![[picture of pipe and tabor
player]](pics/arbeau/th_p048_trans.gif)
![[picture of a
capriole]](pics/arbeau/th_p091_trans.gif)
And there is more to it than this, for dancing is practised to reveal whether lovers are in good health and sound of limb, after which they are permitted to kiss their mistresses in order that they may touch and savour one another, thus to ascertain if they are shapely or emit an unpleasant odour as of bad meat. Therefore, from this standpoint, quite apart from the many other advantages to be derived from dancing, it becomes an essential in a well ordered society.
Thoinot Arbeau, Orchesography (1589), trans. Mary Stewart Evans
(Images from Dover edition of Arbeau)
Return to the Society for Creative Anachronism Arts and Sciences homepage.
Who else has links to this page?
Gregory Blount of Isenfir (Greg Lindahl)