Sacred Texts Legends/Sagas England Index Previous Next
Dancing, Tumbling, and Balancing, part of the Joculator's Profession--Performed by Women--Dancing connected with Tumbling--Antiquity of Tumbling--Various Dances described--The Gleemen's Dances--Exemplification of Gleemen's Dances--The Sword Dance--Rope-Dancing and wonderful Performances on the Rope--Rope-Dancing from the Battlements of St Paul's--Rope-Dancing from St Paul's Steeple--Rope-Dancing from All Saints' Church, Hertford--Rope-Dancing from All Saints, Derby--A Dutchman's Feats on St Paul's Weathercock--Jacob Hall the Rope-Dancer--Modern celebrated Rope-Dancing--Rope-Dancing at Sadler's Wells--Fool's Dance--Morris Dance--Egg Dance--Ladder Dance--Jocular Dances--Wire-Dancing--Ballette Dances--Leaping and Vaulting--Balancing--Remarkable Feats--The Posture-Master's Tricks--The Mountebank--Domestic Dancing--The Pavone--Antiquity of Dancing--The Carole Dance.
JOCULATORS' DANCING.--Dancing, tumbling, and balancing, with variety of other exercises requiring skill and agility, were originally included in the performances exhibited by the gleemen and the minstrels; and they remained attached to the profession of the joculator after he was separated from those who only retained the first branches of the minstrel's art, that is to say, poetry and music.
WOMEN DANCERS AND TUMBLERS.--The joculators were sometimes excellent tumblers; yet, generally speaking, I believe that vaulting, tumbling, and balancing were not executed by the chieftain of the gleeman's company, but by some of his confederates; and very often this part of the show was performed by females, who were called glee-maidens by the Saxons, and tumbling women, tomblesteres, and tombesteres, in Chaucer. The same poet, in the "Romance of the Rose," calls them saylours or dancers, from the Latin word salio. They are also denominated sauters, from saut in French, to leap. Hence, in Pierce Ploughman, one says, "I can neither saylen ne saute." They are likewise called tymbesteres, players upon the tymbrel, which they also balanced occasionally, as we shall find a little farther on. It is almost needless to add, that the ancient usage of introducing females for the performances of these difficult specimens of art and agility has been successively continued to the present day.
DANCING CONNECTED WITH TUMBLING.--Dancing, in former times, was closely connected with those feats of activity now called vaulting and tumbling; and such exertions often formed part of the dances that were publicly exhibited by the gleemen and the minstrels; for which reason, the Anglo-Saxon writers frequently used the terms of leaping and tumbling for dancing. Both the phrases occur in the Saxon versions of St Mark's Gospel, where it is said of the daughter of Herodias, that she vaulted or tumbled, instead of danced, before king Herod. 1 In a translation of the seventh century, in the Cotton Library, 2 it
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Dancing
says, she jumped, or leaped, and pleased Herod. In another Saxon version of the eleventh century, in the Royal Library, 1 she tumbled, and it pleased Herod. A third reads, Herodias' daughter tumbled there, etc. 2 These interpretations of the sacred text might easily arise from a misconception of the translators, who, supposing that no common dancing could have attracted the attention of the monarch so potently, or extorted from him the promise of a reward so extensive as that they found stated in the record, therefore referred the performance to some wonderful displayments of activity, resembling those themselves might have seen exhibited by the glee-maidens, on occasions of solemnity, in the courts of Saxon potentates. We may also observe, that the like explication of the passage was not only received in the Saxon versions of the Gospel, but continued in those of much more modern date; and, agreeably to the same idea, many of the illuminators, in depicting this part of the holy history, have represented the damsel in the action of tumbling, or, at least, of walking upon her hands. Mr Brand, in his edition of Bourne's Vulgar Antiquities, has quoted one in old English that reads thus: "When the daughter of Herodyas was in comyn, and had tomblyde and pleside Harowde." I have before me a MS. of the Harleian Collection, 3 in French, in the thirteenth century, written by some ecclesiastic, which relates to the church fasts and festivals. Speaking of the death of John Baptist, and finding this tumbling damsel to have been the cause, the pious author treats her with much contempt, as though she had been one of the dancing girls belonging to a company of jugglers, who in his time, it seems, were not considered as paragons of virtue any more than they are in the present day. He says of her, "Bien saveit treschier e tumber"; which may be rendered, "She was well skilled in tumbling and cheating tricks." And thus we find her in two examples given in the middle of plate twenty-one. The first, where her servant stands by her side, is taken from a series of Scripture histories, 3 written and illuminated at the beginning of the thirteenth century; and the second from a book of prayers more modern than the former by almost one hundred and fifty years. 4
ANTIQUITY OF TUMBLING.--The exhibition of dancing, connected with leaping and tumbling, for the entertainment of princes and noblemen on occasions of festivity, is of high antiquity. Homer mentions two dancing tumblers, who stood upon their heads, 5 and moved about to the measure of a song, for the diversion of Menelaus and his courtiers, at the celebration of his daughter's nuptials. It seems that the astonishment excited by the difficulty of such performances, obviated the absurdity, and rendered them agreeable to persons of rank and affluence. The Saxon princes encouraged the dancers and tumblers; and the courts of the Norman monarchs were crowded with them: we have, indeed, but few of their exertions particularised; for the monks, through whose medium the histories of the middle ages have generally been conveyed to us,
were their professed enemies: it is certain, however, notwithstanding the censure promulgated in their disfavour, that they stood their ground, and were not only well received, but even retained, in the houses of the opulent. No doubt they frequently descended to the lowest kinds of buffoonery. We read, for instance, of a tumbler in the reign of Edward II. who rode before his majesty, and frequently fell from his horse in such a manner, that the king was highly diverted, and laughed exceedingly, and rewarded the performer with the sum of twenty shillings, which at that period was a very considerable donation. 1 A like reward of twenty shillings was given, by order of Henry VIII., to a strange tumbler, that is, I suppose, an itinerant who had no particular establishment; a like sum to a tumbler who performed before him at Lord Bath's; and a similar reward to the "tabouretts and a tumbler," probably of the household. 2 It should seem that these artists were really famous mirth-makers; for one of them had the address to excite the merriment of the solemn queen Mary. "After her majesty," observes Strype, "had reviewed the royal pensioners in Greenwich Park, there came a tumbler, and played many pretty feats, the queen and cardinal Pole looking on; whereat she was observed to laugh heartily." 3
VARIOUS DANCES.--Among the pastimes exhibited for the amusement of queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth castle, there were shown, as Laneham says, before her highness, surprising feats of agility, by an Italian, "in goings, turnings, tumblings, castings, hops, jumps, leaps, skips, springs, gambauds, somersaults, caprettings, and flights, forward, backward, sideways, downward, upward, and with sundry windings, gyrings, and circumflections," which he performed with so much ease and lightness, that words are not adequate to the description; "insomuch that I," says Laneham, "began to doubt whether he was a man or a spirit"; and afterwards, "As for this fellow, I cannot tell what to make of him; save that I may guess his back to be metalled like a lamprey, that has no bone, but a line like a lute-string." 4 So lately as the reign of queen Anne, this species of performance continued to be fashionable; and in one of the Tatlers we meet with the following passage: "I went on Friday last to the Opera; and was surprised to find a thin house at so noble an entertainment, ’till I heard that the tumbler was not to make his appearance that night." 5
Three ancient specimens of the tumbler's art are given upon plate twenty-two. The first is a woman bending herself backwards, from a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Cotton Library; 6 the second a man performing the same feat, but in a more extraordinary manner; 7 and the third represents a girl turning over upon her hands, her feats being enlivened with music. 8 The last two MSS. are of the fourteenth century.
