'Leadeth a daunce with her long watery traine
'Down to the Sea; she wries to euery hand,
'And euery way doth crosse the fertile plaine;
'But when at last shee falls into the maine,
'Then all her trauerses concluded are,
'And with the Sea her course is circulare.
[Footnote 225: This interprets 'Nosce Teipsum,' Reason II, st. 1, page
86 _ante_.]
64.
'Thus when at first Loue had them marshallèd,
'As earst he did the shapeless masse of things,
'He taught them _rounds_ and _winding heyes_ to tread,
'And about trees to cast themselues in rings:
'As the two Beares, whom the First Mouer flings
'With a short turn about heauen's axeltree,
'In a round daunce for ever wheeling bee.
65.
'But after these, as men more ciuell grew,
'He did more graue and solemn measures frame,[226]
'With such faire order and proportion true,[227]
'And correspondence euery way the same,
'That no fault-finding eye did euer blame;
'For euery eye was mouèd at the sight
'With sober wondring, and with sweet delight.
[Footnote 226: Margin-Note here 'Measures.' G.]
[Footnote 227: In 1st edition spelled 'trew,' G.]
66.
'Not those yong[228] students of the heauenly booke,
'_Atlas_ the great, _Promethius_ the wise,
'Which on the starres did all their life-time looke,
'Could euer finde such measures in the skies,
'So full of change and rare varieties;
'Yet all the feete whereon these measures goe,
'Are only spondeis, solemne, graue and sloe.
[Footnote 228: In 1st edition 'old': 'young' in 1622 must be a
misprint, unless used in the grand meaning of SIR THOMAS
BROWNE. In 1622 it is mis-spelled 'youg.' G.]
67.
'But for more diuers and more pleasing show,
'A swift and wandring daunce she did inuent,
'With passages vncertaine to and fro,
'Yet with a certaine answer and consent
'To the quicke musicke of the instrument.[229]
'Fiue was the number of the Musick's feet,
'Which still the daunce did with fiue paces meet.
[Footnote 229: Margin-Note here 'Galliards.' G.]
68.
'A gallant daunce, that lively doth bewray
'A spirit and a vertue masculine;
'Impatient that her house on earth should stay
'Since she her selfe is fiery and diuine;
'Oft doth she make her body vpward fline[230],
'With lofty turnes and capriols[231] in the ayre,
'Which with the lusty tunes accordeth faire.
[Footnote 230: In 1st edition spelled 'flyne': A.S. 'to fly.' G.]
[Footnote 231: A 'capriole' is a 'lady's head-dress' (Wright): but here
seems to mean 'springings and turnings': degenerated into 'capers' at
this later day. G.]
69.
'What shall I name those currant trauases,[232]
'That on a triple _dactile_ foot doe runne
'Close by the ground with sliding passages,
'Wherein that Dauncer greatest praise hath wonne
'Which with best order can all orders shunne;
'For euery where he wantonly must range,
'And turne, and wind, with vnexpected change.
[Footnote 232: Margin-Note here, 'Courantoes.' G.]
70.
'Yet is there one, the most delightfull kind,
'A loftie iumping, or a leaping round;[233]
'Where arme in arme two dauncers are entwind
'And whirle themselues with strict embracements bound,
'And still their feet an _anapest_ do sound;
'An _anapest_ is all their musick's song,
'Whose first two feet are short, and third is long.
[Footnote 233: Margin-Note here, 'Lavoltaes.' G.]
71.
'As the victorious _twinnes_ of _Læda_ and _Ioue_
'That taught the Spartans dauncing on the sands
'Of swift _Eurotas_, daunce in heaun aboue,
'Knit and vnited with eternall hands;
'Among the starres their double image stands,
'Where both are carried with an equall pace,
'Together iumping in their turning race.
72.
'This is the net wherein the Sunn's bright eye
'_Venus_ and _Mars_ entangled did behold;
'For in this daunce, their armes they so imply[234]
'As each doth seeme the other to enfold;
'What if lewd wits another tale haue told
'Of iealous _Vulcan_, and of yron chaynes?
'Yet this true sence that forgèd lye containes.
