Politeuphuia VVits common wealth.

Of Dauncing.

Defi. Dauncing is an actiue motion of the bo∣die, which proceedeth from the lightnesse of the hart; iudicially obseruing the true time and measure of musicke.

TIme & Dauncing are twinnes, begot to∣gether; Time, the first borne, beeing the measure of all mouing, & dauncing the mo∣uing of all in measure.

Dauncing is loues proper exercise.

Dauncing is the child of musick & loue.

Dauncing lyke Loue his Sire, whom payn∣ters make a boy, euer flourisheth in lustie youth.

Loue brought foorth the three Graces, vvith hande in hande, dauncing an endlesse round, and with regarding eyes, that still be∣ware that there be no disgrace found among them.

Ganimede, Hebe, and the nine Muses, ryde on the Zodiack for pleasing loue vvith daun∣cing.

Bacchus taught the people of East-India, to honour heauen, and heauens great rouling eye with daunces.

Duncing is the faire character of the worlds consent, the heauens great figure, and the earths ornament.

The virgins of Basill, on the festiuall dayes, vse to daunce publiquely, without the com∣pany and leading of men, and to sing chast songs. And by this meanes effeminacie, idle∣nes, and lasciuiousnesse beeing auoyded, they become the mothers of vvell knit and manly chyldren. Ramus.

King Dauid, to shew his cheerefull hart for the returne of the Arke, daunced before it.

Pirrhus play, which he inuented in Creete for the souldiours to exercise themselues in Armes, wherein he taught diuers iestures, and sundry shyfts in mouings, whence first pro∣ceeded much the vse of warres, was a kinde of dauncing in Armes, as Dionisius Halicar∣nassaeus in his 7. booke testifieth.

The Ethiopians vsed songs of diuers tunes, and dauncing before they went to warres.

The dauncing of Herodias daughter, cost Iohn Baptist his head.

Progne the wife of Tereus, in a daunce dyd finde fit time and place to murther her sonne Itis.

VVhen the Mermaides daunce and sing, they meane certaine death to the Marriner.

VVhen the Dolphins daunce, some dan∣gerous storme approcheth.

The soberer and wiser sort among the hea∣then, haue vtterly disliked dauncing; and a∣mong the olde Romaines it was counted a shame to daunce.

Dauncing is the chiefest instrument of ry∣ot and excesse. Salust.

No man beeing well in his wits wil daunce, neyther will an honest man daunce openlie, if he might get thereby very great inheritance. Cicero.

Semphronia a Romaine Lady, although for∣tunate in husband & chyldren, & famous for her knowledge in learning, yet was blemished with note of lasciuiousnes, for more then ne∣cessary expertnes in footing a daunce.

Plato and Aristippus beeing inuited to a ban∣quet of Dionisius, & being both by him com∣maunded to array themselues in purple, and to daunce, Plato refused with thys aunswere, I am borne a man, and know not how to de∣meane my selfe in such vvomanish effemina∣cie. Aristippus arrayed himselfe in purple, & prepared himselfe to daunce with thys aun∣swere, At the solemnities of our Father Liber, a chast minde knoweth not hovve to be cor∣rupted.

Clisthenes King of Sicyon, hauing a daugh∣ter marrigeable, commaunded that it should bee proclaimed at the games of Olympus, that he that would bee counted Clisthenes son in lawe, shoulde within threescore dayes re∣paire to Sicyon. VVhen many wooers had mette together, Hippoclides the Athenian, sonne of Tisander seemed the fittest, but when as hee had trode the Laconique and Attique measures, and had personated them with hys legs and armes, Clisthenes stomaking it, sayd, O thou sonne of Tisander, thou hast daun∣ced away thy marriage.

Albertus the Emperour, father of Ladislaus, was wont to say, that hunting was the exer∣cise of a man, but dauncing, of a woman.

Fredericke the thirde Emperour of Rome, would often vse to say, that hee had rather be sicke of a burning Feauer, then giue himselfe to dauncing.

Alphonsus that most puisant King of Ara∣gon and Sicily, was wont to taxe the French men of great lightnes, who the more aunci∣cient in yeres they waxed, the more they de∣lighted themselues vvith vaine and franticke dauncing.

The same Alphonsus, when he had beheld a woman daunce very lasciuiously and impu∣dently,

Behold, quoth hee, by and by Sybilla will deliuer an Oracle. Hee reputing daun∣cing to be a kinde of franticknes; Sybilla the prophetesse neuer yeelding any Oracle, ex∣cept possessed first with a surie.

The same noble King, hearing that Sci••io vvas vvont to recreate himselfe with daun∣cing, sayd; that a dauncer dyd differ nothing from a madde man, but onely in the length of time, the one being mad so long as he liueth, the other, whilst he daunceth. Alphon.

VVhen the same King was reprooued, that albeit hee had so much abhorred dauncing, yet was seene openly dauncing at the enter∣tainement of Fredericke the third, in the com∣pany of the Emperour and Leonor•• Augusta, he aunswered, that hee that daunced, beeing prouoked by lasciuiousnes and wantonnesse, was worthily to be esteemed a foole & fran∣tick, but if it was done for honours sake, hee escaped some part of reprehension, because some-times it seemeth a decorum to be fran∣ticke, and doate with great estates.

The Roma••nes, Lace d••monians, and other well ordered Common-weales, banished out of their Countries all vaine pleasures, and a∣boue all, dauncing, as seruing to none other vse but to effeminate young men, and to

allure them to vice.

No man daunceth, except he be drunke or mad. Tully.

The vertuous Matrons by dauncing, haue oftentimes lost theyr honours which before they had long nourished; and virgins by it, learne that which they had beene better ne∣uer to haue knowne. Petrarch.

Tully finding fault vvith an enemie of his, called him in derision a braue dauncer.

They which loue dancing too much, seeme to haue more braines in their wit then theyr head, and thinke to play the fooles with rea∣son. Terence.

A lamentable tune is the sweetest musick to a wosull minde. S. P. S.

Musick is the sweet meat of sorrow. S. P. S.

Men of auntient time haue named daunces allurings, poysonings, and inticements of sa∣than; who by these meanes corrupteth vs. In the Sea of histories, mention is made of an Archbishop of Magdebourg, vvho broke his neck dauncing with a dam••ell.

Hee daunceth vvell to vvhom Fortune py∣peth

The Egiptians, Thratians, and Scythians, accounted dauncing amongst theyr holy ce∣remonies, first appoynted by Orpheus and

Museus who excelled in that kind.

The Romaines had certaine priests, called Salij, vvhich daunced in the honor of Mars.

The Grecians learned to daunce of Castor and Pollux, and vsed to dispatch theyr busi∣nesse dauncing.

Socrates which vvas pronounced by the O∣racle of Apollo to bee the vvisest man in all Greece, was not ashamed in his olde age to learne to daunce: extolling dauncing vvith wonderfull prayses.

Dauncing by an old auncient custom may be vsed, so as a man in the exercise therof be∣haue himselfe modestly, and not like vnto a madde man.

The Sirians before they met their enemies, woulde sing Ballades, and solace themselues with dauncing.

It is necessary that our footesteps be aswell ruled as our words ought to be.

God threatned the daughters of Syon, for that they went winding and prauncing, ma∣king theyr steps to be heard againe.

Apud antiquos tanto in precio habita est sal∣tatio, vt populi presides et antesignani presaltato∣rum nomine honorarentur.

Saltatio non ad pudicas, sed ad adulteras per∣tinet.