THE GLEEMEN'S DANCES.--It is not by any means my intention to insinuate,
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Tumbling
from what has been said in the foregoing pages, that there were no dances performed by the Saxon gleemen and their assistants but such as consisted of vaulting and tumbling.
EXEMPLIFICATION OF GLEEMEN'S DANCES.--We have already noticed a dance represented on plate twenty, from a painting of the tenth century, the most ancient of the kind that I have met with. The crouching attitudes of the two dancers, point out great difficulty in the part they are performing, but do not convey the least indication of vaulting or tumbling. Attitudes somewhat similar I have seen occur in some of the steps of a modern hornpipe. Again, on plate twenty-one, we find a young man dancing singly to the music of two flutes and a lyre; and the action attempted to be expressed by the artist is rather that of ease and elegancy of motion than of leaping, or contorting of the body in a violent manner. It is evident that this delineation, which is from a Latin and Saxon MS. of the ninth century, in the Cotton Library, 1 was intended for the representation of part of the gleeman's exhibition; for the designer has crowded into the margin a number of heads and parts of figures, necessarily incomplete from want of room, who appear as spectators; but these are much confused, and in some places obliterated, so that they could not have been copied with any tolerable effect. The dance on the top of plate twenty-five, from a MS. of the ninth century, in which the musician bears a part, I take to be of the burlesque kind, and intended to excite laughter by the absurdity of the gestures practised by the performers; but that at the bottom of the same Plate, from a MS. of the fourteenth century, in the Royal Library, 2 has more appearance of elegance. This dance is executed by a female; and probably the perfection of the dance consisted in approaching and receding from the bear with great agility, so as to prevent his seizing upon her, and occasioning any interruption to the performance, which the animal, on the other hand, appears to be exceedingly desirous of effecting, being unmuzzled for the purpose, and irritated by the scourge of the juggler.
THE SWORD-DANCE.--There is a dance which was probably in great repute among the Anglo-Saxons, because it was derived from their ancestors the ancient Germans; it is called the sword-dance; and the performance is thus described by Tacitus: 3 "One public diversion was constantly exhibited at all their meetings; young men, who, by frequent exercise, have attained to great perfection in that pastime, strip themselves, and dance among the points of swords and spears with most wonderful agility, and even with the most elegant and graceful motions. They do not perform this dance for hire, but for the entertainment of the spectators, esteeming their applause a sufficient reward." 4 This dance continues to be practised in the northern parts of England about Christmas time, when, says Mr Brand, "the fool-plough goes about; a pageant that consists of a
number of sword-dancers dragging a plough, with music." The writer then tells us that he had seen this dance performed very frequently, with little or no variation from the ancient method, excepting only that the dancers of the present day, when they have formed their swords into a figure, lay them upon the ground, and dance round them. 1
I have not been fortunate enough to meet with any delineation that accords with the foregoing descriptions of the sword-dance; but in a Latin manuscript of Prudentius with Saxon notes, written in the ninth century, and now in the Cotton Library, 2 a military dance of a different kind occurs. It is exceedingly curious, and has not, that I recollect, been mentioned by any of our writers. The drawing is copied upon plate twenty-one. It represents two men, equipped in martial habits, and each of them armed with a sword and a shield, engaged in a combat; the performance is enlivened by the sound of a horn; the musician acts in a double capacity, and is, together with a female assistant, dancing round them to the cadence of the music; and probably the actions of the combatants were also regulated by the same measure.
Early in the last century, and, I doubt not, long before that period, a species of sword-dance, usually performed by young women, constituted a part of the juggler's exhibition at Bartholomew fair. I have before me two bills of the shows there presented some time in the reign of queen Anne. The one speaks of "dancing with several naked swords, performed by a child of eight years of age," which, the showman assures us, had given "satisfaction to all persons." The other, put forth, it seems, by one who belonged to Sadler's Wells, promises the company, that they shall see "a young woman dance with the swords, and upon a ladder, surpassing all her sex." Both these bills were printed in the reign of queen Anne: the first belonged to a showman named Crawley; and the second to James Miles, from Sadler's Wells, who calls his theatre a music booth, and the exhibition consisted chiefly of dancing. The originals are in the Harleian Library. 3 About thirty years back (c. 1770) I remember to have seen at Flockton's, a much noted but very clumsy juggler, a girl about eighteen or twenty years of age, who came upon the stage with four naked swords, two in each hand; when the music played, she turned round with great swiftness, and formed a great variety of figures with the swords, holding them over her head, down by her sides, behind her, and occasionally she thrust them in her bosom. The dance generally continued about ten or twelve minutes; and when it was finished, she stopped suddenly, without appearing to be in the least giddy from the constant reiteration of the same motion.
THE ROPE-DANCE.--This species of amusement is certainly very ancient. Terence, in the prologue to Hecyra, complains that the attention of the public was drawn from his play, by the exhibitions of a rope-dancer.
