Pausanius tells us of the stately tomb of the frail Pythonice in the Vica
Sacra; and we know that Phryne offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes, by
Alexander overthrown. And surely, if modern guide-books instruct us to
weep in the cemetery of Père la Chaise over the grave of Fanny Bias,
history will say a word or two in honour of Cerito, who proposed through
the newspapers, last season, an alliance offensive and defensive with no
less a man than Peter Borthwick, Esq. M.P., (_Arcades ambo_!) to relieve
the distress of the manufacturing classes of Great Britain! It is true
such heroines can afford to be generous; for what lord chancellor or
archbishop of modern times commands a revenue half as considerable?
Why, therefore--O Public! why, we beseech thee, seeing that the influence
of the operative class is fairly understood, and undeniably established
among us--why not at once elevate choriography to the rank of one of the
fine arts?--Why not concentrate, define, and qualify the calling, by a
public academy?--since all hearts and eyes are amenable to the charm of
exquisite dancing, why vex ourselves by the sight of what is bad, when
better may be achieved? Be wise, O Pubic, and consider! Establish a
professor's chair for the improvement of pirouetters. We have hundreds of
professor's chairs, quite as unavailable to the advancement of the
interests of humanity, and wholly unavailable to its pleasures. Neither
painters nor musicians acquire as much popularity as dancers, or amass an
equal fortune. Why should they be more highly protected by the state?
To disdain this exquisite art, is a proof of barbarism. The nations of the
East may cause their dances to be performed by slaves; but two of the
greatest kings of ancient and modern times, the kings after God's own
heart and man's own heart--David and Louis le Grand--were excellent
dancers, the one before the ark, the other before his subjects.
Never, perhaps, did the art of dancing attain such eminent honours in the
eyes of mankind, as during the _siècle doré_ of the latter monarch. At an
epoch boasting of Molière and Racine, Bossuet and Fénélon, Boileau and La
Fontaine, Colbert and Perrault, (the fairy talisman of politics and
architecture,) the court of Versailles could imagine no manifestation of
regality more august, or more exquisite, than that of getting up a royal
ballet; and the father of his people, Louis XIV., was, in his youth, its
_coulon_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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