CHAPTER V.
I.—JOCULATORS' DANCING.
Dancing, tumbling, and balancing, with variety of other exercises requiring skill and agility, were originally included in the performances exhibited by the gleemen and the minstrels; and they remained attached to the profession of the joculator after he was separated from those who only retained the first branches of the minstrel's art, that is to say, poetry and music.
II.—WOMEN DANCERS AND TUMBLERS.
The joculators were sometimes excellent tumblers; yet, generally speaking, I believe that vaulting, tumbling, and balancing, were not executed by the chieftain of the gleeman's company, but by some of his confederates; and very often this part of the show was performed by females, who were called glee-maidens, Maꝺen-ᵹlẏƿıenꝺ, by the Saxons; and tumbling women, tomblesteres, and tombesteres, in Chaucer, derived from the Saxon word ꞇomban, to dance, vault, or tumble. The same poet, in the Romance of the Rose, calls them saylours, or dancers, from the Latin word salio. They are also denominated sauters, from saut in French, to leap. Hence, in Pierce Ploughman, one says, "I can neither saylen ne saute." They are likewise in modern language called balancing women, or tymbesteres, players upon the tymbrel, which they also balanced occasionally, as we shall find a little farther on. It is almost needless to add, that the ancient usage of introducing females for the performances of these difficult specimens of art and agility, has been successively continued to the present day.
III.—DANCING CONNECTED WITH TUMBLING.
Dancing, in former times, was closely connected with those feats of activity now called vaulting and tumbling; and such exertions often formed part of the dances that were publicly exhibited by the gleemen and the minstrels; for which reason, the Anglo-Saxon writers frequently used the terms of leaping and tumbling for dancing. Both the phrases occur in the Saxon versions of St. Mark's Gospel; where it is said of the daughter of Herodias, that she vaulted or tumbled, instead of danced, before king Herod. [685] In a translation of the seventh century, in the Cotton Library, [686] it says she plæᵹeꝺe, ⁊ ᵹelıcaꝺe Heꞃoꝺe; she jumped, or leaped, and pleased Herod. In another Saxon version of the eleventh century, in the Royal Library, [687] she ꞇumbeꝺe, ⁊ hıꞇ lıcoꝺe Heꞃoꝺe; she tumbled, and it pleased Herod. A third reads, Herodias' daughter ꞇumboꝺe þæꞃe, tumbled there, &c.[4] These interpretations of the sacred text might easily arise from a misconception of the translators, who, supposing that no common dancing could have attracted the attention of the monarch so potently, or extorted from him the promise of a reward so extensive as that they found stated in the record; therefore referred the performance to some wonderful displayments of activity, resembling those themselves might have seen exhibited by the glee-maidens, on occasions of solemnity, in the courts of Saxon potentates. We may also observe, that the like explication of the passage was not only received in the Saxon versions of the Gospel, but continued in those of much more modern date; and, agreeably to the same idea, many of the illuminators, in depicting this part of the holy history, have represented the damsel in the action of tumbling, or, at least, of walking upon her hands. Mr. Brand, in his edition of Bourne's Vulgar Antiquities, has quoted one in old English that reads thus: "When the daughter of Herodyas was in comyn, and had tomblyde and pleside Harowde." I have before me a MS. of the Harleian Collection, [688] in French, in the thirteenth century, written by some ecclesiastic, which relates to the church fasts and festivals. Speaking of the death of John Baptist, and finding this tumbling damsel to have been the cause, the pious author treats her with much contempt, as though she had been one of the dancing girls belonging to a company of jugglers, who in his time, it seems, were not considered as paragons of virtue any more than they are in the present day. He says of her, "Bien saveit treschier e tumber;" which may be rendered, "She was well skilled in tumbling and cheating tricks." And accordingly we find the following representation.
Herodias is so drawn in a book of Prayers in the Royal Library. [689] There is the subjoined representation a century and a half earlier.
Her servant stands by her side. The drawing occurs in a series of Scripture histories in the Harleian Collection, [690] written and illuminated at the commencement of the thirteenth century.
IV.—ANTIQUITY OF TUMBLING.