We are well assured that dancing upon the rope constituted a part of the entertainment presented to the public by the minstrels and joculators, and we can trace it as far back as the thirteenth century; but whether the dancers at that time exhibited upon the slack or tight rope, or upon both, cannot easily be ascertained; and we are equally in the dark respecting the extent of their abilities; but, if we may judge from the existing specimens of other feats of agility performed by them or their companions, we may fairly conclude that they were by no means contemptible artists.
When Isabel of Bavaria, queen to Charles VI. of France, made her public entry into Paris, among other extraordinary exhibitions prepared for her reception was the following, recorded by Froissart, who was himself a witness to the fact: "There was a mayster 1 came out of Geane; he had tied a corde upon the hyghest house on the brydge of Saynt Michell over all the houses, and the other ende was tyed to the hyghest tower of our Ladye's churche; and, as the quene passed by, and was in the great streat called Our Ladye's strete; bycause it was late, this sayd mayster, wyth two brinnynge candelles in hys handes, issued out of a littel stage that he had made on the heyght of our Lady's tower, synginge as he went upon the cord all alonge the great strete, so that all that sawe him hadde marvayle how it might be; and he bore still in hys handes the two brinnynge candelles, so that he myght be well sene all over Parys, and two myles without the city. He was such a tombler, that his lightnesse was greatly praised. He gave them many proofs of his skill, so that his agility and all his performances were highly esteemed." The manner in which this extraordinary feat was carried into execution is not so clear as might be wished. The translation justifies the idea of his walking down the rope; but the words of Froissart seem to imply that he seated himself upon the cord and came sliding down, and then the trick will bear a close resemblance to those that follow. But St Foix, on the authority of another historian, says, he descended dancing upon the cord; and, passing between the curtains of blue taffety, ornamented with large fleurs-de-lis of gold, which covered the bridge, he placed a crown upon the head of Isabel, and then remounted upon the cord. 2
ROPE-DANCING FROM THE BATTLEMENTS OF ST PAUL'S.--A performance much resembling the foregoing was exhibited before king Edward VI. at the time he passed in procession through the city of London, on Friday, the nineteenth of February 1546, previous to his coronation. "When the king," says the author, "was advanced almost to St George's church, 3 in Paul's churchyard, there was a rope as great as the cable of a ship stretched in length from the battlements of Paul's steeple, with a great anchor at one end, fastened a little before the dean of Paul's house-gate; and, when his majesty approached near the same, there came a man, a stranger, being a native of Arragon, lying on the rope with his head forward, casting his arms and legs abroad, running
on his breast on the rope from the battlements to the ground, as if it had been an arrow out of a bow, and stayed on the ground. Then he came to his majesty, and kissed his foot; and so, after certain words to his highness, he departed from him again, and went upwards upon the rope till he came over the midst of the churchyard; where he, having a rope about him, played certain mysteries on the rope, as tumbling, and casting one leg from another. Then took he the rope, and tied it to the cable, and tied himself by the right leg a little space beneath the wrist of the foot, and hung by one leg a certain space, and after recovered himself again with the said rope and unknit the knot, and came down again. Which stayed his majesty, with all the train, a good space of time." 1
ROPE-DANCING FROM ST PAUL'S STEEPLE.--This trick was repeated, though probably by another performer, in the reign of queen Mary; for, according to Holinshed, among the various shows prepared for the reception of Philip, king of Spain, was one of a man who "came downe upon a rope, tied to the battlement of Saint Paule's church, with his head before, neither staieing himself with hand or foot; which," adds the author, "shortlie after cost him his life." 2
ROPE-DANCING FROM ALL SAINTS CHURCH, HERTFORD.--A similar exploit was put in practice, about fifty years back (1750), in different parts of this kingdom. I received the following account of the manner in which it was carried into execution at Hertford from a friend of mine, 3 who assisted the exhibitor in adjusting his apparatus, and saw his performance several times. A rope was stretched from the top of the tower of All Saints' church, and brought obliquely to the ground about fourscore yards from the bottom of the tower, where, being drawn over two strong pieces of wood nailed across each other, it was made fast to a stake driven into the earth; two or three feather-beds were then placed upon the cross timbers, to receive the performer when he descended, and to break his fall. He was also provided with a flat board having a groove in the midst of it, which he attached to his breast; and when he intended to exhibit, he laid himself upon the top of the rope, with his head downwards, and adjusted the groove to the rope, his legs being held by a person appointed for that purpose, until such time as he had properly balanced himself. He was then liberated, and descended with incredible swiftness from the top of the tower to the feather-beds, which prevented his reaching the ground. This man had lost one of his legs, and its place was supplied by a wooden leg, which was furnished on this occasion with a quantity of lead sufficient to counterpoise the weight of the other. He performed this three times in the same day: the first time, he descended without holding anything in his hands; the second time, he blew a trumpet; and the third, he held a pistol in each hand, which he discharged as he came down.
* ROPE FEATS AT ALL SAINTS, DERBY.--The lofty tower of All Saints, Derby, has been the scene of several of these queer feats. "There are characters," wrote Hutton, the old historian of Derby, "who had rather amuse the world at the hazard of their lives, for a slender and precarious pittance, than follow an honest calling for an easy subsistence. A small figure of a man, seemingly composed of spirit and gristle, appeared in October, to entertain the town by sliding down a rope. One end of this was to be fixed at the top of All Saints steeple, and the other at the bottom of St Michael's, an horizontal distance of 150 yards which formed an inclined plane extremely steep. A breastplate of wood, with a groove to fit the rope, and his own equilibrium were to be his security while sliding down upon his belly, with his arms and legs extended. He could not be more than six or seven seconds in this airy journey, in which he fired a pistol and blew a trumpet. The velocity with which he flew raised a fire by friction, and a bold stream of smoke followed him. He performed this wonderful exploit three successive days, in each of which he descended twice and marched up once; the latter took him more than an hour, in which he exhibited many surprising achievements, as sitting unconcerned with his arms folded, lying across the rope on his back, then his belly, his hams, blowing the trumpet, swinging round, hanging by the chin, the hand, the heels, the toe, etc. The rope being too long for art to tighten, he might be said to have danced upon the slack. Though he succeeded at Derby, yet, in exhibiting soon after at Shrewsbury, he fell and lost his life."
* He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's, Shrewsbury, in 1740, and over his remains was placed a tombstone bearing the following epitaph:--
Hogarth immortalised Cadman in one of his most popular pictures.
