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CHAP. VIII.
Of Dancing and Balls.
TO Musick Dancing is a kinde of Appendant, most grateful to Children, and youthful Lovers; a thing which they learn with great care, and practise all night long; most punctually observing the time of the Musick, and that the measures of their Feet and Capring-steps may exactly answer the time of the Fiddles; labouring to perform the silliest and maddest thing in the world, with the greatest knowledge and activity their Bodies and Souls will admit: A thing, which were it not set off with Musick, would appear the greatest Vanity of Vanities, the rudest, most non∣sensical, and ridiculous sight in the world. This is that which lets loose the reyns of Pride, the friend of Wickedness, the food and nourishment of Lust, the bane and enemy of Chastity, and unworthy so much as the thought of any honest person. At these Balls, saith Petrarch, many a grave Matron hath lost her long∣preserv'd Honour: Many an unhappy Virgin there, hath learnt what she had better never have known: from thence many have return'd home polluted, many half overcome; but never any one more vertuous than they were before. Yet have some of the Grecian Writers highly prais'd this idle Art (as the worst and most per∣nicious things never want their extollers) and have de∣duc'd the Pedigree of Dancing and Balls even from the Heavens themselves, comparing the Steps of Dancing to the motion of the Stars, that seem in their Harmonical order to imitate a kinde of Dancing motion, which
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they began so soon as the world was created. Others say, it was an invention of the Satyres. By the help of this Art, Bacchus is said to have soften'd and overcome the Tyrrhenes, Indians, and Lydians, most Warlike Na∣tions. Whence Dancing was by them made use of in their Religious Rites, and the Exercise thereof by the Goddess Rhea commanded the Corybants in Phrygia, and the Curetes in Crete. And in Delos there was no sacred Ceremony perform'd without Dancing; no Festivals, Sacred or Civil, celebrated, where Dan∣cing was left out. The Brachmans also among the Indians, morning and evening, with their faces toward the Sun, dancing, were wont to worship his Beams. Likewise among the Aethiopians, Thracians, and Scy∣thians, Dancing was us'd in all their Religious Ceremo∣nies, as being first instituted by Orpheus and Museus, the best Dancers of their times. There were also a∣mong the Romans the Salian Priests, whose duty it was to dance about in honour of Mars. The Lacedaemoni∣ans, the bravest people of Greece, having learnt the cu∣stom of Dancing from Castor and Pollux, in all their Feasts and publick Ceremonies us'd Dancing. In Thes∣saly it was held in such Veneration, that the Com∣manders and chief Leaders were honoured with the Title of Formost Dancers. Socrates also, by the Ora∣cle judg'd to be the wisest of men then living, was not asham'd to learn to dance when he was far stricken in years; and not onely so, but highly extoll'd the same Art, and reckon'd it among the most serious parts of Education; and was esteem'd by him a thing of that Gravity as could hardly be express'd, and enter'd into the world together with the Love of the Gods. But what wonder it should be so highly honour'd among the Grecian Philosophers, who are not asham'd to make the Gods themselves the Patrons of Adultery, Rapes, Parricides, and indeed of all manner of Villa∣nies?
Page 62
Many have written Treatises of Dancing, wherein they set forth all the several sorts and mea∣sures thereof; expounding their several names, and who were the particular Authors and Inventers of each; so that I need proceed no farther therein. But the Antient Romans, men ever famous for their Gra∣vity and Wisdome, condemn'd all manner of Dancing; neither was any woman among them accompted Ver∣tuous, that was given to Dance. Therefore Salust re∣proaches Sempronia, that she sang and danc'd more ex∣quisitely than was convenient for an honest woman. Nor are Gabinius and Marcus Celius, men in Consu∣lar dignity, less blam'd for their over-great skill in Dancing: And Marcus Cato objected it as a Crime to Lucius Murena, that he had been seen to dance in Asia; whose Cause when Cicero took in hand to defend, he durst not justifie the act as well done, but utterly de∣ni'd the Fact, saying, That no sober man ever danced either alone, or so much as at a moderate Banquet, unless he were mad; Dancing being always the Com∣panion and Attendant upon immoderate Feasts, and inordinate Plays. We must therefore necessarily con∣clude, that Dancing brings up the rere of all Vices. Neither is it hard to tell what evils come many times to pass through idle Discourse and Toying. At such time as Youth in the heat of Dancing, uses antick Gestures, and makes a hideous stamping noise, skip∣ping to wanton Tunes, and the sound of obscene Airs, then are Virgins and Matrons handled with shameless hands, tempted with immodest Kisses, and lustful Em∣braces; then, what Nature hides, and Modesty vails, Wantonness discovers, and civil sport becomes the pretence of wickedness. An Exercise not sprung from Heaven, but invented by the Devil in defiance of Divinity; so that when the Children of Israel had erected themselves a Calf in the Wilderness, they sa∣crific'd
Page 63
thereto, eating and drinking, and afterwards rising up to play, they fell to Singing and Dancing.
