Part 17 (1/2)
The Middle Ages was the great epoch for dancing, especially in France.
There were an endless number of dancing festivals, and, from reading the old poets and romancers, one might imagine that the French had never anything better to do than to dance, and that at all hours of the day and night. A curious argument in favour of the practical utility of dancing is suggested by Jean Tabourot in his ”Orchesographie,” published at Langres in 1588, under the name of Thoinot Arbeau. He says, ”Dancing is practised in order to see whether lovers are healthy and suitable for one another: at the end of a dance the gentlemen are permitted to kiss their mistresses, in order that they may ascertain if they have an agreeable breath. In this matter, besides many other good results which follow from dancing, it becomes necessary for the good governing of society.” Such was the doctrine of the Courts of Love, which stoutly took up the defence of dancing against the clergy. In those days, as soon as the two s.e.xes were a.s.sembled in sufficient numbers, before or after the feasts, the b.a.l.l.s began, and men and women took each other by the hand and commenced the performance in regular steps (Fig. 183). The author of the poem of Provence, called ”Flamenca,” thus allegorically describes these amus.e.m.e.nts: ”Youth and Gaiety opened the ball, accompanied by their sister Bravery; Cowardice, confused, went of her own accord and hid herself.” The troubadours mention a great number of dances, without describing them; no doubt they were so familiar that they thought a description of them needless. They often speak of the _danse au virlet_, a kind of round dance, during the performance of which each person in turn sang a verse, the chorus being repeated by all. In the code of the Courts of Love, ent.i.tled ”Arresta Amorum,” that is, the decrees of love, the _pas de Brabant_ is mentioned, in which each gentleman bent his knee before his lady; and also the _danse au chapelet_, at the end of which each dancer kissed his lady. Romances of chivalry frequently mention that knights used to dance with the dames and young ladies without taking off their helmets and coats of mail. Although this costume was hardly fitted for the purpose, we find, in the romance of ”Perceforet,” that, after a repast, whilst the tables were being removed, everything was prepared for a ball, and that although the knights made no change in their accoutrements, yet the ladies went and made fresh toilettes. ”Then,” says the old novelist, ”the young knights and the young ladies began to play their instruments and to have the dance.” From this custom may be traced the origin of the ancient Gallic proverb, ”_Apres la panse vient la danse_” (”After the feast comes the dance”). Sometimes a minstrel sang songs to the accompaniment of the harp, and the young ladies danced in couples and repeated at intervals the minstrel's songs. Sometimes the torch-dance was performed; in this each performer bore in his hand a long lighted taper, and endeavoured to prevent his neighbours from blowing it out, which each one tried to do if possible (Fig. 184). This dance, which was in use up to the end of the sixteenth century at court, was generally reserved for weddings.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 183.--Peasant Dances at the May Feasts.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Prayer-book of the Fifteenth Century, in the National Library of Paris.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 184.--Dance by Torchlight, a Scene at the Court of Burgundy.--From a Painting on Wood of 1463, belonging to M. H. Casterman, of Tournai (Belgium).]
Dancing lost much of its simplicity and harmlessness when masquerades were introduced, these being the first examples of the ballet. These masquerades, which soon after their introduction became pa.s.sionately indulged in at court under Charles VI., were, at first, only allowed during Carnival, and on particular occasions called _Charivaris_, and they were usually made the pretext for the practice of the most licentious follies. These masquerades had a most unfortunate inauguration by the catastrophe which rendered the madness of Charles VI. incurable, and which is described in history under the name of the _Burning Ballet_. It was on the 29th of January, 1393, that this ballet made famous the festival held in the Royal Palace of St. Paul in Paris, on the occasion of the marriage of one of the maids of honour of Queen Isabel of Bavaria with a gentleman of Vermandois. The bride was a widow, and the second nuptials were deemed a fitting occasion for the Charivaris.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 185.--The Burning Ballet.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Ma.n.u.script of the ”Chroniques” of Froissart (Fifteenth Century), in the National Library of Paris.]