* To return to Derby, we find that, in 1734, a second "flyer" visited the town. He was much older than the first performer, and less in stature. "His coat," we are told, "was in deshabille; no waistcoat; his shirt and his shoes the worse for wear; his hat, worth threepence exclusive of the band, which was pack-thread bleached white by the weather; and a black string supplied the place of buttons to his waistband. He wisely considered if his performances did not exceed the others he might as well stay at home--if he had one. His rope, therefore, from the same steeple, extended to the bottom of St Mary's-gate, more than twice the former length. He was to draw a wheelbarrow after him, in which was a boy of thirteen. After this surprising performance, an ass was to
fly down, armed as before, with a breastplate, and at each foot a lump of lead about half a hundred. The man, the barrow, and its contents arrived safe at the end of their journey. When the vast multitude turned their eyes towards the ass, which had been braying several days at the top of the steeple for food, but, like many a lofty courtier for a place, brayed in vain; the slackness of the rope, and the great weight of the animal and his apparatus, made it seem, at setting off, as if he were falling perpendicularly. The appearance was tremendous!! About twenty yards before he reached the gates of the County Hall, the rope broke. From the velocity acquired by the descent, he bore down all before him. A whole multitude was overwhelmed; nothing was heard but dreadful cries; nor seen, but confusion. Legs and arms went to destruction. In this dire calamity, the ass, which maimed others, was unhurt himself, having a pavement of soft bodies to roll over. No lives were lost. As the rope broke near the top, it brought down both chimneys and people at the other end of the street. This dreadful catastrophe put a period to the art of flying. It prevented the operator from making the intended collection; and he sneaked out of Derby as poor as he sneaked in."
A DUTCHMAN'S FEATS ON ST PAUL'S WEATHERCOCK.--TO the foregoing extraordinary exhibitions we may add another equally dangerous, but executed without the assistance of a rope. It was performed in the presence of queen Mary in her passage through London to Westminster, the day before her coronation, in 1553, and is thus described by Holinshed: "When she came to Saint Paule's churchyard against the school, master Heywood sat in a pageant under a vine, and made to her an oration in Latin; and then there was one Peter, a Dutchman, that stoode upon the weathercocke of Saint Paul's steeple, holding a streamer in his hands of five yards long, and waving thereof. He sometimes stood on one foot, and shook the other, and then he kneeled on his knees, to the great marvell of all the people. He had made two scaffolds under him: one above the cross, having torches and streamers set upon it, and another over the ball of the cross, likewise set with streamers and torches, which could not burn, the wind was so great." The historian informs us, that "Peter had sixteene pounds, thirteene shillings, and foure pence, given to him by the citie for his costs and paines, and for all his stuffe." 1
JACOB HALL THE ROPE-DANCER.--In the reign of Charles II. there was a famous rope-dancer named Jacob Hall, whose portrait is still in existence. 2 The open-hearted Duchess of Cleveland is said to have been so partial to this man, that he rivalled the king himself in her affections, and received a salary from her grace.
MODERN CELEBRATED ROPE-DANCING.--Soon after the accession of James II. to the throne, a Dutch woman made her appearance in this country; and "when," says a modern author, "she first danced and vaulted upon the rope in London, the spectators beheld her with a pleasure mixed with pain, as she
seemed every moment in danger of breaking her neck." This woman was afterwards exceeded by Signora Violante, who not only exhibited many feats which required more strength and agility of body than she was mistress of, but had also a stronger head, as she performed at a much greater distance from the ground than any of her predecessors. Signor Violante was no less excellent as a rope-dancer. The spectators were astonished, in the reign of George II., at seeing the famous Turk dance upon the rope, balance himself on a slack wire without a poise, and toss up oranges alternately with his hands; but this admiration was considerably abated when one of the oranges happened to fall, and appeared by the sound to be a ball of painted lead. Signor and Signora Spinacuta were not inferior to the Turk. "The former danced on the rope (in 1768) at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, with two boys tied to his feet. But what is still more extraordinary, a monkey has lately performed there, both as a rope-dancer and an equilibrist, such tricks as no man was thought equal to before the Turk appeared in England." 1
ROPE-DANCING AT SADLER'S WELLS, ETC.--During the eighteenth century, Sadler's Wells was a famous nursery for tumblers, balance-masters, and dancers upon the rope and upon the wire. These exhibitions have of late years lost much of their popularity: the tight-rope dancing, indeed, is still (1800) continued there by Richer, a justly celebrated performer. This man certainly displays more ease and elegance of action, and much greater agility, upon the rope, than any other dancer that I ever saw: his exertions at all times excite the astonishment, while they command the applause of the spectators.
I shall only observe, that the earliest representation of rope-dancing which I have met with occurs in a little print affixed to one of the chapters of the vocabulary of Comenius, translated by Hoole; 2 where a woman is depicted dancing upon the tight-rope, and holding a balance charged with lead at both ends, according to the common usage of the present day; and behind her we see a man, with his hand downwards, and hanging upon the same rope by one of his legs. This feat, with others of a similar kind, are more usually performed upon the slack-rope, which at the same time is put into motion; the performer frequently hanging by one foot, or by both his hands, or in a variety of different manners and attitudes; or by laying himself along upon the rope, holding it with his hands and feet, the latter being crossed, and turning round with incredible swiftness, which is called roasting the pig.
FOOL'S DANCE.--The fool's dance, or a dance performed by persons equipped in the dresses appropriated to the fools, is very ancient, and originally, I apprehend, formed a part of the pageant belonging to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery, usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various ceremonials and mockeries. A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved in a MS. in the Bodleian Library, 3 written and illuminated in the
reign of king Edward III. and completed in 1344, is copied upon the middle of plate nineteen.
In this representation of the dance, it seems conducted with some degree of regularity; and is assisted by the music of the regals and the bagpipes. The dress of the musicians resembles that of the dancers, and corresponds exactly with the habit of the court fool at that period. 1 I make no doubt, the morris-dance, which afterwards became exceedingly popular in this country, originated from the fool's dance; and thence we trace the bells which characterised the morris-dancers. Antiquaries are agreed that the word is derived from Morisco, which in the Spanish language signifies a Moor. 2 The dance was brought in to England from Spain about the beginning of the sixteenth century.
