The ear's sole happiness, the Air's best speech,
Loadstone of fellowship, Charming rod of strife,
The soft mind's Paradise, the sick mind's Leech,
With thine own tongue, thou trees and stones canst teach,
That when the Air doth dance her finest measure.
Then art thou born, the gods' and men's sweet pleasure._"
47.
"_Lastly, where keep the Winds their revelry,
Their violent turnings, and wild whirling Hayes;
But in the Air's tralucent gallery?
Where she herself is turned a hundred ways,
While with those Maskers, wantonly she plays.
Yet in this misrule, they such rule embrace
As two, at once, encumber not the place._
48.
"_If then Fire, Air, Wandering and Fixed Lights,
In every province of th' imperial sky,
Yield perfect forms of Dancing to your sights;
In vain I teach the ear, that which the eye,
With certain view, already doth descry;
But for your eyes perceive not all they see,
In this, I will your senses' master be._
49.
"_For lo, the Sea that fleets about the land,
And like a girdle clips her solid waist,
Music and Measure both doth understand
For his great Crystal Eye is always cast
Up to the Moon, and on her fixèd fast;
And as she danceth, in her pallid sphere,
So danceth he about the centre here._
50.
"_Sometimes his proud green waves, in order set,
One after other, flow unto the shore;
Which when they have with many kisses wet,
They ebb away in order, as before:
And to make known his Courtly Love the more,
He oft doth lay aside his three-forked mace,
And with his arms the timorous Earth embrace._
51.
"_Only the Earth doth stand for ever still:
Her rocks remove not, nor her mountains meet_
(_Although some wits enriched with learning's skill,
Say 'Heaven stands firm, and that the Earth doth fleet,
And swiftly turneth underneath their feet'_);
_Yet, though the Earth is ever steadfast seen,
On her broad breast hath Dancing ever been._
52.
"_For those blue veins, that through her body spread;
Those sapphire streams which from great hills do spring,_
(_The Earth's great dugs! for every wight is fed
With sweet fresh moisture from them issuing_)
_Observe a Dance in their wild wandering;
And still their Dance begets a murmur sweet,
And still the Murmur with the Dance doth meet._
53.
"_Of all their ways, I love Mæander's path;
Which, to the tunes of dying swans, doth dance
Such winding slights. Such turns and tricks he hath,
Such creeks, such wrenches, and such daliance
That (whether it be hap or heedless chance)
In his indented course and wringing play,
He seems to dance a perfect cunning Hay._
54.
"_But wherefore do these streams for ever run?
To keep themselves for ever sweet and clear;
For let their everlasting course be done,
They straight corrupt and foul with mud appear.
O ye sweet Nymphs, that beauty's loss do fear,
Contemn the drugs that physic doth devise;
And learn of LOVE, this dainty exercise._
55.
"_See how those flowers, that have sweet beauty too,
The only jewels that the EARTH doth wear
When the young SUN in bravery her doth woo_)
_As oft as they the whistling wind do hear,
Do wave their tender bodies here and there:
And though their dance no perfect measure is;
Yet oftentimes their music makes them kiss._
56.
"_What makes the Vine about the Elm to dance
With turnings, windings, and embracements round?
What makes the loadstone to the North advance
His subtle point, as if from thence he found
His chief attractive virtue to redound?
Kind Nature, first, doth cause all things to love;
Love makes them dance, and in just order move._
57.
"_Hark how the birds do sing! and mark then how,
Jump with the modulation of their lays,
They lightly leap, and skip from bough to bough;
Yet do the cranes deserve a greater praise,
Which keep such measure in their airy ways:
As when they all in order rankèd are,
They make a perfect form triangular._
58.
"_In the chief angle, flies the watchful guide;
And all the followers their heads do lay
On their foregoers' backs, on either side:
But, for the Captain hath no rest to stay
His head forwearied with the windy way,
He back retires; and then the next behind,
As his Lieutenant, leads them through the wind._
59.
"_By why relate I every singular?
Since all the world's great fortunes and affairs
Forward and backward rapt and whirlèd are,
According to the music of the spheres;
And Chance herself her nimble feet upbears
On a round slippery wheel, that rolleth aye,
And turns all states with her impetuous sway._
60.
"_Learn then to dance you, that are princes born
And lawful Lords of earthly creatures all;
Imitate them, and thereof take no scorn,
For this new Art to them is natural.
And imitate the stars celestial;
For when pale Death your vital twist shall sever,
Your better parts must dance with them for ever._"
61.
