Chapter Three - Dance and French Humanism
Summary
Sous les frimas chenus ne blanchissent le prez,
Cent diverses couleurs les rendent diaprez,
Où sous la Lune claire et Venus et ses Graces
De danser ne sont lasses.
Amadis Jamyn, Ode “Sur le retour de Printemps” (1575)Numerous French humanists made reference to dance in their work. Its importance in the works of Montaigne, Rabelais, and others is germane to our understanding of Arbeau's work in the context of sixteenth-century France. The work of Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) exemplifies the use of dance as both social metaphor and practical imagery. In his Essais, Montaigne attempts to understand the nature of humankind by studying himself. In so doing, he reveals much about the culture of Renaissance France. The following passage from his essay on educating children makes a point using the term “capriol,” a step taught in Orchesographie that also serves as the name for Arbeau's fictitious student Capriol.
I wish that Paluël or Pompee, those graceful dancers of my time, could have taught us to capriol by only seeing them do it, without budging from our seats, as those who want to direct our understanding, without moving it; or that we could learn to handle a horse, a pike, a lute, or the voice, without practice, as those who want us to think clearly and speak well without our having practiced thinking or speaking.
Further, in expanding on educational tenets, Montaigne refers to the “severe sweetness” that Aristotle cites as necessary for a child's education. About Plato, he says,
It is wonderful how conscientious Plato proves to be in his Laws, concerning the liveliness and pastimes of the youth of our city; and how he focuses on their races, games, songs, jumps, and dances; of which he says that antiquity has given supervision and patronage to the gods themselves – Apollo, the Muses, and Minerva. He dwells on a thousand precepts for exercises. For the literary sciences, he deals very little with them, seeming to recommend poetry, especially, only because of music.
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- The Music of Arbeau's Orchésographie , pp. 19 - 24Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013