58. Gleemen's Dance.—IX. Century.
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.
59. Dancing to a Bear.
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.