Dancing

Use in the book

The medical survey’s Chorus sancti Viti, or St Vitus’s dance, describes people allegedly unable to stop dancing until cured or dead. Burton gathers accounts of prolonged dancing, music and strong companions hired to accompany sufferers, and visits to the saint for relief. His confident claim of relief is qualified by the marginal wording “usually.” This historical grouping should not be equated with a single present-day diagnosis. It differs from voluntary recreation and from the moral language of lasciviousness, although Paracelsus’s reported name calls it a lascivious dance.

In the discussion of exercise, dancing appears with singing, masques, mumming and plays. Burton approves their timely and moderate enjoyment and challenges severe authorities by asking what kind of dance they condemn. Abolishing good use because of abuse would resemble prohibiting wine because some become drunk. His discussion of religious superstition later again places dancing among lawful delights, with Plato’s divine companions leading dances as relief from human toil.

The love discussion initially sounds very different. Dancing is a powerful device for intensifying passion, an Incitamentum libidinis, “an incitement to lust,” attributed to Petrarch. Condemnatory maxims and stories accumulate. Xenophon’s performance of Dionysus and Ariadne makes the mechanism concrete: the performers exchange kisses and embraces as their dance requires, the audience believes them genuinely in love, and desire spreads to spectators. The reported audience inference is part of the scene’s effect, not proof of the performers’ private feelings. Burton’s version also broadens the response: the edition notes that Xenophon distinguishes Socrates and other walkers from those hurrying home.

The argument then changes speakers. An imagined reader objects that these are abusive dances, not grounds for condemning the best sort of pleasure. Burton replies explicitly that he does not condemn dancing. With Plutarch and Lucian he praises recreation, exercise, graceful gestures and pleasure for performers and spectators. Gregory’s refusal to attend a wedding applies to a particular old, gouty bishop; it is not an absolute prohibition. Burton interprets Sallust’s criticism of Sempronia as criticism of excess. The edition qualifies that interpretation: Sallust describes an accomplishment exceeding what he considers respectable for a woman.

The conditional approval is detailed. Dances should be becoming, dignified and modest, held in daylight, with suitable company and at fitting times. An elaborate dance adapted from Apuleius supplies a positive picture of coordinated turns and formations. Burton calls it a Greek Galiard, although the marginal source calls it a Pyrrhic dance. The playfulness expands into astronomy: sun, moon, planets and Maculæ, “spots,” dance in different arrangements, with the sun imagined as a musician. These are reported historical descriptions and cosmic imagery; the thirty-three Bourbonian planets and the two Austrian bodies at Saturn remain unresolved in the edition.

Biblical dancers and dignified public figures support permission, but the educational example creates another limit. Burton combines Plato’s provisions for young people to meet and see one another with naked exercise, then endorses Christian critics of such exposure. His final verdict preserves both sides: sober, modest, timely dancing recreates body and mind; unchaste abuse excites lust. The Christian and pagan labels belong to his polemical judgment, not to a demonstrated description of every dance in either culture.

Dancing also belongs to lovers’ acquired accomplishments and communal holidays: Burton pictures sweethearts meeting after evensong and dancing around the maypole. Yet association with love gives it no fixed therapeutic effect. In the cure discussion, music, merriment, singing and dancing aggravate some lovers’ passion while relieving others. The historical physician must distinguish responses. In another register, the courtesan Ampelis advises making a suitor dance attendance: waiting outside is a calculated frustration, not a dance lesson.

Related entries

Exercise: The bodily and mental place of recreation.

Recreate: Restoration through lawful pleasure.

Music and harmony: Musical effects and the harmony of celestial motions.

Courtship and wooing: Attention, display and the waiting suitor.

Kissing and embracing: The gestures represented in the dance.

Heroical love: Symptoms and differing responses to remedies.

Religion and superstition: The polemic against denying lawful delights.

Places to read

1. Subsection 4. Mental Impairment, Frenzy, Madness, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropy, St Vitus’s Dance and Ecstasy · paragraphs 35–37St Vitus’s dance, reported prolonged dancing and relief; note 1530 qualifies the body’s certainty.
2. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 12–18conditional recreation, challenges to compressed prohibitions, good use versus abuse, and communal festivities.
3. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 17–20Ampelis’s courtship tactics and the idiom dance attendance at Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 19.
4. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 31–45the accusation, stories and authorities; Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 39–42 describes the Dionysus–Ariadne performance and its spectators.
5. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 46–51the imagined objection, Burton’s explicit reply, limited censure and conditions of approval.
6. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 52–57dance formations, cosmic dancing, biblical examples and expansive praise; the notes qualify the historical sources and astronomical identifications.
7. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 58–60Plato’s dancing schools, the objection to exposure, and Burton’s conditional final judgment.
8. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 24–30lovers’ accomplishments, artistic and mythic dancing, and holiday meetings after evensong.
9. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraph 37the same entertainment may worsen or relieve passion, according to the person’s symptoms.
10. Subsection 4. Prognosis of Religious Melancholy · paragraphs 44–45dancing among lawful delights and Plato’s divine companions as relief from toil.

