times such monstrous gestures, such lascivious notions, such wanton tunes, meretricious kisses, homely embracings, (ut Gaditana canoro Incipiat prurire choro, plausuq; probatæ that it will make the spectators mad. When that Epitomizer Juv. Sat. 11. * Justin. 1. 10, Adduntur instrumenta luxuriæ, tympana f Hor. 1. 5. et tripudia; nec tam spectator rex, sed nequitiæ magister, &c. od. 6. Havarde vita ejus. Of whom he begat William the Conqueror; by the same token she tore her smock down, saying, &c. Quis non miratus est saltantem? Quis non vidit et amavit? veterem et novam vidi Romam, sed tibi similem non vidi Panareta; felix qui Panareta fruitur, &c. + Epist. 26. used used all the engines that might be devised, to move Socrates, amongst the rest, to stir him the more, he shuts up all with a pleasant Enterlude or dance of Dionysius and Ariadne. "First Ariadne dressed like a Bride came in and took her place; by and by Dionysius entered, dancing to the Musick. The spectators did all admire the yong man's carriage; and Ariadne her self was so much affected with the sight, that she could scarse sit. After a while Dionysius beholding Ariadne, and incensed with love, bowing to her knees, embraced her first, and kissed her with a grace; she embraced him again, and kissed him with like affection, &c. as the dance required; but they that stood by and saw this, did much applaud and commend them both for it. And when Dionysius rose up, he raised her up with him, and many pretty gestures, embraces, kisses, and love complements passed between them; which when they saw fair Bacchus and beautiful Ariadne so sweetly and so unfainedly kissing each, so really embracing, they swore they loved indeed, and were so inflamed with the object, that they began to rouse up themselves, as if they would have flown. At the last when they saw them still, so willingly embracing, and now ready to go to the Bride chamber, they were so ravished with it, that they that were unmarried, swore they would forthwith marry, and those that were married called 'instantly for their horses, and gallopped home to their wives." What greater motive can there be then this burning lust? What so violent an oppugner? Not without good cause therefore so many general Councels condemn it, so many Fathers abhor it, so many grave men speak against it; "Use not the company of a wo man," saith Syracides, 8. 4. "that is a singer, or a dancer; neither hear, least thou be taken in her craftiness." In circo non tam cernitur quam discitur libido. *Hædus holds, lust in Theaters is not seen, but learned. Gregory Nazianzen that eloquent Divine, († as he relates the story himself), when a noble friend of his solemnly invited him with other Bishops, to his daughter Olympia's wedding, refused to come: " For it is absurd to see an old gouty Bishop sit amongst dancers;" he 1 Principio Ariadne velut sponsa prodit, ac sola recedit; prodiens illico Dionysius ad numeros cantante tibia saltabat; admirati sunt omnes saltantem juvenem, ipsaq; Ariadne, ut vix potuerit conquiescere; postea vero cum Dionysius eam aspexit, &c. Ut autem surrexit Dionysius, erexit simul Ariadnem, licebatq; spectare gestus osculantium, & inter se complectentium; qui autem spectabant, &c. Ad extremum videntes eos mutuis amplexibus implicatos et jamjam ad thalamum ituros; qui non duxerant uxores jurabant uxores se ducturos; qui autem duxerant conscensis equis et incitatis, ut iisdem fruerentur, domum festinârunt. *Lib. 4. de contemnend. amoribus. + Ad Anysium epist. 57. Intempestivum enim est, et à nuptiis abhorrens, inter saltantes podagricum idere senem, et Episcopum. T2 held held it unfit to be a spectator, much less an actor. Nemo saltat sobrius, Tully writes, he is not a sober man that danceth ; for some such reason (belike) Domitian forbade the Romane Senators to dance, and for that fact removed many of them from the Senate. But these, you will say, are lascivious and Pagan dances, 'tis the abuse that causeth such inconvenience, and I do not well therefore to condemn, speak against, or "innocently to accuse the best and pleasantest thing (so * Lucian calls it) that belongs to mortall men." You misinterpret, I condemn it not; I hold it notwithstanding an honest disport, a lawful recreation, if it be opportune, moderately and soberly used: I am of Plutarch's mind, " that which respects pleasure alone, honest recreation, or bodily exercise, ought not to be rejected and contemned:" I subscribe to + Lucian, "'tis an elegant thing, which cheareth up the mind, exerciseth the body, delights the spectators, which teacheth many comely gestures, equally affecting the ears, eyes, and soul it self." Salust discommends singing and dancing in Sempronia, not that she did sing or dance, but that she did it in excess, 'tis the abuse of it: and Gregorie's refusal doth not simply condemn it, but in some folks. Many will not allow men and women to dance together, because it is a provocation to lust: they may as well, with Lycurgus and Mahomet, cut down all Vines, forbid the drinking of wine, for that it makes some men drunk. "Nihil prodest quod non lædere posset idem: I say of this as of all other honest recreations, they are like fire, good and bad, and I see no such inconvenience, but that they may so dance, if it be done at due times, and by fit persons: and conclude with Wolfongus § Hider, and most of our modern divines: Si decora, graves, verecundæ, plena luce bonorum virorum & matronarum honestarum, tempestivè fiant, probari possunt, & debent. "There is a time to mourn, a time to dance," Eccles. 3. 