ANTIQUITY OF THE POLKA: A NOTE FOR THE LADIES.
The description of the lavolta in Sir John Davies's poem on dancing, The Orchestra (1596), shows that it must have closely resembled the dance which we fondly boast of as one of the great inventions of the nineteenth century. It runs as follows:
"Yet is there one, the most delightful kind,
A lofty jumping, or a leaping round,
Where arm in arm two dancers are entwined,
And whirl themselves with strict embracements bound;
And still their feet an anapæst do sound;
An anapæst is all their music's song,
Whose first two feet are short, and third is long."
The "anapæst" is conclusive; it points exactly to the peculiar nature of the polka, the pause on the third step. Moreover, it appears, that as there is no especial figure for the polka, so there was none for the lavolta; for it is classed among those dances
"Wherein that dancer greatest praise has won,
Which, with best order, can all orders shun;
For everywhere he wantonly must range,
And turn and wind with unexpected change."
Who can doubt after that? The polka was certainly danced before Queen Elizabeth!
To this valuable historical parallel I may add that the galliard and coranto also were apparently danced ad libitum (observing only a particular measure), just as our waltz and galop also are:
"For more diverse and more pleasing show,
A swift, a wandering dance, he [Love] did invent,
With passages uncertain to and fro,
Yet with a certain answer and consent,
To the quick music of the instrument."
B. R. I.