The exhibition of dancing, connected with leaping and tumbling, for the entertainment of princes and noblemen on occasions of festivity, is of high antiquity. Homer mentions two dancing tumblers, who stood upon their heads, [691] and moved about to the measure of a song, for the diversion of Menelaüs and his courtiers, at the celebration of his daughter's nuptials. It seems that the astonishment excited by the difficulty of such performances, obviated the absurdity, and rendered them agreeable to persons of rank and affluence. The Saxon princes encouraged the dancers and tumblers; and the courts of the Norman monarchs were crowded with them: we have, indeed, but few of their exertions particularised; for the monks, through whose medium the histories of the middle ages have generally been conveyed to us, were their professed enemies: it is certain, however, notwithstanding the censure promulgated in their disfavour, that they stood their ground, and were not only well received, but even retained, in the houses of the opulent. No doubt, they were then, as in the present day, an immoral and dissolute set of beings, who, to promote merriment, frequently descended to the lowest kinds of buffoonery. We read, for instance, of a tumbler in the reign of Edward II. who rode before his majesty, and frequently fell from his horse in such a manner, that the king was highly diverted, and laughed exceedingly, [692] and rewarded the performer with the sum of twenty shillings, which at that period was a very considerable donation. A like reward of twenty shillings was given, by order of Henry VIII., to a strange tumbler, that is, I suppose, an itinerant who had no particular establishment; a like sum to a tumbler who performed before him at lord Bath's; and a similar reward to the "tabouretts and a tumbler," probably of the household. [693] It should seem that these artists were really famous mirth-makers; for, one of them had the address to excite the merriment of that solemn bigot queen Mary. "After her majesty," observes Strype, "had reviewed the royal pensioners in Greenwich Park, there came a tumbler, and played many pretty feats, the queen and cardinal Pole looking on; whereat she was observed to laugh heartily." [694]
V.—VARIOUS DANCES.
Among the pastimes exhibited for the amusement of queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth castle, there were shown, as Laneham says, before her highness, surprising feats of agility, by an Italian, "in goings, turnings, tumblings, castings, hops, jumps, leaps, skips, springs, gambauds, somersaults, caprettings, and flights, forward, backward, sideways, downward, upward, and with sundry windings, gyrings, and circumflections," which he performed with so much ease and lightness, that words are not adequate to the description; "insomuch that I," says Laneham, "began to doubt whether he was a man or a spirit;" and afterwards, "As for this fellow, I cannot tell what to make of him; save that I may guess his back to be metalled like a lamprey, that has no bone, but a line like a lute-string." [695] So lately as the reign of queen Anne, this species of performance continued to be fashionable; and in one of the Tatlers we meet with the following passage: "I went on Friday last to the Opera; and was surprised to find a thin house at so noble an entertainment, 'till I heard that the tumbler was not to make his appearance that night." [696]
Three ancient specimens of the tumbler's art are subjoined.
This engraving represents a woman bending herself backwards, from a MS. of the thirteenth century, in the Cotton Library. [697]
In this second representation a man is performing the same feat, but in a more extraordinary manner. The original is contained in a MS. in the library of sir Hans Sloane. [698]
This representation of a girl turning over upon her hands, is from a MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. [699] Both these MSS. are of the fourteenth century. Feats of activity by tumblers were then, as at present, enlivened with music.
VI.—THE GLEEMEN'S DANCES.
It is not by any means my intention to insinuate, from what has been said in the foregoing pages, that there were no dances performed by the Saxon gleemen and their assistants, but such as consisted of vaulting and tumbling: on the contrary, I trust it may be proved, that their dances were varied and accommodated to the taste of those for whom the performance was appropriated; being calculated, as occasion required, to excite the admiration and procure the applause of the wealthy or the vulgar.
VII.—EXEMPLIFICATION OF GLEEMEN'S DANCES.
We have already noticed a dance, represented by the engraving No. 50, from a painting of the tenth century, the most ancient of the kind that I have met with. [700] The crouching attitudes of the two dancers, point out great difficulty in the part they are performing, but do not convey the least indication of vaulting or tumbling. Attitudes somewhat similar I have seen occur in some of the steps of a modern hornpipe.