MORRIS-DANCE.--The morris-dance was sometimes performed by itself, but was much more frequently joined to older pageants, and especially to those appropriated for the celebration of the May-games. On these occasions, the Hobby-horse, or a Dragon, with Robin Hood, the maid Marian, and other characters, supposed to have been the companions of that famous outlaw, made a part of the dance. In latter times, the morris was frequently introduced upon the stage. Stephen Gosson, who wrote about 1579, in a little tract entitled Playes Confuted, speaks of "dauncing of gigges, galiardes, and morisces, with hobbi-horses," as stage performances.
The garments of the morris-dancers, as we observed before, were adorned with bells, which were not placed there merely for the sake of ornament, but were to be sounded as they danced. These bells were of unequal sizes, and differently denominated, as the fore bell, the second bell, the treble, the tenor or great bell, and mention is also made of double bells. In the third year of queen Elizabeth, two dozen of morris-bells were estimated at one shilling. 3 The principal dancer in the morris was more superbly habited than his companions, as appears from a passage in an old play, The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green, by John Day, 1659, wherein it is said of one of the characters, "He wants no cloths, for he hath a cloak laid on with gold lace, and an embroidered jerkin; and thus he is marching hither like the foreman of a morris."
I do not find that the morris-dancers were confined to any particular number. A modern writer speaks of a set of morris-dancers who went about the country, consisting of ten men who danced, besides the maid Marian, and one who played upon the pipe and tabor.
The hobby-horse, which seems latterly to have been almost inseparable from the morris-dance, was a compound figure; the resemblance of the head and
tail of a horse, with a light wooden frame for the body, was attached to the person who was to perform the double character, covered with trappings reaching to the ground, so as to conceal the feet of the actor, and prevent its being seen that the supposed horse had none. Thus equipped, he was to prance about, imitating the curvetings and motions of a horse, as we may gather from the following speech in an old tragedy called the Vow-breaker, or Fair Maid of Clifton, by William Sampson, 1636. "Have I not practised my reines, my carreeres, my prankers, my ambles, my false trotts, my smooth ambles, and Canterbury paces--and shall the mayor put me, besides, the hobby-horse? I have borrowed the fore-horse bells, his plumes, and braveries; nay, I have had the mane new shorn and frizelled.--Am I not going to buy ribbons and toys of sweet Ursula for the Marian--and shall I not play the hobby-horse? Provide thou the dragon, and let me alone for the hobby-horse." And afterwards: "Alas, Sir! I come only to borrow a few ribbandes, bracelets, ear-rings, wyertyers, and silk girdles, and handkerchers, for a morris and a show before the queen--I come to furnish the hobby-horse."
THE EGG-DANCE.--I am not able to ascertain the antiquity of this dance. The indication of such a performance occurs in an old comedy, entitled "The longer thou livest, the more Foole thou art," by William Wager, 1 in the reign of queen Elizabeth, where we meet with these lines:
Dancing upon one foot was exhibited by the Saxon gleemen, and probably by the Norman minstrels, but more especially by the women-dancers, who might thence acquire the name of hoppesteres, which is given by Chaucer. A vestige of this denomination is still retained, and applied to dancing, though somewhat contemptuously; for an inferior dancing-meeting is generally called a hop. A representation of the dance on one foot, taken from a manuscript of the tenth century, appears upon the top of plate twenty, where the gleeman is performing to the sound of the harp.
Hopping matches for prizes were occasionally made in the sixteenth century, as we learn from John Heywoode the epigrammatist. In his Proverbs, printed in 1566, are the following lines:--
[paragraph continues] And again, in the Four P's, a play by the same author, one of the characters is directed "to hop upon one foot"; and another says:--
[paragraph continues] Hence it appears a ring was usually the prize, and given to him who could hop best, and continue to do so the longest.
But to return to the egg-dance. This performance was common enough about thirty years back (1770), and was well received at Sadler's Wells; where I saw it exhibited, not by simply hopping round a single egg, but in a manner that much increased the difficulty. A number of eggs, I do not precisely recollect how many, but I believe about twelve or fourteen, were placed at certain distances marked upon the stage; the dancer, taking his stand, was blind-folded, and a hornpipe being played in the orchestra, he went through all the paces and figures of the dance, passing backwards and forwards between the eggs without touching one of them.
THE LADDER-DANCE.--So called, because the performer stands upon a ladder, which he shifts from place to place, and ascends or descends without losing the equilibrium, or permitting it to fall. This dance was practised at Sadler's Wells at the commencement of the eighteenth century, and revived about 1770. It is still (1800) continued there by Dubois, who calls himself the clown of the Wells, and is a very useful actor, as well as an excellent performer upon the tight-rope. In the reign of queen Anne, James Miles, who declared himself to be a performer from Sadler's Wells, kept a music-booth in Bartholomew Fair, where he exhibited nineteen different kinds of dances; among them were a wrestler's dance, vaulting upon the slack-rope, and dancing upon the ladder; the latter, he tells us, as well as the sword-dance, was performed by "a young woman surpassing all her sex." 1--An Inventory of Playhouse Furniture, quoted in the Tatler 2 under the article "Materials for Dancing," specifies masques, castanets, and a ladder of ten rounds. I apprehend the ladder-dance originated from the ancient pastime of walking or dancing upon very high stilts. A specimen of such an exhibition is given on plate twenty-three, from a MS. roll in the Royal Library, written and illuminated in the reign of Henry III. 3 The actor is exercising a double function, that is, of a musician and of a dancer.
JOCULAR DANCES.--In the "Roman de la Rose" we read of a dance, the name of which is not recorded, performed by two young women lightly clothed. The original reads, "Qui estoient en pure cottes, et tresses a menu tresse"; which Chaucer renders, "In kyrtels, and none other wede, and fayre ytressed every tresse." The French intimates that their hair was platted, or braided in small braids. The thin clothing, I suppose, was used then, as it is now upon like occasions, to show their persons to greater advantage. In their dancing they displayed a variety of singular attitudes; the one coming as it were privately to the other, and, when they were near together, in a playsome manner they turned their faces about, so that they seemed continually to kiss each other.
A dance, the merit of which, if I mistake not, consisted in the agility and adroitness of the performer, has been noticed already; it is represented on plate
twenty-one, where a woman is dancing, and eluding the pursuit of a bear made angry by the scourge of his master. The various situations of the actress and the disappointment of the animal excited, no doubt, the mirth as well as the applause of the spectators.
