bacchanalia, and the Hymensea were among the more important. The name of Lycurgus is also associated with the Trichoria, Among the stage dances of the Athenians, which formed interludes to the regular drama, one of the oldest was the Delian dance of the Labyrinth, ascribed to Theseus, and called Tepavos, from its resemblance to the flight of cranes, and one of the most powerful was the dance of the Eumenides. A farther developmsnt of the art took place at Rome, under Augustus, when Pylades and Bathyllus brought serious and comic pantomime to great perfection. The subjects chosen were such as the labour of Hercules, and the surprise of Venus and Mars by Vulcan. The state of public feeling on the subject is well shown in Lucian s amusing dialogue De Saltatione. Before this Rome had only very inferior buffoons, who attended dinner parties, and whose art traditions belonged not to Greece, but to Etruria. 1 Apparently, however, the Romans, though fond of ceremony and of the theatre, were by temperament not great dancers in private. Cicero says, &quot; Nemo fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit.&quot; But the Italic Dance of the imperial theatre, supported by music and splendid dresses, supplanted for a time the older dramas. It was the policy of Augustus to cultivate other than political interests for the people ; and he passed laws for the protection and 1 The Pantomimus was an outgrowth from the canticum or choral singing of the older comedies zivlfabulce Atellana:. privilege of the pantomimists. They were freed from tie jus virgarum, and they used their freedom against the peace of the city. Tiberius and Domitian oppressed and banished them ; Trajan and Aurelius gave them such titles as derations and priests of Apollo; but the pantomime stage soon yielded to the general corruption of the empire. The modern ballet seems to have been first produced on a considerable scale in 1480, at Tortona, before Duke Galeazzo of Milan. It soon became a common amusement on great occasions at the European courts. The ordinary length was five acts, each containing several entrees, and each entree containing several quadrilles. The accessories of painting, sculpture, and movable scenery were employed, and the representation often took place at night, The allegorical, moral, and ludicrous ballets were introduced to France by Baif in the time of Catherine de Medici. Balthasar of Beaujeu appears also as a director of court ballets, in which amusement the royal families of France continued for long to take an active part. The complex nature of these exhibitions may be gathered from the title of one played at Turin in 1634 La verita nemica della apparenza, sollevata dal tempo. Of the ludicrous, one of the best known was the Venetian ballet of La verita raminga. Now and then, however, a high political aim may be discovered, as in the &quot; Prosperity of the Arms of France,&quot; danced before Richelieu in 1641, or &quot; Religion uniting Great Britain to the rest of the World,&quot; danced at London on the marriage of Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Frederick. Outside the theatre, the Portuguese revived an ambulatory ballet which was played on the canonization of Carlo Borromeo, and to which they gave the name of the Tyrrhenic Pomp. During this time also the ceremonial ball (with all its elaborate detail of courante, minuet, and saraband) was cultivated. The fathers of the church assembled at Trent gave a ball in which they took a part. Masked balls, too, resembling in some respects the Roman Saturnalia, became common towards the end of the 17th century. In France a ball was sometimes diversified by a masquerade, carried on by a limited number of persons in character-costume. Two of the most famous were named &quot; au Sauvage &quot; and &quot; des Sorciers.&quot; In 1715 the regent of France started a system of public balls in the opera- house, which did not succeed. Dancing, also, formed a leading element in the Opera francais introduced by Quinault. His subjects were chiefly marvellous, drawn from the classical mythologies ; and the choral dancing was not merely divertissement, but was intended to assist and enrich the dramatic action of the whole piece. The idea? of military evolution and of magic incantation reappear. Although Lully wrote the music, and the representation was supported by splendid decoration and mechanical effects, the success of this new &quot; tragedy &quot; was short-lived, and since then the modern ballet has never been more than a lyrical interlude. In this humbler function, however, it was greatly improved by La Motte, whose piece L 1 Europe Galante (1 697) is a sparkling and elegant production. The lyrical ballet draws much from Fairyland and Arcadia. The possibility of theatrical dance has been strenuously main tained by M. de Cahusac in his La Danse, Ancienne et Moderne, 3 vols., 1754 ; by M. de Noverre in his Lett res sur les Arts Imitateurs ; and by Diderot in the Encyclopedia Methodique, 1786. It was illustrated by the performance of Piigmalion by Mdlle. Salle in London (1732). 2 Among the antiquities of this subject chorography, or orchesography, the art of dancing notation, deserves a place. The idea is as old as 1598 ; but about 1700 M. Feuillet published a complicated system, which was twice translated 8 Among the last demi-caractdre ballets may be mentioned the Fills mal gardee of Dauberval ; among the anacreontic, the Dansomanie of Gardel.