[Footnote 234: There is a misprint of 'employ' in Thomas Davies'
edition, as before. G.]
73.
'These various formes of dauncing, Loue did frame
'And beside these, a hundred millions moe;
'And as he did inuent, he taught the same,
'With goodly iesture, and with comly show,
'Now keeping state, now humbly honoring low:
'And euer for the persons and the place
'He taught most fit and best according grace.[235]
[Footnote 235: Margin-Note here 'Grace in dauncing.' G.]
74.
'For Loue, within his fertile working braine
'Did[236] then conceiue those gracious Virgins three;
'Whose ciuell moderation does maintaine
'All decent order and conueniencie,
'And faire respect, and seemlie modestie;
'And then he thought it fit they should be borne,
'That their sweet presence dauncing might adorne.
[Footnote 236: In the errata of 1622 edition 'doo' is substituted for
'did,' itself a misprint, perhaps, for 'does.' G.]
75.
'Hence is it that these _Graces_ painted are
'With hand in hand dauncing an endlesse round;
'And with regarding eyes, that still beware
'That there be no disgrace amongst them found;
'With equall foote they beate the flowry ground,
'Laughing, or singing, as their passions will:
'Yet nothing that they doe becomes them ill.
76.
'Thus Loue taught men, and men thus learnd of Loue
'Sweet Musick's sound with feet to counterfaite;
'Which was long time before high thundering _Ioue_
'Was lifted vp to Heauen's imperiall seat;
'For though by birth he were the Prince of _Creete_,
'Nor _Creet_, nor Heau'n should the yong Prince haue seen,
'If dancers with their timbrels had not been.
77.
'Since when all ceremonious misteries,
'All sacred orgies and religious rights,[237]
'All pomps, and triumphs, and solemnities,
'All funerals, nuptials, and like publike sights,
'All Parliaments of peace, and warlike fights,
'All learnèd arts, and euery great affaire
'A liuely shape of dauncing seemes to beare.[238]
[Footnote 237: 'Rites.' G.]
[Footnote 238: Margin-Note here, 'The use and formes of dauncing in
sundry affaires of man's life.' G.]
78.
'For what did he who with his ten-tong'd lute
'Gaue beasts and blocks an vnderstanding eare?
'Or rather into bestiall minds and brute
'Shed and infus'd the beames of reason cleare?
'Doubtlesse for men that rude and sauage were
'A ciuill forme of dauncing he deuis'd,
'Wherewith vnto their gods they sacrifiz'd.
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 eares fast chaynèd to his tongue
'And _Theseus_ to his wood-borne slaues among,
'Vs'd dauncing as the finest policie
'To plant religion and societie.
80.
'And therefore now the Thracian _Orpheus_ lire
'And _Hercules_ him selfe are stellified;[239]
'And in high heau'n amidst the starry quire,
'Dauncing their parts continually doe slide;
'So on the Zodiake _Ganimed_ doth ride,
'And so is _Hebe_ with the Muses nine
'For pleasing _Ioue_ with dauncing, made diuine.
[Footnote 239: Made stellæ=stars or constellations. G.]
81.
'Wherefore was _Proteus_ sayd himselfe to change
'Into a streame, a lyon, and a tree;
'And many other formes fantastique, strange,
'As in his fickle thought he wisht to be?
'But that he daunc'd with such facilitie,
'As like a lyon he could pace with pride,
'Ply like a plant, and like a riuer slide.
82.
'And how was _Cæneus_[240] made at first a man,
'And then a woman, then a man againe,
'But in a daunce? which when he first began
'Hee the man's part in measure did sustaine:
'But when he chang'd into a second straine,
'He daunc'd the woman's part another space,
'And then return'd into his former place.
[Footnote 240: Virgil, Æneid VI., 448, calls him Cænis:
.... 'et juvenis quondam, nunc femina, Cænis,
Rursus et in veterem fato revoluta figuram.'
He is mentioned again in Homer, Iliad I. 264. G.]
83.
'Hence sprang the fable of _Tiresias_,
'That he the pleasure of both sexes tryde;
'For in a daunce he man and woman was
'By often chaunge of place from side to side;
'But for the woman easily did slide
'And smoothly swim with cunning hidden art,
'He tooke more pleasure in a woman's part.