Here, also, we find a young man dancing singly to the music of two flutes and a lyre; and the action attempted to be expressed by the artist is rather that of ease and elegancy of motion, than of leaping, or contorting of the body in a violent manner. It is evident that this delineation, which is from a Latin and Saxon MS. of the ninth century, in the Cotton Library, [701] was intended for the representation of part of the gleeman's exhibition; for the designer has crowded into the margin a number of heads and parts of figures, necessarily incomplete from want of room, who appear as spectators; but these are much confused, and in some places obliterated, so that they could not have been copied with any tolerable effect. The dance represented by the engraving No. 51, from a MS. of the ninth century, [702] in which the musician bears a part, I take to be of the burlesque kind, and intended to excite laughter by the absurdity of the gestures practised by the performers; but that in the following engraving, from a MS. of the fourteenth century, in the Royal Library, [703] has more appearance of elegance.
This dance is executed by a female; and probably the perfection of the dance consisted in approaching and receding from the bear with great agility, so as to prevent his seizing upon her, and occasioning any interruption to the performance, which the animal, on the other hand, appears to be exceedingly desirous of effecting, being unmuzzled for the purpose, and irritated by the scourge of the juggler.
VIII.—THE SWORD-DANCE.
There is a dance which was probably in great repute among the Anglo-Saxons, because it was derived from their ancestors the ancient Germans; it is called the sword-dance; and the performance is thus described by Tacitus: [704] "One public diversion was constantly exhibited at all their meetings; young men, who, by frequent exercise, have attained to great perfection in that pastime, strip themselves, and dance among the points of swords and spears with most wonderful agility, and even with the most elegant and graceful motions. They do not perform this dance for hire, but for the entertainment of the spectators, esteeming their applause a sufficient reward." [705] This dance continues to be practised in the northern parts of England about Christmas time, when, says Mr. Brand, "the fool-plough goes about; a pageant that consists of a number of sword-dancers dragging a plough, with music." The writer then tells us that he had seen this dance performed very frequently, with little or no variation from the ancient method, excepting only that the dancers of the present day, when they have formed their swords into a figure, lay them upon the ground, and dance round them.
I have not been fortunate enough to meet with any delineation that accords with the foregoing descriptions of the sword-dance; but in a Latin manuscript of Prudentius with Saxon notes, written in the ninth century, and now in the Cotton Library, [706] a military dance of a different kind occurs. It is exceedingly curious, and has not, that I recollect, been mentioned by any of our writers. The drawing is copied below.
This drawing represents two men, equipped in martial habits, and each of them armed with a sword and a shield, engaged in a combat; the performance is enlivened by the sound of a horn; the musician acts in a double capacity, and is, together with a female assistant, dancing round them to the cadence of the music; and probably the actions of the combatants were also regulated by the same measure.
Early in the last century, and, I doubt not, long before that period, a species of sword-dance, usually performed by young women, constituted a part of the juggler's exhibition at Bartholomew fair. I have before me two bills of the shows there presented some time in the reign of queen Anne. The one speaks of "dancing with several naked swords, performed by a child of eight years of age;" which, the showman assures us, had given "satisfaction to all persons." The other, put forth, it seems, by one who belonged to Sadler's Wells, promises the company, that they shall see "a young woman dance with the swords, and upon a ladder, surpassing all her sex." Both these bills were printed in the reign of queen Anne; the first belonged to a showman named Crawley; [707] and the second to James Miles, from Sadler's Wells, who calls his theatre a music booth, and the exhibition consisted chiefly of dancing. The originals are in the Harleian Library. [708] About thirty years back, [709] I remember to have seen at Flockton's, a much noted but very clumsy juggler, a girl about eighteen or twenty years of age, who came upon the stage with four naked swords, two in each hand; when the music played, she turned round with great swiftness, and formed a great variety of figures with the swords, holding them over her head, down by her sides, behind her, and occasionally she thrust them in her bosom. The dance generally continued about ten or twelve minutes; and, when it was finished, she stopped suddenly, without appearing to be in the least giddy from the constant reiteration of the same motion.
IX.—THE ROPE-DANCE.