_Thus LOVE persuades, and all the crowd of men
That stands around, doth make a murmuring,
As when the wind, loosed from his hollow den,
Among the trees a gentle bass doth sing;
Or as a brook, through pebbles wandering:
But in their looks, they uttered this plain speech,_
"_That they would learn to dance, if LOVE would teach._"
62.
_Then, first of all, he doth demonstrate plain,
The motions seven that are in Nature found;
Upward and downward, forth and back again,
To this side, and to that, and turning round:
Whereof a thousand Brawls he doth compound,
Which he doth teach unto the multitude;
And ever, with a turn they must conclude._
63.
_As when a Nymph arising from the land,
Leadeth a dance, with her long watery train,
Down to the sea, she wries to every hand,
And every way doth cross the fertile plain;
But when, at last, she falls into the Main,
Then all her traverses concluded are,
And with the sea her course is circular._
64.
_Thus, when, at first, LOVE had them marshallèd,
(As erst he did the shapeless mass of things)
He taught them Rounds and winding Heyes to tread,
And about trees to cast themselves in rings:
As the two Bears, whom the First Mover flings
With a short turn about Heaven's Axle-tree,
In a round dance for ever wheeling be._
65.
_But after these, as men more civil grew,
He did more grave and solemn Measures frame;
With such fair order and proportion true,
And correspondence every way the same,
That no fault-finding eye did ever blame:
For every eye was movèd at the sight
With sober wondering, and with sweet delight._
66.
_Not those old students of the heavenly book,
ATLAS the great, PROMETHEUS the wise;
Which on the stars did all their lifetime look,
Could ever find such measures in the skies,
So full of change and rare varieties:
Yet all the feet whereon these measures go
Are only Spondees, solemn, grave, and slow._
67.
_But for more divers and more pleasing show,
A swift and wandering dance She did invent;
With passages uncertain, to and fro,
Yet with a certain Answer and Consent
To the quick music of the instrument.
Five was the number of the Music's feet;
Which still the Dance did with five paces meet._
68.
_A gallant Dance! that lively doth bewray
A spirit and a virtue masculine;
Impatient that her house on earth should stay,
Since she herself is fiery and divine.
Oft doth she make her body upward flyne
With lofty turns and caprioles in the air,
Which with the lusty tunes accordeth fair._
69.
_What shall I name those current travases,
That on a triple Dactyl foot, do run
Close by the ground, with sliding passages?
Wherein that dancer greatest praise hath won,
Which with best order can all orders shun;
For everywhere he wantonly must range.
And turn, and wind, with unexpected change._
70.
_Yet is there one, the most delightful kind,
A lofty jumping, or a leaping round,
When, arm in arm, two dancers are entwined,
And whirl themselves, with strict embracements bound,
And still their feet an Anapest do sound;
An Anapest is all their music's song,
Whose first two feet are short, and third is long._
71.
_As the victorious twins of LÆDA and JOVE,
(That taught the Spartans dancing on the sands
Of swift Eurotas) dance in heaven above,
Knit and united with eternal bands;
Among the stars their double image stands,
Where both are carried with an equal pace,
Together jumping in their turning race._
72.
_This is the net wherein the sun's bright eye
VENUS and MARS entangled did behold;
For in this dance their arms they so imply,
As each doth seem the other to enfold.
What if lewd wits another tale have told,
Of jealous VULCAN, and of iron chains?
Yet this true sense that forged lie contains._
73.
_These various forms of dancing LOVE did frame,
And besides these, a hundred millions moe;
And as he did invent, he taught the same:
With goodly gesture, and with comely show,
Now keeping state, now humbly honouring low.
And ever for the persons and the place,
He taught most fit, and best according grace._
74.
_For LOVE, within his fertile working brain,
Did then conceive those gracious Virgins three,
Whose civil moderation did maintain
All decent order and conveniency,
And fair respect, and seemly modesty:
And then he thought it fit they should be born,
That their sweet presence Dancing might adorn_.
75.
_Hence is it, that these Graces painted are
With hand in hand, dancing an endless round;
And with regarding eyes, that still beware
That there be no disgrace amongst them found:
With equal foot they beat the flowery ground,
Laughing, or singing, as their Passions will;
Yet nothing that they do, becomes them ill._
76.
_Thus LOVE taught men! and men thus learned of LOVE
Sweet Music's sound with feet to counterfeit:
Which was long time before high-thundering JOVE
Was lifted up to Heaven's imperial seat.
For though by birth he were the Prince of Crete,
Nor Crete nor Heaven should that young Prince have seen,
If dancers with their timbrels had not been._
77.
_Since when all ceremonious mysteries,
All sacred orgies and religious rites,
All pomps, and triumphs, and solemnities,
All funerals, nuptials, and like public sights,
All parliaments of peace, and warlike fights,
All learned arts, and every great affair,
A lively shape of Dancing seems to bear._
78.
