with refrain, or chorus, as before, and imitative actions.”
[813]. Lucian, in his treatise on the dance, is no authority for primitive dancing and refrain; but it is noteworthy that he gives such an exhortation as a kind of refrain. “The song that they sing as they dance,” he says of the Lacedæmonians, § 11, “is an invitation to Venus and the loves.... One of these songs is a lesson in dancing (!): ‘On,’ they sing, ‘young people, stretch your legs and dance your best.’”
[814]. Coussemaker, I. 328; Firmenich, I. 380, IV. 679.
[815]. In the other version “nonnetje,” “nönneke,” little nun.
[816]. Bujeaud, Chants et Chansons ... de l’ouest, I. 88, from Poitou; reprinted by Crane, Chansons Populaires, pp. 87 ff. See a similar song, Crane, pp. 162 ff.; many more could be instanced, and some have been already named.
[817]. Waitz, Anthropologie, VI. 606.
[818]. Vore Folkeviser, pp. 75-112, “Omkvaedet.” Geijer denied that the refrain is necessary to a ballad, but Steenstrup’s argument is convincing; out of 502 Scandinavian ballads which he examined, not more than 20 lacked a refrain. The ballads in Child’s collection point the same way, at least for the older and shorter ballads; the Gest, of course, and others of that sort, as well as broadside copies, have passed from the lyrical stage. But even these must go back to an earlier song with a refrain. Of the two-line ballads, the older form, there are 31, and of these only 7 lack the refrain in their present form. Of the 305 ballads in the collection, 106 in at least one version show evidence of refrain or chorus,—more than a third; while of some 1250 versions in all, about 300 have the refrain. This count was made very carefully by Mr. C. H. Carter, of Haverford College. Of course, Wolf had long since proved that the refrain is characteristic of all early poetry in the vernacular, and played a leading part in popular verse everywhere, from its first collection in the fifteenth century down to the present time. See his Lais, pp. 27, 191.
[819]. “Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft,” Schriften, III., pp. 87, 89. See also Ribot, Psychology of the Emotions, p. 334, who calls dancing the “primordial art,” and shows that here is the transition from mere movement to æsthetic activity.
[820]. Geschichte des Tanzes, p. 4. This is the best treatise on the subject, though mainly confined to Germany. A History of Dancing from the Earliest Ages ... from the French of Gaston Vuillier, with a Sketch of Dancing in England, by Joseph Grego, London, 1898, is of scant use for the student of origins and development. Dancing “was probably unknown to the earliest ages of humanity,” a bold assertion, is followed by another, that “it is certain that dancing was born with man.” Information of value can be found, however, on special topics; e.g. on the branle, p. 100, and its connection with children’s games.
[821]. Sociology, II. 123.