Man could perform that Incident as well as he does, he himfelf would do it with a yet greater Elevation, were he a Dancer. This is fo dangerous a Subject to treat with Gravity, that I shall not at prefent enter into it any further; but the Author of the following Letter has treated it in the Effay he speaks of in fuch a manner, that I am beholden to him for a Refolution, that I will never think meanly of any thing, till I have heard what they who have another Opinion of it have to say in its defence.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

INCE there are scarce any of the Arts or Sciences that have not been recommended to the World by the Pens of fome of the Profeffors, Mafters, or Lovers ⚫ of them, whereby the Usefulness, Excellence, and Benefit arifing from them, both as to the fpeculative and pra• Єtical Part, have been made publick, to the great advantage and improvement of fuch Arts and Sciences; why ⚫ fhould Dancing, an Art celebrated by the Ancients in fo * extraordinary a manner, be totally_neglected by the Mo⚫derns, and left deftitute of any Pen to recommend its various Excellencies and fubftantial Merit to Mankind? • THE low Ebb to which Dancing is now fallen, is altogether owing to this Silence. The Art is efteem'd only as an amufing Trifle; it lies altogether uncultivated, and • is unhappily fallen under the Imputation of illiterate and mechanick: And as Terence in one of his Prologues, complains of the Rope-dancers drawing all the Spectators from his Play, fo may we well fay, that Capering ⚫ and Tumbling is now preferred to, and fupplies the Place of juft and regular Dancing on our Theatres. It is therefore, in my opinion, high time that fome one should ⚫ come in to its affiftance, and relieve it from the many grofs and growing Errors that have crept into it, and over-caft its real Beauties; and to fet Dancing in its true light, would fhew the Usefulness and Elegancy of it, with the Pleafure and Inftruction produc'd from it; and also C lay down fome fundamental Rules, that might so tend to ⚫ the Improvement of its Profeffors, and Information of the Spectators, that the firft might be the better enabled

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'to perform, and the latter render'd more capable of judging, what is (if there be any thing) valuable in this Art.

6

TO encourage therefore fome ingenious Pen capable of fo generous an Undertaking, and in fome measure to ⚫ relieve Dancing from the Disadvantages it at prefent lies under, I, who teach to dance, have attempted a fmall Treatife as an Effay towards an Hiftory of Dancing; in ⚫ which I have enquired into its Antiquity, Original, and Ufe, and shewn what Efteem the Ancients had for it: I have likewise considered the Nature and Perfection of all its feveral Parts, and how beneficial and delightful it is, ⚫ both as a Qualification and an Exercise; and endeavoured ⚫ to answer all Objections that have been maliciously rais'd against it. I have proceeded to give an Account of the particular Dances of the Greeks and Romans, whether religious, warlike, or civil; and taken particular notice of ⚫ that Part of Dancing relating to the ancient Stage, and in ❝ which the Pantomimes had fo great a fhare: Nor have I been wanting in giving an hiftorical Account of some particular Mafters excellent in that furprizing Art. After ⚫ which, I have advanced fome Obfervations on the mo⚫dern Dancing, both as to the Stage, and that Part of it fo abfolutely neceffary for the Qualification of Gentlemen and Ladies; and have concluded with fome fhort Remarks on the Origin and Progrefs of the Character by ⚫ which Dances are writ down, and communicated to one • Master from another. If fome great Genius after this ⚫ would arife, and advance this Art to that Perfection it ⚫feems capable of receiving, what might not be expected from it? For if we confider the Origin of Arts and ⚫ Sciences, we fhall find that fome of them took rife from Beginnings fo mean and unpromifing, that it is very wonderful to think that ever fuch furprifing Structures 'fhould have been raised upon fuch ordinary Foundations. But what cannot a great Genius effect? Who would ⚫ have thought that the clangorous Noife of a Smith's Ham8 mers should have given the first rife to Mufick? Yet Macrobius in his fecond Book relates, that Pythagoras, in paffing by a Smith's Shop, found that the Sounds proceeding from the Hammers were either more grave or acute,

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according to the different Weights of the Hammers. The Philofopher, to improve this Hint, fufpends different Weights by Strings of the fame Bignefs, and found in like manner that the Sounds answered to the Weights. • This being discovered, he finds out thofe Numbers which produc'd Sounds that were Confonants: As, that two Strings of the fame Substance and Tenfion, the one being double the Length of the other, give that Interval which is called Diapason, or an Eighth; the fame was ⚫ alfo effected from two Strings of the fame Length and • Size, the one having four times the Tenfion of the other. By thefe Steps, from fo mean a Beginning, did this great Man reduce, what was only before Noife, to one of the moft delightful Sciences, by marrying it to the Mathe⚫maticks; and by that means caused it to be one of the moft abstract and demonstrative of Sciences. Who knows ⚫ therefore but Motion, whether Decorous or Representative, may not (as it feems highly probable it may) be ⚫ taken into confideration by fome Perfon capable of reducing it into a regular Science, tho' not fo demonftrative as that proceeding from Souds, yet fufficient to entitle it to a Place among the magnify'd Arts.