Many of the ancient dances were of a jocular kind, and sometimes executed by one person: we have, for instance, an account of a man who danced upon a table before king Edward II. A thirteenth century manuscript in the Royal Library, represented on plate twenty-two, shows a girl dancing upon the shoulders of the joculator, who at the same time is playing upon the bagpipes and appears to be in the action of walking forwards. 1
* In Philip Kinder's MS. History of Derbyshire, written about the middle of the seventeenth century, occurs an interesting passage relative to the then common use of bagpipes as an instrument to promote dancing. 2 He says: "For general inclination and disposition the Peakard and Moorlander are of the same ayre, they are given much to dance after ye bagg-pipes, almost every towne hath a bagg-piper in it." The dances for which bagpipes can possibly be suitable are limited in character; this old Derbyshire dancing was probably of the hornpipe character.
WIRE-DANCING.--Wire-dancing, at least so much of it as I have seen exhibited, appears to me to be misnamed: it consists rather of various feats of balancing, the actor sitting, standing, lying, or walking, upon the wire, which at the same time is usually swung backwards and forwards; and this, I am told, is a mere trick, to give the greater air of difficulty to the performance. Instead of dancing, I would call it balancing upon the wire.
BALLET-DANCES.--The grand figure-dances, and ballets of action, as they are called, of the modern times, most probably surpass in splendour the ancient exhibitions of dancing. They first appeared, I believe, at the Opera-house; but have since been adopted by the two royal theatres, and imitated with less splendour upon the summer stages. These spectacles are too extensive by far in their operations, and too multifarious to be described in a general work like this: suffice it to say, they are pantomimical representations of historical and poetical subjects, expressed by fantastical gestures, aided by superb dresses, elegant music, and beautiful scenery; and sorry am I to add, they have nearly eclipsed the sober portraitures of real nature, and superseded in the public estimation the less attractive lessons of good sense. 3
LEAPING AND VAULTING.--There are certain feats of tumbling and vaulting that have no connection with dancing, such as leaping and turning with the heels over the head in the air, termed the somersault, corruptly called a somerset. Mrs Piozzi, speaking of Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, and favourite of James I., says, "and the sommerset, still used by tumblers, taken from him." 4 The
word, however, was in use, and applied by the tumblers to the feat above mentioned, before the birth of Carr. There was also the feat of turning round with great rapidity, alternately bearing upon the hands and feet, denominated the fly-flap. In a satirical pamphlet entitled the Character of a Quack Doctor, published at London, 1676, the empiric, boasting of his cures, says, "The Sultan Gilgal, being violently afflicted with a spasmus, came six hundred leagues to meet me in a go-cart: I gave him so speedy an acquittance from his dolor, that the next night he danced a saraband with fly-flaps and somersets," etc.; but this is evidently conjoining the three for the sake of ridicule. The performance of leaping through barrels without heads, and through hoops, especially the latter, is an exploit of long standing; it is represented upon plate twenty-three from a fourteenth century MS. Two boys are depicted holding the hoop, and the third preparing to leap through it, having deposited his cloak upon the ground to receive him.
William Stokes, a vaulting master of the seventeenth century, boasted, in a publication called the Vaulting Master, etc., printed at Oxford in 1652, that he had reduced "vaulting to a method." In his book are several plates containing different specimens of his practice, which consisted chiefly in leaping over one or more horses, or upon them, sometimes seating himself in the saddle and sometimes standing upon the same. All these feats are now (1800) performed at Astley's, and at the circus in St George's Fields, with many additional acquirements; and the horses gallop round the ride while the actor is going through his manœuvres: on the contrary, the horses belonging to our vaulter remained at rest during the whole time of his exhibition.
A show bill for Bartholomew Fair, during the reign of queen Anne 1 announces "the wonderful performances of that most celebrated master Simpson, the famous vaulter, who, being lately arrived from Italy, will show the world what vaulting is!" The bill speaks pompously: how far his abilities coincided with the promise, I cannot determine, for none of his exertions are specified.
BALANCING.--Under the head of balancing may be included several of the performances mentioned in the preceding pages, and especially the throwing of three balls and three knives alternately into the air, and catching them as they fall, as represented on plate twenty. This trick, in my memory, commonly constituted a part of the puppet-showman's exhibition; but I do not recollect to have seen it extended beyond four articles; for instance, two oranges and two forks; and the performer, by way of conclusion, caught the oranges upon the forks.
In the Romance of the Rose we read of tymbesteres, or balance-mistresses, who, according to the description there given, played upon the tymbres, or timbrels, and occasionally tossing them into the air, caught them again upon one finger. The passage translated by Chaucer, stands thus:
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Dancing, Leaping
Towards the close of last summer (1799) I saw three itinerant musicians parading the streets of London: one of them turned the winch of an organ which he carried at his back, another blew a reed-pipe, and the third played on a tambourine; the latter imitated the timbesters above mentioned, and frequently during the performance of a tune cast up the instrument into the air three or four feet higher than his head, and caught it, as it returned, upon a single finger; he then whirled it round with an air of triumph, and proceeded in the accompaniment without losing time, or occasioning the least interruption.
REMARKABLE FEATS OF BALANCING.--Plate twenty-four contains some few specimens of the fourteenth century balance-master's art, three of which need no explanation; but one of them at the top and another at the bottom are not so clear.
The first, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, 1 represents a girl, as the length of the hair seems to indicate, habited like a boy, and kneeling on a large broad board, supported horizontally by two men; before her are three swords, the points inclined to each other, and placed in a triangular form; she is pointing to them with her right hand, and holds in her left a small instrument somewhat resembling a trowel, but I neither know its name nor its use.
The man at the bottom of the Plate, from a drawing in a MS. book of prayers possessed by Mr Douce, is performing a very difficult operation: he has placed one sword upright upon the hilt, and is attempting to do the like with the second; at the same time his attitude is altogether as surprising as the trick itself. Feats similar to the other three I have seen carried into execution, and especially that of balancing a wheel. This was exhibited in 1798 at Sadler's Wells, by a Dutchman, who not only supported a wheel upon his shoulder, but also upon his forehead and his chin; and he afterwards extended the performance to two wheels tied together, with a boy standing upon one of them.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, there was a very celebrated balance-master, named Mattocks, who made his appearance also at the Wells; among other tricks, he used to balance a straw with great adroitness, sometimes on one hand, sometimes on the other; and sometimes he would kick it with his foot to a considerable height, and catch it upon his nose, his chin, or his fore-head. His fame was celebrated by a song set to music, entitled "Balance a Straw," which became exceedingly popular. The Dutchman mentioned above performed the same sort of feat with a small peacock's feather, which he blew into the air, and caught it as it fell on different parts of his face in a very surprising manner.