_For what did he, who, with his ten-tongued Lute,
Gave beasts and blocks an understanding ear;
Or rather into bestial minds and brutes
Shed and infused the beams of Reason clear?
Doubtless, for men that rude and savage were,
A civil form of Dancing he devised,
Wherewith unto their gods they sacrificed._
79.
_So did MUSÆUS, so AMPHION did,
And LINUS with his sweet enchanting Song,
And he whose hand the earth of monsters rid,
And had men's ears fast chainèd to his tongue,
And THESEUS to his wood-born slaves among,
Used Dancing, as the finest policy
To plant Religion and Society._
80.
_And therefore, now, the Thracian ORPHEUS' lyre
And HERCULES himself are stellified,
And in high heaven, amidst the starry quire
Dancing their parts, continually do slide.
So, on the Zodiac, GANYMEDE doth ride,
And so is HEBE with the Muses nine,
For pleasing JOVE with dancing, made divine._
81.
_Wherefore was PROTEUS said himself to change
Into a stream, a lion, and a tree,
And many other forms fantastic strange,
As, in his fickle thought, he wished to be?
But that he danced with such facility,
As, like a lion, he could pace with pride,
Ply like a plant, and like a river slide._
82.
_And how was CŒNEUS made, at first, a man,
And then a woman, then a man again,
But in a Dance? which when he first began
He the man's part in measure did sustain:
But when he changed into a second strain,
He danced the woman's part another space;
And then returned unto his former place._
83.
_Hence sprang the fable of TIRESIAS,
That he the pleasure of both sexes tried;
For, in a dance, he man and woman was.
By often change of place, from side to side,
But, for the woman easily did slide,
And smoothly swim with cunning hidden Art,
He took more pleasure in a woman's part._
84.
_So to a fish VENUS herself did change,
And swimming through the soft and yielding wave,
With gentle motions did so smoothly range,
As none might see where she the water drave;
But this plain truth that falsèd fable gave,
That she did dance with sliding easiness,
Pliant and quick in wandering passages._
85.
_And merry BACCHUS practised dancing too,
And to the Lydian numbers Rounds did make.
The like he did in th' Eastern India do,
And taught them all, when PHŒBUS did awake,
And when at night he did his coach forsake,
To honour heaven, and heaven's great rolling eye,
With turning dances and with melody._
86.
_Thus they who first did found a Common weal,
And they who first Religion did ordain,
By dancing first the people's hearts did steal:
Of whom we now a thousand tales do feign.
Yet do we now their perfect rules retain,
And use them still in such devices new;
As in the world, long since, their withering grew._
87.
_For after Towns and Kingdoms founded were,
Between great states arose well-ordered war,
Wherein most perfect Measure doth appear:
Whether their well set Ranks respected are,
In quadrant forms or semicircular;
Or else the March, when all the troops advance,
Unto the drum in gallant order dance._
88.
_And after wars, when white-winged Victory
Is with a glorious Triumph beautified;
And every one doth Ιῶ! Ιῶ! cry,
While all in gold the Conqueror doth ride;
The solemn pomp, that fills the city wide,
Observes such Rank and Measure everywhere,
As if they altogether dancing were._
89.
_The like just order Mourners do observe,
But with unlike affection and attire,
When some great man, that nobly did deserve,
And whom his friends impatiently desire,
Is brought with honour to his latest fire.
The dead corpse, too, in that sad dance is moved
As if both dead and living dancing loved._
90.
_A diverse cause, but like solemnity,
Unto the Temple leads the bashful bride,
Which blusheth like the Indian ivory
Which is with dip of Tyrian purple dyed:
A golden troop doth pass on every side,
Of flourishing young men and virgins gay,
Which keep fair Measure all the flowery way._
91.
_And not alone the general multitude
But those choice NESTORS, which in counsel grave
Of cities and of kingdoms do conclude,
Most comely order in their sessions have;
Wherefore the wise Thessalians ever gave
The name of Leader of their Country's Dance
To him that had their country's governance._
92.
_And those great Masters of the liberal arts,
In all their several Schools, do Dancing teach;
For humble Grammar first doth set the parts
Of congruent and well according Speech,
Which Rhetoric, whose state the clouds doth reach,
And heavenly Poetry do forward lead,
And divers Measures diversely do tread._
93.
_For Rhetoric clothing Speech in rich array,
The looser numbers teacheth her to range
With twenty tropes, and turnings every way,
And various figures and licentious change:
But Poetry, with rule and order strange,
So curiously doth move each single pace
As all is marred if she one foot misplace._
94.