In this edition

“Let him dance attendance” becomes “let him wait on you.” The idiom means wait upon; “you” supplies the object from the person addressed in the courtship advice. “An honest disport” becomes “an innocent amusement,” preserving the moral sense of honest. In the Latin conditions, tempestive contributes “at a fitting time”; the translation supplies “dances” as the understood subject and “in the presence of” to construe the surrounding genitives. The related English “if tempestively used” becomes “and practised at the proper time,” with its condition carried forward from “when.”

The edition records changes of scope in Burton’s authorities. His absolute-sounding Cicero maxim compresses a qualified remark, just as his Augustine comparison abridges a particular Sabbath criticism. The “Greek galliard” is Burton’s familiarizing name, not an exact equivalent of the marginal Pyrrhic dance. The body’s Republic and margin’s Laws 10 do not locate the meeting passage: the note identifies Laws 6.771e–772a and distinguishes the related Republic argument. These qualifications preserve the texture of Burton’s compilation without treating every cited claim as independently established.

Dance attendance

Printed “dance attendance” (English; phrase).

Wait upon someone, remaining at their disposal.

Here: The idiom makes the frustrated suitor wait outside rather than perform a dance.

Context: The courtesan Ampelis’s manipulative advice in Burton’s adaptation of Lucian, not a recommendation by this article.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: let him dance attendance

Modern rendering: let him wait on you

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Dance attendance means wait upon; you is an explicit object supplied in the modern text from the person addressed in this courtship advice. Dance has no literal bodily action here.

Translator-supplied words: you, the object supplied from the addressed courtship context

Dancing as recreation

Printed “Dancing” (English; phrase).

Moving the body in patterned steps or gestures, here as entertainment and exercise.

Here: Dancing may be approved if timely and soberly used; Burton challenges compressed prohibitions by asking which kind of dance is meant.

Context: Burton’s conditional approval, followed by quoted Augustine and Cicero and his questions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Dancing, Singing, Masking, Mumming, Stage-plaies

Modern rendering: Dancing, singing, masques, mumming, and stage plays

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Dancing is the first item in the matched list; the list’s other performances are distinct.

Qualification: The edition explains that Burton abridges Augustine’s all-day Sabbath comparison and Cicero’s qualified remark; neither maxim independently proves a universal ban.

Dancing as represented action

Printed “as the dance required” (English; phrase).

As prescribed by the choreography or dramatic action.

Here: The actors playing Dionysus and Ariadne exchange embraces and kisses; spectators infer real affection and become excited themselves.

Context: Burton’s version of Xenophon’s staged performance; the audience’s belief is reported, not independent proof of the performers’ feelings.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: as the dance required

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The matched clause makes the gestures part of a performance.

Qualification: The edition notes that Xenophon distinguishes Socrates and the remaining walkers from guests hurrying home; Burton’s general audience response should not be extended to everyone.

Dancing in love’s treatment

Printed “dancing” (English; phrase).

Patterned bodily movement as entertainment, here considered among possible remedies.

Here: The same entertainments may increase some lovers’ passion and expel it in others; application must vary with symptoms.

Context: Burton, citing Avicenna, insists on differing responses rather than a universal cure.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: merriment, singing, dancing

Modern rendering: merriment, singing and dancing

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Dancing is one of three coordinated entertainments; the supplied and marks the end of the English list.

Qualification: Historical medical reasoning, not present-day advice.

Dancing schools

Printed “dancing-schools” (English; phrase).

Institutions or organized occasions for learning and performing dances.

Here: Burton reports Plato’s provision for young people to meet and be seen, then rejects the naked exposure he associates with it.

Context: Plato as combined and paraphrased by Burton, followed by Burton’s own censure at the next unit.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: dancing-schools

Modern rendering: dancing schools

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The compound loses its hyphen without changing its ordinary sense.

Qualification: The edition identifies the meeting passage as Laws 6.771e–772a, not the body’s Republic or the margin’s Laws 10; the ridicule of critics of naked exercise comes from Republic 5. Burton combines arguments and omits Laws qualifications.