Of Dancing and Balls.
TO Musick Dancing is a kinde of Appendant, most grateful to Children, and youthful Lovers; a thing which they learn with great care, and practise all night long; most punctually observing the time of the Musick, and that the measures of their Feet and Capring-steps may exactly answer the time of the Fiddles; labouring to perform the silliest and maddest thing in the world, with the greatest knowledge and activity their Bodies and Souls will admit: A thing, which were it not set off with Musick, would appear the greatest Vanity of Vanities, the rudest, most non∣sensical, and ridiculous sight in the world. This is that which lets loose the reyns of Pride, the friend of Wickedness, the food and nourishment of Lust, the bane and enemy of Chastity, and unworthy so much as the thought of any honest person. At these Balls, saith Petrarch, many a grave Matron hath lost her long∣preserv'd Honour: Many an unhappy Virgin there, hath learnt what she had better never have known: from thence many have return'd home polluted, many half overcome; but never any one more vertuous than they were before. Yet have some of the Grecian Writers highly prais'd this idle Art (as the worst and most per∣nicious things never want their extollers) and have de∣duc'd the Pedigree of Dancing and Balls even from the Heavens themselves, comparing the Steps of Dancing to the motion of the Stars, that seem in their Harmonical order to imitate a kinde of Dancing motion, which
Page 61
they began so soon as the world was created. Others say, it was an invention of the Satyres. By the help of this Art, Bacchus is said to have soften'd and overcome the Tyrrhenes, Indians, and Lydians, most Warlike Na∣tions. Whence Dancing was by them made use of in their Religious Rites, and the Exercise thereof by the Goddess Rhea commanded the Corybants in Phrygia, and the Curetes in Crete. And in Delos there was no sacred Ceremony perform'd without Dancing; no Festivals, Sacred or Civil, celebrated, where Dan∣cing was left out. The Brachmans also among the Indians, morning and evening, with their faces toward the Sun, dancing, were wont to worship his Beams. Likewise among the Aethiopians, Thracians, and Scy∣thians, Dancing was us'd in all their Religious Ceremo∣nies, as being first instituted by Orpheus and Museus, the best Dancers of their times. There were also a∣mong the Romans the Salian Priests, whose duty it was to dance about in honour of Mars. The Lacedaemoni∣ans, the bravest people of Greece, having learnt the cu∣stom of Dancing from Castor and Pollux, in all their Feasts and publick Ceremonies us'd Dancing. In Thes∣saly it was held in such Veneration, that the Com∣manders and chief Leaders were honoured with the Title of Formost Dancers. Socrates also, by the Ora∣cle judg'd to be the wisest of men then living, was not asham'd to learn to dance when he was far stricken in years; and not onely so, but highly extoll'd the same Art, and reckon'd it among the most serious parts of Education; and was esteem'd by him a thing of that Gravity as could hardly be express'd, and enter'd into the world together with the Love of the Gods. But what wonder it should be so highly honour'd among the Grecian Philosophers, who are not asham'd to make the Gods themselves the Patrons of Adultery, Rapes, Parricides, and indeed of all manner of Villa∣nies?
Page 62
Many have written Treatises of Dancing, wherein they set forth all the several sorts and mea∣sures thereof; expounding their several names, and who were the particular Authors and Inventers of each; so that I need proceed no farther therein. But the Antient Romans, men ever famous for their Gra∣vity and Wisdome, condemn'd all manner of Dancing; neither was any woman among them accompted Ver∣tuous, that was given to Dance. Therefore Salust re∣proaches Sempronia, that she sang and danc'd more ex∣quisitely than was convenient for an honest woman. Nor are Gabinius and Marcus Celius, men in Consu∣lar dignity, less blam'd for their over-great skill in Dancing: And Marcus Cato objected it as a Crime to Lucius Murena, that he had been seen to dance in Asia; whose Cause when Cicero took in hand to defend, he durst not justifie the act as well done, but utterly de∣ni'd the Fact, saying, That no sober man ever danced either alone, or so much as at a moderate Banquet, unless he were mad; Dancing being always the Com∣panion and Attendant upon immoderate Feasts, and inordinate Plays. We must therefore necessarily con∣clude, that Dancing brings up the rere of all Vices. Neither is it hard to tell what evils come many times to pass through idle Discourse and Toying. At such time as Youth in the heat of Dancing, uses antick Gestures, and makes a hideous stamping noise, skip∣ping to wanton Tunes, and the sound of obscene Airs, then are Virgins and Matrons handled with shameless hands, tempted with immodest Kisses, and lustful Em∣braces; then, what Nature hides, and Modesty vails, Wantonness discovers, and civil sport becomes the pretence of wickedness. An Exercise not sprung from Heaven, but invented by the Devil in defiance of Divinity; so that when the Children of Israel had erected themselves a Calf in the Wilderness, they sa∣crific'd
Page 63
thereto, eating and drinking, and afterwards rising up to play, they fell to Singing and Dancing.