DANCETTE* 



DANCING 



669 





still, in -"pit.- uf repeated re paintings, IxMiring the 

 unmiMiiUaMt' impress of the \4tli century, exhibits 

 tln> very MHI|I|.-M form of the drama, and haft 

 some LH\\ Unman verses attached to it. Here 

 we see twenty-four figures, partly clerical, partly 

 lay. arranged in a deticendwg MU6, from the pope 

 himself down in a little child, and between each of 

 them a dancing figure of Death, not in the form of 

 n ^keloton, hut a shrivelled corpse, the whole leing 

 linked in one chain, and dancing to the music of 

 another Death. This representation in almost the 

 same as a very ancient one at La Chaise-Dieu, in 

 Auvergne, ami points to the identity of the original 

 dramatic spectacle in Itoth countries. 



The celebrated Dance of Death on the cloister 

 walls of the Klingenthal, a convent in Basel, though 

 painted proliahly not later than 1312, exhibited a 

 departure from the simplest form the number of 

 persona exceeding the original twenty-four, and the 

 chain being broken up into separate couples. But 

 Loth alike are only to be regarded as scenes from a 

 drama, and cannot, therefore, be justly compared 

 with a painting in the Pisan Campo Santo, the 

 'Triumph of Death,' ascribed to Andrea Orcagna. 

 And the acted drama enduring till the 15th cen- 

 tury, we lind that while there were varieties in the 

 paintings, the poem, which was the most important 

 feature, remained almost unchanged. 



About the middle of the 15th century, however, 

 the drama being altogether laid aside, the pictures 

 became the main point of interest, the verses merely 

 subsidiary. Accordingly, we find from this time 

 the same pictures repeated in different places, with 

 dill'erent verses, or no verses at all, till at length 

 Imtli verses and pictures entirely change their 

 original character. The Dance of Death being 

 transferred from the quiet convent walls into public 

 places, gave a new impulse to popular art. Duke 

 George of Saxony had, in 1534, the front of his 

 Dresden castle ornamented with a life-size bas-relief 

 f the subject, and other representations are to be 

 found at Strasburg and Bern. There was a Dance 

 of Death painted round the cloister of old St Paul's 

 in London, in the reign of Henry VI. ; and there 

 is a sculptured one at Rouen, in the cemetery of 

 St Maclou. But Holbein has the credit of avail- 

 ing himself most effectively of the original design, 

 and giving it a new and more artistic character. 

 Departing from the idea of a dance, he illustrated 

 the subject by fifty-three distinct sketches for 

 engravings, which he called 'Imagines Mortis.' 

 The originals of these are at St Petersburg, and 

 impressions of them have been frequently repeated 

 under different names. 



See Peignot's Kecherches gur let Danset des Mart* 

 (lsi>(i); Massman's Bauteler Todtentanze (1847); and 

 Douce's Dance of DeatJi ( 1833 ). 



l>;iii<'<'tt'. one of the lines of partition in 

 Heraldry, which differs from In- 

 I I dented in the greater width and 



depth of the indentations. A fess 

 dancette has but three inden- 

 tations, as in the subjoined fig- 

 ure. 



Dancing, a form of exercise 

 or amusement in which one or 

 more persons make a series of 

 *ess Dancette. n , ore or I es8 graceful movements 

 with measured steps in accord 

 with music. In its earliest forms among simple 

 races it is a mode of outward expression for 

 strong emotions of joy and sorrow, love and rage, 

 arid even for the most solemn and impassioned 

 religious feelings ; in more civilised strata of human 

 society it becomes a mere frivolous amusement with 

 no high signification whatever. Dancing corre- 

 (sponds to a universal primitive instinct in man. 



It in still practised by the South Sea Inlanders, the 

 forest Indians of Brazil, the Zulus, the negroes of 

 Central Africa, and the native Australian*, xm-tly 

 as it was in the earlier stages of every civilised 

 modern race. Many of the rude courting dances 

 of modern savages, like the native Australian 

 corro-boree, are themselves refinements of more 

 ancient dances, in the survivals of which we can 

 guess at their original grossneKs and <il>--.-nit\. 

 Ferocious war-dances were constantly practised 

 by savage warriors, as the North American Indian 

 braves, who worked themselves up into frantic 

 mechanical intoxication capable of carrying them 

 irresistibly on to victory. The Zulu war-dance 

 is still a noble exercise for warriors, like the 

 Pyrrhic dance of the ancient Spartans ; and the 

 dancing and spinning dervishes in the East, who 

 work themselves into spasms of physical excite- 

 ment, are still highly esteemed for devoutness and 

 piety. Into savage dancing, moreover, the idea 

 of magic always enters. Thus the Mam Ian Indians 

 dance buffalo to bring game when supplies of food 

 are low, the rain-doctors of Central Africa dance 

 mystic dances to bring down rain, and the wives 

 of Gold Coast negroes dance a battle-dance to 

 give their absent husbands courage in the battle. 

 Everywhere in ancient religions is dancing one of 

 the chief acts of worship. Religious processions 

 went with song and dance to the Egyptian temples ; 

 the Cretan chorus, moving in measured pace, sang 

 hymns to the Greek god, Apollo ; and one of the 

 Muses (Terpsichore), themselves daughters of Zeus, 

 was the especial patroness of the art. The Phrygian 

 Cory ban tes danced in honour of Rhea to drum and 

 cymbal ; at Rome, during the yearly festival of 

 Mars, the Salian priests sang and danced, beating 

 their shields ; among the ancient Jews, Miriam 

 danced to a song of triumph itself an act of 

 worship, and David danced in procession liefore 

 the Ark of God. A survival of religious dancing is 

 still seen even within the pale of Christendom, 

 where during the Corpus Christi Octave a ballet is 

 danced every evening before the high altar of Seville 

 Cathedral, by boys from twelve to seventeen years 

 of age, in plumed hats and the dress of pages of 

 Philip III.'s time. 



Dancing and imitative acting in the lower stages 

 of civilisation are identical, and in the sacred 

 dances of ancient Greece we may trace the whole 

 dramatic art of the modern world. Aristotle 

 ranked dancing with poetry, and Pindar applies the 

 name of the dancer even to Apollo. The dancing- 

 master iu Le Bourgeois Getitillnnnme asserts that 

 the destinies of the nations depend on the science 

 of dancing; and Lucian, in a well-known dialogue, 

 proves that the art is superior to tragedy, and 

 coeval with the world itself. Sir John Davies, in 

 his long poem, the Orchestra, illustrates the origin 

 and importance of dancing, tracing in it all the 

 motions of nature : 



For what re breath, speech, echoes, music, winds, 

 But dancings oi the ayre iu sundry kinds. 



The Spartans practised dancing as a gymnastic 

 exercise, and made it compulsory UJK>II all children 

 from the age of five. Cicero says, ' No one dances 

 sober unless he chances to be "mod ; ' and indeed 

 sedate Romans in general considered it disgrace- 

 ful for a free citizen to dance, except in connec- 

 tion with religious ceremonies, but willingly 

 enough witnessed the performances of profes- 

 sional dancers, like the A Inn- of modern Egypt, 

 and the Bayaderes or Nautch girls of India. The 

 early Christians practised choral dances, which 

 came into discredit with the love-feasts or Agapce. 

 St Augustine says, ' it is better to dig than to 

 dance," and many of the Fathers condemned the 

 practice as vigorously as our Puritan ancestors, who 



