Haste thee, and leave my threshold-floor, Let not thy presence tempt me more- A heart that burns-but must not harm! Hath not my cup for thee been pour'd, What though unknown-yet who shall rest Begone! outstrip the fleet gazelle, Fear cannot fly so swift, so well, E'en now, no spot in all thy land, Fly! may the desert's fiery blast And fetter'd, till thy steps be past, I would not, that thy doom should be MRS. HEMANS. DANCES OF OUR ANCESTORS. As many of our fair readers, who delight to "trip it on the light fantastic toe," may be pleased to receive some information with respect to the dancing of their ancestors, we have made, from Dr. Drake's "Shakspeare and his Times," the following extracts for their use. "Dancing was an almost daily amusement in the court of Elizabeth; the queen was peculiarly fond of this exercise, as had been her father, Henry the Eighth : and the taste for it became so general during her reign, that a great part of the leisure of almost every class of society was spent, and especially on days of festivity, in dancing. To dance elegantly was one of the strongest recommendations to the favour of her majesty; and her courtiers, therefore, strove to rival each other in this pleasing accomplishment; nor were their efforts, in many instances, unrewarded. Sir Christopher Hatton, we are told, owed his promotion, in a great measure, to his skill in dancing; and in accordance with this anecdote, Gray opens his " Long Story" with an admirable description of his merit in this department; which, as containing a most just and excellent picture, both of the architecture and manners of "the days of good Queen Bess," as well as of the dress and agility of the knight, we with pleasure transcribe. Stoke-Pogeis, the scene of the narrative, was formerly in the possession of the Hattons. "In Britain's Isle, no matter where, An ancient pile of building stands; Each panel in achievements clothing, When he had fifty winters o'er him, "His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green, His high-crown'd hat, and satin doublet, The brawl, a species of dance here alluded to, is derived from the French word braule, " indicating," observes Mr. Douce, "a shaking or swinging motion. It was performed by several persons uniting hands in a circle, and giving each other continual shakes, the steps changing with the time. It usually consisted of three pas and a pied-joint, to the time of four strokes of the bow; which being repeated, was termed a double brawl. With this dance balls were usually opened." Shakspeare seems to have entertained as high an idea of the efficacy of a French brawl as probably did Sir Christopher Hatton, when he exhibited before Queen Elizabeth; for he makes Moth, in Love's Labour Lost, ask Armado," Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?" and he then exclaims, "These betray nice wenches." That several dances were included under the term brawls, appears from a passage in Shelton's Don Quixote ; "After this there came in another artificial dance, of those called brawles :" and Mr. Douce informs us, that amidst a great variety of brawls, noticed in Thoinot Arbeau's treatise on dancing, entitled Orchesographia, occurs a Scotch brawl; and he adds, that this dance continued in fashion to the close of the seventeenth century. Another dance of much celebrity at this period, was the pavin, or pavan, which, from the solemnity of the measure, seems to have been held in utter aversion by Sir Toby Belch, who, in reference to his intoxicated surgeon, exclaims, "Then he's a rogue! After a passymeasure, or a pavin, I hate a drunken rogue." This is the text of Mr. Tyrwhitt; but the old copy reads"Then he's a rogue, and a passy-measure's pavyn," which is probably correct; for the pavan was rendered still more grave by the introduction of the passa-mezzo air, which obliged the dancers, after making several steps round the room, to cross it in the middle in a slow step, or cinque pace. This alteration of time occasioned the term passa-mezzo to be prefixed to the name of several dances; thus we read of the passa-mezzo galliard, as well as the passa-mezzo pavin; and Sir Toby, by applying the latter appellation to his surgeon, meant to call him not only a rogue, but a solemn coxcomb. "The pavan, from pavo, a peacock," observes Sir J. Hawkins, "is a grave and majestic dance. The method of dancing it was, anciently, by gentlemen dressed with a cap and sword, by those of the long robe in their gowns, by princes in their mantles, and by ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof in the dance resembled that of a peacock's tail. This dance is supposed to have been invented by the Spaniards, and its figure is given with the characters for this step, in the Orchesographia of Thoinot Arbeau. Of the passamezzo little is to be said, except that it was a favourite air in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Ligon, in his History of Barbadoes, mentions a passa-mezzo galliard, which, in the year 1647, a padre in that island played to him on the lute; the very same, he says, with an air of that kind, which, in Shakspeare's play of Henry the Fourth, was originally played to Sir John Falstaff and Doll Tearsheet by Sneak, the musician there named." Of equal gravity with the "doleful pavin," as Sir W. D'Avenant calls it, was the measure, to tread which was the relaxation of the most dignified characters in the state, and formed a part of the revelry of the inns of court, where the gravest lawyers were often found treading the measures. Shakspeare puns upon the name of this dance, and contrasts it with the Scotch jig in Much Ado about Nothing, where he introduces Beatrice telling her cousin Hero, "The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed in good time: if the prince be too important, tell him there is measure in every thing, and so dance out the answer. For hear me, Hero; wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace; the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance, and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave." A more brisk and lively step accompanied the canary dance, which was likewise very fashionable. "I have seen a medicine," says Lafeu, in All's Well that Ends Well, alluding to the influence of female charms, "That's able to bring life into a stone; Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary, With spritely fire and motion.' And Moth advises Armado, when dancing the brawl, to canary it with his feet. The mode of performing this dance is thus given by Mr.Douce, from the treatise of Thoinot Arbeau : "A lady is taken out by a gentleman, and after dancing together to the cadences of the proper air, he leads her to the end of the hall; this done, he retreats back to the original spot, always looking at the lady. Then he makes up to her with certain steps, and retreats as before. His partner performs the same ceremony, which is several times repeated by both parties, with various strange fantastic steps, very much in the savage style." Besides the brawl, the pavin, the measure, and the canary, several other dances were in vogue, under the general titles of corantos, lavoltos, jigs, galliards, and fancies; but the four which we have selected for more peculiar notice appear to have been the most celebrated. DR. DRAKE. THE PLEASURES OF A NEWSPAPER. MR. CONDUCtor, EVERY man, when he awakes in the morning, finds that the reflections suggested by the preceding day have been, if not wholly obliterated, at least suspended by sleep; that new topics of conversation are wanting, and that surprise is on tip-toe for new calls; he is unwilling to recur to the business of the preceding day, because it has been exhausted; or ashamed to recollect it, because it has disappointed him. A family thus met together, |
