[842]. Described by Mr. Arthur Symons in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, March, 1901, p. 503.
[843]. Pfannenschmid, Germ. Erntef., p. 400.
[845]. See the suggestive treatment of this subject by Posnett, Comparative Literature, pp. 117 ff., with his references to Réville and Burnouf.
[846]. Silius Italicus, naming the troops which Hannibal led out of winter quarters, comes to the Gallician contingent, and describes their youth—
barbara nunc patriis ululantem carmina linguis,
nunc, pedis alterno percussa verbere terra,
ad numerum resonas gaudentem plaudere caetras.
Lemaire (Bib. Class. Lat., Sil. Ital. Punic., III. 345 ff.), explains this as a heroic ballad which the soldiers sing, as they dance and strike their shields, when going into battle. He refers to the classical passages for this as well as for the Pyrrhic dance; but see note at the end of this chapter. The perhaps similar custom of the Germans, noted by Tacitus, is treated in a masterly way by Müllenhoff. See the next note but one.
[847]. Pantomime, as early form of dance leading to poetry and drama, was noted by Adam Smith, Essays, p. 151. For older literature, see Blankenburg, Zusätze, I. 153 ff. Erotic dances were exaggerated by Scherer into the protoplasm of all poetry, Poetik, pp. 83, 114; and are more moderately treated by Hirn, Förstudier, pp. 88 ff., and Grosse, Anf. d. Kunst, pp. 21 ff. It is a developed art, of course, that Lucian has in mind in his treatise on the dance. See, however, Lucian, §§ 36, 63, 65.