590 



DANAIDKS DANDOLO. 



island, received her, and educated tin- child, which 

 he named Persevx. (q v.) 



DANAIDKS ; in fabulous history ; the fifty da ligh- 

 ters of Daiiaus, who was a son of Bflns, an. I. at first, 

 lived in Libya, with his brother .Egyptus. who had 

 fifty sons. In consequence of a quarrel witli liis bro- 

 ther, Danaus, with his daughters, fled to Argos. 

 'Hie fifty sons of ^Egyptus followed him tluther, ex- 

 pressed a desire for a reconciliation, and asked the 

 Lindners of Danaus in marriage. He was obliged 

 to consent to the proposal ; but, as he put no confi- 

 dence in his nephews, and Iiad, moreover, been in- 

 fiimied by an oracle, tliat one of his sons-in-law should 

 slay liim, he bound liis daughters, by a solemn oath, 

 to murder their husbands on their bridal night. They 

 nil kept their promise except Hypermnestra, who 

 saved the life of her husband Lynceus. As a pun- 

 ishment for their crime, the daughters of Danaus, in 

 the infernal wocld. were condemned perpetually to 

 draw water in sieves. Of this tradition the ancients 

 pave the following historical explanation : The 

 daughters of Danaus were said to liave discovered 

 fountains in the dry country of Argolis, and constructed 

 cisterns there. 



DANCING. The disposition to rhythm and mea- 

 sured motion, is deeply implanted in human nature. 

 As soon as man, in a rude state, wishes to express 

 elevated feelings, wliatever be their cause joy, de- 

 votion, patriotism he makes use of rhythm, of mea- 

 sured language, and the dance, or measured move- 

 ments. Tliis is the origin of the symbolical dance, 

 which, among all nations, in the first stages of civili- 

 zation, is used as an expression of excited feeling. 

 The operation of the principle of imitation, which led 

 to the invention of. the drama, gave birth also to the 

 imitative dance the pantomime. Dancing, in the 

 course of time, took the character of an art. Grace 

 became one of its clu'ef objects, and it was much cul- 

 tivated as an elegant amusement in the intercourse 

 of society, and an elegant spectacle in public enter- 

 tainments. Its ancient cliaracter, however, of an ex- 

 pression of religious or patriotic feeling, gradually 

 declined, as the progress of refinement and civilization 

 produced its invariable etiect of restraining the full 

 expression of the feelings and emotions. Tliis cir- 

 cumstance, added to the chastened end didactic 

 cliaracter of the Christian religion, probably prevent- 

 ed the dance from being admitted among the rites of 

 the Christian religion ; but it has always been culti- 

 vated among Cliristians, as an agreeable amusement 

 and elegant exhibition. As an amusement of social 

 assemblages, the dance lias sunk much below the 

 character of an art. The polite assemblies of the 

 present day are too much crowded to leave room for 

 graceful dancing. But national dances, as those of 

 the Bohemian, 1'olish, Hungarian, Italian, and Span- 

 ish peasantry, still retain the expression of joyous 

 feeling, and often exhibit much imitative power. 



There is reason to suppose that the dance had a 

 place among the religious rites of the Jews ; to what 

 extent, however, is not known, and some persons deny 

 the fact altogether ; but it appears pretty evident 

 that this doubt is unfounded, and its admission may 

 be easily explained by the origin which we have as- 

 cribed to dancing in general. With the Greeks and 

 Romans, regulated movements, quick or slow, i. e., 

 dancing, were introduced in most religious celebra- 

 tions. The Greeks, developing the element of the 

 beautiful in every branch of art, were also masters in 

 the religious dance. In the exhibitions of the theatre, 

 they united the dance with many other performances, 

 and the dances of the ancients which commemorated 

 the adventures of Achilles, Alexander, the loves of 

 Venus and Mars, &c., are to be understood as pan- 

 tomimic performances, the word salture. with the 



Romans, liavin^a \ cry extensive .uioaniii'j-.and ij^iV/f 

 with the Greeks, including the mimic art in general. 