This species of amusement is certainly very ancient. Terence, in the prologue to Hecyra, complains that the attention of the public was drawn from his play, by the exhibitions of a rope-dancer:
We are well assured, that dancing upon the rope constituted a part of the entertainment presented to the public by the minstrels and joculators; and we can trace it as far back as the thirteenth century: but whether the dancers at that time exhibited upon the slack or tight rope, or upon both, cannot easily be ascertained; and we are equally in the dark respecting the extent of their abilities: but, if we may judge from the existing specimens of other feats of agility performed by them or their companions, we may fairly conclude that they were by no means contemptible artists.
When Isabel of Bavaria, queen to Charles VI. of France, made her public entry into Paris, among other extraordinary exhibitions prepared for her reception was the following, recorded by Froissart, who was himself a witness to the fact: "There was a mayster [710] came out of Geane; he had tied a corde upon the hyghest house on the brydge of Saynt Michell over all the houses, and the other ende was tyed to the hyghest tower of our Ladye's churche; and, as the quene passed by, and was in the great streat called Our Ladye's strete; bycause it was late, this sayd mayster, wyth two brinnynge [711] candelles in hys handes, issued out of a littel stage that he had made on the heyght of our Lady's tower, synginge [712] as he went upon the cord all alonge the great strete, so that all that sawe him hadde marvayle how it might be; and he bore still in hys handes the two brinnynge candelles, so that he myght be well sene all over Parys, and two myles without the city. He was such a tombler, that his lightnesse was greatly praised." In the French, "Molt fist d'appertices tant que la legierete de lui, et toutes ses œuvres furent molt prisées;" "He gave them many proofs of his skill, so that his agility and all his performances were highly esteemed." The manner in which this extraordinary feat was carried into execution is not so clear as might be wished. The translation justifies the idea of his walking down the rope; but the words of Froissart are, "S'asbit sur cel corde, et il vint tout au long de la rue;" that is, literally, he seated himself upon the cord, and he came all along the street; which indicates his sliding down, and then the trick will bear a close resemblance to those that follow. But St. Foix, on the authority of another historian, says, he descended dancing upon the cord; and, passing between the curtains of blue taffety, ornamented with large fleurs-de-lis of gold, which covered the bridge, he placed a crown upon the head of Isabel, and then remounted upon the cord. [713]
X.—ROPE-DANCING FROM THE BATTLEMENTS OF ST. PAUL'S.
A performance much resembling the foregoing was exhibited before king Edward VI. at the time he passed in procession through the city of London, on Friday, the nineteenth of February, 1546, previous to his coronation. "When the king," says the author, "was advanced almost to St. George's church, [714] in Paul's church-yard, there was a rope as great as the cable of a ship, stretched in length from the battlements of Paul's steeple, with a great anchor at one end, fastened a little before the dean of Paul's house-gate; and, when his majesty approached near the same, there came a man, a stranger, being a native of Arragon, lying on the rope with his head forward, casting his arms and legs abroad, running on his breast on the rope from the battlements to the ground, as if it had been an arrow out of a bow, and stayed on the ground. Then he came to his majesty, and kissed his foot; and so, after certain words to his highness, he departed from him again, and went upwards upon the rope till he came over the midst of the church-yard; where he, having a rope about him, played certain mysteries on the rope, as tumbling, and casting one leg from another. Then took he the rope, and tied it to the cable, and tied himself by the right leg a little space beneath the wrist of the foot, and hung by one leg a certain space, and after recovered himself again with the said rope and unknit the knot, and came down again. Which stayed his majesty, with all the train, a good space of time." [715]
XI.—ROPE-DANCING FROM ST. PAUL'S STEEPLE.
This trick was repeated, though probably by another performer, in the reign of queen Mary; for, according to Holinshed, among the various shows prepared for the reception of Philip king of Spain, was one of a man who "came downe upon a rope, tied to the battlement of Saint Paule's church, with his head before, neither staieing himself with hand or foot; which," adds the author, "shortlie after cost him his life." [716]
XII.—ROPE-DANCING FROM ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, HERTFORD.