84.
'So to a fish _Venus_ herselfe did change,[241]
'And swimming through the soft and yeelding waue,
'With gentle motions did so smoothly range,
'As none might see where she the water draue;
'But this plaine truth that falsèd fable gaue,
'That she did daunce with slyding easines,
'Plyant and quick in wandring passages.
[Footnote 241: _Met._ III., 320, &c., &c. G.]
85.
'And merry _Bacchus_ practis'd dauncing to[o],
'And to the Lydian numbers,[242] rounds did make:
'The like he did in th' Easterne India doo,
'And taught them all when _Ph[oe]bus_ did awake,
'And when at night he did his coach[243] forsake:
'To honor heaun, and heau'ns great roling eye
'With turning daunces, and with melodie.
[Footnote 242: Cf. L'Allegro 'Lap me in soft Lydian airs.' (l 136.) G.]
[Footnote 243: Qu: couch? G.]
86.
'Thus they who first did found a Common-weale,
'And they who first Religion did ordaine,
'By dauncing, first the peoples hearts did steale:
'Of whom we now a thousand tales doe faine;
'Yet doe we now their perfect rules retaine
'And vse them stil in such deuises new,
'As in the World, long since their withering, grew.
87.
'For after townes and kingdomes founded were,
'Betweene greate States arose well-ordered War;
'Wherein most perfect measure doth appeare,
'Whether their well-set rankes respected are
'In quadrant forme or semicircular:
'Or else the march, when all the troups aduance,
'And to the drum, in gallant order daunce.
88.
'And after Warrs, when white-wing'd Victory
'Is with a glorious tryumph beautified,
'And euery one doth _Io Io_ cry,
'Whiles all in gold the conquerour doth ride;
'The solemne pompe that fils the Citty wide
'Obserues such ranke and measure euerywhere,
'As if they altogether dauncing were.
89.
'The like iust order mourners doe obserue,
'(But with vnlike affection and atire)
'When some great man that nobly did deserue,
'And whom his friends impatiently desire,
'Is brought with honour to his latest fire:[244]
'The dead corps too in that sad daunce is mou'd
'As if both dead and liuing, dauncing lou'd.
[Footnote 244: Incremation. G.]
90.
'A diuers cause, but like solemnitie
'Vnto the Temple leads the bashfull bride:
'Which blusheth like the Indian iuory
'Which is with dip of Tyrian purple died;
'A golden troope doth passe on euery side,
'Of flourishing young men and virgins gay,
'Which keepe faire measure all the flowry way.
91.
'And not alone the generall multitude,
'But those choise _Nestors_ which in councell graue
'Of citties, and of kingdomes doe conclude,
'Most comly order in their sessions haue;
'Wherefore the wise Thessalians euer gaue
'The name of leader of their Countrie's daunce
'To him that had their Countrie's gouernance.
92.
'And those great masters of their liberall arts,
'In all their seurall Schooles doe Dauncing teach:
'For humble Grammer first doth set the parts
'Of congruent and well-according speach;
'Which Rethorike, whose state the clouds doth reach,
'And heau'nly Poetry, doe forward lead,
'And diuers measures diuersly doe tread.
93.
'For Rhetorick, clothing speech in rich aray
'In looser numbers teacheth her to range,
'With twenty tropes, and turnings euery way,
'And various figures and licencious change;
'But Poetry with rule and order strange,
'So curiously doth moue each single pace,
'As all is mard if she one foot misplace.
94.
'These Arts of speach, the guids and marshals are;
'But Logick leadeth Reason in a daunce:
'(Reason the cynosure and bright load-star,
'In this World's sea t' auoid the rock of Chaunce.)
'For with close following and continuance
'One reason doth another so ensue,[245]
'As in conclusion still the daunce is true.
[Footnote 245: Pursue or succeed. G.]
95.
'So Musicke to her owne sweet tunes doth trip
'With tricks of 3, 5, 8, 15, and more;
'So doth the Art of Numbering seeme to skip
'From eu'n to odd in her proportion'd score;
'So doe those skils, whose quick eyes doe explore
'The iust dimension both of Earth and Heau'n,
'In all their rules obserue a measure eu'n.