_These Arts of Speech the Guides and Marshals are,
But Logic leadeth Reason in a dance_
(_Reason, the Cynosure and bright Loadstar
_In this world's sea, t' avoid the rocks of Chance_),
For with close following, and continuance,
One reason doth another so ensue
As, in conclusion, still the Dance is true._
95.
_So Music to her own sweet tunes doth trip,
With tricks of_ 3, 5, 8, 15, _and more;
So doth the Art of Numbering seem to skip
From Even to Odd, in her proportioned score;
So do those skills, whose quick eyes do explore
The just dimension both of earth and heaven,
In all their rules observe a measure even._
96.
_Lo, this is Dancing's true nobility;
Dancing, the Child of Music and of Love;
Dancing itself, both Love and Harmony;
Where all agree, and all in order move;
Dancing, the art that all Arts doth approve;
The sure Character of the world's consent,
The heavens true figure, and th'earth's ornament._
97.
The Queen, whose dainty ears had borne too long
The tedious praise of that she did despise,
Adding once more the music of the tongue
To the sweet speech of her alluring eyes;
Began to answer in such winning wise
As that forthwith ANTINOUS' tongue was tied,
His eyes fast fixed, his ears were open wide.
98.
_Forsooth,_ quoth she, _great glory you have won
To your trim minion, Dancing, all this while,
By blazing him LOVE'S first begotten son,
Of every ill the hateful father vile,
That doth the world with sorceries beguile,
Cunningly mad, religiously profane,
Wit's monster, Reason's canker, Sense's bane._
99.
_LOVE taught the mother that unkind desire
To wash her hands in her own infants blood;
LOVE taught the daughter to betray her sire
Into most base unworthy servitude;
LOVE taught the brother to prepare such food
To feast his brothers that the all-seeing sun,
Wrapt in a cloud, the wicked sight did shun._
100.
_And even this self-same LOVE hath Dancing taught,
An Art that shewed th' Idea of his mind
With vainness, frenzy, and misorder fraught;
Sometimes with blood and cruelties unkind,
For in a dance TEREUS' mad wife did find
Fit time and place, by murdering her son,
T' avenge the wrong his traitorous sire had done._
101.
_What mean the Mermaids, when they dance and sing,
But certain death unto the mariner?
What tidings do the dancing Dolphins bring,
But that some dangerous storm approacheth near?
Then since both Love and Dancing liveries bear
Of such ill hap unhappy may they prove
That, sitting free, will either dance or love!_
102.
Yet, once again, ANTINOUS did reply,
_Great Queen! condemn not LOVE the innocent,
For this mischievous LUST, which traitorously
Usurps his Name, and steals his Ornament;
For that TRUE LOVE, which Dancing did invent,
Is he that tuned the world's whole harmony,
And linked all men in sweet society._
103.
_He first extracted from th' earth-mingled mind
That heavenly fire, or quintessence divine,
Which doth such sympathy in Beauty find
As is between the Elm and fruitful Vine,
And so to Beauty ever doth incline;
Life's life it is, and cordial to the heart,
And of our better part the better part._
104.
_This is True Love, by that true CUPID got;
Which danceth Galliards in your amorous eyes,
But to your frozen heart approacheth not;
Only your heart he dares not enterprise,
And yet through every other part he flies,
And everywhere he nimbly danceth now,
Though in yourself yourself perceive not how._
105.
_For your sweet beauty daintily transfused
With due proportion, throughout every part;
What is it but a dance where LOVE hath used
His finer cunning, and more curious Art?
Where all the Elements themselves impart,
And turn, and wind, and mingle with such measure
That th' eye that sees it surfeits with the pleasure._
106.
_LOVE in the twinkling of your eyelids danceth,
LOVE dances in your pulses and your veins,
LOVE, when you sew, your needle's point advanceth,
And makes it dance a thousand curious strains
Of winding rounds; whereof the form remains
To shew that your fair hands can dance the Hey,
Which your fine feet would learn as well as they._
107.
_And when your ivory fingers touch the strings
Of any silver-sounding instrument,
LOVE makes them dance to those sweet murmurings,
With busy skill and cunning excellent!
O that your feet, those tunes would represent
With artificial motions to and fro,
That LOVE this Art in every part might shew!_
108.
_Yet your fair soul, which came from heaven above
To rule this house_ (_another heaven below_)
_With divers powers in harmony doth move;
And all the virtues that from her do flow
In a round measure, hand in hand do go:
Could I now see, as I conceive this dance,
Wonder and Love would cast me in a trance._
109.