A similar exploit was put in practice, about fifty years back, [717] in different parts of this kingdom; I received the following account of the manner in which it was carried into execution at Hertford from a friend of mine, [718] who assisted the exhibitor in adjusting his apparatus, and saw his performance several times: A rope was stretched from the top of the tower of All Saints' church, and brought obliquely to the ground about fourscore yards from the bottom of the tower, where, being drawn over two strong pieces of wood nailed across each other, it was made fast to a stake driven into the earth; two or three feather beds were then placed upon the cross timbers, to receive the performer when he descended, and to break his fall. He was also provided with a flat board having a groove in the midst of it, which he attached to his breast; and when he intended to exhibit, he laid himself upon the top of the rope, with his head downwards, and adjusted the groove to the rope, his legs being held by a person appointed for that purpose, until such time as he had properly balanced himself. He was then liberated, and descended with incredible swiftness from the top of the tower to the feather-beds, which prevented his reaching the ground. This man had lost one of his legs, and its place was supplied by a wooden leg, which was furnished on this occasion with a quantity of lead sufficient to counterpoise the weight of the other. He performed this three times in the same day; the first time, he descended without holding any thing in his hands; the second time, he blew a trumpet; and the third, he held a pistol in each hand, which he discharged as he came down.
XIII.—A DUTCHMAN'S FEATS ON ST. PAUL'S WEATHERCOCK.
To the foregoing extraordinary exhibitions we may add another equally dangerous, but executed without the assistance of a rope. It was performed in the presence of queen Mary in her passage through London to Westminster, the day before her coronation, in 1553, and is thus described by Holinshed: [719] "When she came to Saint Paule's church-yard against the school master Heywood sat in a pageant under a vine, and made to her an oration in Latin; and then there was one Peter, a Dutchman, that stoode upon the weathercocke of Saint Paul's steeple, holding a streamer in his hands of five yards long, and waving thereof. He sometimes stood on one foot, and shook the other, and then he kneeled on his knees, to the great marvell of all the people. He had made two scaffolds under him; one above the cross, having torches and streamers set upon it, and another over the ball of the cross, likewise set with streamers and torches, which could not burn, the wind was so great." The historian informs us, that "Peter had sixteene pounds, thirteene shillings, and foure pence, given to him by the citie for his costs and paines, and for all his stuffe."
XIV.—JACOB HALL THE ROPE-DANCER.
In the reign of Charles II. there was a famous rope-dancer named Jacob Hall, whose portrait is still in existence. [720] The open-hearted duchess of Cleveland is said to have been so partial to this man, that he rivalled the king himself in her affections, and received a salary from her grace.
XV.—MODERN CELEBRATED ROPE-DANCING.
Soon after the accession of James II. to the throne, a Dutch woman made her appearance in this country; and "when," says a modern author, "she first danced and vaulted upon the rope in London, the spectators beheld her with a pleasure mixed with pain, as she seemed every moment in danger of breaking her neck." This woman was afterwards exceeded by Signora Violante, who not only exhibited many feats which required more strength and agility of body than she was mistress of, but had also a stronger head, as she performed at a much greater distance from the ground than any of her predecessors. Signor Violante was no less excellent as a rope-dancer. The spectators were astonished, in the reign of George II., at seeing the famous Turk dance upon the rope, balance himself on a slack wire without a poise, and toss up oranges alternately with his hands: but this admiration was considerably abated when one of the oranges happened to fall, and appeared by the sound to be a ball of painted lead. Signor and Signora Spinacuta were not inferior to the Turk. "The former danced on the rope (in 1768) at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, with two boys tied to his feet. But what is still more extraordinary, a monkey has lately performed there, both as a rope-dancer and an equilibrist, such tricks as no man was thought equal to before the Turk appeared in England." [721]
XVI.—ROPE-DANCING AT SADLER'S WELLS, &c.
During the last century, Sadler's Wells was a famous nursery for tumblers, balance-masters, and dancers upon the rope and upon the wire. These exhibitions have of late years lost much of their popularity: the tight-rope dancing, indeed, is still continued there [722] by Richer, a justly celebrated performer. This man certainly displays more ease and elegance of action, and much greater agility, upon the rope, than any other dancer that I ever saw: his exertions at all times excite the astonishment, while they command the applause of the spectators.