A gentleman from Normandy, named Hugonin de Grensay, thought he could create a sensation by having a dance of wild men to please the ladies. ”He admitted to his plot,” says Froissart, ”the king and four of the princ.i.p.al n.o.bles of the court. These all had themselves sewn up in close-fitting linen garments covered with resin on which a quant.i.ty of tow was glued, and in this guise they appeared in the middle of the ball. The king was alone, but the other four were chained together. They jumped about like madmen, uttered wild cries, and made all sorts of eccentric gestures. No one knew who these hideous objects were, but the Duke of Orleans determined to find out, so he took a candle and imprudently approached too near one of the men. The tow caught fire, and the flames enveloped him and the other three who were chained to him in a moment.” ”They were burning for nearly an hour like torches,” says a chronicler. ”The king had the good fortune to escape the peril, because the d.u.c.h.esse de Berry, his aunt, recognised him, and had the presence of mind to envelop him in her train” (Fig. 185). Such a calamity, one would have thought, might have been sufficient to disgust people with masquerades, but they were none the less in favour at court for many years afterwards; and, two centuries later, the author of the ”Orchesographie” thus writes on the subject: ”Kings and princes give dances and masquerades for amus.e.m.e.nt and in order to afford a joyful welcome to foreign n.o.bles; we also practise the same amus.e.m.e.nts on the celebration of marriages.” In no country in the world was dancing practised with more grace and elegance than in France. Foreign dances of every kind were introduced, and, after being remodelled and brought to as great perfection as possible, they were often returned to the countries from which they had been imported under almost a new character.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 186.--Musicians accompanying the Dancing.--Fac-simile of a Wood Engraving in the ”Orchesographie” of Thoinot Arbeau (Jehan Tabourot): 4to (Langres, 1588).]
In 1548, the dances of the Bearnais, which were much admired at the court of the Comtes de Foix, especially those called the _danse mauresque_ and the _danse des sauvages_, were introduced at the court of France, and excited great merriment. So popular did they become, that with a little modification they soon were considered essentially French. The German dances, which were distinguished by the rapidity of their movements, were also thoroughly established at the court of France. Italian, Milanese, Spanish, and Piedmontese dances were in fas.h.i.+on in France before the expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy: and when this king, followed by his youthful n.o.bility, pa.s.sed over the mountains to march to the conquest of Naples, he found everywhere in the towns that welcomed him, and in which b.a.l.l.s and masquerades were given in honour of his visit, the dance _a la mode de France_, which consisted of a sort of medley of the dances of all countries. Some hundreds of these dances have been enumerated in the fifth book of the ”Pantagruel” of Rabelais, and in various humorous works of those who succeeded him. They owed their success to the singing with which they were generally accompanied, or to the postures, pantomimes, or drolleries with which they were supplemented for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the spectators. A few, and amongst others that of the _five steps_ and that of the _three faces_, are mentioned in the ”History of the Queen of Navarre.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 187.--The Dance called ”La Gaillarde.”--Fac-simile of Wood Engravings from the ”Orchesographie” of Thoinot Arbeau (Jehan Tabourot): 4to (Langres, 1588).]
Dances were divided into two distinct cla.s.ses--_danses ba.s.ses_, or common and regular dances, which did not admit of jumping, violent movements, or extraordinary contortions--and the _danses par haut_, which were irregular, and comprised all sorts of antics and buffoonery. The regular French dance was a _ba.s.se_ dance, called the _gaillarde_; it was accompanied by the sound of the hautbois and tambourine, and originally it was danced with great form and state. This is the dance which Jean Tabouret has described; it began with the two performers standing opposite to each other, advancing, bowing, and retiring. ”These advancings and retirings were done in steps to the time of the music, and continued until the instrumental accompaniment stopped; then the gentleman made his bow to the lady, took her by the hand, thanked her, and led her to her seat.”
The _tourdion_ was similar to the _gaillarde_, only faster, and was accompanied with more action. Each province of France had its national dance, such as the _bourree_ of Auvergne, the _trioris_ of Brittany, the _branles_ of Poitou, and the _valses_ of Lorraine, which const.i.tuted a very agreeable pastime, and one in which the French excelled all other nations. This art, ”so ancient, so honourable, and so profitable,” to use the words of Jean Tabourot, was long in esteem in the highest social circles, and the old men liked to display their agility, and the dames and young ladies to find a temperate exercise calculated to contribute to their health as well as to their amus.e.m.e.nt.
The sixteenth century was the great era of dancing in all the courts of Europe; but under the Valois, the art had more charm and prestige at the court of France than anywhere else. The Queen-mother, Catherine, surrounded by a crowd of pretty young ladies, who composed what she called her _flying squadron_, presided at these exciting dances. A certain Balthazar de Beaujoyeux was master of her ballets, and they danced at the Castle of Blois the night before the Duc de Guise was a.s.sa.s.sinated under the eyes of Henry III., just as they had danced at the Chateau of the Tuileries the day after St. Bartholomew's Day.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 188.--The Game of Bob Apple, or Swinging Apple.--Ma.n.u.script of the Fourteenth Century, in the British Museum.]