THE POSTURE-MASTER.--The display of his abilities consisted in twisting and contorting his body into strange and unnatural attitudes. This art was, no
doubt, practised by the jugglers in former ages; and a singular specimen of it, delineated in the reign of Edward III., is given at the bottom of plate twenty-three.
The performer bends himself backwards, with his head turned up between his hands, so as nearly to touch his feet; and in this situation he hangs by his hams upon a pole, supported by two of his confederates.
The posture-master is frequently mentioned by the writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; but his tricks are not particularised. The most extraordinary artist of this kind that ever existed, it is said, was Joseph Clark, who, "though a well-made man, and rather gross than thin, exhibited in the most natural manner almost every species of deformity and dislocation; he could dislocate his vertebrae so as to render himself a shocking spectacle; he could also assume all the uncouth faces that he had seen at a Quaker's meeting, at the theatre, or any other public place." To this man a paper in the Guardian evidently alludes, wherein it is said: "I remember a very whimsical fellow, commonly known by the name of the posture-master, in Charles the Second's reign, who was the plague of all the tailors about town. He would send for one of them to take measure of him; but would so contrive it as to have a most immoderate rising in one of his shoulders; when his clothes were brought home and tried upon him, the deformity was removed into the other shoulder; upon which the taylor begged pardon for the mistake, and mended it as fast as he could; but, on another trial, found him as straight-shouldered a man as one would desire to see, but a little unfortunate in a hump back. In short, this wandering tumour puzzled all the workmen about town, who found it impossible to accommodate so changeable a customer." 1 He resided in Pall Mall, and died about the beginning of king William's reign. Granger tells us he was dead in the year 1697. 2 There was also a celebrated posture-master, by the name of Higgins, in the reign of queen Anne, who performed between the acts at the theatre royal in the Haymarket, and exhibited "many wonderful postures," as his own bill declares: 3 I know no farther of him. In the present day, the unnatural performances of the posture-masters are not fashionable, but seem to excite disgust rather than admiration in the public mind, and for this reason they are rarely exhibited.
THE MOUNTEBANK.--I may here mention a stage-performer whose show is usually enlivened with mimicry, music, and tumbling; I mean the mountebank. It is uncertain at what period this vagrant dealer in physic made his appearance in England: it is clear, however, that he figured away with much success in this country during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; he called to his assistance some of the performances practised by the jugglers; and the bourdour, or merry-andrew, seems to have been his inseparable companion: hence it is said in an old ballad, entitled "Sundry Trades and Callings":--
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Balancing
The mountebanks usually preface the vending of their medicines with pompous orations, in which they pay as little regard to truth as to propriety. Shakspeare speaks of these wandering empirics in very disrespectful terms:--
In the reign of James II. "Hans Buling, a Dutchman, was well known in London as a mountebank. He was," says Granger, 1 "an odd figure of a man, and extremely fantastical in his dress; he was attended by a monkey, which he had trained to act the part of a jack-pudding, a part which he had formerly acted himself, and which was more natural to him than that of a professor of physic." The ignorance and the impudence of the mountebanks are ridiculed in the Spectator, and especially in that paper which concludes with an anecdote of one who exhibited at Hammersmith. 2 He told his audience that he had been "born and bred there, and, having a special regard for the place of his nativity, he was determined to make a present of five shillings to as many as would accept it: the whole crowd stood agape, and ready to take the doctor at his word; when, putting his hand into a long bag, as every one was expecting his crown-piece, he drew out a handful of little packets, each of which, he informed the spectators, was constantly sold for five shillings and sixpence, but that he would bate the odd five shillings to every inhabitant of that place. The whole assembly immediately closed with this generous offer, and took off all his physic, after the doctor had made them vouch that there were no foreigners among them, but that they were all Hammersmith men."
DOMESTIC DANCING.--I shall here add a few words more on dancing, and consider it as performed for amusement only. In the middle ages dancing was reckoned among the genteel accomplishments necessary to be acquired by both sexes; and in the romances of those times, the character of a hero was incomplete unless he danced excellently. 3 The knights and the ladies are often represented dancing together, which in the MS. poem of Launfal, in the Cotton Collection, 4 is called playing:--
[paragraph continues] The poet then tells us, they continued their amusement great part of a summer's day, that is, from the conclusion of dinner to the approach of night.
THE PAVONE.--Dancing was constantly put in practice among the nobility upon days of festivity, and was countenanced by the example of the court. After the coronation dinner of Richard II., the remainder of the day was spent in the manner described by the foregoing poem; for the king, the prelates, the nobles, the knights, and the rest of the company, danced in Westminster Hall to the music of the minstrels. 1 Sir John Hawkins mentions a dance called pavone, from pavo, a peacock, which might have been proper upon such an occasion. "It is," says he, "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 the ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof in dancing resembled that of a peacock." 2 Several of our monarchs are praised for their skill in dancing, and none of them more than Henry VIII., who was peculiarly partial to this fashionable exercise. In his time, and in the reign of his daughter Elizabeth, the English, generally speaking, are said to have been good dancers; and this commendation is not denied to them even by foreign writers. Polydore Virgil praises the English for their skill in dancing, 3 and Hentzner says, "the English excell in danceing." 4
ANTIQUITY, ETC., OF DANCING.--The example of the nobility was followed by the middling classes of the community; they again were imitated by their inferiors, who spent much of their leisure time in dancing, and especially upon holidays; which is noticed and condemned with great severity by the moral and religious writers, as we may find by turning to the Introduction. Dancing is there called a heathenish practice, and said to have been productive of filthy gestures, for which reason it is ranked with other wanton sports unfit to be exhibited. An old drama without date, but probably written early in the reign of Elizabeth, entitled "A new Interlude and a Mery, of the Nature of the four Elements," 5 accuses the people at large with "loving pryncypally disportes, as daunsynge, syngynge, toys, tryfuls, laughynge, and gestynge; for," adds the author, "connynge they set not by." But Sebastian Brant, in his Ship of Fooles, is much more severe upon this subject. I shall give the passage as it is paraphrased by Barclay:-- 6
[paragraph continues] He derives the origin of dancing from the Jews, when they worshipped the golden calf:--
The damsels of London, as far back as the twelfth century, spent the evenings on holidays in dancing before their masters' doors. Stow laments the abolition of this "open pastime," which he remembered to have seen practised in his youth, 1 and considered it not only as innocent in itself, but also as a preventative to worse deeds "within doors," which he feared would follow the suppression.
