An "Old Subscriber," who loves a friend and a jest's prosperity, has
sent us a few leaves of "The Dancing Master," printed in 1728, which
form a curious contrast with Mr. Lindsay's elegant treatise, printed at
Mr. Clowes's _musical_ office. What will some of the quadrillers say to
the following exquisite morsel of dancing, entitled, "The Old Maid in
Tears?"--"Longways for as many as will".--(then the notes, and the
following instructions:)--"Note: Each strain is to be play'd twice
ov'er.--The first wo. holds her handkerchief on her face, and goes on
the outside, below the 3d wo. and comes up the middle to her place;
first man follows her (at the same time pointing and smiling at her) up
to his place. First man do the same, only he beckons his wo. to him.
First woman makes a motion of drying first one eye, then the other, and
claps her hands one after another on her sides, (the first man looks
surprizingly at her at the same time,) and turn her partner. First cu.
move with two slow steps down the middle and back again. The first cu.
sett and cast off."
As we love to keep up the dance, if we are not leading the reader a
dance, we give _A Dance in Hoops_, as described in a fashionable novel,
just published:--
When the whole party was put in motion, but little trace of a regular
dance remained; all was a perfect maze, and the _cutting_ in and out (as
the fraternity of the whip would phrase it) of these cumbrous machines
presented to the mind only the figure of a most formidable affray.
The nearest assimilation to this strange exhibition of the dance in full
career, at all familiar to our minds, is the prancing of the
basket-horses in Mr. Peake's humorous farce of _Quadrupeds_.
An entertaining variety of appearance arose also from the conformity of
the steps to the diversified measure of the tune. The jig measure, which
corresponds to the _canter_ in a horse's paces, produced a strong
bounding up and down of the hoop--and the gavotte measure, which
corresponds to the short trot, produced a tremulous and agitated motion.
The numerous ornaments, also, with which the hoops were bespread and
decorated--the festoons--the tassels--the rich embroidery--all of a most
_catching_ and _taking_ nature, every now and then affectionately
hitched together in unpremeditated and close embrace. To the parties in
action, it is not difficult to suppose these combinations might prove
something short of perfectly agreeable, more especially, as on such
occasions as these, some of the fair daughters of our courtly belles
were undergoing the awful ordeal of a first ball-room appearance, on
whom these contingencies would inflict ten-fold embarrassment.--_The
Ball, or a Glance at Almack's in 1829._
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