.
A brief reply to Steve Wright's query about dancing in early English
drama. The examples that I know of in the religious drama are:
1) the Vices in _Mankind_: Mercy protests, line 81+SD, and declines to
join them (ll. 90-97);
2) _Mary Magdalen_, lines 533+: Mary's dancing with Curisoity is the start
of his seduction of her;
3) A mention in Everyman 360-2: Kindred's description of a "nice" (i.e.
wanton) girl includes her love of dancing;
4) In Wisdom, (a) forces of evil at 685, (b) the Devil's dance at 700-08,
(c) dancing by the Quest of Holborn at 730-34.;
5) NB that the metaphorical use "dance in the devil way" in the York Cycle
(7/52, 29/395, 31/423 and elsewhere) always shows the speaker's allegiance
to the forces of evil;
6) The executioners dancing around the Cross at N-Town 31/753+SD. This is
a problematic one: Joanna Dutka and Peter Meredith both think that it isn't
merely metaphorical, and I think that they must be right.
7) In The Killing of the Children (Digby) the virgins (of the Temple)
perform three dances in all -- holy dances, therefore!
8) In the Cornish Cycle the minstrels play for a general dance (?including
the audience) at the end of the cycle, 3/2646: it is possible that the
music at the end of the first day (1/2846) is for dancving, but we can't
assume so.
9) There is minstrelsy for dancing at the end of the Cornish _Crea{_cion
of the World_.
10) There are three cues for dancing in The Conversion of St Paul, at
13+MD [marginal direction], 154+MD, and 345+MD{_. These are all in
Scribe C's late revisions, and occur at the ends of the Introduction, the
first station, and the second station, respectively.
11) It is possible (but without a complete text we shall never know)
that there should be music or a dance in Dux Moraud, 112+
I'm not sure that this list is comprehensice -- in particular, I can't
remember if there's any dancing in St Meriasek, and the edition's in my
room in the University -- and it's not a subject that's much discussed.
Individual occurrences will be dealt with in the book on music in the plays
that I haven't finidhed writing yet, and those that are definitely evil
dances are discussed in my essay for The Iconography of Hell, ed. Clifford
Davidson (Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Publications, forthcoming). Cliff
wrote a piece in the latest EDAM Review (apparently under the stimulus of
editing my essay!), 13/1, Fall 1990, pp. 3-7, specifically on "The Devil's
Dance".
I've got to go to a conference now (well, first thing tomorrow!), but let me
know
if you need more at this stage and I'll do what I can when I get back.
Richard
