Folk-lore of Shakespeare Part 85

"We will have, if this fadge not, an antique."

_Bergomask Dance._ According to Sir Thomas Hanmer, this was a dance after the manner of the peasants of Bergomasco, a county in Italy belonging to the Venetians. All the buffoons in Italy affected to imitate the ridiculous jargon of that people, and from thence it became customary to mimic also their manner of dancing. In "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (v. 1), Bottom asks Theseus whether he would like "to hear a Bergomask dance," between two of their company.

_Brawl._ This was a kind of dance. It appears that several persons united hands in a circle, and gave one another continual shakes, the steps changing with the tune. With this dance b.a.l.l.s were usually opened.[824] Kissing was occasionally introduced. In "Love's Labour's Lost" (iii. 1), Moth asks his master: "Will you win your love with a French brawl."

[824] Douce's "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 134.

_Canary._ This was the name of a sprightly dance, the music to which consisted of two strains with eight bars in each; an allusion to which is made by Moth in "Love's Labour's Lost" (iii. 1), who speaks of jigging off a tune at the tongue's end, and canarying to it with the feet. And in "All's Well that End's Well" (ii. 1), Lafeu tells the king that he has seen a medicine

"that's able to breathe life into a stone, Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary With spritely fire and motion."

This dance is said to have originated in the Canary Islands, an opinion, however, which has, says Dyce, been disputed.[825]

[825] See Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time," 2d edition, vol. i. p. 368; Dyce's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 63.

_Cinque-pace._ This was so named from its steps being regulated by the number five:

"Five was the number of the music's feet, Which still the dance did with five paces meet."[826]

[826] Quoted by Nares from Sir John Davies on "Dancing." Mr.

Dyce, "Glossary," p. 81, says that Nares wrongly confounded this with the "gallard."

In "Much Ado About Nothing" (ii. 1), Shakespeare makes Beatrice make a quibble upon the term; for after comparing wooing, wedding, and repenting to a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace, she says: "then comes repentance, and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave." A further reference occurs in "Twelfth Night" (i. 3), by Sir Toby Belch, who calls it a "sink-a-pace."

_Coranto._ An allusion to this dance, which appears to have been of a very lively and rapid character, is made in "Henry V." (iii. 5), where the Duke of Bourbon describes it as the "swift coranto;" and in "All's Well that Ends Well" (ii. 3) Lafeu refers to it. A further notice of it occurs in "Twelfth Night" (i. 3), in the pa.s.sage where Sir Toby Belch speaks of "coming home in a coranto."

_Fading._ Malone quotes a pa.s.sage from "Sportive Wit," 1666, which implies that this was a rustic dance:

"The courtiers scorn us country clowns, We country clowns do scorn the court; We can be as merry upon the downs As you at midnight with all your sport, With a _fading_, with a _fading_."

It would appear, also, from a letter appended to Boswell's edition of Malone, that it was an Irish dance, and that it was practised, upon rejoicing occasions, as recently as 1803, the date of the letter:

"This dance is still practised on rejoicing occasions in many parts of Ireland; a king and queen are chosen from amongst the young persons who are the best dancers; the queen carries a garland composed of two hoops placed at right angles, and fastened to a handle; the hoops are covered with flowers and ribbons; you have seen it, I dare say, with the May-maids. Frequently in the course of the dance the king and queen lift up their joined hands as high as they can, she still holding the garland in the other. The most remote couple from the king and queen first pa.s.s under; all the rest of the line linked together follow in succession.

When the last has pa.s.sed, the king and queen suddenly face about and front their companions; this is often repeated during the dance, and the various undulations are pretty enough, resembling the movements of a serpent. The dancers on the first of May visit such newly wedded pairs of a certain rank as have been married since last May-day in the neighborhood, who commonly bestow on them a stuffed ball richly decked with gold and silver lace, and accompanied with a present in money, to regale themselves after the dance. This dance is practised when the bonfires are lighted up, the queen hailing the return of summer in a popular Irish song beginning:

'We lead on summer-see! she follows in our train.'"

