4. 4. 142 the Dutchesse of Braganza. Braganza is the ruling house of Portugal. Dom John, Duke of Braganza, became king of Portugal in 1640.
4. 4. 143 Almoiauna. The Stanford Dictionary gives: ‘Almojabana, Sp. fr. Arab. Al-mojabbana: cheese-and-flour cake. Xeres was famed for this dainty, which is named from Arabic jobn = “cheese.”’
4. 4. 147 Marquesse Muja. Apparently a Spanish marquise, occupying a position in society similar to that of Madame Récamier.
4. 4. 156 A Lady of spirit. With this line and lines 165 f. cf. U. 32, Wks. 8. 356:
To be abroad chanting some bawdy song, And laugh, and measure thighs, then squeak, spring, itch, Do all the tricks of a salt lady bitch! —For these with her young company she’ll enter, Where Pitts, or Wright, or Modet would not venture; (Fol. reads ‘venter’) And come by these degrees the style t’inherit Of woman of fashion, and a lady of spirit.
4. 4. 164 Pimlico. See note 3. 3. 170.
4. 4. 164 daunce the Saraband. The origin of the saraband is in doubt, being variously attributed to Spain and to the Moors. It is found in Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and its immoral character is constantly referred to. Grove (Dict. of Music 3. 226) quotes from chapter 12, ‘Del baile y cantar llamado Zarabanda,’ of the Tratado contra los Juegos Publicos (‘Treatise against Public Amusements’) of Mariana (1536-1623): ‘Entre las otras invenciones ha salido estos años un baile y cantar tan lacivo en las palabras, tan feo en las meneos, que basta para pegar fuego aun á las personas muy honestas’ (‘amongst other inventions there has appeared during late years a dance and song, so lascivious in its words, so ugly in its movements, that it is enough to inflame even very modest people’). ‘This reputation was not confined to Spain, for Marini in his poem “L’Adone” (1623) says:
Chiama questo suo gioco empio e profano Saravanda, e Ciaccona, il nuova Ispano.
Padre Mariana, who believed in its Spanish origin, says that its invention was one of the disgraces of the nation, and other authors attribute its invention directly to the devil. The dance was attacked by Cervantes and Guevara, and defended by Lope de Vega, but it seems to have been so bad that at the end of the reign of Philip II. it was for a time suppressed. It was soon, however, revived in a purer form and was introduced at the French court in 1588’ (Grove 3. 226-7).
In England the saraband was soon transformed into an ordinary country-dance. Two examples are to be found in the first edition of Playford’s Dancing Master, and Sir John Hawkins (Hist. of the Science and Practice of Music, 1776) speaks of it several times. ‘Within the memory of persons now living,’ he says, a Saraband danced by a Moor was constantly a part of the entertainment at a puppet-show’ (4. 388). In another place (2. 135), in speaking of the use of castanets at a puppet-show, he says: ‘That particular dance called the Saraband is supposed to require as a thing of necessity, the music, if it may be called so, of this artless instrument.’