96.
'Loe this is Dauncing's true nobilitie,
'Dauncing, the child of Musicke and of Loue;
'Dauncing it selfe, both loue and harmony,
'Where all agree, and all in order moue;
'Dauncing, the Art that all Arts doe approue;
'The faire caracter of the World's consent,
'The Heau'ns true figure and th' Earth's ornament.
97.
The Queene, whose dainty eares had borne too long,
The tedious praise of that she did despise;
Adding once more the musicke of the tongue
To the sweet speech of her alluring eyes,
Began to answer in such winning wise,
As that forthwith _Antinous'_ tongu[e] was tyde,
His eyes fast fixt, his eares were open wide.
98.
'Forsooth (quoth she) great glory you haue won,
'To your trim minion, Dauncing, all this while,
'By blazing him Loue's first begotten sonne;
'Of euery ill the hateful father vile
'That doth the world with sorceries beguile;
'Cunningly mad, religiously prophane,
'Wit's monster, Reason's canker, Sence's bane.
99.
'Loue taught the mother that vnkinde desire
'To wash her hands in her owne infant's blood;
'Loue taught the daughter to betray her sire
'Into most base vnworthy seruitude;
'Loue taught the brother to prepare such foode
'To feast his brothers that the all-seeing sun
'Wrapt in a clowd, that wicked sight did shun.[246]
[Footnote 246: The Cenci of Shelley has 'married' this tragical crime
to 'immortal verse.' G.]
100.
'And euen this self same Loue hath dauncing taught,
'An Art that showes th' Idea of his minde
'With vainesse, frenzie, and misorder fraught;
'Sometimes with blood and cruelties vnkinde:
'For in a daunce, _Tereus'_ mad wife did finde
'Fit time and place by murther[247] of her sonne,
'T' auenge the wrong his trayterous sire had done.
[Footnote 247: In first edition, 'murthering.' G.]
101.
'What meane the mermayds when they daunce and sing
'But certaine death vnto the marriner?
'What tydings doe the dauncing dilphins[248] bring,
'But that some dangerous storme approcheth nere?
'Then sith both Loue and Dauncing lyueries beare
'Of such ill hap, vnhappy may I[249] proue,
'If sitting free I either daunce or loue.'
[Footnote 248: In first edition also spelled 'dilphins' = dolphins. G.]
[Footnote 249: In first edition, 'they.' G.]
102.
Yet once again _Antinous_ did reply;
'Great Queen, condemne not Loue[250] the innocent,
'For this mischeuous lust, which traterously
'Vsurps his name, and steales his ornament:
'For that true Loue which Dauncing did inuent,
'Is he that tun'd the World's whole harmony,
'And linkt all men in sweet societie.
[Footnote 250: Note here, 'True Loue inventor of dauncing.' G]
103.
'He first extracted from th' earth-mingled mind
'That heau'nly fire, or quintessence diuine,
'Which doth such simpathy in beauty find,
'As is betweene the elme and fruitful vine,
'And so to beauty euer doth encline;
'Life's[251] life it is, and cordiall to the heart,
'And of our better part, the better part.
[Footnote 251: Spelled 'Liues.' G.]
104.
'This _is true Loue_, by that true _Cupid_ got,
'Which daunceth galliards in your amorous eyes,
'But to your frozen hart approcheth not--
'Onely your hart he dares not enterprise;
'And yet through euery other part he flyes,
'And euery where he nimbly daunceth now,
'Though[252] in your selfe, your selfe perceiue not how.
[Footnote 252: Thomas Davies and Southey, as before, misprint
egregiously 'that.' G.]
105.
'For your sweet beauty daintily transfus'd
'With due proportion throughout euery part;
'What is it but a daunce where Loue hath vs'd
'His finer cunning, and more curious art?
'Where all the elements themselues impart,
'And turne, and wind, and mingle with such measure,
'That th' eye that sees it surfeits with the pleasure?
106.