_The richest jewel in all the heavenly treasure,
That ever yet unto the earth was shown,
Is Perfect Concord th' only perfect pleasure,
That wretched earthborn men have ever known:
For many hearts it doth compound in one,
That what so one doth will, or speak, or do,
With one consent they all agree thereto._
110.
_Concord's true picture shineth in this Art
Where divers men and women rankèd be,
And every one doth dance a several part,
Yet all as one in measure do agree,
Observing perfect uniformity:
All turn together, all together trace,
And all together honour and embrace._
111.
_If they whom sacred Love hath linked in one,
Do, as they dance, in all their course of life;
Never shall burning grief nor bitter moan,
Nor factious difference, nor unkind strife,
Arise between the husband and the wife;
For whether forth, or back, or round he go,
As doth the man, so must the woman do._
112.
_What, if by often interchange of place,
Sometimes the woman gets the upper hand?
That is but done for more delightful grace,
For on that part, she doth not ever stand;
But, as the Measures' law doth her command,
She wheels about, and, ere the dance doth end,
Into her former place she doth transcend._
113.
_But not alone this correspondence meet
And uniform consent doth Dancing praise;
For Comeliness, the child of Order sweet,
Enamels it with her eye-pleasing rays:
Fair Comeliness, ten hundred thousand ways,
Through Dancing sheds itself, and makes it shine
With glorious beauty, and with grace divine._
114.
_For Comeliness is a disposing fair
Of things and actions in fit time and place;
Which doth in Dancing shew itself most clear
When troops confused, which here and there do trace,
Without distinguishment or bounded space,
By dancing rule, into such ranks are brought,
As glads the eye, and ravisheth the thought._
115.
_Then why should Reason judge that reasonless
Which is Wit's Offspring, and the work of Art,
Image of Concord, and of Comeliness?
Who sees a clock moving in every part,
A sailing pinnace, or a wheeling cart,
But thinks that Reason, ere it came to pass,
The first impulsive cause and mover was?_
116.
_Who sees an army all in rank advance,
But deems a wise Commander is in place,
Which leadeth on that brave victorious dance?
Much more in Dancing's Art, in Dancing's grace,
Blindness itself may Reason's footsteps trace;
For of Love's Maze it is the curious plot,
And of Man's Fellowship the true-love knot._
117.
_But if these eyes of yours (Loadstars of Love!
Shewing the world's great Dance to your mind's eye)
Cannot, with all their demonstrations, move
Kind apprehension in your Phantasy
Of Dancing's virtue and nobility;
How can my barbarous tongue win you thereto,
Which heaven's and earth's fair speech could never do?_
118.
_O LOVE! my King! If all my Wit and power
Have done you all the service that they can;
O be you present, in this present hour,
And help your servant and your true liegeman!
End that persuasion, which I erst began!
For who in praise of Dancing can persuade
With such sweet force, as LOVE, which Dancing made?_
119.
LOVE heard his prayer; and swifter than the wind,
(Like to a page in habit, face, and speech),
He came; and stood ANTINOUS behind,
And many secrets of his thoughts did teach.
At last a crystal Mirror he did reach
Unto his hands, that he with one rash view
All forms therein by LOVE'S revealing knew.
120.
And humbly honouring, gave it to the Queen,
With this fair speech, _See, fairest Queen!_ quoth he,
_The fairest sight that ever shall be seen,
And th' only wonder of posterity!
The richest work in Nature's treasury!
Which she disdains to shew on this world's stage,
And thinks it far too good for our rude age._
121.
_But in another world, divided far,
In the great fortunate triangled Isle,
Thrice twelve degrees removed from the North Star,
She will this glorious Workmanship compile,
Which she hath been conceiving all this while
Since the world's birth; and will bring forth at last,
When six and twenty hundred years are past._
122.
PENELOPE the Queen, when she had viewed
The strange eye-dazzling admirable sight,
Fain would have praised the State and Pulchritude;
But she was stricken dumb with wonder quite,
Yet her sweet mind retained her thinking might.
Her ravished mind in heavenly thoughts did dwell;
But what she thought, no mortal tongue can tell.
123.
You, Lady Muse, whom JOVE the Counsellor
Begot of MEMORY, Wisdom's Treasuress,
To your divining tongue is given a power
Of uttering secrets, large and limitless;
You can PENELOPE'S strange thoughts express;
Which she conceived, and then would fain have told,
When she the wondrous Crystal did behold.
124.
Her wingèd thoughts bore up her mind so high
As that she weened she saw the glorious throne,
Where the bright Moon doth sit in Majesty:
A thousand sparkling stars about her shone,
But she herself did sparkle more, alone,
Than all those thousand beauties would have done,
If they had been confounded all in one.
125.