I shall only observe, that the earliest representation of rope-dancing which I have met with occurs in a little print affixed to one of the chapters of the vocabulary of Commenius, translated by Hoole; [723] where a woman is depicted dancing upon the tight-rope, and holding a balance charged with lead at both ends, according to the common usage of the present day; [724] and behind her we see a man, with his hand downwards, and hanging upon the same rope by one of his legs. This feat, with others of a similar kind, are more usually performed upon the slack rope, which at the same time is put into motion; the performer frequently hanging by one foot, or by both his hands, or in a variety of different manners and attitudes; or by laying himself along upon the rope, holding it with his hands and feet, the latter being crossed, and turning round with incredible swiftness, which is called roasting the pig.
XVII.—FOOL'S DANCE.
The fool's dance, or a dance performed by persons equipped in the dresses appropriated to the fools, is very ancient, and originally, I apprehend, formed a part of the pageant belonging to the festival of fools. This festival was a religious mummery, usually held at Christmas time; and consisted of various ceremonials and mockeries, not only exceedingly ridiculous, but shameful and impious. [725] A vestige of the fool's dance, preserved in a MS. in the Bodleian Library, [726] written and illuminated in the reign of king Edward III. and completed in 1344, is copied below.
In this representation of the dance, it seems conducted with some degree of regularity; and is assisted by the music of the regals and the bagpipes. [727] The dress of the musicians resembles that of the dancers, and corresponds exactly with the habit of the court fool at that period. [728] I make no doubt, the morris-dance, which afterwards became exceedingly popular in this country, originated from the fool's dance; and thence we trace the bells which characterised the morris-dancers. The word morris applied to the dance is usually derived from Morisco, which in the Spanish language signifies a Moor, as if the dance had been taken from the Moors; but I cannot help considering this as a mistake, for it appears to me that the Morisco or Moor dance is exceedingly different from the morris-dance formerly practised in this country; it being performed by the castanets, or rattles, at the end of the fingers, and not with bells attached to various parts of the dress. In a comedy called Variety, printed in 1649, we meet with this passage: "like a Bacchanalian, dancing the Spanish Morisco, with knackers at his fingers." This dance was usually, I believe, performed by a single person, which by no means agrees with the morris-dance. Sir John Hawkins [729] observes that, within the memory of persons living, a saraband danced by a Moor constantly formed part of the entertainment at a puppet-show; and this dance was always performed with the castanets. I shall not pretend to investigate the derivation of the word morris; though probably it might be found at home: it seems, however, to have been applied to the dance in modern times, and, I trust, long after the festival to which it originally belonged was done away and had nearly sunk into oblivion.
XVIII.—MORRIS-DANCE.
The morris-dance was sometimes performed by itself, but was much more frequently joined to processions and pageants, and especially to those appropriated for the celebration of the May-games. On these occasions, the Hobby-horse, or a Dragon, with Robin Hood, the maid Marian, and other characters, supposed to have been the companions of that famous outlaw, made a part of the dance. In latter times, the morris was frequently introduced upon the stage. Stephen Gosson, who wrote about 1579, in a little tract entitled Playes Confuted, speaks of "dauncing of gigges, galiardes, and morisces, with hobbi-horses," as stage performances.
The garments of the morris-dancers, as we observed before, were adorned with bells, which were not placed there merely for the sake of ornament, but were to be sounded as they danced. These bells were of unequal sizes, and differently denominated, as the fore bell, the second bell, the treble, the tenor or great bell, and mention is also made of double bells. In the third year of queen Elizabeth, two dozen of morris-bells were estimated at one shilling. [730] The principal dancer in the morris was more superbly habited than his companions, as appears from a passage in an old play, The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green, by John Day, 1659, wherein it is said of one of the characters, "He wants no cloths, for he hath a cloak laid on with gold lace, and an embroidered jerkin; and thus he is marching hither like the foreman of a morris."
