Somewhat resembling the Minuet, but with quicker steps, was the celebrated French _Passepied_, with which most of the balls began, all the guests dancing around hand in hand. It originated many other old-time social dances with song. It opened with the dancers joining hands and facing each other, then setting to each other with the _pas de Basque_, bringing the first left shoulder forward and then the right, and changing their places with a waltz step. The partners cross hands, placing the arms round each other’s neck and making the pirouette with eight pony steps, pawing the ground and then turning. The dance consists of ten figures, each of which demands some dramatic talent. Other celebrated old dances were the _Galliard_, consisting of five figures, that require some pirouettes, _pas de bourrées_, _coupés_, _dessous_ and springing. Similar to this was the _Tourdion_, which was more of a _glissade_ movement. The _Canaries_ was a queer old dance, very popular in England and Germany. It had seven figures and started with a _pas jeté_, by throwing the right foot over the left, and the left over the right. In the last movement the partners held hands vis-à-vis, turning each other without separating hands, posing vis-à-vis one bar and repeating four bars. History tells us how in former times queens and princesses often fell in love with graceful male dancers as did their husbands with the pretty women dancers. Queen Elizabeth fell in love with young Hatton, an insignificant London lawyer, whom she first met at a ball dancing the _Galliard_. Sir Perro used to say that Hatton danced into the court by the _Galliard_. It is said that the favors which the virgin monarch extended to the young lawyer excited the jealousy of the whole court, especially that of the Earl of Leicester, who, thinking to depreciate the accomplishment of his rival, offered to introduce to Her Majesty a professional dancer whose performances were considered far more wonderful than those of Hatton. To this the royal lady exclaimed: ‘Pish! I will not see your man; it is his trade!’ A languishing eye and a smiling mouth were considered indispensable accessories to a fashionable society dance. Like the prevailing style of dress and manners, the dances were too delicate and artificial to last. The high-heeled shoes, the elaborately piled-up structures of powdered hair and ornament, and the dresses with long trains were by no means favorable to virility and sincerity. Like all effeminate art, the nobility dances of the past lacked spontaneity and inspiration. [Illustration: The Ball _After a painting by Auguste de Saint-Aubin_] CHAPTER XII THE CLASSIC BALLET OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Aims and tendencies of the nineteenth century--Maria Taglioni--Fanny Elssler--Carlotta Grisi and Fanny Cerito; decadence of the classic ballet.