* THE CAROLE DANCE.--One of the most important of the dances performed by the "professionals," and also much appreciated as a domestic dance, was the Carole, described by Chaucer in his Romance of the Rose. He says of the Parish Clerk:--
[paragraph continues] It was usually danced by men and women alternately, who held each other's hands and moved in a circle. The term originally signified a ring dance accompanied with song, and hence became associated with songs at festive seasons, and was finally applied almost exclusively to the Christmas songs of joy. 2
* THE CUSHION DANCE.--An old English kissing dance, called the Cushion Dance, was a favourite as early as the sixteenth century, and still lingers, but chiefly among children, and at village fairs. This dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who taking a cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the end of the tune, stops, and sings, "This dance it will no further go." The musician answers, "I pray you, good sir, why say you so?" Man--"Because Joan Sanderson will not come too." Musician--"She must come too, and she shall come too, and she must come whether she will or no." Then he lays down the cushion before the woman, upon which she kneels, and he kisses her, singing, "Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome." Then she rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance, singing, "Prinkam prankum is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it once again, and again and once again, and shall we go dance it once again?" Then making a stop the woman sings as before, "This dance it will no further go." Musician--"I pray you, madam, why say you so?" Woman--"Because John Sanderson will not come too." Musician--"He must come too, and he shall come too, and he must come whether he will or no." And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing, "Welcome, John Sanderson, welcome, welcome." Then he taking up the cushion, they take hands and dance round, singing as before. And thus they do, until the whole company are taken into the ring, and if there is company enough, make a little ring in its middle, and within that ring set a chair, and lay the cushion in it, and the first man set in it. Then the cushion is laid before the first man, the woman singing, "This dance
it will no further go," and as before, only instead of singing "Come too" they sing "Go fro"; and instead of "Welcome, John Sanderson," they sing "Farewell, John Sanderson, farewell, farewell"; and so they go out one by one as they came in. Note the women are kissed by all the men in the ring at their coming and going out, and likewise the men by all the women.
174:1 St Mark, chap. vi. ver. 22.
174:2 Nero, D. iv.
175:1 No. 1, A. xiv.
175:2 No. 2253, fol. 45.
175:3 Harl. MSS. No. 1527.
175:4 Roy. Lib. 2, B. vii.
175:5 Odyssey, lib. iv. 18.
176:1 Roll of Expenses, Edward II., in the possession of Thomas Astle, Esq.
176:2 From a MS. in the Remembrancer's Office, an. 13 Hen. VIII.
176:3 Eccles. Mem. vol. iii. p. 312.
176:4 Laneham's Letter, in Mr. Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, pp. 16, 17.
176:5 No. 115, dated Jan. 3, 1709.
176:6 Domitian, A. 2.
176:7 Sloane MSS. No. 335.
176:8 Bodleian MSS. No. 264.
177:1 Cleopatra, C. viii.
177:2 No. 2, B. viii.
177:3 Tacit. De Morib. Germ. cap. 24.
177:4 The reader may find a more particular account of the various motions and figures formed by the dancers, from Olaüs Magnus, in Mr Brand's notes upon the 14th chapter of Bourne's Vulgar Antiquities, p. 175.
178:1 The sword-dance still survives at Christmastide in some parts of Northumberland, Yorkshire, and the north Midlands. See Dancing (Badminton Library), 175, 176.
178:2 Cleopatra, C. viii.
178:3 No. 5931.
179:1 Vol. iv. chap. 38.
179:2 Essais sur Paris, vol. ii. p. 42.
179:3 It should be St Gregory's church, which stood on the south side of St Paul's nearly opposite to the Dean's Gateway.
180:1 Archæologia, vol. vii.
180:2 Holinshed's Chron. vol. iii. p. 1121.
180:3 Mr John Carrington of Bacon's, near Hertford.
182:1 Holinshed's Chron. vol. iii, p. 1091.
182:2 Granger, Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 349.
183:1 Granger, vol. iv. pp. 352, 353.
183:2 Orbis Sensualium Pictus, A. D. 1658.
183:3 No. 964.
184:1 Mr Douce was of opinion, that the dance set forth above by Mr Strutt, from the Bodleian MS., did not form a part of the festival of fools.
184:2 In the same way morris-pike, a constantly mentioned weapon in the sixteenth century, meant a Spanish or Moorish pike.
* The churchwardens' accounts of a considerable variety of parishes--indeed the majority of those which are extant of the sixteenth century--show the almost universal custom of morris-dances and Robin Hood sports on May Day through-out England at that period.
184:3 Archæologia, vol. i. p. 15. See also the Witch of Edmonton, a tragi-comedy, by William Rowley, printed in 1658.
185:1 Garrick's Collection of Old Plays, 1 vol. 18mo.
186:1 Harl. Lib. 5931.
186:2 Vol. i. No. 42.
186:3 14, B. v.
187:1 14, E. iii.
187:2 * Bodleian, Ashm. MSS. 788.
187:3 * For a brief history of the ballet see Grove's Dancing (Badminton Library), 360-380.
187:4 Retrospection of Eighteen Hundred Years, vol. ii. p. 224.
188:1 In a volume of Miscellaneous Papers, Bibl. Had. 5931.
189:1 No. 264.
190:1 No. 102, July 8, 1713.
190:2 Biog. Hist. vol. iv. See also Philos. Trans. No. 242, for July 1698.
190:3 Miscell. Collect. Harl. Lib. No. 5931
191:1 Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 350.
191:2 Vol. viii. No. 572; see also vol. vi. No. 444.
191:3 See the Introduction.
191:4 Caligula, A 2, fol. 53.
191:5 Polite, courteous.
192:1 Rym. Fæd. tom. vii. p. 160, col. 2.
192:2 Hist. Music, vol. iii. p. 383.
192:3 Hist. Angl.
192:4 Itinerary.
192:5 Garrick's Col. I. vol. iii.
192:6 First printed by Pynson, A.D. 1508.
193:1 Stow died A.D. 1605, aged 80. Survey of London, by Strype, vol. i. p. 251.
193:2 * Grove's Dancing (Badminton Library), 131. In Murray's Dictionary examples are given of the English use of carol meaning a dance, from 1300 to 1600.