I do not find that the morris-dancers were confined to any particular number: in the ancient representation of this dance given by the engraving No. 61, there are five, exclusive of the two musicians. A modern writer speaks of a set of morris-dancers who went about the country, consisting of ten men who danced, besides the maid Marian, and one who played upon the pipe and tabor. [731]
The hobby-horse, which seems latterly to have been almost inseparable from the morris-dance, was a compound figure; the resemblance of the head and tail of a horse, with a light wooden frame for the body, was attached to the person who was to perform the double character, covered with trappings reaching to the ground, so as to conceal the feet of the actor, and prevent its being seen that the supposed horse had none. Thus equipped, he was to prance about, imitating the curvetings and motions of a horse, as we may gather from the following speech in an old tragedy called the Vow-breaker, or Fair Maid of Clifton, by William Sampson, 1636. "Have I not practised my reines, my carreeres, my prankers, my ambles, my false trotts, my smooth ambles, and Canterbury paces—and shall the mayor put me, besides, the hobby-horse? I have borrowed the fore-horse bells, his plumes, and braveries; nay, I have had the mane new shorn and frizelled.—Am I not going to buy ribbons and toys of sweet Ursula for the Marian—and shall I not play the hobby-horse? Provide thou the dragon, and let me alone for the hobby-horse." And afterwards: "Alas, Sir! I come only to borrow a few ribbandes, bracelets, ear-rings, wyertyers, and silk girdles, and handkerchers, for a morris and a show before the queen—I come to furnish the hobby-horse."
XIX.—THE EGG-DANCE.
I am not able to ascertain the antiquity of this dance. The indication of such a performance occurs in an old comedy, entitled The longer thou livest, the more Foole thou art, by William Wager, [732] in the reign of queen Elizabeth, where we meet with these lines:
Dancing upon one foot was exhibited by the Saxon gleemen, and probably by the Norman minstrels, but more especially by the women-dancers, who might thence acquire the name of hoppesteres, which is given by Chaucer. A vestige of this denomination is still retained, and applied to dancing, though somewhat contemptuously; for an inferior dancing-meeting is generally called a hop. A representation of the dance on one foot, taken from a manuscript of the tenth century, appears by the engraving No. 52, [733] where the gleeman is performing to the sound of the harp.
Hopping matches for prizes were occasionally made in the sixteenth century, as we learn from John Heywoode the epigrammatist. In his Proverbs, printed in 1566, are the following lines:
And again, in the Four P's, a play by the same author, one of the characters is directed "to hop upon one foot;" and another says,
Hence it appears a ring was usually the prize, and given to him who could hop best, and continue to do so the longest.
But to return to the egg-dance. This performance was common enough about thirty years back, [734] and was well received at Sadler's Wells; where I saw it exhibited, not by simply hopping round a single egg, but in a manner that much increased the difficulty. A number of eggs, I do not precisely recollect how many, but I believe about twelve or fourteen, were placed at certain distances marked upon the stage; the dancer, taking his stand, was blindfolded, and a hornpipe being played in the orchestra, he went through all the paces and figures of the dance, passing backwards and forwards between the eggs without touching one of them.
XX.—THE LADDER-DANCE.
So called, because the performer stands upon a ladder, which he shifts from place to place, and ascends or descends without losing the equilibrium, or permitting it to fall. This dance was practised at Sadler's Wells at the commencement of the last century, and revived about thirty years back. It is still continued there [735] by Dubois, who calls himself the clown of the Wells, and is a very useful actor, as well as an excellent performer upon the tight-rope. In the reign of queen Anne, James Miles, who declared himself to be a performer from Sadler's Wells, kept a music-booth in Bartholomew Fair, where he exhibited nineteen different kinds of dances; among them were a wrestler's dance, vaulting upon the slack rope, and dancing upon the ladder; the latter, he tells us, as well as the sword-dance, was performed by "a young woman surpassing all her sex." [736]—An Inventory of Playhouse Furniture, quoted in the Tatler [737] under the article, Materials for Dancing, specifies masques, castanets, and a ladder of ten rounds. I apprehend the ladder-dance originated from the ancient pastime of walking or dancing upon very high stilts. A specimen of such an exhibition is here given from a MS. roll in the Royal Library, written and illuminated in the reign of Henry III. [738] The actor is exercising a double function, that is, of a musician, and of a dancer.