Greek galliard

Printed “Greek Galiard” (English; phrase).

A Greek dance described by analogy with a galliard, a dance familiar to Burton’s readers.

Here: Burton’s English names a galliard while his Latin margin names a Pyrrhic dance, associated with martial movements.

Context: Burton’s approving adaptation of Apuleius; the two descriptions are not identical.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: dancing a Greek Galiard

Modern rendering: danced a Greek galliard

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Galiard is modernized to galliard; the participial clause becomes a finite clause.

Honest disport

Printed “honest disport” (English; phrase).

Morally permissible amusement or pastime.

Here: Burton explicitly rejects the charge that he condemns dancing absolutely and permits it when timely, moderate and sober.

Context: Burton’s reply to the imagined reader’s objection at the preceding unit.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an honest disport, a lawful recreation

Modern rendering: an innocent amusement and a lawful recreation

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Honest means innocent or morally allowable, disport amusement; the conjunction renders the relation between the apposed descriptions.

Incitamentum libidinis

Printed “Incitamentum libidinis” (Latin; phrase).

An incitement to lust: incitamentum means stimulus or inducement; libidinis is the dependent genitive of libido, lust or desire.

Here: A name for dancing’s supposed power to intensify sexual passion, opening a long accusation subsequently answered.

Context: Attributed here to Petrarch; the adjacent devil-circle and returning-women maxims have unresolved exact attributions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Incitamentum libidinis

Modern rendering: an incitement to lust

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Equal-scope Latin noun and dependent genitive; an is required by ordinary English syntax.

Uncertainty: The precise Petrarch passage and the adjoining maxims remain unresolved in the supplied edition.

Maculae; cosmic dancing

Printed “Maculæ” (Latin; phrase).

Spots; plural of Latin macula.

Here: The spots enter Burton’s playful cosmic dance alongside planets; his identification as thirty-three Bourbonian planets remains unresolved.

Context: Burton reports competing astronomical descriptions with some say and attributes the sun-as-lyre-player phrase to Fromundus.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: those thirty three Maculæ or Burbonian planet

Modern rendering: those thirty-three spots or Bourbonian planets

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Maculæ contributes spots; Bourbonian planets is the alternative description and the modern text pluralizes Burton’s printed planet.

Uncertainty: The thirty-three bodies and exact Fromundus passage, and the two Austrian bodies at Saturn in the continuation, remain unresolved; this is historical cosmological imagery.

St Vitus’s dance

Printed “Chorus sancti Viti” (Latin; phrase).

Dance of Saint Vitus: a historical name for reported compulsive dancing.

Here: The account describes prolonged involuntary dancing and visits to the saint for relief; it does not establish a single modern diagnosis.

Context: Burton reports the disorder and Paracelsus’s name; the body’s certain relief is qualified by the original margin’s usually.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Chorus sancti Viti, or S. Vitus dance

Modern rendering: Chorus sancti Viti, or St Vitus’s dance

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The Latin name is retained and the English saint’s name expanded.

Uncertainty: The historical designation has covered different conditions; no modern diagnosis or treatment recommendation follows.

Tempestive

Printed “tempestive” (Latin; phrase).

At a fitting time or proper occasion; Latin adverb.

Here: Timeliness is one condition of dances approved as becoming, dignified and modest, in daylight and suitable company.

Context: Burton endorses a conditional verdict attributed to Wolfgang Hider and modern divines.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Si decoræ, graves, verecundæ, plena luce bonorum virorum & matronarum honestarum, tempestive fiant, probari possunt, & debent.

Modern rendering: If dances are becoming, dignified and modest, performed in full daylight in the presence of good men and respectable married women, and at a fitting time, they can and should be approved.

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Tempestive contributes at a fitting time, not the whole list of conditions.

Translator-supplied words: dances, the understood subject

Translator-supplied words: in the presence of, supplied in construing the surrounding genitives

Grammar: Si introduces the condition; fiant is plural present subjunctive, with dances understood; probari is passive infinitive governed by possunt and debent.

Uncertainty: The exact cited authorial form and edition of Hider remain uncollated.

Tempestively

Printed “tempestively” (English; phrase).

At a suitable time; timely.

Here: Burton’s final judgment permits sober and modest dancing at the proper time, while condemning unchaste abuse.

Context: Burton’s explicitly announced verdict; the Christian/pagan contrast is his polemical classification.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: if tempestively used

Modern rendering: and practised at the proper time

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Tempestively supplies at the proper time; practised renders used, and the modern coordination carries forward the condition when.