In the "Winter's Tale" (iv. 4), Shakespeare seems to allude to this dance where he makes the servant, speaking of the pedler, say: "he has the prettiest love songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of 'd.i.l.d.os' and 'fadings.'" Some commentators,[827] however, consider that only the song is meant.

[827] See Knight's "Pictorial Shakespeare," vol. ii. p. 375; Dyce's "Glossary," 1836, p. 152; "British Popular Customs,"

1876, pp. 276, 277. See also Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time," 2d edition, vol. i. p. 235; Nares's "Glossary,"

vol. i. p. 292.

_Hay._ Douce[828] says this dance was borrowed by us from the French, and is cla.s.sed among the "brawls" in Thoinot Arbeau's "Orchesographie"

(1588). In "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 1), Dull says: "I will play on tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance their hay."

[828] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 146.

_Jig._ Besides meaning a merry, sprightly dance, a jig also implied a coa.r.s.e sort of comic entertainment, in which sense it is probably used by Hamlet (ii. 2): "He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry." "It seems,"

says Mr. Collier,[829] "to have been a ludicrous composition in rhyme, sung, or said, by the clown, and accompanied by dancing and playing upon the pipe and tabor."[830] an instance of which perhaps occurs in the Clown's song at the close of "Twelfth Night:"

"When that I was and a little tiny boy."

[829] "History of English Dramatic Poetry," vol. iii. p. 380; see Dyce's "Glossary," p. 229; Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p.

450; Singer's "Shakespeare," vol. ix. pp. 198, 219.

[830] "Hamlet:" iii. 2: "your only jig-maker."

Fletcher, in the Prologue to the "Fair Maid of the Inn," says:

"A jig should be clapt at, and every rhyme Praised and applauded by a clamorous chime."

Among the allusions to this dance we may quote one in "Much Ado About Nothing" (ii. 1), where Beatrice compares wooing to a Scotch jig; and another in "Twelfth Night" (i. 3), where Sir Toby Belch says, his "very walk should be a jig."

_Lavolta._ According to Florio, the lavolta is a kind of turning French dance, in which the man turns the woman round several times, and then a.s.sists her in making a high spring or _cabriole_. It is thus described by Sir John Davies:

"Yet is there one the most delightful kind.

A loftie jumping, or a leaping round, Where arme in arme two dauncers are entwined, And whirle themselves, with strict embracements bound; And still their feet an anapest do sound, An anapest is all their musicks song, Whose first two feet are short, and third is long."

Douce,[831] however, considers it to be of Italian origin, and says, "It pa.s.sed from Italy into Provence and the rest of France, and thence into England." Scot, too, in his "Discovery of Witchcraft," thus speaks of it: "He saith, that these night-walking, or rather night-dancing, witches, brought out of Italie into France that dance which is called _la Volta_." Shakespeare, in his "Henry V." (iii. 5), makes the Duke of Bourbon allude to it:

"They bid us to the English dancing-schools, And teach lavoltas high, and swift corantos."

[831] "Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," p. 301; see Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 498.

Again, in "Troilus and Cressida" (iv. 4), Troilus says:

"I cannot sing, Nor heel the high lavolt."

_Light o' Love._ This was an old dance tune, and was a proverbial expression for levity, especially in love matters.[832] In "Much Ado About Nothing" (iii. 4), Margaret says: "Clap's into 'Light o' love;'

that goes without a burden; do you sing it, and I'll dance it;" to which Beatrice answers: "Yea, light o' love, with your heels."

[832] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 510.

In "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (i. 2), it is alluded to:

"_Julia._ Best sing it to the tune of 'Light o' love.'

_Lucetta._ It is too heavy for so light a tune."

In the "Two n.o.ble Kinsmen" (v. 2), we read:

"He'll dance the morris twenty mile an hour.

And gallops to the tune of 'Light o' love.'"

And in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Chances" (i. 3), Frederic says: "Sure he has encounter'd some light-o'-love or other."

_Pavan._ This was a grave and majestic dance, in which the gentlemen wore their caps, swords, and mantles, and the ladies their long robes and trains. The dancers stepped round the room and then crossed in the middle, trailing their garments on the ground, "the motion whereof,"