 From the Romans, the dance was transmitted to the na- 

 tional i heat re of the Italians. As early as the sixteenth 

 century, several Italians (Rinaldo Corso, Fabric. 

 Caroso, &c.) wrote on dancing. They and the French 

 ha\ e cultivated the modern art of dancing to the de 

 gree of perfection in which we find it ; so tliat the 

 ballet of the Parisian opera was long considered the 

 highest perfection of the art of dancing, and, in some 

 respects, still is. There exist, at present, two diti'er- 

 ent schools the Italian and French, of the two, 

 the Italian is the least artificial. The modern French 

 ballet sometimes degenerates to a mere display of 

 skill and agility, at the expense of grace and beauty, 

 wliich on-lit always to remain the clu'ef object ot 

 dancing. 



Dancing owes much to the famous Noverre (q. v.), 

 whose writings on the subject much surpass those of 

 D'Arbeau and Rameau. A general work on danc- 

 ing, treating the religious and secular dances of the 

 dirterent nations, would be interesting. As regards 

 the European dances, ancient and modern, and that 

 of the Jews, the following works are some of the 

 best : Bourdelot's Histoire de la Danse sacree et pro 

 fane, ses Progres et ses Revolutions dfipnis son Ori- 

 gine, &c. (Paris, 1724, 12mo), and Cahusac's Traits 

 de la Danse ancienne et moderne (Paris, 175H,3 vols. 

 12mo). For the dances of the Greeks and Romans, 

 see also Potter's Archeeologia Grceca ; Zeltner De Cho- 

 rds veteribus Judceorum Diss. (Altorf, 1720', 4to),:>nd 

 Renz's work, De Religiosis Saltationibus veteribus Ju- 

 d<zorum(Leipnc, 1738, 4to) ; Memoires sur les Danses 

 C'hmoises, in the f'arietes littera res (vol. 1 and 2) ; 

 Lafiteau s Meeurs des Sauvages (vol. 1). Since No- 

 verre, few good treatises have been written, giving 

 instructions on the art of dancing. We mention only 

 the Essai sur la Danse antique et moderne (Paris, 

 1823, by mad. Elise Voiart), and Baron's Entretiem 

 sur la Danse ancienne, moderne, religieuse, civile, et 

 theatrale, (Paris, 1825). The only Christian sect, that 

 has admitted dancing among its religious ceremonies, 

 are the Shakers of America. 



DANCOURT, FLORENT CARTON ; a French actor 

 and comic poet; born in 1661, at Fontainebleau, of a 

 respectable family. At the age of twenty-three, he 

 became enamoured of an actress, and left every other 

 employment for the stage. Although he personated 

 the first characters in high comedy, he succeeded 

 best, as an uuthor, in low comedy. He displayed 

 much ingenuity and wit in introducing upon the stage 

 amusing subjects of real occurrences in his tune. 

 Louis XIV. was very fond of humorous pieces, and 

 Dancourt often used to read his productions to the 

 king before they were played. He left the theatre 

 in 1718, and died in 1726. A good edition of his 

 complete works appeared in twelve volumes, 12mo, 

 1760. 



DANDELION. See Leontodon. 



DANDOLO, HENRY, one of the most illustrious 

 of the doges of Venice, was chosen to that office, in 

 1192, at the advanced age of eighty-four. He had 

 a defect of sight, approaching nearly to blindness ; 

 but neither that circumstance nor his age impaired the 

 vigour of his administration, the events of his govern- 

 ment being among the principal causes of the Vene- 

 tian greatness. On the formation of the league for 

 the fourth crusade, under Baldwin, earl of Flanders, 

 Dandolo induced the senate to join in it, and by his 

 policy the first hostilities of the armament were di 

 reeled against Zara, which had revolted from Venice. 

 On the storming of Constantinople, the aged doge, 

 standing on the prow of his galley, with the great 

 standard of St Mark borne before him, commanded 

 his men to run up to the walls, and was the first who 