'Loue in the twinckling of your eylids daunceth,
'Loue daunceth in your pulses and your vaines,
'Loue when you sow, your needle's point aduanceth
'And makes it daunce a thousand curious straines
'Of winding rounds, whereof the forme remaines;
'To shew, that your faire hands can daunce the hey,
'Which your fine feet would learne as well as they.
107.
'And when your iuory fingers touch the strings
'Of any siluer-sounding instrument;
'Loue makes them daunce to those sweete murmerings,
'With busie skill, and cunning excellent;
'O that your feet those tunes would represent
'With artificiall motions to and fro,
'That Loue this art in ev'ry part might sho[w]e!
108.
'Yet your faire soule, which came from heau'n aboue
'To rule thys house,--another heau'n below,--
'With diuers powers in harmony doth moue,
'And all the vertues that from her doe flow,
'In a round measure hand in hand doe goe:
'Could I now see, as I conceiue thys Daunce,
'Wonder and Loue would cast me in a traunce.
109.
'The richest iewell in all the heau'nly treasure
'That euer yet vnto the Earth was showne,
'Is perfect Concord, th' onely perfect pleasure[253]
'That wretched earth-borne men haue euer knowne,
'For many harts it doth compound in one;
'That when so one doth will, or speake, or doe,
'With one consent they all agree thereto.
[Footnote 253: Margin-Note here, 'Concord.' G.]
110.
'Concord's true picture shineth in this art,
'Where diuers men and women rankèd be,
'And euery one doth daunce a seuerall part,
'Yet all as one, in measure doe agree,
'Obseruing perfect vniformitie;
'All turne together, all together trace,
'And all together honour and embrace.
111.
'If they whom sacred Loue hath link't in one,
'Doe as they daunce, in all their course of life,
'Neuer shall burning griefe nor bitter mone,
'Nor factious difference, nor vnkind strife,
'Arise betwixt the husband and the wife;
'For whether forth or bake[254] or round he goe
As the man doth, so must the woman doe.
[Footnote 254: 'Back,' same as 'blake,' page 176, _ante_, for 'black.'
G.]
112.
'What if by often enterchange of place
'Sometime the woman gets the vpper hand?
'That is but done for more delightfull grace,
'For one[255] that part shee doth not euer stand;
'But, as the measure's law doth her command,
'Shee wheeles about, and ere the daunce doth end,
'Into her former place shee doth transcend.
[Footnote 255: = on. G.]
113.
'But not alone this correspondence meet
'And vniform consent doth dauncing praise;
'For _Comlines_ the child of order sweet,[2]
'Enamels it with her eye-pleasing raies;
'Fair Comlines, ten hundred thousand waies,
'Through dauncing shedds it selfe, and makes shine
'With glorious beauty, and with grace diuine.
114.
'For _Comliness_ is a disposing faire
'Of things and actions in fit time and place;
'Which doth in dauncing shew it selfe most cleere,
'When troopes confus'd, which here and there doe trace
'Without distinguishment or bounded space:
'By dauncing's rule, into such ranks are brought,
'As glads the eye, as rauisheth the thought.
115.
'Then why should Reason iudge that reasonles
'Which is wit's ofspring, and the worke of art,
'Image of concord and of comlines?
'Who sees a clock mouing in euery part,
'A sayling pinnesse,[256] or a wheeling cart;
'But thinks that Reason, ere it came to passe
'The first impulsiue cause and mouer was?
[Footnote 256: In first edition, spelled 'pinnesse' also, = pinnace. G.]
116.
'Who sees an Armie all in ranke aduance,
'But deemes a wise Commaunder is in place,
'Which leadeth on that braue victorious daunce?
'Much more in Dauncing's Art, in Dauncing's grace,
'Blindnes it selfe may Reason's footstep trace;
'_For of Loue's maze it is the curious plot,
'And of Man's fellowship the true-love knot_.
117.
'But if these eyes of yours, (load-starrs of Loue,
'Shewing the World's great daunce to your mind's eye!)
'Cannot with all their demonstrations moue
'Kinde apprehension in your fantasie,
'Of Dauncing's vertue, and nobilitie;
'How can my barbarous tongue win you there to,
'Which Heau'n and Earth's faire speech could neuer do?
118.