NOW, Mr. SPECTATOR, as you have declared ⚫ your felf Vifitor of Dancing-Schools, and this being an • Undertaking which more immediately refpects them, I think my felf indifpenfably obliged, before I proceed to the Publication of this my Effay, to ask your Advice, and hold it abfolutely neceffary to have your Approba⚫tion; and in order to recommend my Treatife to the Perufal of the Parents of fuch as learn to dance, as well as to the young Ladies, to whom, as Vifitor, you ought to be Guardian.

Salop, March 19, 1712122

T

I am, SIR,

Your most humble Servant.

Tuesday,

N 335.

Tuesday, March 25.

Refpicere exemplar vita morumque jubebo

Doctum imitatorem, & veras hinc ducere voces. Hor.

M

Y Friend Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY, when we laft met together at the Club, told me, that he had a great mind to fee the new Tragedy with me, affuring me at the fame time, that he had not been at a Play thefe twenty years. The laft I faw, faid Sir ROGER, was the Committee, which I fhould not have gone to neither, had not I been told before-hand that it was a good Church-ofEngland Comedy. He then proceeded to enquire of me who this diftreffed Mother was; and upon hearing that the was Hector's Widow, he told me that her Husband was a brave Man, and that when he was a School-boy he had read his Life at the end of the Dictionary. My Friend asked me, in the next place, if there would not be fome danger in coming home late, in cafe the Mohocks should be abroad. I affure you, fays he, I thought I had fallen into their hands last night; for I obferved two or three lufty black Men that follow'd me half way up Fleetftreet, and mended their pace behind me, in proportion as I put on to get away from them. You must know, continu'd the Knight with a Smile, I fancied they had a mind to hunt me; for I remember an honeft Gentleman in my Neighbourhood, who was ferv'd fuch a trick in King Charles the Second's time; for which reafon he has not ventured himself in Town ever fince. I might have shown them very good Sport, had this been their Defign; for as I am an old Fox-hunter, I fhould have turn'd and dodg'd, and have play'd them a thousand tricks they had never feen in their Lives before. Sir ROGER added, that if these Gentlemen had any fuch Intention, they did not fucceed very well in it: for I threw them out, fays.

he,

he, at the End of Norfolkftreet, where I doubled the Corner, and got fhelter in my Lodgings before they could imagine what was become of me. However, fays the Knight, if Captain SENTRY will make one with us to-morrow night, and if you will both of you call upon me about four a-clock, that we may be at the Houfe before it is full, I will have my own Coach in readiness to attend you, for John tells me he has got the ForeWheels mended.

THE Captain, who did not fail to meet me there at the appointed Hour, bid Sir ROGER fear nothing, for that he had put on the fame Sword which he made use of at the Battel of Steenkirk. Sir ROGER'S Servants, and among the reft my old Friend the Butler, had, I found, provided themselves with good Oaken Plants, to attend their Master upon this occafion. When we had placed him in his Coach, with my felf at his Left-Hand, the Captain before him, and his Butler at the Head of his Footmen in the Rear, we convoy'd him in fafety to the Playhoufe, where, after having marched up the Entry in good order, the Captain and I went in with him, and feated him betwixt us in the Pit. As foon as the House was full, and the Candles lighted, my old Friend ftood up and looked about him with that Pleasure, which a Mind feafoned with Humanity naturally feels in its felf, at the fight of a Multitude of People who seem pleased with one another, and partake of the fame common Entertainment. I could not but fancy to my felf, as the old Man ftood up in the middle of the Pit, that he made a very proper Center to a tragick Audience. Upon the entring of Pyrrhus, the Knight told me, that he did not believe the King of France himself had a better Strut. I was indeed very attentive to my old Friend's Remarks, because I looked upon them as a Piece of natural Criticism, and was well pleased to hear him at the Conclufion of almost every Scene, telling me that he could not imagine how the Play would end. One while he appeared much concerned for Andromache; and a little while after as much for Hermione:

and was extremely puzzled to think what would become of Pyrrhus.

WHEN