4. Let them take their pleasures then, and as he said of old, "young men and maids flourishing in their age, fair and lovely to behold, well attired, cens. Ovid. * Rem omnium in mortalium vita optimam innocenter accusare. k Que honestam voluptatem respicit, aut corporis exercitium, contemni non debet. +Elegantissima res est, quæ et mentem acuit, corpus exerceat, et spectantes oblectet, multos gestus decoros docens, oculos, aures, animum ex æquo demul§ System. moralis Philosophiæ. Apuleius. 10. Puelli, puellæque virenti florentes ætatula, forma conspicui, veste nitidi, incessu gratiosi, Græcanicam saltantes Pyrrhicam, dispositis ordinationibus, decoros ambitus inerrabant, nunc in orbem flexi, nunc in obliquam seriem connexi, nunc in quadrum cuneati, nunc indè separati, &c. and and of comely carriage, dancing a Greek Galiard, and as their dance required, kept their time, now turning now tracing, now apart now altogether, now a courtesie then a caper," &c. and it was a pleasant sight to see those pretty knots, and swimming figures. The Sun and Moon (some say) dance about the earth, the three upper Planets about the Sun as their center, now stationary, now direct, now retrograde, now in apogeo then in parigao, now swift then slow, occidentall, orientall, they turn round, jumpe and trace, and about the Sun with those thirty three Macula or Burbonian planet, circa Solem saltantes Cytharedum, saith Fromundus. Four Medicean stars dance about Jupiter, two Austrian about Saturn, &c. and all (belike) to the musick of the Sphears. Our greatest Counsellors, and staid Senators, at some times dance, as David before the Ark, 2 Sam. 6. 14. Miriam Exod. 15. 20. Judith 15. 13. (though the devil hence perhaps hath brought in those baudy Bacchanals) and well may they do it. The greatest Souldiers, as Quintilianus, † Æmilius Probus, ‡ Cœlius Rhodiginus, have proved at large, still use it in Greece, Rome, and the most worthy Senators, cantare, saltare. Lucian, Macrobius, Libanus, Plutarch, Julius, Pollux, Athenæus, have written just tracts in commendation of it. In this our age it is in much request in those countries, as in all civil Commonwealths, as Alexander ab Alexandro, lib. 4. cap. 10. & lib. 2, cap. 25. hath proved at large, § amongst the Barbarians themselves none so pretious; all the World allows it. * " || Divitias contemno tuas, rex Cræse, tuamq; Vendo Asiam, unguentis, flore, mero, Choreis." Plato, in his Common-wealth, will have dancing-schools to be maintained, "that young folks might meet, be acquainted, see one another, and be seen;" nay more, he would have them dance naked; and scoffs at them that laugh at it. But Eusebius præpar. Evangel. lib. 1. cap. 11. and Theodoret lib. 9. curat. græc. affect. worthily lash him for it; and well they might for as one saith, "The very sight of naked parts, causeth enormous, exceeding concupiscences, and stirs up both men and women to burning lust." There is a mean in all things this is my censure in brief; Dancing is a pleasant recreation of body and mind, if sober and modest (such as our + Lib. 5. § Read P. Martyr Angerianus Erotopædium. * Lib. 1. cap. 11. + Vit. Epaminondæ. Ocean Decad. Benzo, Lerius Hacluit, &c. * 10. Leg. τῆς γὰρ τοιαύτης σπεδῆς ἕνεκα, &c. hujus causa oportuit disciplinam constitui, ut tam pueri quam puellæ choreas celebrent, spectenturq; ac spectent, &c. "Aspectus enim nudorum corporum tam mares quam feminas irritare solet ad enormes lasciviæ appetitus. T3 Christian Christian dances are); if tempestively used, a furious motive to burning lust; if as by Pagans heretofore, unchastely abused. But I proceed. If these illurements do not take place, for Simierus, that great master of dalliance shall not behave himself better, the more effectually to move others, and satisfie their lust, they will swear and lye, promise, protest, forge, counterfeit, brag, bribe, flatter and dissemble of all sides. 'Twas Lucrecia's counsel in Aretine, Si vis amicá frui, promitte, finge, jura, perjura, jacta, simula, mentire; and they put it well in practice, as Apollo to Daphne, "+mihi Delphica tellus Et Claros & Tenedos, Patareaq; regia servit, Delphos, Claros and Tenedos serve me, The poorest swaines will do as much, " § Mille pecus nivei sunt & mihi vallibus agni;" I have a thousand sheep, good store of cattle, and they are all at her command, || Tibi nos, tibi nostra supellex, Ruraq; servierint" a house, land, goods, are at her service, as he is himself. Dinomachus, a Senator's Son in Lucian, in love with a wench inferior to him in birth and fortunes, the sooner to accomplish his desire, wept unto her, and swore he loved her with all his heart, and her alone, and that as soon as ever his father died (a very rich man and almost decrepit) he would make her his wife. The maid by chance made her Mother acquainted with the business, who being an old fox, well experienced in such matters, told her daughter, now ready to yield to his desire, that he meant nothing less, for dost thou think he will ever care for thee, being a poor wench, that may have his choice of all the beauties in the City, one noble by birth, with so many talents, as yong, better qualified, and fairer then thy self? daughter beleeve him not: the maid was abasht, and so the matter broke off. When Jupiter woed Juno first (Lilius Giraldus relates it out of an old Comment on Theocritus) the montibus agni. § Virg. b * Camden Annal. Anno 1578, fol. 276. Amatoriis facetiis & illecebris exquisitissimus. + Met. 1. Ovid. Erasmus cgl. mille mei Siculis errant in Lecheus. Tom. 4. merit. dial amare se jurat et lachrimatur dicitq; uxorem me ducere velle, quum pater oculos clau. b Quum dotem alibi multo majorem aspiciet, &c. sisset. better |