Commerce.
State of Commerce after the Fall of the Roman. Empire.--Its Revival under the Frankish Kings.--Its Prosperity under Charlemagne.--Its Decline down to the Time of the Crusaders.--The Levant Trade of the East.--Flouris.h.i.+ng State of the Towns of Provence and Languedoc.--Establishment of Fairs.--Fairs of Landit, Champagne, Beaucaire, and Lyons.--Weights and Measures.--Commercial Flanders. Laws of Maritime Commerce.--Consular Laws.--Banks and Bills of Exchange.--French. Settlements on the Coast of Africa.--Consequences of the Discovery of America.
”Commerce in the Middle Ages,” says M. Charles Grandmaison, ”differed but little from that of a more remote period. It was essentially a local and limited traffic, rather inland than maritime, for long and perilous sea voyages only commenced towards the end of the fifteenth century, or about the time when Columbus discovered America.”
On the fall of the Roman Empire, commerce was rendered insecure, and, indeed, it was almost completely put a stop to by the barbarian invasions, and all facility of communication between different nations, and even between towns of the same country, was interrupted. In those times of social confusion, there were periods of such poverty and distress, that for want of money commerce was reduced to the simple exchange of the positive necessaries of life. When order was a little restored, and society and the minds of people became more composed, we see commerce recovering its position; and France was, perhaps, the first country in Europe in which this happy change took place. Those famous cities of Gaul, which ancient authors describe to us as so rich and so industrious, quickly recovered their former prosperity, and the friendly relations which were established between the kings of the Franks and the Eastern Empire encouraged the Gallic cities in cultivating a commerce, which was at that time the most important and most extensive in the world.
Ma.r.s.eilles, the ancient Phoenician colony, once the rival and then the successor to Carthage, was undoubtedly at the head of the commercial cities of France. Next to her came Arles, which supplied s.h.i.+p-builders and seamen to the fleet of Provence; and Narbonne, which admitted into its harbour s.h.i.+ps from Spain, Sicily, and Africa, until, in consequence of the Aude having changed its course, it was obliged to relinquish the greater part of its maritime commerce in favour of Montpellier.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 189.--View of Alexandria in Egypt, in the Sixteenth Century.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the Travels of P. Belon, ”Observations de Plusieurs Singularitez,” &c.: 4to (Paris, 1588).]
Commerce maintained frequent communications with the East; it sought its supplies on the coast of Syria, and especially at Alexandria, in Egypt, which was a kind of depot for goods obtained from the rich countries lying beyond the Red Sea (Figs. 189 and 190). The Frank navigators imported from these countries, groceries, linen, Egyptian paper, pearls, perfumes, and a thousand other rare and choice articles. In exchange they offered chiefly the precious metals in bars rather than coined, and it is probable that at this period they also exported iron, wines, oil, and wax. The agricultural produce and manufactures of Gaul had not sufficiently developed to provide anything more than what was required for the producers themselves.
Industry was as yet, if not purely domestic, confined to monasteries and to the houses of the n.o.bility; and even the kings employed women or serf workmen to manufacture the coa.r.s.e stuffs with which they clothed themselves and their households. We may add, that the bad state of the roads, the little security they offered to travellers, the extortions of all kinds to which foreign merchants were subjected, and above all the iniquitous System of fines and tolls which each landowner thought right to exact, before letting merchandise pa.s.s through his domains, all created insuperable obstacles to the development of commerce.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 190.--Transport of Merchandise on the Backs of Camels.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the ”Cosmographie Universelle,” of Thevet: folio, 1575.]
The Frank kings on several occasions evinced a desire that communications favourable to trade should be re-established in their dominions. We find, for instance, Chilperic making treaties with Eastern emperors in favour of the merchants of Agde and Ma.r.s.eilles, Queen Brunehaut making viaducts worthy of the Romans, and which still bear her name, and Dagobert opening at St. Denis free fairs--that is to say, free, or nearly so, from all tolls and taxes--to which goods, both agricultural and manufactured, were sent from every corner of Europe and the known world, to be afterwards distributed through the towns and provinces by the enterprise of internal commerce.
After the reign of Dagobert, commerce again declined without positively ceasing, for the revolution, which transferred the power of the kings to the mayors of the palace was not of a nature to exhaust the resources of public prosperity; and a charter of 710 proves that the merchants of Saxony, England, Normandy, and even Hungary, still flocked to the fairs of St. Denis.