'O Loue my king: if all my wit and power
'Haue done you all the seruice that they can,
'O be you present in this present hower,
'And help your seruant and your true Leige-man
'End that perswasion which I earst began;
'For who in praise of Dauncing can perswade
'With such sweet force as Loue, which Dancing made?
119.
Loue heard his prayer, and swifter then the wind,
Like to a page, in habit, face, and speech,
He came, and stood _Antinous_ behind,
And many secrets to his thoughts did teach;[257]
At last a christall mirrour he did reach
Vnto his hands, that he with one rash view,
All formes therein by Loue's reuealing knew.
[Footnote 257: Margin-Note here, 'A passage to the description of
dauncing in this age.' G.]
120.
And humbly honouring, gaue it to the Queene
With this faire speech: 'See fairest Queene (quoth he)
'The fairest sight that euer shall be seene,
'And th' onely wonder of posteritie,
'The richest worke in Nature's treasury;
'Which she disdaines to shew on this World's stage,
'And thinkes it far too good for our rude age.
121.
'But in another World diuided far:
'In the great, fortunate, triangled Ile,
'Thrise twelue degrees remou'd from the North star,
'She will this glorious workemanship compile;
'Which she hath beene conceiuing all this while
'Since the World's birth, and will bring forth at last,
'When sixe and twenty hundred yeares are past.'
122.
_Penelope_, the Queene, when she had view'd
The strang eye-dazeling, admirable sight,
Faine would have praisd the state and pulchritude,
But she was stricken dumbe with wonder quite,
Yet her sweet minde retain'd her thinking might;
Her rauisht minde in heaunly thoughts did dwel,
But what she thought, no mortall tongue can tel.
123.
You lady Muse, whom _Ioue_ the Counsellour
Begot of Memorie, Wisdom's treasuresse;
To your diuining tongue is giuen a power
Of vttering secrets large and limitlesse:
You can _Penelope's_ strange thoughts expresse
Which she conceiu'd, and then would faine haue told,
When shee the wond'rous christall did behold.
124.
Her wingèd thoughts bore vp her minde so hie,
As that she weend shee saw the glorious throne
Where the bright moone doth sit in maiesty:
A thousand sparkling starres about her shone,
But she herselfe did sparkle more alone
Then all those thousand beauties would haue done
If they had been confounded all in one.
125.
And yet she thought those stars mou'd in such measure.
To do their soueraigne honor and delight,
As sooth'd her minde, with sweet enchanting plesure,
Although the various change amaz'd her sight,
And her weake iudgement did entangle quite;
Beside, their mouing made them shine more cleare,
As diamonds mou'd more sparkling do appeare.
126.
This was the picture of her wondrous thought;
But who can wonder that her thought was so,
Sith _Vulcan_ king of fire that mirror wrought,
(Who things to come, present, and past, doth know)
And there did represent in liuely show
Our glorious English Courts diuine image,
As it should be in this our Golden Age.
* * * * *
_Here are wanting some Stanzaes describing Queene Elizabeth. Then
follow these._
127.
Her brighter dazeling beames of maiestie
Were laid aside, for she vouchsaft awhile
With gracious, cheerefull, and familiar eye
Vpon the reuels of her Court to smile;
For so Time's Iourneis she doth oft beguile:
Like sight no mortall eye might elsewhere see,
So full of State, Art, and varietie.
128.
For of her barons braue, and ladies faire,--
Who had they been elsewhere, most faire had been;
Many an incomparable louely payre,
With hand in hand were interlinkèd seene,
Making faire honour to their soueraigne Queene;
Forward they pac'd, and did their pace apply
To a most sweet and solemne melody.
129.
So subtile and curious was the measure,
With such[258] vnlookt for chaunge in euery straine;
As that _Penelope_ rapt with sweet pleasure,
Weend[259] shee beheld the true proportion plaine
Of her owne webb, weaud and unweaud againe;
But that her art was somewhat lesse she thought,
And on a meere ignoble subiect wrought.
[Footnote 258: Thomas Davies, as before, drops 'such.' G.]
[Footnote 259: Thomas Davies and Southey misread 'when.' G.]
130.